The Best BBQ in Katy Texas...

Nonmacher's Bar-B-Que in Katy, Texas

Now that's saying a lot folks, I mean Texas is synonymous with BIG, cowboys, county & western music, longhorn cattle ranches, pretty women, Tex-Mex food, rodeos,  hot chili peppers, friendly people, bright blue skies, bragging, lots of land, giant steaks, blue bonnets, and BBQ.  We love our not so healthy for you, (gotta have some fat on that brisket to be good), tender, juicy, mouth watering BBQ.  You can BBQ just about anything, and we do, from chickens, goats, pigs, sausage, deer, wild game, boars, to the normal plain old beef.  There are also as many ways, recipes, and sauces as there are animals for the pits.  You can smoke it, slow cook it, char it, and grill it.  BBQ in Texas is more than food; it's an event, a way of life.  I need to research the beginnings of how BBQ got started, but I'm sure it had something to do with cowboys out on the open range, and cooking dinner over an open fire under a bright starry night.  Setting around the campfire telling stories, drinking a little whisky, and eating BBQ.  So this seemed like the perfect contest for our Texas Real Estate group, "Where is the best BBQ in Texas".  So get your road maps out and head for the places picked by us Texans on where to go chow down.

Mine was an easy choice, Nonmacher's BBQ in Katy Texas.  With a name like Nonmacher's, you gotta cook up some good BBQ, right.  Oh that's another thing, for you non Texans there are as many ways to spell BBQ as there are things to BBQ.  John Nonmacher spells his joint Bar-B-Que, and it's located right off I-10 (I-10 runs from the east coast to the west coast and right through the middle of Texas), at 606 South Mason Rd., phone # is 281-392-7666.  99% of the time you will find John Nonmacher standing guard on the left hand side of the "restaurant", and I use that term loosely, right by the hall leading to the ladies room.  The ladies room has been overseen by a poster of John Wayne since July 1978 right after he first opened his doors.  Both John's are a little faded now, but the BBQ is the same, and it will spoil you on BBQ from anyplace else in the great state of Texas.

When I first opened my real estate company here in Katy in 1977 there was not much around.  For lunch we had two choices, Hartz Chicken, or drive down the then two lane Mason Rd. right before it dead ended at Highland Knolls and hopefully spot Johns 1977 Ford pickup truck parked by the side of the road with his BBQ pit smoking.  Yep, you bought a BBQ sandwich on the side of Mason Rd. wrapped up to go.  Back then a sandwich cost $2.50 and you could get a coke for .50 cents.  Somehow it even taste better back then...the good old days...shooting the breeze with John on the side of the road eating the best BBQ sandwich in Texas.

John moved up in the world and opened his restaurant in a strip center right by where he used to park his Ford, the corner of Mason Rd. @ Kingsland Blvd. when the center was first built on July 1978, and has been there ever since.  He is an icon of Katy, Texas and fairly well know with celebrities too.  Nonmacher's does a catering service too, and has catered parties for Bum Phillips and Earl Campbell back in the "Love Ya Blue" days of the Houston Oilers, now the Tennessee Titans.  Bud Adams was a big fan, so he would set up in the old Astrodome and dish out his mouth-watering BBQ to all the football players.  Another big fan of his was the band Asleep at the Wheel, and Tony Dorset, running back for the Dallas Cowboys, many entertainers and athletes are pasted on his walls along with write ups in Texas Monthly Magazine, 100's of trophies from BBQ contest he won, he even still has a piece of "art" signed by me, Liz Carter pined to the wall.  I don't think John has thrown anything away in his life.  You could spend all day in there as there is not a bare speck of wall space showing.  In additions to all the letters, trophies, there is a stuffed armadillo (some loyal customers were in a bar in Mexico and decided the armadillo would look better in Katy, TX at Johns so it was high jacked), racks of deer, stuffed animals from his hunting days, and hats, hats, hats.  Suffice it to say, John does not like to part with his beloved "stuff"...it's everywhere.  So are the cobwebs, so it's not for the faint of heart.  As John explained it, there is just too much stuff to dust, so he lets things be.

The food area on the other hand is spotless, with his big pots hanging overhead, and a walled lined with his homemade sauce that is to die for.  John also believes in keeping it simple, he sells, sliced beef, chopped beef, links, potato salad, stuffed potatoes, and beans.  On Thursday he cooks up my favorite jalapenos stuffed pork!  Oh my, forget diet, and that it's not the healthiest for you, but come hungry, especially on Thursday and order the pork.  You will be back, just as all us regulars have been coming back for 31 years.  Nonmacher's BBQ, the best BBQ in Texas...cross my heart and hope to die, stick a thousand needles in my eye...A raving fan, Liz Carter Katy Texas.

John shown with the original "hand-made" card board sign he had by the side of his Ford truck, selling BBQ on the side of the road in 1977 in Katy, TX.  Going to John's is an adventure, there is so much memorabilia and of course John always has a story to tell.  Stop by, and tell him Liz sent you...be sure to look for my coloring page he has pined to the wall, it's been in the same spot for 30 years!  Oh and don't ask what he has, that's one of his little idiosyncrasies and ticks him off to no end.  He just points to the menu and says, "same thing I've been serving for over 30 years, can't you read?"!  You'll be glad you did for more reasons that just his Best BBQ in Texas!

Liz Carter, helping families buy and sell homes in Katy TX since 1977, the same time John started selling his BBQ.  Your referrals are appreciated, 281-391-SOLD (7653)... www.lizcarter.com .