Here's something I find kind of strange, or at least counterintuitive: vegetarians love barbecue.
I know I wrote yesterday about barbecue in Texas mainly consisting of brisket and sausage. And I realize eating those things makes a person about as carnivorous as he or she can get.
But take something like the Gut Pak at Vitek's. Some of you are wondering why anyone would throw out the brisket and sausage from that particular variety of barbecue greatness. But just for the sake of this hypothetical, try to imagine a Gut Pak without brisket and sausage. You still have Fritos and cheese and onions and pickles and jalapeños. You still have barbecue sauce. You still have a tasty lunch if you can forget about the fact that there could be meat on your plate.
And then consider all of the fine non-meat things that barbecue implies. Like potato salad, beans, cole slaw, etc.
That's why vegetarians really dig on some barbecue. I encountered this, not for the first time, when I had lunch with my newlywed and vegetarian friends Tye and Katie Barrett today at Vitek's. As a matter of fact, the picture with this blog is a portrait of Tye's second helping of vegetarian Gut Pak.
As for me, I'm still happy to consume things that have faces and parents. Leave in the brisket and sausage. I'll deal with the consequences.
One more bite: Wow! Vitek's is really doing the business. Thanks to the new dining room, Vitek's can accommodate a crowd as it did around noon today. Once upon a time, I hesitated to go to Vitek's for lunch, especially the closer the clock came to high noon, because there would inevitably be a long line and there was limited seating (See: "Yogi Berra rule"). Well they've expanded to a huge, comfortable new dining room and guess what — there's still a line and there's still a shortage of places to sit. That's how popular the local barbecue joint was and is. It makes me wonder how big a building Vitek's could fill up. Should the Vitek family consider taking over the Ferrell Center?
