A booth with a view: Bay Area veterans honored at BBQ spot

BRANDON, Fla. - In his quest for the Bay Area’s best, Chip Brewster headed to Mission BBQ. While there are dozens of locations of this franchise, the Brandon restaurant is a particularly special place for at least one local mom.

Jan Ruhele nominated the restaurant to appear in Chip’s weekly segment. When they walked in recently, she ordered him a secret menu item, the ‘Tall Texan’ - “It’s brisket topped with smoked sausage topped with coleslaw,” she explained.

“It’s got a little bit of everything going on,” Chip observed after trying it. “The smokiness of the brisket, there’s the dill pickle in there so you get a nice crunch and a little salt with it, obviously the sausage on top and then the coleslaw adds that other layer of sweetness and then crunch to it.”

But it’s not the food that makes Mission BBQ special to Jan. The franchise is committed to, and there’s one booth inside dedicated to Jan’s “two favorite guys.”

“This is my son who is standing in Saddam Hussein’s spider hole after he was captured in Iraq,” she said pointing to one photo, then the one next to it. “This is my husband back in the Korean War. He is standing in front of the [B-26] bomber. He was the gunner. He flew 52 missions in Korea.”

“People might be surprised that we’re featuring a non-one-of-a-kind locally-owned place.  You know, it’s 77 locations,” Chip offered. “But because you have your son and your husband’s photos here, this makes it as local as it can be for you.”

“For me, yeah, anytime I come here, if I’m sitting in the restaurant, I want this booth,” Jan replied. “If somebody else is here, I’ll wait.”

LINK: To learn more about the Mission BBQ restaurants, visit https://mission-bbq.com/

To nominate your favorite Bay Area Best restaurant and take FOX 13's Chip Brewster on a personal tour to show him why it's your favorite, email him at ChipTips@foxtv.com.