Angelo's Barbecue

"I'll take a pound of ribs....just for a snack," the strapping, 6'4 cowboy-booted fellow in front of me told the counterman, and then he proceeded to order most everything else on the menu, from the famous brisket sandwiches (with the works—raw onion, mustard, mayo and a side of BBQ sauce) to five of the sides (potato salad, baked beans, you know the drill). Whether the fellow survived this meatapalooze, I don't know. But if he died, he did so a happy man. Because Angelo's has been serving the best barbecue in Fort Worth (and perhaps in the state of Texas), since 1958. Founded by a butcher—of course—the restaurant uses only the best cuts of meat (pork and beef), slathers them with a famed rub, and slow smokes everything with hickory wood. What emerges from the smoker is tangy and super-tender, with a slow-building heat that's quenched by beer served Arctic cold. And if this all weren't butch enough, every surface of the barn-like room that houses the restaurant has some critters head poking from it (moose, deer, full-sized brown bears—Angelo's doubles as a taxidermy museum). Hey, this is what you came to Texas for, right?