(*This is a new column feature wherein I’ll be calling attention to all of the great things there are to see, do, buy, experience, eat, and drink, in Brown County. Welcome to 5 Things!, Episode 3!)
In the last 5 Things! column I showed you 5 Places for a nice cocktail or beverage in Brown County. Today I’ll be sharing with you 5 Places to go if you want to spend a nice, full day in Early, Texas!
Most of you know that Danielle and I take a daytrip somewhere awesome every single Thursday. The only rule we have is that we don’t head one-way more than 300 miles so we can get back and do Thursday fun things downtown. But you don’t have to travel 300 miles to find cool and delicious stuff to do right in your own backyard. In fact, you can spend a whole day only five to ten minutes from anywhere in Brownwood just by visiting our neighbors in Early, Texas.
I’ll be frank with you, not being from this area, I have always been in the dark about the history of the relationship between the cities of Early and Brownwood. Maybe in the comments some of you can peacefully educate me about the relationship. I’ve lived in a few places where two cities were close enough that outsiders called them by a single name. I was born in Lubbock, which had been formed from two cities: Lubbock and Monterey, but that happened long before I was born. I went to High School in Odessa, and people in the rest of the state would always say “You’re from Midland/Odessa?” Those two cities were separated at the time by twenty miles, a water park, and vastly different classes, cultures, and attitudes… but during the 80s boom years of the “Petroplex” we young-uns always expected the two cities eventually to grow into one. That never happened.
Later, after I left college, I lived in and throughout the DFW area, which, by its nickname, tells you what people think of it. We lived first in North Dallas, then in Fort Worth, before settling for a few years in Arlington. All of that was DFW. Megametroplexes I understand. Cities that were once spread apart grow together and usually each has their own distinct character. But when we moved to this area of Central Texas, I never knew, heard, or understood anything about why Brownwood and Early are two different cities. To an outsider, it didn’t make much sense. They’re only separated by the Pecan Bayou, after all. I’ve heard rumors that it was an old argument over water rights, but it seems like it might be more than just that. Anyway, they are two cities, and despite the fact that most people “out there” just call this mini-tropolis “Brownwood,” Early has a lot to offer… and more cool stuff coming all the time.
Early Town Center
In the morning we took our car over to Bruner Toyota in Early to get our scheduled vehicle maintenance done, and while the car was with them, we strolled over to the new Early Town Center project. Definitely check this out, because the project – while still in the construction phase – is moving along quite rapidly. The Town Center is a planned entertainment and business district built in and around a new lake and park. The area will soon become a magnet for visitors to Early. The lake was nearly completed when we visited, and it’ll be fun watching the boardwalk, lake fishing piers, and Town Center businesses along the lakefront go up. Some of the new streets, streetlights, etc. are already installed and you can go visit right now in mid-July of 2023 and you can walk around checking things out. There are handy map/signs so that you can see where you are, what is being built, and what the project will look like when it’s finished. If you’re reading this even later in 2023 or in 2024, go on out to the Town Center, because many of the amenities and businesses will be up and functioning. No doubt, the Town Center will be a central focus for visitors and people looking for entertainment in Brownwood and Early, and since it is only a few minutes from downtown Brownwood, I plan on being a regular visitor there myself! If you are curious to check it out before you go visit, head on over to their website: https://earlytx.net/210/Early-Town-Center-Project
Up In Smoke BBQ
It’s time for lunch and our new favorite place to get BBQ is not in Austin, Fredericksburg, or Llano. It’s right here in Early. Welcome to Up In Smoke BBQ at 231 Parkway Drive Suite 800 behind the Chicken Express in Early. Junior Urias is the pitmaster, owner, and sharp-as-a-tack entrepreneurial wizard who opened Up In Smoke a few years ago after migrating here from out west in Midland. “We spent a lot of time commuting back and forth. We always loved coming to the Brownwood area and going to the lake. Midland was growing so fast and changing, moving too fast, and we really loved this area. So, one day I told my wife, ‘We need to just move the business’”, Junior told me. He’d competed nationwide in BBQ competitions for years and traveled extensively teaching Central Texas barbecue techniques around the world. “You get burned out,” he said, “with all the travel and moving around all the time. We wanted to move here, open the business and settle down in a place we love.”
As for me, I’m a bit of a barbecue snob. As the song says, I’ve been everywhere, man, and I’ve had people in North Carolina, Memphis, and Kansas City try to convert me to their style of BBQ, but there is no barbecue in the world even nearly as good as authentic Central Texas-style BBQ. Take it from me, you won’t be disappointed if you go visit Junior at Up In Smoke. My wife and I like to order the Junior platter, but you can order any way you like – by the meat, by the pound, mix-and-match, whatever. I get mine with brisket, ribs, jalapeno cheese sausage (made from scratch through a three-day process,) with beans and good ‘ol mustard potato salad. Add some fermented onions and fresh dill pickle slices and I’m in heaven. When I sat down with Junior, he had me taste some of the smoked pork belly and it was out-of-this-world good. They have an outdoor eating area with picnic tables for when the weather cools down again. On this day, we eat our fill and even have to get a box to take some of it home.
Make sure to stop next store at the Up In Smoke Meat Shop. It’s a full-service meat market with bacon, steaks, briskets, you name it. Years ago, Danielle and I would take the children down to Fredericksburg and one of the things we always had to do was to stop in the meat markets and buy jerky and sausages. I’ve told you before that there’s almost no reason for us to drive south anymore – you can find everything you need right here! Get you some ribeye steaks, homemade jerky, salsa, or some of their own delicious sausages. Junior took me back into the sparkling clean kitchen they built just for making the sausages. It’s so cool to have a place like this right nearby in Early!
Hacienda Leon’s Bar
It sounds crazy enough, but I’ve had three separate meetings in the last week, and all three have been in Early! We head over to Hacienda Leon at 1020 Early Blvd. and there is a line to get into the place for lunch. While their food is delicious, we’re here to meet a friend in the bar to talk business. We pull up to the bar and peruse the ample drink menu, and on a day when it’s more than a hundred degrees outside, we want something icy cold. I start with iced tea, but pretty soon I’m eyeballing the cocktails. Now, you know that I’ve bartended on every level and in all kinds of establishments, and you’d expect me to probably call for something obscure or complicated – but on days like this, I want a good, solid, standard, nothing too fancy margarita. I tell the bartender “I just want a straight margarita on the rocks, I have work to do.” She brings me exactly what I want, and it’s big too!
Danielle orders the “Miami Vice” which is a layered Piña Colada and Strawberry Daiquiri garnished with pineapple, strawberry, and whipped cream. I’m going to be using the word “Daiquiri” several times in this article, so here is some interesting information. Kind of like one of those Mandela Effect things…
If you ask any American today, really anywhere you go, how you say the word “Daiquiri” and they’ll pronounce it DACKERY. It’s been that way for most of my life, and I’ve either imbibed or bartended for parts of five decades. And if you go online to the Cambridge dictionary and click on the pronunciation button, it will say “Dackery.” But, if you watch a lot of old movies or documentaries like I do, up until the 70s and even the early 80s it was pronounced DIE-KERY (and sometimes DIE-Query). Hemingway really made the Daiquiri (and the La Floridita and Sloppy Joe’s bars in Havana that served them) famous, and I would be remiss if I didn’t offer you this great anecdote and suggestion:
In 1959, just after the Cuban Revolution, a major motion picture was being filmed in Havana. Our Man in Havana was a dark comedy film based on the novel by Graham Greene and starring Alec Guinness who was friends with Ernest Hemingway. Guinness, Hemingway, and Noel Coward were photographed drinking daiquiris at Sloppy Joe’s. I definitely recommend this film, and in it, Guinness, Burl Ives, and others order “Die-kerys”. Hemingway pronounced it Dai-kery and so did the bars in Havana Cuba (where the drink is from) that made it famous. Proving that somewhere along the line we slipped into an alternate timeline where the pronunciation changed to Dackery.
Butterbean’s
Full of barbecue and bar chips and blissfully happy, we head out on Early Blvd eastward again and this time we’re going to one of our favorite places to shop and browse… Butterbean’s Antiques and Uniques out on 1303 Early Blvd. Plan on spending a few hours and you probably still won’t see it all. Butterbean’s is an antique mall, but you’ll find cool stuff there that you won’t often find in other antique shops. I’ve basically built my 40s Swing and Jazz vinyl collection from treasure hunts in Butterbean’s stacks and stacks of old vinyl. We’re always finding something there we need… planters, bookshelves, old ashtrays (I’m a collector,) glassware, vintage cooking utensils, you name it. One thing I like about this place is it is like time travel. Or a museum. If you’ve been around on this earth for long enough, all of your old stuff and your parent’s old stuff, and your grandparent’s old stuff will end up in a place like this. It’s the circle of life. I see coffee canisters and saltshakers, and, out in the Butterbean’s yard, I see the old metal yard chairs my grandmother had in her backyard. We’d sit in them and snap beans in the shade. Spend some time there and let your mind drift back – maybe you’ll time travel too.
And now… you guessed it… it’s time again for a Daiquiri!
HD Daiquiris
Listen, it’s extra-hot and we’ve spent an hour or so walking around in the heat, and we need a fifth place to go in Early. I mean, this column is called 5 THINGS! not 4 THINGS! So, we decided to check out a place we haven’t been to before. It’s 105° at least, so we step inside the cool air-conditioning of the little Daiquiri shop at 111C Early Blvd, in the building adjacent to Tootie Kelly Real Estate office. There’s a nice bar and tables (and a drive-up window!) and both of us order the small frozen Hurricane Daiquiris. It hit the spot and we got to know a little more about the place. Don’t start thinking you can only get frozen daiquiris there. They have coffee, bagels, beer, and cocktails, and on the weekends, they might have shrimp and crawfish boils. Check them out on Facebook to see their specials. We’re glad to learn about another cool place to get a beverage in Brown County, and we hope you’ll check them out soon too.
As always, there are a ton of places we didn’t get to mention in this article. Maybe you know of some great spots to visit in Early (or anywhere else in Brown County.) Make sure you contact me with ideas and suggestions. I’ll be writing these articles several times a month and I want your input. What Five Things! should I write about, and where should we go? Email me at [email protected] and let me know.