BBQ News
Fort Worth BBQ restaurant Sausage Shoppe On The Go to open new location
Sausage Shoppe On the Go will soon have more than to-go.
A long-running Fort Worth barbecue restaurant known for its awesome sausage is expanding: Sausage Shoppe On the Go, a family-owned restaurant in business 30 years, is opening a bigger, better spinoff at 3914 Miller Ave. on the city’s east side.
Owner Alandres Chambers says the new store should open in late March or early April.
It's a step up from their current location on Brentwood Stair Road, which has no dining area and focuses on to-go orders only. The new outlet will be larger, and will incorporate sit-down dining.
Although it will have a dining area, it'll also be called Sausage Shoppe On the Go, since it has a drive-thru window.
“A lot of customers have been asking us to open another location where they can come in, sit down and have a nice meal,” Chambers says. “Our current location doesn’t allow us to do that. You can come in and order but most people just go through the drive-thru. But that’s the No. 1 thing they tell me, ‘open another restaurant.’”
The menu will be similar to the original, featuring sausage in two varieties, pork and beef; chopped or sliced brisket; smoked chicken; pork ribs; and a unique bologna sandwich, in which the bologna is first smoked, then fried.
All of the meats will be smoked over mesquite wood in a custom-built smoker Chambers recently acquired.
“It’s a huge pit - about eight feet wide and 10 feet tall,” he says. “It’s old school, no gas, nothing modern.”
Sausage will be available by the pound, in a sandwich, or on a combo plate with meat and side, from choices such as potato salad, mac & cheese, green beans, corn, and baked beans. Desserts will rotate and include various cakes and pies.
This year marks the 30th anniversary for the restaurant, which Chambers' parents, Ivy and Mary, opened in 1994 on East Seminary. At the time, it was one of the few barbecue restaurants in North Texas to offer housemade sausage.
While most barbecue spots focused on brisket and ribs and treated sausage like an afterthought, serving commercial or store-bought links, Ivy and Mary painstakingly made their coarsely-ground links by hand, using a recipe that took years to develop.
Today, it’s a common practice for ‘cue joints to make their own sausage.
Over the years, the restaurant has moved locations four times. Two incarnations were full-service restaurants with expanded menus that included soul food dishes. Alandres, who took over the business after his father died in 2019, says the new location will bring back some of the soul food staples, such as smothered pork chops and oxtails.
“We’ll have the space now to do things other than barbecue,” he says. “It won’t be available at first, but eventually we’ll bring back some of those dishes.”
The restaurant was originally called Sausage Shoppe. Alandres added “On the Go” to the restaurant’s name last year when he relocated the restaurant from south Fort Worth to its current tiny location, which was previously home to another ‘cue spot called Wilson’s BBQ. He closed for two weeks to make updates and has since reopened.
Alandres says what he’s most jazzed about is the area the new spot will serve.
“This location will be right in the middle of a residential area," he says. "The other location is on a busy street next to the freeway. This is in the middle of a neighborhood where people can just walk down the street and be there. It’ll be a real neighborhood restaurant.”
Please God let that not be a real critter on the wall at The Chumley House, amen.Duro
Beef Wellington, a signature dish at The Chumley House.Duro