food

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Our General Stores Bucket List

If you have watched enough Westerns, you have likely seen a scene or two play out in a general store. In the small towns of the American West, the general store played an important role in everyday life.


As a fan of old Westerns, I find one of the most memorable general-store scenes in the 1953 classic Shane, starring Alan Ladd. Much of the conflict between a powerful rancher and struggling homesteaders unfolds at Grafton’s General Store and adjoining saloon, which serves as the town’s commercial and social center.

Like so many things in history, the general store occupied a particular slice of time that is now gone. It was eventually replaced by stores that were bigger, broader, and supposedly better—but maybe not.


The closest thing to a general store in my world is the Little Burro Country Store, located about an hour south of Alpine in the Big Bend Valley, just north of Study Butte and Big Bend National Park. Our cabin is only a few miles away, and whenever we need something to get us through, this is the place we shop.

The Little Burro carries just enough essential goods to keep locals from making the hour-long drive to the grocery store in Alpine. More than once, however, what I expected to be a quick visit has turned into a much longer stay. I have enjoyed my share of conversations on the store’s front porch—a reminder that a good country store is still more than simply a place to shop.

The Little Burro is a small surviving example of the role general stores played in the history of the American frontier. It provides essential supplies and serves as a gathering place, with plenty of seating where locals and visitors can pass the time.


Old general stores were important for several reasons, not the least of which is that they helped the local economy. Farmers and ranchers bought supplies there. They also sold or traded their own goods. These stores connected small, isolated communities to the outside world, often acting as post offices, telegraph offices, and stagecoach stops.

Genuine general stores are a thing of the past. What remains are some really cool General Stores around the Lone Star State that, once you walk through the doors, revive nostalgic feelings and take you back to a simpler time. Some of these old stores occupy the same piece of real estate that housed them from their beginnings. Others are housed in old buildings that look and feel like an old-time general store.

Cheryl and I hope to visit as many of the remaining general store locations in Texas as we can on upcoming road trips. I have written about a few of these stores and will follow up with posts on the others as we visit them. The checkmarks indicate the stores we have visited. I hope you will come along for the ride.

Here is our General Stores Bucket List. Leave a comment with info about any locations missing from our list.

Hill Country and Central Texas
✓ Camp Verde General Store — Camp Verde, near Kerrville
• Coats Grocery and Market — Gause
✓ Gruene General Store — Gruene Historic District, New Braunfels
• Luckenbach General Store — Luckenbach
✓ Bandera General Store — Bandera
✓ Fischer Store — Fischer
✓ Kendalia General Store — Kendalia
✓ Garven Store — near Vanderpool
✓ Pipe Creek General Store and Dance Hall — Pipe Creek
✓ Welcome General Store — Welcome, near Brenham


East Texas
✓ Jefferson General Store — Jefferson
• T. C. Lindsey & Co. General Store — Jonesville
• Edge General Store — Edge, near Hearne
✓ Farmers Mercantile — Orange
• General Mercantile and Old-Time String Shop — Nacogdoches


North Texas
• The General Store — Fort Worth Stockyards
• Texas General Store — Grapevine
• Martin General Store — Granbury


West Texas
• Eggemeyer’s General Store — San Angelo

Gulf Coast and South Texas
• Girouard’s General Store — Freeport
• Morales Store — Morales, near Edna

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Good Food at Texas Tradition

Hungry for a good bacon cheeseburger, Cheryl and I decided to visit Texas Tradition in Old Katy. I had eaten there soon after moving to Katy but, for whatever reason, had not been back in years—probably because it is outside my usual traffic universe.

When Cheryl and I started looking for a new place to eat, I remembered Texas Tradition. Cheryl had never been there, so we decided to give it a try. Texas Tradition is a small, family-owned and operated restaurant that takes great pride in serving a menu packed with comfort food.


Although it is not far from our home, it is not on any of our daily commutes. When we arrived, we pulled into a packed parking lot—always a good sign.

The moment we walked through the door, we were warmly greeted and escorted to a table. The dining room was full of people enjoying good food in a country-Texas setting, complete with metal wainscoting. The place had the warm, welcoming feel of a small-town café.


Of course, we knew exactly what we wanted without even looking at the menu: bacon cheeseburgers, with the bacon leaning toward the crispy side of the scale, two Coke Zeros with plenty of ice, and onion rings instead of fries.

The service was fast. Our burgers and onion rings arrived in paper-lined plastic baskets with no room to spare. The burgers were generously sized, and the onion rings were thick, crispy, and chunky. Everything looked and smelled completely appetizing.


The first bite generally tells the story, and this one did not disappoint. The burger was absolutely delicious. I am not a foodie who can dissect every ingredient in a dish. I am simply a guy who enjoys a good burger and knows one when he bites into it. This was unmistakably an amazingly delicious burger.

And the onion rings were a step beyond. These were not skinny little rings but thick, beefy, almost life-preserver-sized portions. They were so good. I may try the French fries on another visit, but Cheryl and I were glad we chose the onion rings.

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed both the food and the atmosphere at Texas Tradition. The staff was friendly, attentive, and responsive to our every need. We have now bookmarked Texas Tradition as a place we will visit again.


The menu offers plenty more to explore, including several delicious and surprisingly affordable daily specials listed on the back page. We will definitely be back.

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The J & P Bar and Grill

Founded in 1883, Comstock is barely a wide spot on the lonely road from Del Rio toward the ragged and rugged Trans-Pecos region of Texas. It is located near the confluence of the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers and close to Langtry where the legendary Judge Roy Bean was “the law west of the Pecos.”

Originally known as Sotol City, the tiny town was later named after John Comstock, a railroad dispatcher for the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. Today, Comstock has less than ten named streets and not many more residents. However, the nearby canyons hide a treasure worth seeing.

Nearby Seminole Canyon State Historical Park is home to some of the oldest rock art in North America — pictographs as old as, by some estimates, 4,000 years. It’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that ancient inhabitants of this region left a cryptic record of their existence on the walls and ceilings of caves along Seminole Canyon.


Comstock is also home to the J & P Bar and Grill, a place that is located at the spot along Highway 90 where you both enter and leave Comstock. Blink and you are likely to miss it.

On occasion when we travel to our off-grid cabin out in Big Bend, we will opt to take Highway 90 instead of Interstate 10. We enjoy this desolate route and the magnificent scenery that is the very definition of iconic cowboy country. When we do take this route, we try to time our travel so that we can stop for a bite to eat at the J & P Bar and Grill — the only place to eat in Comstock and a favorite of local ranchers and roughnecks.

Wherever I travel in Texas, I am always on the lookout for a great bacon cheeseburger. So, when I first traveled through Comstock I decided to stop at the J & P Bar and Grill — housed in a nondescript metal building just west of the intersection of Highway 90 and Highway 163.


The inside is one big dining area with a bar, clean restrooms, and Texas decor hanging on particle board walls. The staff is Texas-friendly for sure and the menu offers a lot of comfort food options, including a variety of burgers.


As usual, I ordered a simple bacon cheeseburger with mustard and mayo and veggies and a side of onion rings and a tall glass of iced tea. Of course, I always make sure I ask for crispy bacon because I think it is a crime in Texas and not a very nice thing to do to offer a paying customer limp bacon on a cheeseburger.


Well, my expectations were exceeded. The ciabatta buns held a half-pound of meat cooked to perfection and the onion rings were golden and crispy and oh so good. The taste of this burger is amazing and made me wish I had an extra stomach to eat a second or third helping. Honestly — one of the best burgers I have had in all of my travels around the Lone Star State.

Comstock and the J & P Bar and Grill are a long way from anywhere and, for most folks, on the other side of nowhere. But, that is why if you are ever within driving distance you should make it a point to make the pilgrimage to this eatery. The J & P is now one of the reasons I often alter my route from Katy to our cabin. It is just worth the stop and will make you feel good about Texas.