Started in 1993 and named after Mary Beth Vinyard’s nickname, the first Babe’s Chicken Dinner House opened in Roanoke, Texas. Today, there are ten Babe’s, including the one I happened upon in downtown Arlington while gawking at murals and investigating the former site of the city mineral well.
I was looking for a light dinner when I walked into Babe’s. Oh boy, was I in for a solo surprise. There are no menus (although you can download one from their web page): you choose fried chicken, smoked chicken, or chicken-fried steak (but no chicken-fried chicken), and that’s it. And then the food starts arriving. First come the biscuits, two of ’em, one round, one square, with honey, molasses, and butter. “If you need more, just holla,” the waitress explained. Next up, the salad, eskimo style (all iceberg), with a sweetish (not Swedish) dressing. And then the chicken, all half of it, brown fried with a parade of ample sides of green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, and gravy. “If you need more of anything, just holla,” the waitress restated.
The chicken was good as was everything else. The beans are southern (stewed to defeat) in a salty brine. The corn was sweet and shiny. The taters were good as was the gravy, which had a wheatish (not Swedish) aura. I was raised to clean my plate, and I generally, proudly, do, but there was no hope of me accomplishing that at Babe’s. I cried uncle and settled in my chair, defeated. “Dessert?” came the call. “Aw, hell no,” I replied, one teaspoon of gravy from detonation. With no menu and past with Babe, I had no idea what the bill was going to look like, so I was pleasantly surprised that the whole kit-n-kaboodle was under $20! I walked the town a bit more after that to burn some calories from my Thanksgiving-volumed meal.
Babe’s Chicken Dinner House, various, babeschicken.com
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