Barbecue lovers rejoice: Pecan Lodge has adapted deliciously to Deep Ellum

Slabs of fatty brisket, their crusty edges charred black, tremble and ooze a bit on the brown-paper- covered tray that serves as their plate. Sliced across the grain, they glisten in the autumn sun. Hello, luscious!

Next to the brisket, a trio of plump, U-shaped sausages, a chorus line of pork ribs sheathed in coal-dark bark and a mound of pulled pork all beg to be devoured. The air is perfumed (if you can call it that) with the winsome scent of wood smoke. My friends and I may be sitting at a picnic table whose centerpiece is a roll of paper towels, but this isn’t your ordinary barbecue experience: We’re swirling Spanish wine in Riedel crystal glasses.

Welcome to Pecan Lodge — the Deep Ellum edition. Back in early May, Justin and Diane Fourton (he’s pitmaster, she’s “boss lady”) closed their 4-year-old stand at the Dallas Farmers Market, preparing to relocate.

Have you heard about the lines that used to start forming an hour or more before they opened their stand? Have you waited in line diligently, only to learn after you’d been standing for what seemed like forever that they’d run out of brisket, or sold all their ribs? Talk about a cult following. Last year, when Pecan Lodge made Dallas barbecue history as it tied for second place in Texas Monthly’s quinquennial list of the 50 best barbecue joints in the state, those lines did not diminish.

When they reopened in late May on the corner of Main and Pryor streets as an honest-to-goodness restaurant, you could hear Dallas barbecue aficionados cheering all the way to Waco.

Now, instead of just lunch Wednesday through Sunday, Pecan Lodge serves lunch Tuesday through Sunday and dinner Friday and Saturday. Unless you go at the busiest times — generally weekdays from 11 to 11:30 a.m., and on weekends — you won’t have to wait long, if at all. No more scrambling to find a place to sit; the spacious dining room and patio have tables aplenty.

And there are perks besides, like umbrellas on the patio and attentive staffers who bus the tables. There’s even a bar, serving an appealing selection of local craft beers on tap and quite a respectable wine list, and live music outside on Friday and Saturday nights. Running out of barbecue is much less of a problem, as the Fourtons run all three of their pits, stoked with hickory, oak and mesquite, 24 hours a day Tuesday through Sunday.

Step up to the counter (there was no line when I arrived on a Tuesday at 1 p.m., and just a few people waiting when I came on another Tuesday at 12:30), place your order, get your drinks, find a table. When your food’s ready, your name will be called — through a blaring loudspeaker — and you pick it up at a window. The place runs smoothly; orders appear quickly. However, the noise of names being called so loudly is jarring, especially during busy times.

Go with friends, and you can avoid the line altogether by heading for the express counter and ordering a family-style platter, also known as the Trough. For $65 you get a pound of brisket, a pound of pork ribs, half a pound of pulled pork, three sausage links and a beef rib. It’s easily enough meat for four or five hungry barbecue lovers.

Otherwise, there are two- and three-meat plates, which each come with one side. Naturally there’s sliced brisket, which you can order fatty or lean. I’m not usually a fan of lean brisket (it’s so often dried out), but here it’s rich and moist; the fatty is positively luscious, streaked with fat. Both are well-seasoned and suffused with, but not overwhelmed by, smoke flavor. And there are pork ribs that pick up gently sweet, salty and peppery notes from their rub, along with pulled pork and house- made sausages, regular and jalapeño.

Generally, these meats are excellent; often they’re outstanding. Occasionally they disappoint.

In other words, there’s a bit of a consistency issue — which perhaps isn’t so surprising, when you consider the volume those pits must be turning out. Pulled pork was moist and flavorful one day, dry and underseasoned another. Pork ribs were usually superb: tender almost to the point of falling off the bone and beautifully smoky, with nicely chewy bark, but on one visit they were fatty throughout, with a thick layer of fat under their charred crust, yet somehow not particularly tender and somewhat underseasoned. I took another order to go the same day, and those were splendid.

The least impressive experience was at dinnertime on a busy Saturday night. The giant beef rib on our Trough was over-charred, nearly burnt; pinto beans were served cold. An order of fried chicken had a hard crust that was unpleasantly doughy in places. That was two months after the restaurant opened. Both subsequent visits — altogether more satisfying — were made in recent weeks; the fried chicken was much improved.

On the side there are also a fresh and vivid coleslaw, crisply fried okra, a straightforward mac and cheese, and porky collard greens that are oddly sweet.

The brisket, it must be said, was pretty outrageously good on all three visits.

If you feel like a sandwich, consider the mammoth Pitmaster, built of roughly chopped brisket, pulled pork and sliced sausage, coleslaw, tangy barbecue sauce and sliced jalapeños in thoughtful proportions on a sturdy (it had better be!) bun. Do have a knife and fork on hand, though, as meats come tumbling out of the monster when you take a bite.

Or go for the Hot Mess, a roasted sweet potato loaded generously with shredded Southwestern-seasoned brisket, grated Jack and cheddar, squiggles of chipotle cream, sliced scallions and more.

Sidle up to the bar for a pint of Deep Ellum IPA, Peticolas Velvet Hammer or another local craft beer on draft, or order a wine from Diane’s list of nine. The bartender carried our bottle of Rioja and a trio of those Riedel glasses to our table and proceeded to open the bottle and over-fill the glasses without presenting the wine or letting anyone taste it first. A little training would go a long way.

If you have room for a sweet, there’s a nicely chewy peanut butter-coconut- chocolate chip cookie, a likable if forgettable banana pudding and a peach cobbler, better than average and not overly sweet.

One of the great dividends for the city’s food lovers in the last few years is that the quality of our barbecue — not a strong suit in Dallas in the past — has greatly improved. The Fourtons certainly helped lead the way. That we can enjoy their outstanding brisket, that grand prize of the Texas barbecue universe, and their other smoky offerings in such an easy, stress-free and attractive setting is really something to cheer about.

Pecan Lodge (3 stars)

Price: $-$$ (sandwiches and plates $8 to $16, smoked meats $7.50 to $9 per pound, family-style platter $65, desserts $1 to $3.75)

Service: Order at the counter, pick up at the window. Staffers bus tables and keep an eye out for anything you might need. Order beer and wine at the bar.

Ambience: A spacious and attractive dining room done up in corrugated metal, license plates and photos, it’s Texan without going kitschy. Abutting the smokehouse on the side, an inviting patio has tables shaded by red umbrellas. There’s live music outside Friday and Saturday nights from 6:30 to 9:30.

Noise level: The constant blaring of names over a loudspeaker is pretty jarring.

Location: 2702 Main St., Dallas; 214-748-8900; pecanlodge.com

Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Reservations: Not accepted

Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V

Wheelchair accessible: Yes

Alcohol: Wine and beer only. A list of three white and six red wines, all available by the bottle or the glass, has reasonable markups. Curiously, none are from Texas; otherwise, they’re well-chosen to work with the smoked meats. Five local craft beers are offered on tap, with several others in bottles or cans.

RATINGS LEGEND

5 stars: Extraordinary -- defines fine dining in the region

4 stars: Excellent -- one of the finest restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth

3 stars: Very good -- a destination restaurant for this type of dining

2 stars: Good -- commendable effort, but experience can be uneven

1 star: Fair -- experience is generally disappointing

No stars: Poor

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