I got into Dallas-Fort Worth International late one afternoon and by the time I got my rental car and traversed to my hotel over in north suburban Addison. I was in the mood for barbecue during my first night back in Texas for a number of years and it turned out that there was a barbecue joint just down the street that sounded pretty good from the on-line descriptions and reviews. I walked into Lane's OAK'D BBQ just around 6:30 that evening.
Clint Norton had a connection to good Texas barbecue - his brother Ed Norton was the owner of the famed County Line barbecue joint in Austin, TX. Clint Norton wanted to eventually open his own barbecue joint and he learned from his brother that top cuts of beef and pork were key to great barbecue places. It was a meeting in 2016 with chef/consultant Michael Lane that got the wheels put in motion toward the barbecue joint of Norton's dream.
Lane was a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef who worked in upscale restaurants in Houston, most notably The Annie Cafe and Pappas Bros. Steakhouse. Lane eventually became a restaurant consultant and it was at that meeting with Clint Norton in 2016 where the initial "big bang" on a new barbecue restaurant began. Lane was intrigued with Clint Norton's concept of an upscale Central Texas-style barbecue and came on board as the managing partner. Lane's vision of "upscale" Texas barbecue centered on using the best meat, but also focusing on stellar sides and desserts to enhance the experience.
Getting investors to buy into the concept was another thing. Clint Norton and Lane were able to get a small investment group together which included local radio celebrities Allen Evans and his wife Kellie Rasberry from the nationally-syndicated Kidd Kraddick Morning Show. The pandemic pushed the opening date of their endeavor OAK'D BBQ back to November of 2020 when it opened on Greenville Avenue in Dallas. Texas post oak wood was used in the smoking process and two large post oak trees were on the property of the restaurant. Lane locally-sourced the Wagyu beef that was used in the post oak wood pits.
Initially, Lane stayed in the background continuing to run his consulting business, but it came about in early 2021 that he needed to spend more time at the restaurant. Finding help and the backside of a pandemic became increasingly troublesome, so he turned to family members - as in his children - to help out in the restaurant by bussing tables, washing dishes and sweeping floors.
Pictured right - Michael Lane. Photo courtesy Lane's OAK'D BBQ Instagram page.
Things were going so good at the Greenville Avenue location that Norton, Lane and the investment team looked to the north Dallas suburb of Addison to add a second restaurant. A popular seafood restaurant - Chamberlain's Seafood - didn't survive the fallout from the pandemic and its space became available in late 2021. But it wasn't until the spring of 2023 before OAK'D second location would open. And by that time, Lane had bought out nearly all the other investors and became the primary owner. When Lane opened the Addison location in May of 2023, he had changed the name of his barbecue joints to Lane's OAK'd BBQ.
It was less than a five minute drive from my hotel to Lane's OAK'D BBQ located along Belt Line Road in Addison. (see map) There was a hotel next door to the restaurant and upon entering it appeared that there were a number of people seated at the bar and in the bar area just to the right as you walk in the door. There were televisions hung above the bar that were tuned to sporting events.
The dining area consisted of a number of high-top community-style tables. Cords of post oak logs bordered the area between the bar and the dining space.
I ended up seated at the bar and took a quick look at the beer menu. I saw that they had Kona Big Wave on tap and I took one of those. However, later on I took a quick look at the beer menu once again and saw that they had a hazy IPA - the Half-Life hazy IPA from the Manhattan Project Beer Co. in Dallas. (I really wanted to go to the Manhattan Project brewery when I was in Dallas, but it was south and west of downtown Dallas and I didn't have the time to get there.)
I didn't really know the drill at Lane's OAK'D BBQ, but I soon found out that you had to go into a separate room and place your order and get served cafeteria style. The menu was on the wall featuring Wagyu and USDA prime beef, Duroc pork, and house-made sides. They also had a few sandwiches and a smashed ground brisket burger on the menu.
The smokers and heating drawers were behind the counter and it was an assembly line of workers who put together the meals served on wax paper on metal trays. The line actually moved along pretty briskly.
At the end of the line before you paid for your food order, there were a number of desserts available. This was a tenet when Lane helped put together the original order at OAK'D BBQ. He felt having desserts that were made in house was an important part of an upscale barbecue restaurant. Desserts such as cookies, cakes, apple pie and bread pudding were available, tempting patrons just before they paid for their meal.
I ordered up some brisket as part of a three-meat combo and one of the guys pulled out a full brisket to slice for my order. The outer shell was charred and slathered with spices. When I saw the condition of the meat - as in, the lack of any juices coming out of the brisket when he sliced the brisket - I thought this might have been a mistake.
I ended up getting the 3-meat combo - the sliced brisket, brisket burnt ends and pulled pork. They had steak fries, apple cider coleslaw, 3-cheese mac, red-skin potato salad and balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts among the house-made sides. I seriously considered getting the roasted sprouts to go along with the baked beans, but the guy working the sides station on the line convinced me to get the braised collard greens. They also had dill pickle slices, pickled onions, and banana peppers that they added to the tray. They had two different types of sauces, but they weren't available on the tables or bars. (I know that pure Texas barbecue joints don't believe in adding sauce to their smoked meats, but I'm a sauce guy and I like to have some bites with the sauce on them.) They had a container that pumped out a couple small tubs of a sweet sauce that they had.
I went back to my seat at the bar and there were a couple guys with British accents sitting next to me who asked me what I got. After pointing out what I got, one of them asked about the collard greens. I explained that collard greens were more of a Southern U.S. food and that I was sort of surprised to see them at a Texas barbecue place. It wasn't much later after that when they both got up to go get food from the line.
My fears of the brisket being dry and overcooked came to light when I tried to cut into the meat. It was woefully overcooked, lacking of any juiciness and flavor, and almost like chewing leather. I got a handful of burnt ends and the majority of the burnt ends were also charred and overcooked. Only three or four had any juiciness to the meat and were easy to chew. The brisket and the burnt ends were highly disappointing.
The Duroc pork pulled pork was very good, however. It was juicy, full of great smoked pork flavor, and very delicious. The Central Texas-style baked beans were fine, as were the collard greens which had a nice vinegary flavor with each bite. But the sides were large and there was no way that I was going to be able to finish what they had dished out for me.
For as promising that Lane's OAK'D BBQ was when I first found the place on line, it turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment - mainly because of the nature of the brisket and burnt ends that I ordered. They were overcooked, dull and lifeless. But the pulled pork was very good, and the sides - the baked beans and collard greens - were all good. Lane's OAK'D BBQ was a very nice place, the service I got from the bartenders was good, it's just that the brisket was so underwhelming that it put a damper on my visit. It was just a dissatisfying experience.
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