Howdy y’all. More Texas BBQ Road Trip comin’ at ya. We head to the College Station area, home to one of Texas’s most famous institutions, Texas A&M University, for a BBQ spot in the adjacent town of Bryan!

Though Bryan is a separate town from College Station, they sit right on top of each other and are one collective metro area. Bryan is named after William Joel Bryan, nephew of Stephen F. Austin, considered the founder of Texas, and was incorporated in 1871. Just five years later Texas A&M was founded and the area began to grow, turning the heart of the Brazos Valley into a hub of activity. The turn of the century brought the International Great Northern Railroad to Bryan as well as a grant from Andrew Carnegie to build the Carnegie Library of Bryan.

Bryan and College Station grew in tandem throughout the early 1900s, with a state highway being built through the middle of both towns to unite them together. The prosperity from Texas A&M’s rise fueled this growth, and the university is the largest employer in Bryan today. Though little other Bryan-specific history has occurred, the town did garner national attention in 2010 when the DA’s office started a “Gang Safety Zone” due to escalating violence in the area. That program has become a model for other cities in the nation.

The students of A&M have been lucky enough to have a nearby BBQ spot on the Texas Monthly list since 2000. Alan Caldwell and Belender Wells opened Fargo’s Pit Barbeque and have kept an unusual amount of secrecy as to their exact smoking methods. They keep their pit hidden from sight, and Alan Caldwell refuses to divulge what wood he uses. Texas Monthly spotted some oak and speculates that commercial charcoal may be used, but there is no easy way to know. They serve up spareribs, short and chunky. Brisket slices are also served as well as sliced sausage. I also grabbed some potato salad, which unfortunately was not my favorite with its heavy mustard taste.

The highlight of this trip was, surprisingly, the pork rib. In what can be fairly described as the best pork rib I’ve had during this project, the short spareribs were smoked to perfection. With a thick dark bark providing a hearty bite, the mixture of smoky flavors crafted a very unique flavor profile (and indeed, it seems like charcoal is in there somewhere). It’s a smokiness you just can’t get enough of. The brisket was decidedly more average, as was the sausage, but those pork ribs make a trip to Fargo’s well worth it.

I award the brisket 4 slices out of 5, the sausage 3.5 links out of 5, and the pork ribs 5 oinks out of 5. I award Fargo’s Pit BBQ 4.5 smokers out of 5!

While the majority of The Junction Boys takes place in the small town of Junction, hundreds of miles west of both Bryan and College Station, there was no better pairing for a local BBQ place than this one about the Aggies of Texas A&M. An ESPN made-for-TV movie, it stars Tom Berenger as famed coach Bear Bryant. It follows a notoriously brutal training camp Bryant put the Aggies through during his first year as head coach of A&M back in the 50s.

A non-sports fan is likely to get little out of this trope-filled sports movie. Berenger’s Bryant is rascally individual who believes in winning at all costs. With rather inconsistent quality of acting, we see the players struggle against Bryant’s belief that winning means enduring any hardship. There isn’t much more to it than that. The biggest character development, in which Bryant realizes he doesn’t need to be so unrelentingly brutal, occurs as a result of just one scene.

That’s not to say it’s a bad movie. Berenger is a great selection as Bear Bryant and gets number of drillmaster-like quips directed at the complaining players. For a sports fan, it is fun to see a dramatization of what were pretty typical training camps back at that time. The guesses into the psyche of Bryant are at least somewhat interesting, but it’s just rather thin for most of the run-time. Nor is the direction or production particularly innovative as a TV movie.

Despite being simplistic, this film is a fine pairing for this area of Texas. The Aggies are worshipped in this area, and when visiting Bryan and College Station, an A&M film the perfect companion.

Does anyone eat BBQ in the film?

There ain’t time for eating in this movie!

Texas Film Chart

  1. The Last Picture Show
  2. No Country for Old Men
  3. Rushmore
  4. A Ghost Story
  5. Blood Simple
  6. Boyhood
  7. Paris, Texas
  8. The Right Stuff
  9. Lone Star
  10. Chef
  11. Bernie
  12. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
  13. Leadbelly
  14. Tender Mercies
  15. Dazed and Confused
  16. Dallas Buyer’s Club
  17. JFK
  18. The Sugarland Express
  19. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
  20. Planet Terror
  21. Frank
  22. Whip It
  23. Natural Selection
  24. This is Where We Live
  25. The Junction Boys
  26. The Alamo
  27. Song to Song
  28. Outlaw Blues
  29. Selena
  30. Nadine

Texas BBQ Chart

  1. Franklin Barbecue
  2. Pinkerton’s Barbecue
  3. Terry Black’s Barbecue
  4. Pecan Lodge
  5. Stiles Switch BBQ
  6. Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ
  7. Hutchins Barbeque
  8. Joseph’s Riverport Bar-B-Que
  9. 2M Smokehouse
  10. Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que
  11. La Barbecue
  12. Hays Co. Bar-B-Que
  13. Smolik’s Smokehouse
  14. Louie Mueller Barbecue
  15. Lockhart Smokehouse
  16. Heim Barbecue
  17. Truth Barbeque
  18. Fargo’s Pit BBQ
  19. Gatlin’s BBQ
  20. City Market
  21. Baker Boys BBQ
  22. Kreuz Meat Market
  23. Stanley’s Famous Pit BBQ
  24. Micklethwait Craft Meats
  25. Payne’s Bar-B-Q Shak
  26. The Pit Room
  27. Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que
  28. The Smoking Oak
  29. Heavy’s BBQ
  30. Harris Bar-B-Que

Join us again next time for more delicious smoked meats and fantastic Lone Star cinema!