Serious Texas Barbecue’s smoked meats are stand-up-and- say-hallelujah, pass-the-paper-towels kind of good.
If you’ve had Joy and Cookie Swanson’s ‘cue at their two Durango locations, you know what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t, it’s OK, because their son, Hunter Swanson, has brought some of the best barbecue on the west side of the Continental Divide to the Front Range.
Serious Texas Barbecue III opened just off Loveland’s main drag in January and word is spreading like mesquite smoke up and down Highway 287. “We opened in the middle of a bad economic time, but we’re paying the bills and staying busy,” says the younger Swanson, who built the barn-like space from the ground up, with the help of his folks and five partners. It’s a bare-bones operation — all about the (pork) bones, in fact.
“We have a real limited menu. We concentrate on doing one thing and doing it well. That’s kind of how it is in Texas. Our meat is all slow-smoked. It’s not a fast process — some of our stuff cooks for 22 hours,” says Swanson, who grew up in Pflugerville, Texas, north of Austin.
“All I want is meat on a plate,” declared one patron recently, but “cheezy” potatoes, potato salad, cole slaw, pinto beans and pie or cobbler round out the menu.
After Swanson graduated from high school there, his parents moved to Durango and started serving barbecue from a trailer. They brought their own flavor to the classics, adding pineapple-jalapeño and cherry-chipotle salsas to the brisket-pork-sausage-turkey lineup.
Even if they sound a little weird at first, give these fruit condiments, inspired by Cookie Swanson’s stint in Hawaii, a try. Neither too sweet nor too tangy, and the salsas pair perfectly with the smoky meats.
Chase it all down with a Shiner Bock, Lone Star, sweet tea or Zuberfizz (a Durango soda).
Serious Texas Barbecue III.
Smoked meats.
11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily, 201 W. 71st St. (at U.S. 287), Loveland, 970-667-1415
