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The Old Coupland Inn and Dancehall

If it's grilled, fried or smoked, this saloon-style country cafe can handle it.

By Mike Sutter
AMERICAN-STATESMAN RESTAURANT CRITIC
Thursday, May 07, 2009

Wear cowboy boots to the Old Coupland Inn and Dancehall, if you can. With the leather sole and stacked heel, you'll get a resonant shuffle-clomp on the old wooden floor of this turn-of-the-last-century saloon that'll make you feel like Alan Ladd in 'Shane,' except everybody in this place is smiling, and the only fight you'll mediate is between you and your arteries. Because if it's fried, barbecued or grilled (and maybe a little sweet), it's on the menu here in truck driver-sized helpings.

Right next door, separated from the dining room by nothing but a big velvet curtain, is a beer-sign honky-tonk the size of a parking garage, with a dance floor and wooden support beams spiraled with little white lights. A cover charge will get you in to see live music mostly in the red-dirt country vein, including Brandon Rhyder (Saturday), Pat Green (May 16) and the Randy Rogers Band (May 21).

There's no cover charge in the dining room — open only Thursdays through Saturdays — just a two-story space with a side room, a railed balcony, a yellowed tin ceiling, dusky red walls and cut-glass chandeliers whose only nods to modernity are loopy compact fluorescent bulbs. The place is refreshingly short on kitsch. Save for a functional pot-bellied stove in the middle for heat and a cartoon-proportioned iron safe, the room is filled with big wooden tables and high-backed spindle chairs — a home-style restaurant ready for a crowd.

The big pork ribs on the all-you-can-eat plate ($16.99; $15.99 on Saturdays; and no, the whole table doesn't have to order it) had a crusty char on the outside and meat the chunky consistency of braised pork shoulder underneath. Some of the ribs were blackened almost to jerky, but I think our waitress spied that and whisked out a fresh, less enthusiastically caramelized helping. The carnivore's delight was fleshed out with crispy-skinned chicken, dense sausage with a light, spicy bite and brisket with the same outer char as the ribs, cooked a little drier than I like, but as fragrantly smoky as the cast-iron barbecue rig being towed by the truck in front of us for about half the drive along U.S. 290 East toward our rendezvous with Elgin, where we turned north on Texas 95 for the final eight miles to Coupland.

Our waitress, she loves the food out there. Even before we asked, she told us about the hand-cut steaks, the hand-breading on everything from chicken to fish to onion rings, the homemade cole slaw and barbecue sauce (which by the way, has brisket in it). She's seen the place go through several owners but said the current one (Rick Smitherman, who took over the restaurant, the dance hall and the adjoining bed-and-breakfast almost two years ago) has made big improvements. I don't know what it was like before, but I can't imagine improving too much on the 16-ounce New York strip steak, brought out in two barely trimmed sections so plate-hoggingly massive I have to assume the weight referred mainly to the meat, not the thick rind of fat that turned this into one of the most tender, deeply flavored steaks I've ever eaten, and a solid deal at $18.99.

The sides at the Old Coupland Inn had the same spirit of country abundance. Sweet baked beans crowned with brown sugar came nestled in a tiny iron pot with the barbecue plate, along with a chunky, onion-spiked mayonnaise potato salad and a confetti-cannon cole slaw of green and purple cabbage, golden raisins and slices of red apple — a crunchy, chewy and just-sweet-enough keeper of a side dish that's too often an institutional afterthought. With the steak, a tired side salad of iceberg lettuce and tomato rang an off-note, muted later by perfectly roasted sections of herbed potato.

On the fried side, my girls fought over a plate of cracker-crisp and clean-tasting fried catfish surrounded by onion rings, hush puppies and french fries, while my wife and I quietly whisked away the four grilled shrimp resting on top of the combo plate ($15.99). And when our eyes followed a towering plate of fried food from the kitchen to a neighbor's table, our waitress answered the unspoken question: 'chicken tenders.'

Next time, when there's room. After the dense peach cobbler, tangy blackberry cobbler and sweet ice cream.

Next time, when we can stay and dance off some of the food — but none of the euphoric food buzz — from a night in Coupland.

msutter@tatesman.com; 912-5902

The Old Coupland Inn and Dancehall

103 Hoxie St., Coupland. 512-856-2226, www.couplanddancehall.com

Rating (casual dining):8.0 out of 10

Restaurant hours:Dinner 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursdays, 5: 30 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Prices:Starters $4.99 (onion rings, fried pickle chips) to $9.99 (half-rack of pork ribs). Barbecue plates $9.99 (one meat) to $16.99 (all you can eat). Chicken dishes $8.99 (fried tenders) to $11.99 (grilled). Steaks $9.99 (petite sirloin) to $18.99 (Lone Star rib-eye). Catfish and shrimp $10.99 to $15.99. Desserts $1.99 (ice cream) to $6 (cobbler and ice cream for two).

Payment:All major cards.

Bar: Beer, wine and mixed drinks, including Shiner Bock in frosted mugs. Membership in the Coupland Private Club required (free at restaurant and dance hall).

Mother's Day brunch:Buffet from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, including smoked turkey, cornbread dressing, ham, prime rib, full breakfast with omelet station, fresh fruit and desserts. $20.99, $15.99 for children younger than 12.

What the rating means:The total of weighted scores for food, service, atmosphere and value.