Tis the season for driving around the state visiting friends and relatives. And we’re not complaining. Last week’s jaunt to Houston and DFW took us past Woody’s Smokehouse on I-45 (we’re still raving about their candied jalapenos to anyone who’ll listen), and we also had time for dinner at Houston’s Strip House — one in a swanky, pin-up themed steak chain that serves good meat and over-the-top sides (don’t skip the potatoes fried in duck fat or the truffled creamed spinach) — and a drink at Warren’s Inn, a much-loved downtown bar where motherly barkeeps pour heavy in a collision of worn Craftsman and Indistinct European Revival kitsch.

This weekend we’re back in The Fort, as a friend calls it. Our first stop: a barbecue institution, Angelo’s on White Settlement Road, which has been serving dry-rub ‘cue since the late ’40s. The third generation is working the pit, and the generational torch-passing seems to be taking — the pork ribs are fall-off-the-bone perfect.  Angelo’s is also famous for serving ice-cold schooners of beer under rows of game trophies (we like the table under the buffalo head; there’s a relatively new alligator hide above the ordering counter — no word on whether it came from the Trinity River) It feels like the game room in a fraternal organization’s clubhouse — one with a liberal membership policy. Today, we’ll get our veggies and fruit at the Zen-inducing Cafe Modern — the New American food is very good at the Fort Worth Modern’s in-house restaurant, but it’s the view of the reflecting pond at Tadao Ando’s art temple that draws us back every time we’re in town.

Got a drinking or dining recommendation? Send it our way.

I hope you’re enjoying your holiday weekend, too, and that wherever you’re eating, you’re enjoying the company of friends and family. 

This article appears in Dec 19-25, 2007.