The Optimist

Media Credit: Emily Smith Harold Christian, owner of Harold's Barbecue Pit, prepares a meal for customers Thursday.

Harold's Barbecue Pit is the spirit of life.

It is a place where slow is still the way, where people are connected around food that is warm and filling; guests sit together at communal tables; they have to touch each other and acknowledge each other; diverse groups sit and feast together; men and women in business attire sit next to farmers in sun-faded overalls, who sit next to students sporting designer faded jeans, who sit next to burly construction workers, who sit next to ladies with constructed faces.
All of these wonderful people sharing in one spirit: Harold's Pit Barbecue.

Harold's has served up famous brisket sandwiches, seasoned French fries, fried hot water corn bread, collard greens, pork ribs, Friday-only savory chicken, moist turkey breast, scrumptious sausage, spicy homemade sauce, down home fixings, "damn hot relish" and that homemade blackberry, peach, and strawberry cobbler since 1957. If you have not participated in life at Harold's, you do not know what you're missing.

When you crawl through the small barred door from the desolate, gravel parking lot, you are not just entering a restaurant for lunch-you are entering into another world. This world is bustling with life. The air and the atmosphere knock you back when you walk in. The air is so thick of that sweet smoke that your mouth begins to salivate. You notice the crooked pictures on the wall, the thank you notes from the Abilene High School football team and the vintage menus from the '50s and '60s when you could get a barbecue plate for only $1.25. This place has got character. The only thing standing between you and your "Q basket" is the line that, most days, stretches out the door.

Make sure to not get anxious in line; talk to the people around you, use your imagination and imagine how little this restaurant has changed in the past 49 years.

Prepare yourself to taste the tradition of Harold's.

In line, you must decide what you want to order. There are meat combination plates with your choice of sides: sandwiches chopped on the famous wood chopping block, and, of course, the "Q basket." The basket consists of a chopped brisket sandwich with special sauce and two sides-French fries and collard greens-for $4.25 or $4.60, depending on which size you get. What a deal! I recommend adding a few pieces of fried jalape–o cornbread on the side and a cup of that warm strawberry cobbler.

This is Abilene barbecue.

If you find yourself at Harold's on a busy Friday or Saturday, you might hear deep, booming notes rise above the room.

"His eyes are on the sparrow," Harold's singing lifts the spirit. He not only entertains, he restores; you can see the history in his eyes, the welcome in his smile. This is more than a restaurant: this is an experience.

During the past month, I have given notice to four of Abilene's fine barbecue joints, especially those close to the Hill.

This small survey is in no way meant to be exhaustive, it is only meant to arouse a hunger in students for the slow-cooked meat of this town. The resolve is get out there and eat what this town has to offer!

Bon Appetit!

E-mail Swim at: optimist@acu.edu

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