Bull Durham's Texas BBQ & Steaks

Bull Durham's

As you know, this blog is about locally owned restaurants. Bull Durham's prominently displays that they are not a franchise, so we wanted to check it out. They are located at the Dilworthtown shopping center on 202. From the outside, it looks like a franchise, and is in a newish shopping center that has the same look & feel as any other in the country. But they're locally owned, so go inside.

There are only a handful of local places to get BBQ. I've never been to Texas, or had much authentic BBQ to compare. I do smoke my own meets, so I'm aware of the time & effort that is needed, and also what the results should be.

We started with fried pickles. If you're wondering what that tastes like, I can't elaborate much, they taste like pickles smothered in batter and fried. They were great, served with a ranch style Jalapeno dressing. Good combination of textures and flavor. For her entree, Mrs. Where Should We Eat ordered mesquite smoked tenderloin with a mushroom demi glace. Meat was smoked perfectly and the demi glace was a wonderful accompaniment. I ordered the Sampler, with brisket, ribs, and pulled pork. All served with the same BBQ sauce, which had a nice simple flavor that didn't overpower the smoke. Every meat selection was smoked perfectly. Our sides selections included onion rings and hush puppies and sweet potatoes. The onion rings were fried in the same batter as the pickles (which is delicious on it's own) but were HUGE. Several rings of onion stayed together to form a single ring, so some rings looked like donuts. This is how it should be. The hush puppies were the same batter as the others, not too exciting. Mrs. really enjoyed her sweet potatoes served "Thanksgiving style" with candied walnuts, nutmeg, cinnamon & brown sugar. They were "friggen awesome" according to the Mrs.

Overall great food and service. We'll go back to try some other selections. They have weekly happy hour and early bird specials. Also have live music, so check they're schedule on the website. They advertise a $4.95 lunch special which looks like a great value.