Meaty Mondays — Where we push past the borders of good taste in the search of something that tastes good.
“You’ve got to have a motto.” That’s what my inner you was telling me. My inner you is kind of like my inner me only it’s you. Be that as it may when one delves into heavyweight matters of thought one must have food for the mind and body. And sometimes that food is barbecue.
Beaumont, Texas, where I live, has a lot of barbecue places. Texas has a lot of barbecue places. The entire southern United States have a lot of barbecue places. And some localities do the damnedest things with their barbecue. Like when I visited Arkansas for the first and only time, for now I hope because Arkansas is a nice state, I found out the hard way that they put cole slaw ON their barbecue sandwiches. What’s up with that? I am not a picky eater but I am when it comes to cole slaw because there are 99,999,000 ways to screw it up.
The good news is Fat Mac’s in Beaumont doesn’t put cole slaw on their sandwiches. The bad news is I think their barbecue is good. What’d I say? Yes it’s good. It’s not excellent. It’s not magnificent. It’s not slap yo’ mamma good. But merely good.
Last Friday I decided to stop by Fat Mac’s which I did and bought a sausage sandwich and had a side of potato salad. The meal with a drink came close to $10. Not a bad value. In the olden days, a couple of years ago, I used to eat at Fat Mac’s because of their hamburgers. They made and I feel they probably still do build a mighty good hamburger. The problem, which to many is not a problem, is that it was heavy with garlic taste. I love garlic but garlic didn’t love me back. However, now that the doc put me full-time on Prilosec, maybe I will give it another try. They give you buns, meat (cheese if you want) and you pick up the fixings.
This restaurant has an inner dining room and an outer that is screened in. The latter is not recommended on a cold day. There are tables and chairs in the half-outdoors dining section while the inside has very long communal tables and benches to sit upon. There is a lot of faux redneck crapola adorning the walls such as reminding you that it’s not a deer camp so you should clean up after yourself. It’s kind of reminiscent of the Rudy’s barbecue chain which is mostly a Texas chain. I don’t know if the restaurants are named after some guy named Rudy or whether it’s a play on the word “rude.” Fat Mac’s people aren’t rude even though the surroundings suggest otherwise.
If you live in Beaumont or are visiting or passing through you might give Fat Mac’s a try. My favorite overall barbecue place is Patillo’s on North 11th Street. Maybe I’ll write about it sometime.
Fat Mac’s Smokehouse
5555 Calder St.
Beaumont, TX
(409)862-8600
$ Reasonable