TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Shack And Awe Off The Beaten Path

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

William Moore, owner of Florida Cracker BBQ, prepares hamburger meat for lunch time customers on Wednesday in Sebring.

ADVERTISEMENT

By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: September 7, 2008

Here's one of best-kept secrets in the food business: roadside stands serve some of the best tacos and pork ribs you've ever wrapped your lips around.

If you have trust issues with food, maybe you shouldn't bother. Nothing overcomes the fear that they haven't been inspected. (Actually, cafes on wheels are examined by the state, just like the ones without wheels.)

But if you're willing to take a chance, go to Taquitos Mi Mexico, on U.S. 17 in Wauchula.

Try a chicken taco on a flour tortilla, stuffed with tomatoes, cilantro, onions, lettuce, cheese and sour cream.

Muchacho, that's uno excelente taco. It just melts in your mouth. Price: $1.49.

And then there's barbeque. In Hardee County, there are bueno roadside Mexican restaurants, in Highlands County, there are quality smokehouses. Two are Florida Cracker BBQ southeast of Sebring, and Smokin' Bear Bar-B-Que, which sells in Lake Placid on Thursdays and Avon Park on weekends.

Florida Cracker BBQ U.S. 98 at Haywood Taylor Blvd.

Try the pork or brisket sandwich at Cracker BBQ. Price: $4, according to the menu duct-taped to the front window.

Meat is composed of muscle fiber, long strands bundled with connective tissue and fat. But when barbeque is cooked slowly and sliced correctly, the toughest cuts become the best. Your teeth don't have to tear the meat off the bone. It just falls off, on its own, like it's grateful to sacrifice itself for our culinary pleasure.

The outside edge of the meat, where the smoke meets the barbeque sauce, hardens like bark. The sugars in the sauce caramelize into something like molasses.

All it takes is one bite to prove that assertion. William Moore, who owns the log cabin on wheels at the road leading to the Sebring Airport, makes his own sauce and sides.

"I buy Bush's Best beans with brown sugar," Moore said. "I add more brown sugar, and some seasonings. I sell lots of baked beans and green beans."

His 22x7 foot trailer is nothing fancy: an aisle in the center, food preparation on one side, sinks on the other, a customer counter in front, and smokers in the back. At 154 square feet, it's as big as an average bathroom.

Over the last few years, Moore says, he's won about 20 trophies and awards at the barbeque contests. His meats are smoked over charcoal and oak.

"I started to cook when I was 12 or 13. I started competing in 2003."

Moore pointed to a stand of trees close to the road. "This was the old Green Lizard. It was a bar and a bait shop. When they tore it down, in the 1980s, I think, there was a mountain of old cans, and when they cleared them off, there was a car underneath it."

Why does he call his business Florida Cracker? Because he can trace his roots back through four generations of Bubbas who assert that barbeque is haute cuisine.

A red Chrysler pulled up and ordered cheeseburgers with fries. Price: $5.50. The most expensive menu item is the rib dinner, served with two sides and a drink. Price: $8.75.

"We're out here every other day," said Denny Franklin. "We work at Lockwood Aircraft." Franklin is the production manager, George Webber is the marketing manager.

What else do they recommend? "He serves a hellava chicken breast sandwich. And the pulled pork."

Florida Cracker BBQ is open from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and until 1:30 p.m. on Mondays. More info: 414-1138.

Taquitos Mi Mexico 1085 Highway 17 S., Wauchla

Roadside stands are not hole-in-the wall dives. They're all about that can-do spirit.

Don't have enough money to start a bricks and mortar restaurant? No problem.

Hurricane Charley destroys your first business in 2004?

Maria Gonzalez pulled up a single-wide storage trailer, built a counter and kitchen outside, erected an awning over the picnic tables, and faster than you can say taco pronto, she was back in business.

"I used to pick oranges and strawberries," said Gonzalez, who speaks enough English to communicate with her customers. But she's an entrepreneur who wanted her own business, so now she cooks Mexican food.

John Nicholas tried the torta. The beef is chopped, not ground. The bun is like a big hamburger, but oblong, and it's toasted, like a panini.

"I've never seen anything like it," Nicholas said.

Rebecca Ford, tried the taco. "It was great. It was like a homemade taco. Not like Taco Bell."

Taquitos is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Sunday. More info: 767-5090.

Barbey's S.R. 66, Zolfo Springs

Since the overhead is low, roadside prices are often cheaper.

This tiny aluminum trailer was closed on the day a reporter drove by, but a sign said they serve breakfast and lunch. An example: two eggs, 1/2 biscuit and gravy, potatoes, and bacon, sausage or ham, $5. An egg and meat sandwich or burrito is $3. A side of potatoes or grits is $1.

For lunch, there's barbeque, ham and cheese, or a burger for $3. A corndog, hot dog, french fries or okra are $1. The special is smoked sausage, beans, cabbage, cornbread, rice, beans and a dessert for $5.

El Taco Pacoriendo 330 S.R. 66, Zolfo Springs

Check out the barbacoa. It's chopped beef cheek, presented like a soft taco on a white flour tortilla, served with homemade salsa.

Yes, beef cheek. Now come on. This is hardly Indiana Jones balking at monkey brains in India. Again, it's not for queasy gringos with trust issues. But if you want authentic Mexican food, this is it.

Rigo Rivera is a second-generation restaurateur. His late mother, Delia, started the business. About six months ago, Rigo and his wife Olga decided to come back from McAllen, Texas to run the place. Rigo is a plumber, and continues to work in his trade; Olga runs the restaurant now.

El Taco has four tables outside, and seven inside.

"Most of our customers are truck drivers and teachers," said Rigo, ordinary people who like home cooking.

The place is open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. More info: 735-1988.

Smokin' Bear Bar-B-Que U.S. 64 at SR 17, Avon Park

His Lake Placid customers will be puzzled. Isn't this the same guy in front of the auto parts store on SR 621? Yes, he's there on Thursdays, and east of Avon Park on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Where is Ronnie Walton on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays?

"I'm in Venus. That's where I live. But I don't cook there," says Walton, who lent his name to his barbeque joint.

"We call him Bear," explains his brother, who runs a boiled peanut stand on the same corner in Avon Park.

"When he started his business, he called it Smokin' Bear.

Walton also caters, but he doesn't deliver and serve. "We cook it, you pick it up," he pointed out at the bottom of the menu.

A chicken dinner includes two sides: slaw, baked beans or yellow rice. Price: $8. The pork ribs are huge and meaty. Price: $6.

"That's the way I like them," Walton said. His cooking technique is to leave meat on the fire long enough for it to reach 160 degrees internally.

"Then I take it out and pop it in the cooler," Walton said. Meaning a Thermos chest that keeps hot foods hot, and cold foods cold. And, somehow, knows when to do which.

Walton arrives at 7:30 a.m. and opens at 11, Thursday through Sunday. More info: 840-1863.

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT