This 76-year Fort Worth barbecue legend has a rib plate and a beer for less than $20
Sammie’s Bar-B-Q is better than ever, and just when we needed it.
Just when barbecue has become high-fashion and high-dollar, Sammie’s serves a rib platter for less than $15, sandwiches for less than $10 and cold beers for $3.25 in a restaurant with 76 years of history.
Here’s the easy way to explain Sammie’s, 3801 E. Belknap St. at Beach Street a half-mile north of Airport Freeway:
Sammie’s was Angelo’s before Angelo’s.
For 12 years beginning in 1946, Sammie’s was the big barbecue-and-beer hall where Fort Worth gathered for beef, pork ribs and pre- or postgame cold schooners.
Then, after Angelo’s Barbecue opened in 1958, Fort Worth patrons debated which had the best ribs or coldest beer, with a nod to Sammie’s distinctive sauce and cake-like onion rings.
In the late writer Dan Jenkins’ 1974 golf novel, “Dead Solid Perfect,” two characters argue over “whether Angelo’s or Sammie’s had the best barbecued ribs.”
In Jenkins’ 1991 novel “You Gotta Play Hurt,” Sammie’s was the site of a coaches dinner for mythical TCU Horned Frogs football coach T.J. Lambert.
New owner Sam Gibbins Jr. is the fourth Sammie, following founder Sammie Norwood, partners “Sam” Allen (with Bobby Platt) and Gibbins’ father, Sam.
The elder Gibbins bought and saved Sammie’s by combining it with his Smoke Pit BBQ, a 57-year East Belknap Street landmark lost to new development.
“We want to be the best bang for your buck in barbecue,” Sam Gibbins Jr. said last week.
“We have the coldest, cheapest beer in town. We have the original Sammie’s sauce and the Smoke Pit sauce, too. We have the original onion rings.
“You don’t have to wait outside in a line, either. We’ve got a big place.”
At the moment, it’s not a very crowded place.
Like everybody, Sammie’s is short on staff.
It opens early — 10:30 a.m. — for the morning lunch crowd from downtown. But it closes in late afternoon Tuesdays and Wednesdays and only stays open until 6 p.m. or later Thursdays and Fridays.
The daily specials menu hasn’t changed much since the Gibbinses’ Smoke Pit days: a pork rib platter for less than $15 on Tuesdays, pulled pork for less than $10 on Wednesdays, smoked chicken on Thursdays and a double-cut pork chop platter on Fridays.
Sandwiches cost $7.50-$8.99, dinner platters $15-$18.
The soft, sweet brisket came in a generous portion on a platter last week, and the ribs upheld Sammie’s tradition. The onion rings and thin Sammie’s sauce both tasted exactly like the old days.
The “new” restaurant and dining room were built in 1987, replacing an old-timey beer hall with drive-in service and car hops who dated to the days when Sammie Norwood originally founded “Sammie’s Dine and Dance.”
The bar still has the feel of an old East Belknap Street tavern, but there’s also a big patio and gazebo, along with a children’s menu.
Gibbins said he hopes to extend the hours and add live music.
“We know people are having a tough time right now,” he said. “We just try to make sure people get a good deal and a full plate.”
It’s open Tuesdays through Saturdays; 817-834-1822, sammiesbbq.com.
This story was originally published May 30, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
