Southern Kitchen, NW Hwy @ Abrams, Dallas - Possibly the best meals I've enjoyed on American soil. White tablecloths and all you can eat raw oysters, crab, shrimp, for the appetizer, then a barrage of fish, smoked chicken, fried chicken, and the like. Top quality. This place taught me that all pre-made salad dressing blows - homemade is so much better. We were kind of VIP's there, so the dinner included all the Aussie rock lobster, so good that it made fresh Maine lobs seem as classy as a clothesline on a roof in Newark. It was no skin off their bag, for we'd be too stuffed by everything else to eat all their lobster. Spectacular, and consistent.

Shotgun Sam's Pizza, Near WRL Spillway, Dallas - simply awesome. It's been so long that I can't remember what it tasted like, other than being knock-down superb. Once SK and SS closed down, the overall worth of this wretched city plunged something like 98%.

Goldfinger's - Bachman Lake, Dallas. Greek food rampage. Bouzouki player that chops rivaling Ritchie Blackmore. Belly dancer was surprisingly accommodating to sleazily precocious young men.

Olympic Pizza - around the corner from Goldfinger's. I have no idea what the food tasted like or if it was even good, despite eating it many times. The attraction here was the swarm of drunken strippers that would slam the place at predictable spots on the clock. A simple stop to grab a soda could turn into a 4 day plunge into an abyss resembling Fear and Loathing meets Green Door.

Yim Lee's - Medallion, Dallas. Amazing Chinese that puts most places now to total shame. Owner was the nicest man who ever lived and made a lobster Cantonese in black bean sauce that's one of the best things I ever had. Sadly, one day failed to yield right of way turning onto Abrams and got fatally T-boned, which is odd, since he never served steaks.

Oh, wait...Yim was in Lakewood, where Mickey Finn's used to be. Great place, too. Can't remember the name of the dead guy's place, it was next door to Spanish Galleon.

Bonanza, Mockingbird Ln. - first time I saw a self-serve soda fountain. Coke and orange turned out to be a bad idea. The trays told you where to put each item, in case you were, well, ya know....kinda stupid. I went out of my way to put my stuff where I thought it should go - I found their setup to be poorly balanced. I've had better steaks, but it was cool.

Columbo's Pizza, Mockingbird - they had this strange, finely ground hamburger that was like dust, yet had substance. Never had pizza like it. For a place that was largely a front for a meth dealing operation, it kicked out a pretty good pie. The manager once was a mere short hair away from a massive crank-induced heart attack as she took my order, then gave me change 3 times while shaking like a Truman-era reducing machine. I heard a rumor they once had dogfights in the kitchen after hours.

Underwood's BBQ, Garland Rd?? - the world's largest salad bar. Salad bar? What's that? Since the first one I ever way was the worlds largest, almost all since have left me a bit flat. They ran commercials like crazy during the Sportatorium wrasslin' shows on Ch 11.

Flip's Wine Bar, Lower Greenville - while Columbo's had meth, it seemed that opiates were the thing here....but they had half price Mondays and their red sauce was killer. Had a waitress once pass out, spread-eagled on the floor a couple of steps after barely getting a beer onto my table. It was an artsy place, and when I looked down at the table in bewilderment, there was a purty lady painted on it in the exact same position as the waitress on the floor. But, the waitress had her clothes on. The place was awesome, then the wheels fell off like a Chinese motorcycle.

Windjammer, Oak Cliff - all you can eat corn meal coated fried seafood tsunami. The fried stuffed crabs were insane. There'd always be a family of four that weighed over a thousand pounds. Found a cigarette ash in my slaw once. Didn't eat that part of it. Had to put my hand on the grip of my P-89 in the parking lot once to repel a bold crackhead. Looks like crank, smack, and crack have all made the list.

Doug's, WRL spillway - $1 BBQ sandwiches. Cold beer. Doug hated my guts for no valid reason. I hope he never adulterated my sammiches in some alarming way. I think it burned.

Bob White's BBQ, WRL Spillway - man, why do all the great places have to go belly-up. Great ribs and onion rings. They moved somewhere farther east and went downhill before expiring.

Fred's BBQ, upper Greenville - my favorite sauce ever, until I formulated my own. I once drank a pint of it.

"Can't remember the name of the dead guy's place, it was next door to Spanish Galleon."

That had to be the Central China and his name was Jimmy. He always tried to feed us free when we came in on duty. He had a prob with the bottle but he was the nicest guy. Never again have I ever had a Schredded Beef Schezuan that tasted like his..and never will again. The Chinese there was the best in the world.

The most hilarious anecdote I've got was my partner and I frequenting La Bare just to flirt with the chicks..and be flirted with LOL. We were the only guys allowed in of course except for the dancers.

great post archie... that's what I'm talkin bout

Bill Martin's Second Edition

Bob's BBQ in Ada Okla

Bob's BBQ was something else - one of a kind. I used to make a special trip through Ada to eat there. As I remember, a half-plate was all you could eat, and that was when I was in my 20's and could really stow it away. Wonder if that place is still open?

We will be in San Angelo in July on a 15 day trip and I am going to stop at Western Sky.

I'll post pics

WOW!

I think the last time I had that was around 1981

Cool Place

THANK YOU! I'm sure they still have their Garlic crusted steaks! I need a photo of those :))

Big Pines Lodge, Caddo Lake, Uncertain, Texas

Big Pines burned and they are rebuilt. Some like it some hate it now

Went to El Fenix for the Wednesday special with my parents before church. Still go there sometimes now for the same special!

Went to Luby's for lunch with my parents after church on Sundays.

Was there about 2pm a few weeks ago but they didn't open till 4pm so we didn't get to check out the food.

Underwood's in Brownwood, Long John Silvers-San Angelo, and the best-Shakey's in San Angelo!

That brings back some memories. When I was a senior in high school (1969) I worked at El Fenix in Ft. Worth when they first started the Wednesday enchilada dinner special - Regular price was $1.49 & the Wed. special went for 97 cents. The waters/waitress hated the special because every tightwad in in town would show up, eat tons of chips and tortillas, then pay their bill with 4 quarters and a nickel (tax) and never leave a tip..