Dive Expedition: Lockhart Smoke House

Holy moly - Lockhart Smoke House, one of Texas Monthly's top 50 BBQ joints, decided to open it's second Dallas metro location in downtown Plano.

That means we have fantastic smoked BBQ just 15 minutes from our house. No more trips downtown.

There's no better way to tell your wife that she's loved than to arrange to meet up in our fair city's historic downtown on Valentine's Day eve for an after-work drink at the Fillmore Pub (our favorite) and a dive expedition to the just-opened Lockhart Smoke House.

It's amazing how lived-in the place looks on just its third day open. I guess it's an "instant joint."

Everything is a la carte and when it's sold out, it's sold out.

The Dallas location's pit master is overseeing the new shop until things are running smoothly. That man knows how to smoke - and slice - a great brisket.

Here's how it works:

• You tell the pit crew what you want.
• We ordered a 1/2 lb of brisket - mostly dry (meaning with little fat) and medium bark (meaning a good, but not overwhelming amount, of outside smoked crust).
• We also ordered two links of the jalapeno sausage. Each link is 1/3 lb and we planned to take a link home for leftovers.
• The pit crew will ask you if you want bread on the side.
• Your meat order is wrapped individually in butcher paper, then all together in a larger paper wrap.
• If you want cold sides, you grab them out of the cooler. The counter staff will dish up hot beans.
• At this point, you pay and head to the fixings bar.

The fixings bar has spicy pickles, peppers, jalapenos, onions and sauce. Dip up what you'd like. There are plastic bags hanging on a hook if you want to take your food to go. If you plan to take your food to go, make sure you ask the counter staff for a styrofoam container to carry home sauce.

But the food...here's our brisket:

And the jalapeno sausage:

White bread, pickles and sauce...essential for a good BBQ meal:

There's nothing better than brisket wrapped in bread, dipped into sauce:

The potato salad has a slight kick:

The cole slaw has a major kick - it's one of the best I've ever had:

The beans were loaded with jalapenos, onions and bits of BBQ beef:

Deviled eggs...oh, my. These had small chunks of smoked BBQ chicken. Amazing:

Even more amazing - the line! We're glad we were there early. We went 15 minutes before they started serving at 6 pm. The line at that point was 10 deep, but better than it was at 7 pm.

By the way, they didn't start serving at 6. Why? As they told us:

BBQ tells us when it's ready.

Not the other way around.

Welcome to town, Lockhart. We're going to be good friends.