#6 - CORKSCREW BBQ - Rock Me Like a Hurricane

I love Houston. There aren't a lot of people outside Houston who will admit that (maybe it's a Dallas thing), but I have a soft spot for the Bayou City. When I was 13 years old, I moved to Spring on the north side of town. Houston was hot and sweaty, seemingly year-round, and everywhere you turned there was traffic and construction.

You couldn't get much better than being a teenager in Houston in the late 70s/early 80s. My memories of Houston are filled with the Goodyear Blimp, Greenspoint Mall, the Houston Oilers, KILT-AM and KLOL-FM. We were urban cowboys, dipping Skoal, brother, and lovin' every minute of it.

The BEST bumper sticker ever

Tin Hall during its final days as a reception hall

My first memory of Texas BBQ was at Tin Hall, an authentic dance hall that opened in 1889 and closed at the end of 2015. Tin Hall was Texas to the core, and this was its heyday. The dance floor was covered by sawdust cyclones and puddles of Lone Star. Swirling, behatted couples danced under a canopy of wood and tin, accompanied by Eddie Rabbit and Charlie Daniels.  Everybody danced and screamed "bullshit" when the Cotton-Eyed Joe was played. I swear I saw a woman dancing with a mannequin at Tin Hall...nobody could keep up with her and the dummy was light on its feet.

As I recall, Tin Hall's BBQ was nothing fancy, lots of sauce and runny vegetables on the side. It was BTBBQ...Basic Texas BBQ. But it was heaven on a plate, part of a full-throttle, teenage Texas memory.

Houston has moved on from those days, faster than Earl Campbell through the Miami defense. The blimp garage is a Home Depot. Greenspoint is known as Gunpoint Mall.  KLOL doesn't even rock, and if it did, it would be in Espanol.

One thing apparently hasn't changed.much -- Old Town Spring, the home of Corkscrew BBQ. Old Town Spring is one of those quaint little "towns" that would have died without an infusion of potpourri and antiques. Most of the buildings in Old Town Spring look like a carpenter's nightmare...plenty of old wood with plenty of opportunities for splinters. But if you're in the market for good food, wine and quaint shopping, Old Town Spring has got you covered.

Thankfully, Corkscrew BBQ gives the other half something to do. The smoky perfume of cooked brisket snakes its way through town, calling out the hungry and the bored...guys who "like to antique" on weekends and say "Yes, dear." (By the way, sir, if you find any smoked brisket potpourri, put it around your neck. It will protect you from ceramic rabbit attacks.)

I stopped into Corkscrew with my daughter on a Saturday after a week of cleaning up from flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. It was the most wonderful thing I had smelled in days.

Corkscrew is one of Texas Monthly's top 10 BBQ joints, and the sixth one of the top 50 that I've visited. The owners, Will and Nicole Buckman, got their start hosting backyard barbecues for their friends. It was so popular they chose to follow the path of enlightenment...yard to trailer to temple of BBQ.

We arrived to find an army of pick-ups surrounding a shack ringed with picnic tables serving up some fine BBQ. The backyard vibe survives at Corkscrew BBQ.  Talk about unpretentious! Corkscrew is laid back, like having a cookout in a field with your best friends.

The line was short when we arrived, but Corkscrew was consistently busy.  The selection was great, even though they were out of the ribs that day (what do you expect at 2 pm?).

I ordered the usual, and it was terrific, some of the best BBQ in Texas. The brisket was soft and flavorful with a great smoke ring. The jalapeno sausage was just spicy enough. I really liked the fresh jalapenos, that was a nice touch. All in all, a really great BBQ experience and a great new Houston memory.