Out-of-the-way Bee’s Dive deserves some buzz

There are city folk and then there are people who spread their figurative wings in the country.

A recent Saturday afternoon in Aledo confirmed to me that I was born without such appendages, yet a new restaurant here may make a bird (or a bee) of me yet.

Off Bankhead Highway — which a Parker County friend proudly noted for its historic relevance in the pre-Interstate days — is Bee’s Dive, an Airstream-strewn shack that looks as if it came from roughly the same era.

This spot previously housed a “buzz”-worthy pizza joint that was, yes, stung by its problematic, culvert-dwelling location. And it’s a change of venue for Bee’s Dive — last year when it opened, it was sheltered within a Shell station closer to the town’s main drag

But it’s a place that certainly fits its handle. Owner Bridgette Escamilla’s brand of kitschy-shabby chic, where license plates are part of the design scheme and chrome trailers are rehabbed as outdoor decor, has a certain kind of resonance that’s, well, pretty sweet.

You could say the same about the food.

Simple sandwiches and wraps, quiches and soups du jour make up the menu, which also includes a small stable of weekend brunch and weekday breakfast items.

The toasted caprese ($6.50) was calling my name, its homemade pesto thick and chock-full of garlic. Slices of tomato and spinach leaves rounded out the sandwich, which was like a panini, minus the grill marks.

Other sandwiches made a good impression, including the Cobb sandwich on wheat ($7), which employed all of the usual suspects of its namesake salad — egg, bacon, turkey, lettuce, tomato and blue cheese — to good effect, and the Cali wrap ($8.50), which had a flour tortilla enveloping grilled chicken, avocado, pickled veggies, lettuce, tomato, cheddar and ranch dressing. All of the ingredients worked well in the wrap, but the veggies didn’t add much tang.

The hot roast beef ($8.50) with brie and sauteed onions was the sole work in progress. A chintzy amount of way-past-rare meat gave way to even less of the advertised brie. In my experience, gooey, cheesy sandwiches seldom disappoint.

Entrees come with a side, whether it’s the Deep River chips or a scoop of excellent mustardy potato salad. A chunky rendition of hummus ($4.50), served with slices of carrot and cucumber, is a safe bet as a starter. We placed it in the middle of our picnic table of five adults and three kids and watched it quickly disappear.

The kids did, too, leaving empty bags of chips in their wake, lured to the rambling back yard that includes a stage and various large sticks and other detritus that small children seem to gravitate toward like heat-seeking missiles.

As for adult entertainment, Escamilla admits she is back-and-forth about whether she will seek a liquor license, so currently, the joint is BYOB.

Whether you choose to eat on the ramshackle porch or in the more ladies-who-lunch dining room, there’s much to drink in — and like — about this upstart.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 12:16 PM with the headline "Out-of-the-way Bee’s Dive deserves some buzz."