The Texas Bucket List - The Leona General Store in Leona

howdy and welcome to the Texas bucket list the show dedicated to everything there is to see to an experience right here in Texas when it comes to Texas beef here on the Texas bucket list burgers are usually our Forte but we found a big old steak out in the middle of nowhere that got us to pull off the road to check out a little hole in the wall with a long line in Lyoto smack-dab between Dallas and Houston is the little town of Leona not much happens in this small community about a mile off interstate 45 but every Friday and Saturday afternoon people start lining up outside the old Leona General Store homey honest conversation usually revolves around food because that's what people are here for steak to be precise Amarillo is too far to travel this afternoon you were built it and they have come with that fun Jerry House bought the Leona General Store 1998 and he was very familiar with what he was getting into our vacation was to come to Mullen paws farmhouse certainly own it Jerry's family has some lineage in Leona going all the way to his great-great grandparents Leona was so important to our dads growing up and to the house family and so this is this is how we look upon our contribution to you know making Leona a little bit better place than perhaps it it was built in 1921 Jerry took the old general stored made it into a must-stop steak spot that only serves up ridiculous sized rib eyes on Friday and Saturday night well I'm gonna tell you it's the best state to stay detective it's one of the best I have checked all your bucket list things and I love them all but this is fantastic we don't have a linen tablecloth we don't have the best salad bar in the world but it's a place if you want a steak and a good ribeye steak cooked on charcoal outside like you would at home this is the place to come being in the business of beef was a new endeavor for Gerry prior to his pursuit of the perfect steak his place in the world was on a pulpit so the Methodist minister that's mastered meat and Leona yeah I guess it's amazing to you to see people line up yeah really it really is it's kind of like being a minister of a church and you work hard to prepare your sermon and so you get up you go to church Sunday and eat these you see you say yourself I wonder if anyone's gonna show up today there's nobody nobody has to and and I feel the same way here yeah what what if nobody shows up but people do and when they arrive they are greeted by just about the whole house family couldn't do this without my wife Cynthia Cynthia runs it's a family thing Cynthia runs the cash register our daughter Laura is a cook our son-in-law Don runs the cook Shack and then we have a daughter Emily who comes in every other weekend as a waitress and then we have a son who's the senior minister at Christ United Methodist Church and College Station and he prays for so that's his country it's a family deal even the mayor of Leona comes to the general store not to eat he works here can't go anywhere and get the fire mayor Bubba Odin has been cooking rib eyes on these oak pits for 19 years is this how you won your election now when it comes to ordering your stake in the owner first you select your size what's the process like I mean do you just say this thick this thing we don't have a menu and our philosophy really when we started was to do something like we would do at home if we had guests at our home basically you order by the ounce and trust me it'll be bigger than you think I'm full as a tick we never weigh them we just hand cut and we cut them about about that thick matter of fact we finally weighed one about a year ago and our 10 ounce steaks are actually 16 ounce a little bit of money that's the way to do it and over the course of the year it comes out to something like forty six thousand five hundred pounds ribeye that's a couple cows we're doing our part to cattle industry I guess after just a few minutes it was time to get this beef in my belly take a look at this steak it is amazing went with the twelve looks like we got about twenty that's normal for this place we're gonna cut into the middle of it to see what a steak should look like when it's cooked here in the Lone Star State medium rare magical marvelous perfectly cooked the smell is amazing it's a very thick because this steak is amazing the people here are amazing well that's legendary well thank you tear up is it steak mashed potatoes in a salad that's what it is and people keep coming back that is a thick juicy delicious stink it's the country it's what country folks love to eat and it's done well it is fantastic it ain't going anywhere this one's mine so I got the ten ounce and you notice that I just barely did damage to it but it will survive for another day well if you happen to be driving tween Dallas and Houston and looking for a big old steak leona is well were the stop on the Texas bucket list well you know Texans each steak and if you want a good steak you need to come here to do [Music]

Channel: The Texas Bucket List

Views: 2,589,787

Rating: 4.802916 out of 5

Keywords: The Texas Bucket List, Texas, Bucket, LIst, Shane, McAuliffe, Reporter, steak, food, beef, texas eat, texas eats, interstate 45, Lone Star State, Country, things to do in texas, 45, huge steak, texas steak

Id: -q1jzdY_Z8E

Length: 6min 21sec (381 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 16 2017