austins bbq on illinois and hampton was great, his home cooking and bbq is sorely missed by all

rojinks Wrote:
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> austins bbq on illinois and hampton was great, his
> home cooking and bbq is sorely missed by all

Just my personal opinion, of course, but I thought the food from the Bull Pen was superior to its successor Austin's BBQ.

I recall Saturday evenings before dark in the early 1950s when the family would pack a small ice chest with beer and soft drinks, drive to the Bull Pen and get several BBQ sandwiches, and drive a short way down the road to the Hampton Road Drive-In theater. We would usually finish our great sandwiches before the movies started. ......Great memories! ...........The Bull Pen was still there a few years later when I was a young teen. A buddy of mine and I would walk the couple of miles to the Hampton-Illinois intersection on Saturdays and then hitch-hike to the Wynnewood Shopping Center to see the movies and meet girls from other schools. After the movie, we'd hitch rides back to the Bull Pen and have a root beer and BBQ sandwich before walking back home. .......More great memories!

I mentioned on another thread that I had some letters from Austin Cook about how he started the business. Here is an excerpt below. Austin passed away several years ago and it was reported on this board by Dave McNeely here:

Austin Cook

=======================================
1990

Dear Family & Friends,

I will try to tell you a little more about my being in the restaurant business. We borrowed $10,000 and bought out some one and it was B and G Barbecue. You see I always spell out Barbecue because when I went in business they hadn’t started abbreviating it like it is to day.

After we had been there awhile we changed the name to The Bull Pen. Our slogan was Come in and Shoot The Bull with Austin and Bert. We used that name until they voted beer out of Oak Cliff. That really set us back, but maybe it was the best thing for us. We put another place in Arlington and that place was going pretty good. My partner wanted to get rid of the place in Oak Cliff. I traded him my part of the one in Arlington for his part in the one in Oak Cliff. Everyone said I was crazy.

When we bought that first place and it was way out in the country, but they were building a bunch of houses not to far away. There was an airport across the street from the place. They kept talking about building a shopping center where the airport was. I remember the first day we ran a hundred dollars and I thought we would never make it.

We started making money and we paid that ten thousand dollars back and we drew fifty dollars a week just like I was making in the grocery store. We started out with a barbecue sandwich and a hamburger. Then we started adding different things until we had a menu. We started getting those workers in the houses and the business took off. We had beer also to go with the barbecue. My mother wasn't too happy about that but Dad said if that was the way I wanted to make my living it would be all right. In about a year or two we had a customer make us up a menu and we put in Barbecue plates for one dollar an twenty five cents. When I left there we were getting 4.99 for them. After I left I think they went to over seven dollars.

They always told me that you were in’t a success until you were in debt a hundred thousand dollars and I went to the bank and borrowed all they would let me have. Then I went to my landlord and sold him the idea that I wanted to improve his property and he loaned me the balance I needed to remodel and I built a restaurant that held a hundred and twenty-five. Many times I was almost broke and didn't know what I was going to do but something always happened and I came out of it.

Waht happened to this business? Why isn't it still there or at least the same recipes in a different location?

I remember when their slogan was, "Tender as ol' Austin's heart". I was the track team manager at Skyline HS back in '76 and '77, and when we had a meet at Sprague Field, the district would have Austin's Barbecue brought in for the coaches and managers. Yum.

Thanks MC, That was interesting info. from Austin Cook, I remember the Bull Pen from from maybe 1953 or 54......I remember that area (Clearview Airport & Kiest Park) well as we use to go there often.......the B-17 that crashed landed at Clearview Airport probably went thru the area where Austin's would soon be.......it touched down on North side of Illinois, slid across the street onto the short runway at Clearview......I remember in about 1950 having to walk to Kiest Park from my House near Sunset HS and before you got to the RR track the Houses ran out, it was country the rest of the way to the Park......there was a little drive in Store and I guess the Bull Pen at the corner of Illinois and Hampton but if I remember right all that was 2 lane roads and not much traffic..........Bill Strouse

Morrow Mustang Wrote:
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> Waht happened to this business? Why isn't it
> still there or at least the same recipes in a
> different location?


I guess the family just didn't want to continue the business. Too much trouble to start over in another location. Much like the Bishop Grill, I think they wanted to go out with their reputation intact and not risk having someone else run their name into the ground.

No personal experience here, but I was once told by someone who knew better than I about such things that the best time to sell, or shut down, a food service business is when it is the hottest place in town. Otherwise, you will have the pleasure of dumping everything you've profited back into it to recapture the MAGIC while newer and trendier places elbow you out.

Don't know if that happened here, but might be one possibility.

Morrow Mustang Wrote:
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> Waht happened to this business? Why isn't it
> still there or at least the same recipes in a
> different location?


It was bought and demolished to build a CVS pharmacy. Cause the world really needed one more chain store.
Scott Dorn and I ran into each other there the last day they were in business. He took a lot of pictures and so did I.

Respectfully,
Greg Jaynes

I am still of the opinion that Red Bryan had better beef brisket in the 50s. Into the 60s & 70s, Austins brisket tasted like rump roast done in an oven with barbecue sauce slathered over it after it was plated. (runs for cover..........)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2011 07:45PM by Mr. Freeze.

I lived across the street from Austin's for years The fastfood joints ( Jack in the box, Wendy's, etc) could buy food in bulk and make and sell their food much cheaper than Austin's could. Austin's was a community place where people met and spent an evening. It made Hampton and Illinois special. Those days are gone Now it looks like any other street corner in any city in any state. So much for "progress."

after mr Cooks ex wife passed away, her name was Mae she willed her 49% to her son John Zitto, Zittos son J. D. managed the place throughout the eigtys mr austin never owned all of the land and the landlord wanted to sell the property to c.v.s. pharmacy, Zitto wanted to sell out and there was talk of his boy J. D. opening another austins, across the street where the el fenix had been, but his suicide stopped that i believe he would have been sucessful since he had worked there since a young boy and understood mr austins m.o. i still think that when austins bbq came right off the pit it was as good as any in dallas

I went to Austin's occasionally (Sunset 1960) On friday nights it was crowded. Officer J.D. Tippit worked there as security. We all know he was shot to death when Kennedy got it, so I don't mean to berate the dead, but that man was mean and assaultive. Back then Dallas police could really get rough with teens as well as criminals and get away with it. I was in Austin's in a booth with my feet crossed and slightly protruding from under the table. He was on me before I knew it and kicked my feet WAY back under the table. I thought I had a broken ankle. When I heard he got shot 11-22-63, I shed not a bitter tear. Jim

M C Toyer Wrote:
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> I mentioned on another thread that I had some
> letters from Austin Cook about how he started the
> business. Here is an excerpt below. Austin
> passed away several years ago and it was reported
> on this board by Dave McNeely here:

In case anyone dredges up that old report concerning Austin Cook's passing in Florida, please read the rest of the thread. I was relaying information from an acquaintance who evidently had some misinformation. Mr. Cook's son Billy corrected the details of his father's death in a later post than mine. David McNeely

the bull pen and austins bbq were one and the same

rojinks Wrote:
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> the bull pen and austins bbq were one and the same

the place was called "the bull pen" first, then later "austin's barbecue." I believe the name change was the product of prohibition in Oak Cliff.

Dave McNeely

There were a couple of Bull Pen Drive-Ins in Arlington in the 60's-70"s. Any relationship to the one that became Austin's?

I believe Austin Cook's ex partner opened the ones in Arlington.

Wayne P

Wayne Pritchett Wrote:
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> I believe Austin Cook's ex partner opened the ones
> in Arlington.
>
> Wayne P


Interesting. Thanks, Wayne. We used to eat, on occasion, at the Bull Pen and also at Pal's following our weekly visit to family in Arlington. Sadly, both are gone now, although there is a terrific Lebanese restaurant in the old Pal's location on Randol Mill Road. Of course, that branch of the family is long gone too, so I don't get out there too often.

The BULL PEN in Arlington on East Abram near the GM Assembly Plant was owned by Ralph Paul a business associate of Jack Ruby. He is mentioned many times in all the books and articles regarding the Kennedy Assassination.

Does anybody remember a small Beer Tavern that was across Murphy Street (now Murphy Walk) from the old Southland Hotel. The demolition of the Southland Hotel put it out of business as all the demolition equipment, one being the largest crane I ever saw, completely blocked access to it. Soon after the Southland was gone, the building housing the tavern was gone, now a parking lot across Commerce Street from the Federal Courts Buildings.

I was standing next to the demolition contractor, Henry Parker of Oklahoma City, hired off duty to direct traffic and pedestrians around the mess, when the first swing of the very large steel ball struck the exterior of the Southland Hotel Building and he turned to me and one of his foremen that was standing next to me and simply said, "I lost my A-- on this one, it is not concrete reenforced, it is steel reenforced, we will be here a VERY long time". He was, work ran two weeks over even with them working twenty four hours a day. DUST like I have never imagined, every where you looked in the downtown area, it was covered with fine gray dust.

About the only place to stand to avoid being killed was just at the doorway of the tavern across Murphy Street. The owner was UPSET to say the least with a uniformed police officer standing at his door, it ran off all his customers. He would come out several times a shift cussing and carrying on, I would just take out my handcuffs and he would run back inside.

As I watched the old Southland disappear slowly from the top down, I thought of the many stories and tales that could be told of the gambling and other incidents that occurred within the walls over it's long history.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2012 12:59AM by DallasCop2566.