Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse

Description:

• Barbecue is serious business down here. Everybody's got a favorite, whose merits they'll defend like it was the Alamo, but just about all Dallasites agree that legendary Sonny Bryan's is the original, the one barbecue spot you've gotta visit before you leave Dallas. Dating from February 1910 (when it was in Oak Cliff), the ramshackle little building in a humble section of Oak Lawn is so popular that even on scorching hot days, you'll see businesspeople with their sleeves rolled up, leaning against their cars, trying in vain not to get barbecue sauce all over themselves. Inside the smoke shack, there are just two rows of tiny one-armed school desks, under signs that read RESERVED, PHYLLIS, or LITTLE JERRIE. Place your order for hickory-smoked brisket, meaty ribs, sliced beef sandwiches, and juicy "handmade" onion rings at the counter. Then grab a bottle of sauce in a mini-Mexican beer bottle and a fistful of napkins, and squeeze into a desk -- or grab a spot at one of the picnic tables in the parking lot (or, heck, jump on the hood of your car). Come early, though; Sonny's is open only until the food runs out, which is apt to happen before the stated closing time. If you can't make it to the atmospheric original, there are more consumer-friendly branches of Sonny Bryan's serving up the same great and sloppy barbecue across Dallas and the suburbs, and while they're great for fast barbecue, they don't have anywhere near the authentic appeal of the original.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010