a six piece and a biscuit…to go

some traditions never die…

…sadly, this one did.

after forty years of operation (and i’ve been here for over thirty of them) lockhart’s beloved dobb’s fried chicken is closing this weekend.

it’s the first of my mom’s favorite lockhart restaurants to close since her death (fourteen years ago TODAY, i should add) and while MOST of you fuckers roll out for bar-b-que, we locals can’t live off that shit 24/7 – sometimes meat needs to be FRIED, not SMOKED (different food group that way…smoked, fried, chicken-fried, and mexican – the four food groups MY ass grew up with)…so, in homage to the fallen, i present:

six golden fried dobb’s chicken memories

6. two piece and a biscuit – a DOLLAR on tuesdays. – no bullshit. leg, thigh, and a biscuit (okay, a roll) was only a buck. yes, much like my women i prefer my chicken meat on the brown side.

5. screw that for here or to go shit! – you know what’s wrong with most fried chicken joints? i mean OTHER than that whole “fried denial” thing? (that’ll be later in the list) sure, they all provide greasy goodness, but they expect you to to get off the couch and actually DRIVE there. some have drive-thru windows, so you can at least sit your sweatpants & wife beater wearing self in the monte carlo while you wait to talk to a big chicken head, but you still have to un-ASS the couch. not these guys – they frickin’ DELIVERED.

4..the golden box of goodness – “learn to cook, or learn to starve”…that was my mom’s opinion of women of my generation. i have YET to date one that proves this theory wrong…but her generation wasn’t much better. at MANY a church covered-dish dinner there was some crappy-ass food…but there was always one woman (at least one – and i never discovered who it was) who brought the distinctive yellow and brown DOBB’S FRIED CHICKEN box of mixed pieces. the other church women looked down on her…we kids thought she was a GODDESS compared to some of the shit food they brought…carrots and raisins in a bowl – how the fuck is THAT a salad?

3. #3 WAS TRADED FOR FOUR MORE CHEESE STICKS

2. they knew what they were, by god – long after cholesterol and trans fat suddenly became “bad” for us they held on to their middle name. anyone notice when fried food was suddenly taboo a bunch of restaurants changed their names but NOT their food? “church’s fried chicken” became simply “churches chicken”. texas chain “golden fried chicken” became “golden chick”. and global juggernaut kentucky FRIED chicken went the typical corporate acronym way and changed EVERYTHING (down to the napkins you wipe the grease on) to say “KFC”. what’s the “F” stand for? ask ’em – some of them won’t cop to it! dobb’s fried chicken in the seventies, when i moved here, has the same name it does today – dobb’s FRIED chicken. yes, i know, the pic of the sign above you can tell the burned-out part of the neon says “ORIGINAL” not “FRIED” – but the PHONE BOOK still says “FRIED” and receipts from there still say “FRIED” so, recognize, bitch-ass colonel!

1. best…cheese sticks…EVER! – seriously…broke my heart to find out they were sysco food services standard issue. maybe it was the grease they used? seriously, this was the first place i EVER had fried mozzarella, and i got some today for my last visit. still just as good as twenty-something years ago when they first got ’em. don’t know why they don’t taste as good other places…but they just DON’T.

thanks for the clogged arteries, the extra hours in the gym to burn it off, and the memories. you will be missed.