Saturday morning on Hillcrest Avenue, the drive-thru line at Bubba’s Cooks Country starts stacking up before most of University Park has had its coffee. Inside, the cinnamon rolls are already out, the biscuits are coming off the sheet pans, and somebody at the counter is asking how long until the lunch menu kicks in.
The answer is 11 a.m., and the timing is worth knowing. Bubba’s runs its breakfast menu from 6:30 to 11 every day, then switches over to fried chicken, catfish and chicken fried steak. Show up around 10:30 on a Saturday or Sunday and you can eat both, which is about as close to a weekend brunch as Bubba’s has ever gotten.
With Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day landing on Monday, Oct. 26, this is the weekend to do it.
A Texaco Station Turned Diner
Paul and Mary Beth Vinyard opened Bubba’s in December 1981 inside a Texaco service station from the late 1920s, a few blocks from SMU. “Bubba” is Paul’s nickname. The recipes came from Mary Beth, who worked them out in her home kitchen using the West Texas cooking she grew up with, with her husband and kids as the tasting panel.
Paul turned the old station into an Art Deco diner, with black and white checkered floors, red vinyl booths and plenty of chrome. The drive-thru is a holdover from the building’s gas station days. It did well enough that in 1993 the Vinyards opened a second concept, Babe’s Chicken Dinner House, named for Mary Beth’s own nickname. Their children, Joel Vinyard and Tiffany Vinyard Wheeless, grew up working the counter and later joined their father as co-owners.
Start With Breakfast
The breakfast menu fits on half a page. The two eggs plate comes with sausage or bacon plus a biscuit and gravy. There are buttermilk pancakes, biscuits and gravy on their own, and biscuit sandwiches with sausage or bacon, with egg and cheese if you want them.
Get a cinnamon roll too. Bubba’s sells them by the half dozen, and plenty of people leave with a box for whoever stayed home in bed.
Then the Chicken Fried Steak
Then 11 o’clock rolls around and the menu flips. Bubba’s chicken fried steak comes in two sizes. The large plate gets two vegetables and two yeast rolls or cornbread, and the small gets one of each. The Vinyards have always put it right next to fried chicken when they talk about the food their family loves most.
Get mashed potatoes under plenty of cream gravy. For the second side, green beans or black-eyed peas, so at least something on the tray is green. And take the yeast rolls over the cornbread. People drive across town for those rolls.
If someone in your group isn’t in a steak mood, the fried chicken is what made Bubba’s famous, and the chicken and dumplings and fried catfish both have their regulars.
Save Room
Dessert hasn’t changed much in 40 years. There’s cherry cobbler, banana pudding and an apricot fried pie, and the cobbler and pudding are sold by the pint or quart for anyone feeding a crowd at home.
Bubba’s Cooks Country is at 6617 Hillcrest Ave. and is open every day from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Breakfast runs until 11 a.m., with lunch and dinner after that. Order at the counter, go through the drive-thru, or call (214) 373-6527 for curbside pickup. Weekend mornings get busy. Go early, or plan on a wait in the drive-thru.
