Holidays and milestones look different this year. Birthday celebrations happen on Zoom. Graduation parties mean whooping and honking in a procession of cars. Even Ramadan, the Muslim holiday that ends tomorrow and typically concludes with a communal feast, has converted its sacred, ritual meal into a curbside pickup operation. We don’t have to tell you that Memorial Day will be a little offbeat.
Big party-size cookouts and invite-the-whole-neighborhood backyard gatherings should be off the table this year to control the spread of the coronavirus. But we have some suggestions on how to eat some great grub while practicing social distance this weekend.
Order Some Barbecue Takeout
Ten50 BBQ
Pick up a Backyard BBQ Pack from Ten50 that feeds four people ($75) with options of smoked turkey, sausage, pulled pork, and smoked chicken, plus your choice of two sides. Choices include brisket baked beans, potato salad, slender slaw, snap’d green beans, five cheese mac, little green salad, corn on the cob, and baked potato. The pack comes with six Southern yeast rolls and BBQ sauce.
The Dock
Forgo the usual barbecue fare with this clam bake kit that serves two ($40) to four people ($75). It includes little neck clams, mussels, garlic shrimp, smoked sausage, and more—you can add a lobster tail for $14. Preorders required.
Terry Black’s Barbecue
The Deep Ellum ‘cue joint has special family packs can feed anywhere from five to six people or from 10 to 12 people. Small pack includes three pounds of meat and five pint-size sides ($99), while the large pack has six pounds of meat with five quart-size sides ($198). Preorders are encouraged.
Fire Up the Grill at Home
These local butcher shops and markets have the grilling goods you need for a primo cookout.
Deep Cuts
Deep Cuts carries pork from Chubby Dog Farm, Four U Farms, and Windy Hill Farm; duck and chicken from D’Artagnan Foods; fresh elk and venison. All sausages are made in-house from whole-muscle pork shoulder and the shop’s own spice blends. Its two primary beef vendors are Texas-based: 44 Farms in Cameron and Flatonia’s HeartBrand Beef. Both ranches emphasize open grazing, with no antibiotics and genetic traceability of the stock.
Cooper’s Meat Market
They have all the standards plus chicken, salmon, and shrimp. And their prepared frozen food case is to die for. You’ll find lasagna, King Ranch casserole, queso, sausage and cheese from New Braunfels Smokehouse. There are also whole smoked turkeys and hams. And wine. Lots and lots of wine.
American Butchers
Call in your order to the American Butchers’ stall at the Dallas Farmers Market, where they dry-age meat on the rail for at least 14 days before it is cut to customers’ specifications.
Bone-In Butcher Shop
Father-and-son duo John and Jake Sayklay recently launched their custom-cut meat delivery service and website. They source beef primarily out of Texas, among other states, and while the bulk is corn-fed, corn-finished and wet-aged for 28 days, you can spring for wagyu or grass-fed and grass-finished beef, along with lamb, pork, and chicken, in a panoply of options that ranges from burger patties to combo boxes. The tomahawk steaks are impressive.
Hirsch’s Meats
There are separate mounds of ground chuck, round, and sirloin, plus bacon-laced sirloin on weekends. Bratwurst, Polish kielbasa, stuffed pork chops, and chicken wings are arranged in neat rows. You’ll also find frozen whole Cornish hen, duck, pheasant, rabbit, veal liver, and Frenched rack of lamb, should you be so inclined. Wood chips and chunks for smoking are kept in tidy bins in the corner.
Double Wide Git ‘N’ Go
The Deep Ellum bar and music venue has pivoted into a drive-thru market. Order barbecue essentials like sliced brisket and pulled pork by the half pound, Luscher’s Post Oak Red Hots, and bourbon pecan pie from Bonafide Betty’s Pie Company. Sounds like the makings of a good meal to us.
Foxtrot Market
Get all of the grilling essentials you need without having to wait in line at the supermarket. Order high-quality meat (Burgundy Beef ground beef patties, Allen Brothers pork chop, flat iron steak, strip steak) or go meatless with Beyond Meat’s Beyond Sausage and Beyond Burger. Foxtrot’s got buns and sides, too. Order online and get your goods delivered.
Don’t Forget the Drinks
We recently published a pretty darn good drinks guide that covers cocktail kits, stocking up your at-home bar with tips from the pros, plus a little list of brewery drive-thrus in Dallas. It should help set you up with all your libation needs this weekend.
