Brisket salad

Luckie’s Smokehouse opened on West Davis at Clinton on Super Bowl Sunday. It opened quietly, instead of with the expected bang, because of weird weather. But now, Luckie’s is busy about every night.

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The food is good, but atmosphere is the real star here. It is one of a few restaurants on West Davis to boast a big covered patio — that feature Dallasites love in a restaurant. Theirs is built sturdy as a boat in front of this converted gas station. The patio opens into the bar, which has a TV as big as Smart car, perfect for March Madness.

It’s a great hangout.

On our first visit, we ordered one of the salads, which come with brisket, smoked turkey or chicken. It is a huge salad, enough for two meals, and the brisket is delicious.

The menu also includes sandwiches and burgers, as well as barbecue plates with brisket, ribs, sausage, chicken or turkey. We tried the turkey, which is a tasty low-cal option, with sides of baked beans and coleslaw. This isn’t my grandma’s coleslaw, but I really like it — vinegary with green and purple cabbage.

In two weeks, I’ve been there three times. They’ve got some service problems to work out — our overwhelmed server forgot one person’s order and then took so long getting the check we almost forgot we hadn’t paid it. But we’ll keep coming back.