Mac’s Bar-B-Que in Dallas Will Close After 55 Years – Texas Monthly
Fans of the Dallas institution Mac’s Bar-B-Que only have a few days left before Billy McDonald turns the sign to “Closed” one last time.
“It’s time to go,” says McDonald. The 67-year-old has run the restaurant that his father Bill “Mac” McDonald opened in 1955 for all of his adult life. The last day of the eatery could be Monday, July 26th. “Depending on what’s left, we’ll be here on the twenty-seventh. From then on it’s questionable, ”says McDonald, taking another bite of his chopped brisket sandwich with Tabasco and black pepper. One new morning he was sitting at a table with Deb Schultz, who has worked with him since 2006. She checked the door for customers, but only had to get up three times in an hour.
In a way, McDonald’s has been itching to get out of the grill business for decades. In 1982 he attended Texas A&M School of Architecture, but the restaurant attracted him again when he couldn’t find a job after graduating. Ten years later, his father retired and McDonald took over. He was free to implement innovations in a menu that had remained unchanged for decades, and he did: in 1995 grilled potatoes, in 1998 pork ribs. Until a few years ago he only seasoned the briskets with hickory smoke when he started adding a little salt.
Macs is old school, and not just because it’s old. When Mac first got into the grill business, Shoemaker’s Barbecue dominated Dallas, and his grill style was influential. Sandwiches were the focus. The meat wasn’t seasoned before it was cooked, but rather through the barbecue sauce that was generously applied to each sandwich, along with pickles, raw onions, sweet relish, and pickled peppers. Mac’s was built on this image, with a focused grill menu, along with fellow grillmates like Sonny Bryan’s in Dallas, Ernie’s Pit Barbeque in Greenville, and Tom & Bingo’s in Lubbock. They have all moved on to producing what I would call a modern barbecue, and all three restaurants are thriving because of it. McDonald has categorically refused to join its ranks. “I grew up in a generation where you took most of the fat out of what you could and didn’t serve it. People serve the fat and the skin and everything today, ”he says. For him it is unfair to serve the customer anything but well-trimmed lean beef.
The impending closure of Macs shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who is careful. Seven years ago he said to me in an interview: “I’ll be happy when I go. If I won the lottery, I would be closed the next day. I’ll have someone else carry the Dallas Barbecue torch. We have been here for over thirty-one years. I’ve just turned sixty, so I’ve lived here in this building for half my life. ”When he put the building up for sale in 2015, he was hoping that the lottery ticket would be a buyer. But a buyer never came through, and earlier this year McDonald decided the best option was to find someone to rent the premises from them. A Mexican restaurant will take over the premises next month. (McDonald had no further information about the upcoming restaurant.)
He’s relieved that he’s finished finding the hickory that has been in short supply lately and can sleep until after 4 a.m. every weekday morning. McDonald also doesn’t have to worry about being in the black, which hit the restaurant industry for the first time since pandemic restrictions last March. Mac’s had sales of two thousand dollars a day before COVID-19. The day after the restrictions were in place, “we made fifty-eight dollars.” Business stayed that way for four months.
“I just want to take a little break,” says McDonald. He dreamed of seeing Venice and visiting England to “have my picture taken with one of the Buckingham guards”. I felt it was the restaurant’s fault that it never fulfilled those dreams. “If you’re here every day you can dream about it and watch YouTube videos about it, but you can’t. You have an obligation, ”he says. “If you own one of these places, you are married to it.” It wasn’t all bad, but it was “fifty-fifty”. McDonald, like his father before him, went out of his way to make Christmas great for other families that he has never enjoyed the holidays in his life. This year he is looking forward to December.
Mac’s Bar-B-Que, soon to be taken over by a Mexican restaurant.
Photo by Daniel Vaughn
The chopped brisket and fries sandwich will flow through July 27th.
Photo by Daniel Vaughn
Left: Mac’s Bar-B-Que, soon to be taken over by a Mexican restaurant.
Photo by Daniel Vaughn
Above: The minced brisket and fries sandwich flow through July 27th.
Photo by Daniel Vaughn
Schultz says they have been telling clients about their plans to shut down for a few weeks now, and most were saddened but also happy to have their well-deserved time off. She wants to continue her second job as a cashier in the supermarket. “I work maybe twenty-five hours a week instead of sixty hours and I can sleep in,” she laughs. McDonald will keep his sideline repairing small electronics after returning from visiting Her Majesty the Queen.
While looking forward to his long overdue retirement, McDonald admits that “walking here will be a bad day.” He wants to be the first paying customer in the new restaurant. “The first dollar I give you will be in a picture frame.”
I’m going to lose my favorite place to eat a chopped brisket sandwich and a side of the best french fries in town. But like many other customers, I’ll miss McDonald’s repartee behind the counter almost as much as the barbecue. He reminded me of one of my first visits when I became curious about his cooking methods. I asked what wood he used for the smoker and he whispered, “Don’t tell anyone, but I stole railroad ties.” When you get to Mac’s last visit, tell McDonald why the place was special to you, and try to make him laugh. Just don’t tell him you wish they’d keep the shop open. He and Schultz didn’t deserve that. As McDonald puts it, “If I get out of here, I’ll have that little bit of time I need in my life to do what I want to do before I leave this earth.”
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