Luby’s Is Still Here, and So Is the LuAnn

If you grew up in Texas, you probably remember the tray. Brown plastic, a little damp from the stack, and way too much room for a kid with big eyes. You slid it down the rails at Luby’s past the Jell-O cubes and the pies, and somewhere around the fried fish your grandmother told you to pick one dessert. One.

Bob Luby opened the first Luby’s in downtown San Antonio in 1947, and for a long stretch of the last century it was where Texas went after church, after funerals, after report cards. The line on Sunday could stretch to the door. Nobody minded much. You could see the food the whole time you waited, and that was half the fun.

It nearly went away. In 2020 the company voted to liquidate, and for a while it looked like every location would close by the end of summer 2021. Then Chicago businessman Calvin Gin bought the cafeteria business and kept the lights on. Luby’s runs leaner now, mostly around Houston and San Antonio, but the line still moves, and four of them are still feeding North Texas.

Start with the LuAnn. She’s been on the menu since 1974: one entrée, two sides and a roll, sized for people who want lunch without a nap afterward. Generations of Texans have ordered it by name without ever asking who LuAnn was. The choices today run from Luby’s Fried Fish and Roast Chicken to Chicken Fried Steak, Liver and Onions and the Bacon Cheese Steak. Get the fish. It’s the plate most people picture when they hear the name, a neat golden rectangle with tartar sauce on the side.

Then there’s the Macaroni & Cheese, which deserves its own paragraph. This is cafeteria mac, baked in a big hotel pan and cut into squares, soft in the middle and a little browned on top. It’s the side half the line orders without thinking, and it’s the one people try to recreate at home and never quite do.

The Carrot and Raisin Salad is still there too, sweet and crunchy and slightly strange to anyone who didn’t grow up eating it. Around it you’ll find Fried Okra, Mashed Potatoes, Fresh Broccoli and Roasted Mixed Vegetables, plus Home-Style Chicken Noodle soup and Seafood Gumbo for a cold day. The bigger appetites go for the classic combos, like the Angus Chopped Steak, Chicken Fried Chicken, Blackened Tilapia or Luby’s Texas Ribeye.

Save the hard decision for the end of the line. The pie case still holds Pecan Pie, Coconut Meringue Pie, Chocolate Ice Box Pie, New York Cheese Cake and Fresh Strawberry Short Cake. Your grandmother was right about picking just one, but she isn’t here now.

Families can still eat cheap. Kids 10 and under eat free on Wednesdays and Saturdays, one kid’s meal per adult meal, dine-in only, and yes, the kid’s tray still includes Jell-O.

With Thanksgiving three weeks out, Luby’s is also taking holiday orders. The holiday menu lists fully cooked family feasts with roasted, smoked or deep-fried turkey or spiral ham, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, rolls and a pumpkin or pecan pie. Sides like candied yams, green bean casserole and broccoli casserole sell by the quart. Orders need to be in at least 48 hours before pickup.

The North Texas locations are on Midway Road at 13455 Midway Rd. in Dallas, South Hampton Road at 5600 S. Hampton Rd. in Dallas, 801 N. Beckley Rd. in DeSoto, and 3312 SE Loop 820 in Forest Hill. Check each location’s page for hours. Then go grab a tray.