The family has now foresworn Weikel's pigs-in-blanket. On my last stop there, I found that the price for a package of 6 pigs had gone up to $8.15. The price has been rising fairly slowly up to now, but the jump from $7.50 to $8.15 is a little over 9% in one bite. We've been seeing that and more a lot lately.
Another favorite stop has been Peter's BBQ in Ellinger (on HWY 71, it is hard to miss). We have only been stopping there for the past couple of years and don't make it every trip. It depends on the time of day, mood, and appetite (but more mood than appetite). Stopping generally leads to a sack full of chopped beef sandwiches, but we have branched out to sausage wraps and sausage sandwiches as well. We've never taken the opportunity to dine in, but I am hoping that we will one day have the time for a more leisurely trip down HWY 71 so that we can do more sampling of its pleasures.
Peter's has a couple of billboards, which first caught our attention. The big attraction was $1.50 BBQ sandwiches. As the item and the price began to seep into my consciousness, what made the idea of stopping so attractive was actually another favorite childhood memory: stopping at Ward's BBQ on HWY 59 as we drove to
Ward's BBQ, if I recall correctly, was even more dilapidated than Peter's, and I don't know that there was a "dine in" option. We did, however, stop there on so many trips that I was the voice frequently chanting from the back seat about "how far is it to Ward's?" The BBQ sandwiches were served on plain white sandwich bread and accompanied by grape cider. For all I know, the cider was Welch's grape juice, but it was cold and wonderful as Mama, Daddy and I passed the bottle around in the car, while I inhaled that marvelous chopped beef sandwich.
Thinking we might be in for a similar experience, I ventured into Peter's one day a couple of years back. Inside was a fairly bare bones cafe with chrome-finished tables, a short little buffet, a slightly larger serving area for the barbecue, and ice-filled tubs with bottled soft drinks that didn't look anything like Coca-Cola (although you could get that from the refrigerated coolers). I ordered 10 chopped beef sandwiches and watched as they were being made--with pickle and onion added by the young fellow who was slapping on the BBQ. As it turns out, Peter's BBQ is a little more upscale than Ward's was: the sandwich is made with a bun instead of plain white bread. Peter's chopped beef didn't erase my childhood memory with an outstanding new taste, but it was just as good.
We stop in at Peter's now and then. Never have tried the buffet but hope to. The prices are very reasonable. Picking up a sack of sandwiches to eat on the road (fresh and unsoggy) or at home (fresh and soggy) is tasty either way.
Sadly, when I stopped in this last time, the price had gone up to $1.99 per sandwich. The high cost of gasoline (I am not fooled by the recent drop in prices) and other anti-food policies that are driving up the cost of supplies has forced even Peter's to start raising what were some of the most reasonable prices in the state. I'm hoping that that hand-lettered sign on a piece of typing paper is temporary, but I fear that it is not. This time I ordered fewer sandwiches, so we didn't have any leftover to eat cold for breakfast. I'm sure that's a good thing in terms of eating healthily, but BBQ is not about health, now is it?
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