COMSTOCK, Texas – Drifting down the desolate drive of U.S. 90 towards Big Bend will leave you breathless. Finding a place to get a bit to eat? That’s another story.

Fortunately, we found this not so flashy eatery that gets a worldwide clientele, J&P Bar and Grill.

Duke Gould’s parents purchased this place back in 1986 and after trying out a few businesses. Nothing really latched on at the location, so Duke turned it into a man cave.

Duke’s friends would frequent the new found fun zone but they never helped front the funds for the food.

“That’s what kind of gave me the idea,” Duke explained.  “I’d have parties and cook and barbeque and everybody would come and eat and all this stuff. I was like why am I doing this for free?”

So the former mechanic opened the J&P with the help of his parents Pete and Jodi, who can make a mean margarita!

What’s the secret to their success? Taking their time with making the meal, because the one thing you’ve got in Comstock is time.

We prepared out palate for a precarious popular dish, the Devil’s Burger. It starts with Pop grinding up some brisket. Since it’s not ground chuck, it is hard to really figure out the fat to lean ratio.

As the half pound patties cook, some unique buns are toasted. It’s not every day you eat a burger topped with an onion poppy seed bun. Grilled jalapenos and pepper jack cheese top the burger while a homemade sauce made of mayonnaise, sour cream, fresh jalapenos, cilantro, and ranch dressing mix gets spread on the buns. The regular garnishments are added and we’re off on the highway to happiness.

People say the Devil’s River is pretty, but I think the devil’s burger is pretty gorgeous myself.

After taking a bite of this burger, somehow the heat got turned up in Texas. The meaty treat’s name suddenly made a lot of sense. It’s safe to say this burger is wrong in all the right ways.

“The food is outstanding,” J&P regular, Lee said. “It is more than worth the 16 mile drive for us to come up here.”

That onion poppy seed ciabatta bun mixes in so well with the meat, and the meat has definitely got that jalapeno pop to it. The jalapeno mayo, that specialty sauce, made here in house is an incredible, creamy, cooling, yet spicy flavor you expect to find here in southwest Texas.

“I think you can put it on a flip flop and eat it and it will be good,” Duke says.

If you’re craving something a little crazy in southwest Texas the devil’s burger at the J&P Bar and Grill in Comstock is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“I get told three or four times a week they’re the best burgers people ever had,” Duke shared.

BIG SPRING, Texas – At the crossroads of Interstate 20 and Highway 87, you’ll find Big Spring, Texas.  Established as the county seat of Howard County in 1882, there’s one restaurant that’s been here for more than half the cities tenure, The Wagon Wheel Drive-In.

Owner Randy Crockett and his son Ben are exactly who you think they are.

“We are direct descendants from Davey Crocket,” Randy said. “Proud of it, man.”

But that’s not the only thing the Crockett’s have to be proud of.  They have the task of carrying on a tradition that’s been the oasis of Big Spring since 1945. To own the quintessential Brig Spring thing is pretty neat according to Randy.

“I’m a baby boomer,” Randy explained. “I’m in my late 50s and this is definitely a part of what I did when I was a kid. It is definitely a part of a lot of really good memories that we’re trying to continue to keep going.”

Now the Wagon Wheel puts its own spin on several burgers including the British, Eddie, and the pizza burger. We decided to go Texas style with the pizza burger, which means a double at Wagon Wheel.

Cook Salittia Brehm has been on this trail ride for 13 years. She gets the patties prepared with seasoning and Worcester sauce, toasts the bruschetta bun, and gets the marinara heated up. The toasted bun gets covered with mayo, onions, lettuce and a tomato. The burgers get sauced, topped with parmesan cheese and finished off with mozzarella. With that this burger is finito.

It all combines together nicely.  You get that marinara blending in there with the beef, but then the parmesan cheese sneaks in there and gives you that little kick. Then you’ve got the nice mozzarella cheese to finish things off really, really giving this a great taste all around.

Margarita is a regular at the Wagon Wheel who has a little advice for the rest of us.

“Get off the highway, come over here,” Margarita says. “You won’t be sorry.”

We happen to agree with Margarita. To get a spin on an old school flavor in the middle of Big Spring, Texas, The Wagon Wheel is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

GROESBECK, Texas – from. Every day across the Lone Star State, beef is being wheeled and dealed. With 12 million cattle in Texas, it’s the top commodity in the state and in Limestone County,  the Groesbeck Auction and Livestock Company is the place to buy and  sell your grazers.

But if you work up an appetite watching burgers and steaks walking off the auction block, just head for the greener pasture of Billy B’s Sale Barn Café.

Billy Brown and Shane McLean are the grandfather and grandson duo in charge of making sure the ranchers and the regulars are sold on their food.

“We’ve only got enough space to serve about 60 people, and we serve about 12 hundred people a week in four days,” Billy said.

Only open Wednesday through Saturday, Billy B’s is always busy.

Limestone Country Sheriff Dennis Wilson, it’s safe to say, is a regular here.

“You know that’s what they’re always telling you, that the police hang out at the donut shop,” Sheriff Wilson said. “Well you can come out here and  see a whole bunch of police cars, because they know where to eat. That’s what we do.”

Billy isn’t a rancher, he’s a former produce salesman who wanted to do something different. So, back in the mid 90s he bought the ol’ Sale Barn Café, a restaurant with roots that go all the way back to the 20s in Groesbeck.

“The barn was originally downtown,” Billy said. “ Had a big fire, and it burned. So the city wanted to move it out of downtown area, so they moved it out to here.”

O’Neal Foley is one of the old timers who has seen and done it all.

“I’ve done about everything haul hay, loaded watermelon, bailed hay, shredded, there ain’t much on a farm that I haven’t done.”

Lendell Grayson has been coming here his whole life.

“I used to come in here when I was a little kid,” Lendell said. “We’d come up town, and then we’d start eating here. He loved to eat, so he’d always make us get up early and eat.”

Of course, the one thing that might set some folks back is the initial smell of the auction house.  Fortunately the bouquet of the cooked beef carries through the café.

“When I bring my friend form the city out, I do give him a warning before we go,” Sheriff Wilson said. “I tell them once we get in the café the aroma will change, and it will be a lot more pleasant than what you smell when we come out.”

It didn’t take long for a whiff of what was being made to find our noses, so we headed to the back for a big ol’ burger.

Head cook Robert Stahl is the real hero over the steel flattop. He got things started with two six ounce patties of 90/10 beef topped with pepper.  The fresh beef sizzles on the grill and fortunately it’s not as fresh as you might think. Luckily for the cattle in the sale barn, the beef in these patties don’t go straight from the auction block to the butcher in the café.

After the patties have started cooking, eight slices of bacon get thrown on the flattop. Next, the bun gets gets buttered and toasted and topped with mustard and your typical toppings.  The burger then gets flipped, flattened, and finalized.

After just one big ole bite, I knew it was good. You might even say it’s the Billy B’s knees.

The beef is obviously biggest flavor you get here. Imagine that. Then comes the bacon and all the garnishments and that bread, but the burger is all about the meat. It’s safe to say they definitely serve food that puts you in a good mooood.

Well the double bacon cheeseburger at Billy B’s in the sale barn in Groesbeck, Texas well worth a stop and a sale on The Texas Bucket List.

“It really is amazing,” Sheriff Wilson said. “This is not a local eating place, because the word has spread about the food here and the hospitality.”

Kenney, Texas – Next to the railroad tracks in north Austin Country, you’ll find a town that once was a bustling business center.

Today, the post office and the Kenney Store are about all that remains, and that’s all it needs to bring in hundreds of hungry Texans six days a week.

Tony and Rita Krueger took over the Kenney Store a few years back. Married 16 years, this couple met in one interesting place, but not for the reason you might think.

“She was a sheriffs deputy, and I was a jailer,” Tony said. “We met in jail.”

Busting bad guys was fun and all but Tony and Rita had a hankering to get out to the country and try something different.

“We love the food,” Tony said. “We love the music. She had 20 years in law enforcement. I was right at 20 years in Houston is where I was ending my career up. She was working for the state, and we just wanted something a little bit more simple, something a bit more quieter.”

The Kenney Store was the perfect place.  Built in 1887 in Chapel Hill, the building was later hauled by logs and mules to Kenney.  Originally a General Store, the hangout evolved to a beer joint and a place to pick on your guitar, but now it’s so much more.  Serving some serious home cooking only added to the old Texas tavern.

“We wanted to keep it the way it was,” Rita said. “The store has such a spirit about it, just a calming spirit. When you walk through the doors, you’re like this is a calming place. I could just hang out here.”

With down home cooking, we could only imagine what the burger would be like, and we got a big surprise with the spinach and artichoke burger.

“They try it out of curiosity and end up ordering it again because they love it,” Rita said. “But our burgers are huge.”

Things get started with 10-ounce patty of 81/19 beef that gets splashed with worcester and secret seasoning.  While cooking the burger, little chunks of steak caught our eye.

“We got ribeye bites, chicken fried steak bites, the gizzards, cat fries.  Everything is cut up,” Tony said. “We really promote laziness here at the Kenney Store. If you’re going to have to work when you’re going out to eat, well then you probably shouldn’t be going out to eat.”

Once the behemoth beef is about done, house made spinach and artichoke dip is put on the flattop.

“Got to put a lot on there you know to match that size of a patty,” Tony informed us. “That’s not a dollop, that’s a scoop right there.”

Once the concoction is crowned on the burger, parmesan cheese is placed to melt while the bun gets topped with your usual suspects.

It is just a massive burger. Look at that patty, almost an inch thick, and all that spinach and artichoke dip just oozing out of there. I’m telling you, it’s huge, and has a huge flavor profile to match. A real squishy, wonderfully gooey, just all over your mouth flavor.

“You just get that taste in your mouth and you’re like, ‘I’d never think you could taste something like this. This is different.’ It’s so crazy,” Kenny Store regular, Cassie, said when describing the spinach artichoke burger.

You always know spinach and artichoke dip is great with chips, but you put it on a burger and it takes it to a whole new level.

While the burgers alone are well worth a stop, they’re not the only thing that keeps people coming back to the Kenny Store.

“You need to visit a place in a town that has 59 people that has awesome food, awesome bands, awesome atmosphere, and you can bring your kids,” Kenny native, Patty said. “Why wouldn’t you come?”

For us, after 99 burgers featured on the show it’s amazing to find something so unique for our 100th burger here at the Kenney Store. Well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“You’re going to leave here with another friend than you came with,” Tony said. “I promise you that.”

BAY CITY, Texas – In the middle of Matagorda County you’ll find Bay City, the biggest city in this constituency.

Martin Huerta was born and raised here and for the past 28 years he’s worked at the local power plant, but one day a light bulb got turned on in his head to open a snow cone stop.

“Snow Bunny came from one of my granddaughters actually,” Martin said. “When she was born they started calling her bunny and the name stuck.”

The business became a family affair with Martin’s wife Ellie leading the charge in the kitchen while his daughter and two nieces help out.

“I worked them,” Martin informed us. “Hey, you’ve got to work for the things you want, and that’s the way I raised my family.”

Work ethic, family, and faith are the corner stones to this snow cone stop and Martin makes sure each day starts with a meaningful message.

“What we have here is the verse of the day,” Martin said. “We like to put that up every morning before customers show up that way it will give them something to read and just say, ‘you know what I read the Bible today.’”

Martin’s devoted faith comes from riding a rough road. At one point in his life Martin hit a rough patch in his life it that cost him his marriage to Ellie.

“I always carried that in the back of my thoughts,” Martin said. “I always said, ‘Man, you really messed a good thing up, because you wanted to run as a wild child.’ I had too much pride to confess or anything, so I just kept to myself and just moved on. After looking at things I said you know what I’ve got a lot of fault. And I did have a lot of fault.”

He turned his life around and dedicated himself to becoming a better man.

“I had a change of life you know years back, so I said you know what whatever we do now we’re going to do it for the Lord. All the honors for Him now, nothing for me, all for the honor and glory for the Lord.”

After that, it wasn’t long until Ellie was back in his life. They got married on the same date they had before, and found happiness in their renewed love for each other and God.

“You know, we’ve had a rough little story there, but God is wonderful,” Ellie said.

The Huerta’s love story is why faith is so important here, and the reason every customer at Snow Bunny Cones is told to have a blessed day.

“To be honest with you I think it holds the family together. We’re serving the Lord, so it brings more happiness and keeps things calm,” Martin said. “People end up enjoying it.”

While we enjoyed hearing the Huerta’s love story and the role faith played in it, their burgers are what we really wanted to learn more about. So Ellie got things started on a double bacon cheeseburger.

This burger starts off with six ounce patties rolled out to monstrous proportions.

“We want to roll them out pretty good size,” Ellie explained. “Whenever they get on that grill it’s going to shrink.”

The patties are topped with salt, pepper, and Ellie’s secret seasoning. The bun and onions are grilled up while the patties get topped with cheese.   Mustard, lettuce, and tomatoes were bestowed on the bun, and then Ellie put things together.

So, will the bunny hop to market for this big ole burger? There’s only one way to find out. Put on your cottontail, shake your booty, and bounce I guess.

With 12 ounces of beef, the first thought on my mind after the first bit was, “now that is a beefy burger.”

The seasoning is kind of like an Easter egg, a surprise little factor that adds a bunch of flavor to this burger.

When eating at a place with snow cone in the name you have to try at least one. We tried a unique specialty at Snow Bunny Cones, the Piccadilly.  The Piccadilly is a tiger’s blood snow cone topped with chili, sal limon, chimoy, and pickles.

The Piccadilly is very unique, but oh so good.

If you ever find yourself bouncing through Bay City, stop by Snow Bunny Cones for a burger that’s well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List served up with some bountiful blessings and a unique snow cone.

LUBBOCK, Texas – In the shadows of Texas Tech University there’s a Lubbock burger joint known for their rascally ways. Aptly named after a character in The Little Rascals, this burger joint is known as Spanky’s.

Lisa West bought Spanky’s in 1987. At just 21 years old, the budding entrepreneur has turned her burger business into a Texas Tech institution.

“Prior to my buying it they had never hired a girl,” Lisa informed us. “I mean, it was a boys club here.”

Back in the 80’s Spanky’s was small 15 by 15 room that sat 15 people.  Today it’s a bit bigger, taking up just about a whole block with an upstairs to boot.

“It’s one of those whole-in-the-wall’s that kind of grew up, but we still have that whole-in-the-wall feel,” Lisa said.

So what brings in a rampant amount of red raiders?  Burgers and cheese sticks the size of Twinkies of course.

“There’s a line out the door and around the building to get fried cheese,” Lisa said.

After getting crazy with queso, we found out about our burger, The He-Man Woman Hater. As you can imagine, the name draws a bit of attention to Spanky’s.

“Well it was already on the menu,” Lisa informed us before adding, “I loved it. I think it’s fun.”

With 12 years of service at Spanky’s, J.R. Pacheco got things started with 2, 1/3 pound patties topped with homemade seasoning.

With 12 years of service at Spanky’s, J.R. Pacheco got things started with 2, 1/3 pound patties topped with homemade seasoning. Three buns are a put on the grill as the bacon crisps to perfection.

After the patties get a layer of Swiss and American cheese and the bottom bun is topped with mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions it’s time to stack!

With a knife through the middle holding this monstrosity of a burger in place it’s time to try the He-Man-Woman-Hater.

Let me tell you, it is a huge burger.

“It’s bigger than my head,” said Spanky’s regular Austin when describing the He-Man-Woman-Hater. “I don’t think I can finish it.”

Size isn’t the only thing that makes this burger worth the stop. It’s a meaty treat for any rascal brave enough to take it on one bite at a time, and might even leave you singing, ‘I’ve got a burger. I’ve got a burger. I’ve got a burger. Hey, hey, hey!’

“Aww it’s just a Lubbock staple,” Austin said. “If you’re up here you can’t miss out on it.”