Lunch with Amanda at T-Bone Tom's in Kemah

After the New Year started at Jay's Bay, I met up with Amanda on my way out of Houston to have lunch before returning to Louisiana and the typical daily grind.  Having recently bought a house near the Space Center, Amanda lives a short drive away from Kemah where we decided to go for a sampling of Texas barbeque at T-Bone Tom's. 

T-Bone Tom's in Kemah, Texas

T-Bone Tom's is a gastronomic establishment with stereotypical Texan charm.  There is a giant cow on the sign out front (seen above) and a patio outside for live music and dancing.  Inside the restaurant sat clusters of tables with chairs that had advertisements on the back, but somehow not in a way that screamed commercial sellout, but rather a bit of marketing genius!  Amanda and I had a seat at the bar, I ordered a tall glass of Texas sweet tea, and we glanced over the menu while catching up on life.

Smoked Sausage Plate with House-Made BBQ Sauce

We began with smoked sausage plate that came with bowl of T-Bone Tom's tangy home made barbeque sauce.  The sausage had a rich smoke flavor that tremendously complimented the sauce at the end of a toothpick spear. 

The sausage worked up an appetite for more barbeque so I ordered the three meat plate to get a trial run at the best of their smoked meats.  The plate contained brisket and spare ribs smothered in sauce and jalapeño pulled pork on the side of the other two.  I also added some baked beans and potato salad for good measure and T-Bones threw in a Texas-thick slice of white bread for squeegeeing the remaining sauce off the plate.

Three Meat Plate - Brisket, Ribs, and Jalapeño Pulled Pork, Beans, and Potato Salad

The beans had a good texture and were not turned to mush consistency like some baked beans are, which I liked.  The potato salad tasted fine but didn't blow me away.  The brisket pulled apart and melted in my mouth just like it was supposed to.  The texture was right on, but the flavor didn't do anything special for me and seemed like it wasn't smoked long enough... certainly not bad, but not the greatest ever either.  The jalapeño pulled pork intrigued me and lived up to the modest expectations.  The pork itself was moist and tender and pulled perfectly into stringy bite sized pieces.  The jalapeño flavor added quite a kick to the pork and at times I found it a little excessive and overpowering.  The actual pickled jalapeños tasted fine, but I wanted jalapeño pork, not porky jalapeños.  The highlight of the meal, other than Amanda's company, was by far the ribs.  The sweet sauce attempted to cover up the flavor of the pork but the zing of the rib shined through as it pulled off the bone and left my taste buds with the smack that they so desperately craved.  Man, I love a good rib.

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