‘Food & Wine’ Praises Buc-ee’s Gas Station Barbecue

— Food & Wine seems to be going through a Texas kick lately. First, Whataburger, then Torchy’s Tacos, and now the state’s road trip savior Buc-ee’s. More specifically, the barbecue sandwiches and tacos. The writer saw the simple offering (that “isn’t going to be winning national awards any time soon”) is indication of the wealth of smoked meats in Central Texas because “even our basic gas station brisket” is better than most.

— Three gins from Washington, D.C.-based District Distilling Company will be available in Austin and Houston starting on Monday, March 12. This means the Checkerbark American dry-style gin, the Checkerbark barrel-rested American dry-style gin, and the WildJune Western-style gin. These are all made with foraged West Texas junipers by UT Austin biology professor Molly Cummings who is also a co-owner of District. The distillery is previewing the gins during musician Bob Schneider’s South by Southwest shows, since he was the one who designed WildJune’s label. It’ll take place at Threadgill’s on West Riverside on Thursday and Friday, March 15 to 16 with neat pours or watermelon cocktails.

— Canned beer news: Independence Brewing Co. launched a new Munich-style German pale lager beer available in a can, the Cowboys from Helles. And then Celis Brewery released canned versions of its Celis White for the first time ever.

— For Women’s History Month, North Loop bar Drink.Well is offering a special female-centric happy hour menu, where drinks were either created by female bartenders or feature spirits from female distillers or beer from female brewers. This means $4 tapped Celis Brewery beers, and $7 cocktails like absinthe frappes, spiced juleps, and more. Partial proceeds will be donated to GirlForward.