Angelo’s, Fort Worth

So I was in Forth Worth for about 20 hours to have a little meeting. We got in early, visited some stores of the retailer we were meeting, and then were left with 2+ hours of dead time. My colleague, Hoor, looked at me and said “Barbecue” and we were off. It was like a little mad dash to work the phones, seeing what kinda options were available and what showed up where on the best-of lists.

We settled on Angelo’s since it was ranked up there and was also close to the meeting location. And I say ‘settled’, because it’s on White Settlement Road, and that prompted more than a few chuckles from us. I was getting ready to say that it’s funny how some other bloggers comment on the road’s name as being a racist hangover when clearly it’s just called that because the White family first settled the area…but no, the town of White Settlement got its name to distinguish it from the nearby Indian settlement.

We opened the doors, got a big whiff of smoke in the face, and said “This is the place.” At 11 on a Tuesday, it wasn’t that crowded.

I’m shamelessly poaching this picture from the Googlez so y’all can see what it’s like inside. And I say ‘poaching’, because I’m not at all sure where Angelo got all the trophy heads mounted on his walls (nor am I sure how a Sicilian immigrant became the best barbecue smoker in all of the White Settlement). Angelo also likes to ‘poach’ beers, as we used to say in high school – big goblets of beer. It seemed like almost a requirement to drink one, probably 20 ounces in a half-domed cup with a chunky glass handle. Old ladies had ’em.

Old ladies had big-ass piles of meat in front of em too. Everything’s bigger in Texas, including our eyes as we ordered this lunch. I’m not shy about eating, and Hoor is a much healthier boy than me, so we got at least two pounds to nibble on. The ribs on the right were, seriously, the best I’ve had. I don’t feel compelled to go into detail about their smokiness or fattiness or softness or what have you – if I say ‘good barbecue’, I give you credit for having at least a working knowledge of the genre, and these were the epi-tome of said genre. Brisket in the middle is a Texas thing in general, and was much better than the iffy version I had in Charlotte back in May last year (I see I didn’t even blog it, which is prolly fitting). The sausages were fantastic – one meaty guy and one spicy guy – maybe I should be checking out the ‘hot links’ more often at these places? They do a smoked head cheese too; the staff seemed very proud of it, but we were chicken. (Let’s not talk about the sauce or sides, OK?)

I’m unsure what else you need to know here. I went to Nashville a few weeks later, visited 5 barbecue restaurants in 3 days, and would trade all of ’em for another lunch at Angelo’s. Plus they ship meat, at very reasonable prices.

Another thing, I don’t see anyone on the message boards saying this is NOT the best barbecue in Ft Worth.
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