Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Idea

The idea for Texas Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives came as Terry (Evans) Gilmour and I were driving across Texas on our Thelma and Louise trip after her daughter's wedding in Midland. She handed me the August edition of Texas Monthly. "I want to go there," she said, pointing to the humongous burger on the front cover, #3 of the 50 best burgers in Texas. Okay, why not, I thought. The burger looked at least 10 inches high and could easily feed a family of four. This was Monday, August 10th. We had until somewhere between Thursday and Saturday to make it to Houston for her to catch a Southwest flight back to Midland. "We'll be in San Angelo around lunchtime, look and see if there's anything there," she instructed.
Being the good co-pilot I am, I thumbed through the feature article and sure enough, one of the 50 best burgers in Texas was in San Angelo. It was ranked #27.
After evenly dividing and devouring the "Miss Hattie's" burger, I wiped the chipotle sauce off my hands as the waiter handed us our check. We had told him about the Texas Monthly thing and his response was, "if you're ever back in San Angelo, come back at night and try our steaks. That's really our specialty." Ending up in San Angelo after dark was probably not ever going to happen, but we nodded and thanked him kindly.
"Well, what do you think of the Miss Hattie's?" I asked after the waiter took away our plates.
"I give it a 7," Terry G. said.
Hmm, I thought. "What makes it a 7?"
That, along with the waiter's comment about steaks being their specialty was the beginning of my idea. A Texas version of Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives.

2 comments:

  1. Here are a few more to try for good...no great...burgers here in Houston.

    1) Bubba's Texas Burger Shack -(713) 661-1622

    5230 Westpark Dr
    Houston, TX 77056

    Absolutely the best burger on whole wheat bread I've ever had. Be ready to sit outside as the digs are meager. No fries...but don't let that stop you!

    2) Lankford Grocery & Market - (713) 522-9555‎

    88 Dennis St
    Houston, TX 77006

    A downtown legend that must be experienced. It's nice to see this 48+ year old shack in the middle of all the brand newness of downtown/midtown. This shinning example of actual history lives!! The building is going to fall down sometime soon, so hurry!
    Really good burger and fries to be had. On the corner, easy to miss completely and parking is scarce, but its worth the hunt.

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  2. Thanks for the post Mere. We're heading out today and thought we'd try one of the 2 you suggested (if we can find them:). Will post a comment about it later. Over and out for now.

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