Flickchart Highway Journey: Pure Nation

Welcome again to the Flickchart Texas BBQ Highway Journey! Our closing set of joints takes us west of Dallas and Fort Price to the tiny city of Cresson. Right here, we go to a BBQ joint positioned inside a fuel station within the type of BBQ on the Brazos!

Cresson is a tiny city with a projected inhabitants simply north of 1000, positioned on the nook of a number of counties. Not like the entire different Texas cities and cities we’ve visited, the origin of the identify Cresson is unclear. Some suppose it comes from John Cresson, the captain of a wagon practice that got here by the realm, however an analogous story has additionally percolated concerning the identify coming from a employee on the Fort Price and Rio Grande Railroad. But a 3rd story presents it was named after Cresson, Pennsylvania, a city equally located on the hub of a number of railroad traces.

Regardless of the origin, there isn’t a lot to talk of on the subject of Cresson. Regardless of being outdoors of out of the largest metro areas within the nation, it doesn’t look it. It’s a cease for these trying to gas up, no matter their mode of journey, however Cresson doesn’t have a lot historical past to talk of. The small, rural space serves as a quiet getaway for these in DFW who need to stay outdoors the hustle of town and even the suburbs. It serves primarily as a ranching and retirement neighborhood. Cresson’s most notable function is a rustic membership for sports activities automobile lovers that hosts a racing observe.

This locations BBQ on the Brazos outdoors the everyday story for lots of the spots on the record. Driving down a stretch of Freeway-377, BBQ on the Brazos is positioned inside a Texaco, in a small partition of the constructing, not even in Cresson a lot as down the freeway from it. The porch of the fuel station overlooks the aforementioned race observe.

BBQ on the Brazos opens a lot sooner than different locations on the record, beginning its day at 7:30 AM and providing breakfast. Humble John Sanford opened up store in 2013 and shortly attracted the nostril of barbecue aficionados. Utilizing post-oak over a wood-burning rotisserie assisted by fuel, the place is greater than meets the attention.

I loved brisket, sausage, and a brisket taco to begin off my day. Maybe it was being among the many first clients of the day, however this was among the greatest brisket within the state. Dare I say, second greatest. The brisket was wonderful and fatty with a superbly seasoned bark and soften in your mouth style. I used to be additionally served two burnt ends with the meal, which have been in all probability among the greatest bites of BBQ I’ve ever had subsequent to Franklin’s brisket. The sausage was additionally close to good, with a superb smoky style and simply the correct quantity of cheese and jalapeño. The brisket taco wasn’t fairly as sturdy, however got here in a pleasant smooth and recent tortilla. So, it was nonetheless a tasty morsel.

I award the brisket 5 slices out of 5, and the sausage 4.5 hyperlinks out of 5! I award BBQ on the Brazos 4.5 people who smoke out of 5!

Pure Nation is a George Strait-starring automobile. The singer performs fictional nation singer Dusty, who goes by a mid-career disaster as he realizes he’s offered out on what makes him nation for glitz and glam. A commentary on the Garth Brooks period of music, it’s a film extra related to nation music than cinema. Whereas it’s a street film, it does start within the Dallas space and filmed a scene within the Cresson Cemetery.

Strait’s soundtrack for the movie utterly outsold the precise field workplace for the film, a testomony to Strait’s music-centric star-power and the movie’s mid-tier high quality. Director Christopher Cain does what he can so as to add some pep to a reasonably middle-of-the-road story. A lot of it’s rote and predictable and emulates different music movies you’ve seen. Whereas it does communicate to an precise concern all through the historical past of nation music and its battles with authenticity, the drama of the film struggles so as to add any actual nuance to the dialog.

For a singer, Strait himself is a good sufficient actor, if not an ideal one. A few of his line supply is a bit flat at occasions, however he has sufficient pure charisma to make the efficiency principally work. It was additionally enjoyable to see Kyle Chandler in a small function because the antagonist roadie who tries to use the state of affairs when Dusty runs away from the tour to go discover himself.

The most effective components of the movie are seeing Dusty’s romance with Isabel Glasser‘s Harley. It’s a easy and candy romance about folks making an attempt to be right down to earth. It’s written pretty plainly, however that’s not all the time a nasty factor. Glasser sells her gritty cowgirl properly sufficient that her relationship with George feels pure. You consider it when he sings the nice “Cross My Coronary heart” to shut the movie out, although which will have extra to do along with his singing chops than something concerning the movie.

Whereas Pure Nation dances round from Shreveport to small-town Texas to Las Vegas, Pure Nation continues to be a movie that stars Texas’s most profitable musical artist of all time. George Strait is among the nice Texans, and the movie does have Cresson in it, which is sufficient to justify it as a north Texas film. It’s slightly plain, however not the worst movie we’ve seen on this street journey.

Does anybody eat barbecue within the movie?

Not this time.