Buster’s Bar B Que

This place is hit-​or-​miss. Sometimes the bbq is good, but sometimes it is bland and has no flavor. My latest visit was last week. The brisket and chicken had no smoky flavor, and it tasted like it was a few days old. The cheeseburger was also not too flavorful. It tastes like they just barbecue once every few days and then keep the meat in the fridge. This place has really gone downhill.

A Bit Dry but very good

Best catfish in Pasadena!

It’s sad when an old friend comes down a few steps.
A decade ago I was a regular at Busters; always getting the Busters Junior plate — small portions of brisket, ribs, sausage and ham plus two sides. I loved the place back then and often said so on USENET’s houston.eats. Though even then some people told me that my taste was waaay off.
Busters had *face_​validity* as a Texas BBQ joint. Wall to ceiling knotty pine paneling, framed lithographs of ducks, a huge marlin taxidermied at the top of the dining room, stag heads mounted on the front wall, several small deer skulls with antlers.
Up by the cash register they had a mounted JACKALOPE head. A jackalope is a west Texas critter like alot like a jack-​rabbit, but it has antlers. IMHO, the very best Texas BBQ joints have taxidermied jackalopes. And theirs was a beaut. Also, miniture goats ran in a pasture adjoining Busters, and my then-​toddler son loved to feed the goats after we’d eaten.
But my life and driving habits changed. It had been years, maybe more than seven years, since I’d dined there. Tonight, I was unusually unoccupied, and I drove downtown for a UYE that fell apart. On the way back, I decided to cut through Pasadena and visit Busters.
Two elderly couples were leaving when I arrived at 7:30; there were no other customers when I was seated. I ordered the Busters Junior plate with cole slaw and greenbeans, and took a look around. The wagon-​wheel chandeliers were still hanging. The stags and duck lithos were the same. Except…
«Didn’t you used to have a jackalope up by the cash register?»
The white-​haired proprieter nodded her head. «It’s at the house now. It was deteriorating. Too many people touching it. You know. Grease on their fingers.» Oh yes, grease on your fingers is a problem in a place like busters. But the rest was mostly the same. Even the Ms PacMan game still sat by the door. Still $.25 a play.
«You should get another one,» I said.
«Hard to find.»
«Naaah. Just need to find a taxidermist with a sense of humor.»
Dinner came and it wasn’t as good as I remember it. The ribs were tough, though good and smokey. The brisket had a nice ¼″ smoke ring, but was drier and tougher than I remember it. The interior of the sausage was greasy and reasonably flavorful, but the casing was hard to chew. However, the greenbeans were good, tender and savory. The coleslaw was just like I prefer it — vinegary and with almost no sugar. Oh, and the sauce was still a delight — thick tomatoey brown, a little peppery and sour with no detectable sugar. It picked up the dry brisket nicely. Still, I was disappointed. Had Busters declined? Or have I just become more savvy about barbeque? I’ll never know.
The dining room was more worn down. Nice vinyl table cloths, and sturdy chairs with well padded seats. The booths are still hard plastic and not so comfortable. The lineoleum tile is much more worn than it was back then. Although the place was generally clean, there were many more signs of unmended wear, and marks that would no longer come up from the linoleum floor. I tipped generously, not because the service had been stellar, but because I felt for the poor waitress, who had had no other customers for an hour.
The was a sign on the wall «The Morgans — Buster and Ella.» I asked the older woman, «Are you Ms Ella?»

«No, she passed six years ago. I’m her daughter in law.» The Morgans had started Busters in Clear Lake in 1957, and moved it to Pasadena in 1975. «I’ve been here about 34 years.»
«Well, I hope you have another 34 good years in business.»
«Oh no, I don’t think I could stand that.»
I asked her to show me the smoking pits and she took me to the back. Busters uses green hickory. They have two massive brick and steel pits, sharing a common brick chimney, built in ’75. «These will hold 2000 lbs of meat at once.» The pits were beauties. Man, you could make some killer bbq with a rig like this. I inhaled the smoke tang and looked into the smoke box at the burning hickory. The firebox can use gas to get the wood started if its wet, but mostly they don’t use the gas. I ooohed over the dampers and the brickwork. But I don’t think these ovens have seen 2000 lbs of meat in a long time.