On a recent visit to Tucumcari, N.M., we noticed a battered pickup parked at the corner of Route 66 and Lake Street, with a sandwich-board sign on its bed advertising Watson’s Bar-B-Que two blocks north.
Tucumcari had long boasted good dining options, but barbecue was not one of them in the dozens of times in the past decade we had visited the eastern New Mexico town. Intrigued, we decided to pay it a visit on a Saturday afternoon.
Watson’s Bar-B-Que lists its address at 502 S. Lake St. (map here), next to Tucumcari Ranch Supply. Both businesses have the same owner.
Watson’s operates out of a large trailer (smoker included), and the dining area contains a series of wooden picnic tables on a wooden floor under a large, open-air canopy. The dining area is dotted with Western and railroad decor.
It serves three types of barbecue sandwiches — chopped brisket, sliced brisket and pork riblet — for $5.50. Plus it serves BBQ plates of sliced brisket, sausage, ribs, or combinations of all three that range from $8.75 to $10.75, including sides of potato salad and pinto beans. A full rack of pork ribs runs $13.25; a half-rack is $7.75.
Watson’s also offers sausage on a stick, a plain hot dog and Frito pies. It sells to-go orders by the pound, or by the ring for the sausages.
We were told that the meat is smoked with mesquite wood, common to that region and very popular for barbecue.
We ordered a sliced barbecued brisket sandwich, an order of pinto beans and a special — green chile stew.
The brisket turned out to be well-smoked and tender, with plenty of crispy ends that I like. Happily, the sauce tasted tangy with a hint of spice, but not too sweet. I’ve encountered many pit bosses who all but ruined decent barbecue by making a sauce that was too sugary.
Typical for restaurants in the area, the pinto beans were tender and just fine. But I was especially enthused by the green chile stew, which contained the right unfussy balance of heat and taste amid chunks of meat, potato, tomato and New Mexico green chiles. Jimmy Watson, who co-owns the ranch-supply store and the barbecue restaurant, said the stew came from a cook he admired in Albuquerque.
After hearing complements for his barbecue sauce, Watson said he used a “base” sauce to start, but adds his own ingredients. Watson said he wasn’t a chef or self-vowed expert, but “I know what I like.” He decided to take the plunge into the barbecue business in August after thinking about it for a number of years.
Watson’s Bar-B-Q is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., or until the food runs out, on Saturdays only. Watson said he might expand business hours to Friday evenings during the summer as well, if business merits it. That may happen, as motorcycle tours have already discovered him.
Watson’s Bar-B-Que’s phone number is 575-461-9620.