One of my favorite foods is Texas BBQ, more particularly roadside shacks emitting clouds of smoke. The tender of the process is usually an interesting character, very different guys that have one thing in common: you’ll be informed they have been smoking since 3 in the morning. “Normal” work days are the weekends, Thursday through Sunday, but they reserve the right to be open or not depending on how they feel.
My rule is when I see a roadside smoke, I stop and buy.
I have my list of roadside smoke places in the RGV, but have been drastically burned because they haven’t been operating lately. Low temperatures and a wicked wind have made it miserable to tend the meat at 5AM, so no one has been smoking. Today I went on a search for enclosed operations, like restaurants. Perfectly good option, but you pay a bit more for the overhead.
The weather is improving oh so slightly, maybe this weekend the smokers will be lit.