Galveston take-out joint is a stealth barbecue destination, offering delicious smoked meats alongside tamales and barbacoa.

1713 37th St, Galveston, TX 77550
(409) 765-5719
Website

11AM–6PM (Thu–Fri), 9AM–6PM (Sat–Sun)

Barbecue as good as Pennie’s shouldn’t have been this easy to get. As lovers of smoked meats know, the good stuff in Texas requires planning and patience. Rolling up to the state’s most beloved pits when it suits you only leads to long waits for dried-out cuts and a menu covered in Sharpied crosshatches. You don’t decide on a whim you want great barbecue. You bend forwards and backwards for it.

For true quality ‘cue, swaths of free time must burn. Take our visit to Snow’s last year. We had heard the hype for years, so when a family member was visiting from out of town, we had an excuse to finally make the pilgrimage. But sources online whispered that the head pitmaster, Tootsie Tomanetz, was on leave due to knee surgery—the possible cause for some recent lackluster ratings. We combed current reviews but could not confirm if she was back on the job. After deciding to risk it, an arrival time had to be calculated to ensure the best meats would not be sold out by the end of our turn in the line. Then, we set an alarm, awoke at a cruel hour for a Saturday—the only day Snow’s is open—swallowed gas station coffee on the hour-long drive from Austin to Lexington, and waited 2 hours, trying to muster an appetite for slabs of fatty flesh in the early AM. The rigid system of Texas BBQ grants few shortcuts; when you find one, it is lucky.

On a recent day trip to Galveston, we rolled into town hungry and craving lunch before joining the promenade along the seawall. A quick scan of nearby listings yielded a place called Pennie’s Tex-Mex. The words barbacoa and tamales were enough for us to swerve off the tail end of 45 into a neighborhood between the main drag out of town and the ocean. When we spied Abraham Lincoln on a sign the size of a giant penny in front of a little clapboard house, we knew we were at the right spot.

1/2 Lb. Brisket ($8.99). They were sold out of barbacoa, so we scrambled to choose a back-up meat. Reluctantly, we got a mix of lean and fatty brisket. After unwrapping our packages outside on a picnic table, our hopes began to perk up. The beef slices had a clear smoke ring and good wood smoke flavor. To be honest, we prefer lean when done right, and these slices were: the whole pile including the lean was moist through and through. The rub was heavy on cracked black pepper, and the ketchup-based sauce had a welcome kick. Compared to brisket recently sampled at two higher profile restaurants back in Houston, Penny’s placed first this round.

1/2 Chicken ($5.99). The helpful woman at the counter steered us toward the chicken, saying she had just had some for her own lunch. Pennie’s did not disappoint us where so many have before in their treatment of el pollo as an afterthought. Even the breast meat was remarkably juicy, recalling the hyper-moist chicken one of us makes with a beer can and Wish-Bone Italian dressing. Different from that used on the brisket, the rub sat in a Cajun/Tony Chachere’s frame of reference. The skin was on the rubbery side, but what are you gonna do? Eat it anyway, most likely.

1/2 Doz. Tamales ($6.99). Oh, these are great: corn husks filled with a succulent mixture of finely-ground beef and pork. They gave us a small tub of regulation Tex-Mex tomato salsa to go with the order. Next time we’ll up it to a dozen tamales because they tasted even better after the drive home from the beach.

8 Oz. Potato Salad ($2.50). It’s clear from tasting this mash of red potatoes with a few skins left on, mustard, and pickle relish that, while the sides here aren’t as fancy as those of, say, Feges, they make them with care in house.

Conclusion: For a joint emphasizing Tex-Mex over barbecue in its name, Pennie’s is burying the lede. According to a listing in Texas Monthly, the business is recently back on its feet after Hurricane Ike shut them down in 2008. This likely explains how we were able to waltz in and out. However, we expect this might not remain the case. The cashier who took our order mentioned that they would be soon featured on a travel show. We really want to try the barbacoa, so next time we will have to plan ahead if we want to beat the locals who know and the savvier of the weekend beachgoers.

P.S. Snow’s merited the early morning drive and wait time, and Tootsie was sighted eagerly greeting customers and posing for group photos.