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2 people, 1 restaurant, 25 bucks
Meals for people with big appetites and small wallets
Meals for people with big appetites and small wallets
I love serendipity. My friend Lara and I decided to go to a favorite restaurant of ours in Spencerport after a morning of picking blueberries, but it was closed for lunch, so we drove on and stumbled upon the family-owned Taste of Texas Bar-B-Q. I want to shout about this place from the rooftops.
The mood
Welcome to the Wild West. Lots of dark wood, vintage photos and 'Wanted' posters. A metal bull stands on a corner of the long bar, where you place your order. The guy who took ours wrote everything down, clipped our order to an overhead wire then sent it sailing the length of the restaurant to a cowbell — its clang alerting the cook to our requests. We picked up the food when it was ready.
The food
Lara got the Cow Town Lunch Special ($6.48), which included a sandwich, a side and a Coke. She chose the Rodeo Pulled Pork sandwich — overloaded, tender, sweet and smoky — and the mild and buttery Moose's Mac & Cheese.
I wanted to try the Fried Green Tomato sandwich ($3.95), given that my only reference point is the Fannie Flagg book. The three good-sized, lightly breaded and peppered rounds were served on fresh sandwich buns but are also available as a side dish without the bread, which I'd get the next time around, only because I wouldn't want anything to detract from the tomatoes. My side of baked beans ($1.85) came sweetened with a heavenly mixture of brown sugar, bacon, mustard and ketchup.
We finished off our meal with Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce ($3), a gigantic rectangle that Lara called "comfort food in the extreme."
Main courses ($7.95 to $12.95) come with your choice of meat, two sides and cornbread. Ribs start at $7.95 for a one-third rack served with cornbread, sandwiches are mostly $4.95, and soups (complimentary for eat-in meals — I didn't realize that when we ordered) and salads run $1.85 to $5.99. An extensive gluten-free menu is available.
The drinks
Fountain drinks, coffee and tea are $1.50 (Lara's Diet Coke came with her meal), Snapple and bottle drinks are $2, beer is $2.50 to $3, and wine is $3.50.
The damage: $18.50*
*There's a tip jar on the bar.
Next time ...
The Outlaw Potato ($7.50) with pulled pork, butter, sour cream, bacon, cheese and chives. The menu promises that the restaurant's potatoes "are big as Texas."
