Bill Miller, a San Antonio-based operation, is like Texas’s barbecue version of hotel-restaurant chain Howard Johnson. And like HoJo, Bill Miller is renowned for a low-priced menu that won’t risk being mistaken for gourmet (or particularly great). Trust the clucker over all other comers; it has an amazingly tender consistency, if not exactly a pervasive smoky flavor. Its barnyard pals are more disappointing. Pork ribs have a hickory smell and flavor to them, but without the tongue-tickling seasoning that should come from a dry rub. Cut into a sausage casing, and you’ll lose the link in a pool of orange grease. Only incorrigible optimists will insist on trying the brisket. Sauce can’t save this bland rendition; it’s runny and uninteresting
Sides are more impressive, if only because their flavors are so straightforward: cole slaw with high notes of vinegar, strong caramelized onions in an extra-potatoey hash, and pleasantly soupy and porky pinto beans. In a surprising departure from the norm, Bill Miller bakes its own French bread. Stick with the BBQ-juice-absorbing sliced white.
The wood-paneled walls’ photos of school kids showing off their own livestock may be a testament to the rural Texas way of life. The barbecue isn’t.
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