In Good Company:

Hallelujah! My prayers have been answered. Being the typical born and bred Texan I love authentic bbq and while there are some great eateries in the tri-cities area that offer a few bbq choices, we’ve been missing a place truly dedicated to just bbq. Well all that has changed. Let me introduce R & R Bar-B-Que in Port Isabel. More specifically, in that little shopping center in the Walmart parking lot.
I tried it a couple nights ago and wow! It’s fantastic! There were three of us for dinner, but we ordered the family platter for two. It comes heaped with brisket, pulled pork, chicken, ribs and sausage. You also get your choice of four sides. Choose from potato salad, cole slaw, beans, macaroni and cheese, and creamed corn. The meat’s served heaped high on a platter but comes with four slices of bread, jalapenos, onions and pickles in case you want to make a sandwich. It fed three of us easily and my dad happily had a full plate of leftovers to take home.
All of the meats are slow cooked in a large, specially built, wood-fired smokehouse located outside. Main chef Joseph Galvan lets his brisket smoke for 18 hours! Its so tender it melts in your mouth and the ribs literally fall off the bone. You don’t even need a knife to cut the smoke chicken; its that tender, and the sausage is lean and all beef. My friend and coworker India says R & R makes the best pulled pork she’s ever tasted. It all came drizzled with a perfect bbq sauce - thick, tangy and sweet.
We chose the potato salad, cole slaw, mac n cheese and beans. All of them were excellent. The  potato salad is made with mustard and comes with lots of egg, just the way I like it. The cole slaw is divine. My dad called it perfect. The beans are charro style and they were smokey and flavorful. My mom even raved about the mac n cheese and she never likes it prepared in restaurants. (She’s picky.) But it really was good mac n cheese.
We finished it all off with a slice of homemade pecan pie. Did you catch that? Homemade. All the pies are made from scratch and so is the banana pudding.
R & R offers a full menu with everything from sandwiches and plates to full platters. They even have huge baked potatoes and they’ll stuff them with brisket, chicken or sausage. Hint: try their specialty -  roasted corn on the cob.
Our server, Roger Salinas, was outgoing, warm, friendly, and quick to bring us anything we needed. He took the time to tell us all about the menu, how everything is prepared, and even about owners Roy & Anabel Casteneda and Roger & Lisa Salinas. We got great service.
R & R has only been open a few months and they’re still adding to the interior, but I liked the red checkered table clothes, country motif and Garth Brooks playing in the background. The cutlery and plates are plastic. But its bbq. That’s the way it should be.
Refills are free, but R & R doesn’t serve alcohol. They cater and they’re take out business is already booming. They deliver in Port Isabel, but do ask for a $15 minimum to deliver to the Island.
R & R is open Monday through Friday from 11am to 8pm, Saturday from 11 am to 9pm, and Sunday from noon to 3pm. They’re located at 1401 Hwy 100, Suite 7 - right next door to Mickey’s cafe in the Walmart parking lot. You can’t miss the smokehouse outside.