Allen's Family Style Meals -- Sweetwater TX - Historic Eats on Waymarking.com

Allen's Fried Chicken opened on old US 80 (also known as the Bankhead Highway) in 1952. At that time, US 80 was the main highway through town. Today I-20 passes to the south of town, but Business-20 uses the old US 80 for its loop routes through bypassed towns.

The lack of hundreds of thousands of drive-by cars has not hurt business one bit -- folks still drive from miles around (some from as far away as Lubbock and Dallas) to eat the fried chicken dinner at Allen's. No menus here -- you what's fresh and in season with your fried chicken, homemade yeast rolls, and peach cobbler!

Allen's does a buffet on weekends at their huge building across the parking lot from the original location at 1301 E Broadway, but the rest of the week it's family-style in what used to be a small house. Long tables are lined inside, with white tablecloths and white heavy-duty dinner plates set at each place. Each table seats about 8 people. Meeting new folks here is part of the charm here -- everyone sits side by side, and your tablemates will pass the platters and bowls of what comes out of the kitchen.

Blasterz will always remember our tablemate, with whom we had a wonderful conversation that took an awkward turn when he said, "How in the HELL did we wind up with that Obama!" -- and Mama Blaster said, "well, because millions of good folks voted for him, just like we did." Long pause. Then he laughed, and we started a new conversation about football. God Bless Texas!! :)

The day Blasterz were there, Allen's had green pea salad, wonderful white potato salad and fresh-shredded coleslaw for salads, tender roast beef and fried chicken for meat entrees, and an amazing array of vegetable side dishes. Blasterz stuffed themselves on buttered whole boiled potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, green beans, okra and tomatoes, stewed summer squash, collard greens, pinto beans and homemade yeast rolls. Of course, we saved room for the homemade peach cobbler for dessert!!!!!!

There's a reason why Allen's was named one of the 40 best small-town Texas cafes by Texas Monthly magazine:

The 40 Best Small-Town Cafes
by Brian D. Sweany published Mon December 1, 2008 6:00 am

"Sweetwater | pop. 10,472
ALLEN FAMILY STYLE MEALS

At Ma Allen’s, as the locals call it, you don’t order off a menu. They just seat you at a long table with other customers, and the platters and bowls start coming. You get fried chicken and one other meat (sausage, barbecued ribs, meat loaf, or roast beef), and there are a ton of sides (squash, pinto beans, slaw, creamed corn, chopped spinach, sweet potatoes, boiled okra, green pea salad, potato salad, and buttery whole peeled baked potatoes that fall apart at the touch of a fork). You pass the food around, boardinghouse-style, till you’re so stuffed you start to fear for your chair. At this rate, the peach cobbler could be your last dessert, but if so you’ll die happy and have something to leave your heirs, since the price of this remarkable meal is a mere $8.50 per person. 1301 E. Broadway, 325-235-2060. Family-style Tue—Sun 11 a.m.—2 p.m. Buffet Mon—Fri 5 p.m.—8 p.m." [end]

Blasterz admit we had not heard of Allen's. We got the tip to come here from the cashier at an antique store downtown. We were going to go into the panini place next door, but the owner told us about Allen's and encouraged us VERY STRONGLY to make the drive out of the old 80 to eat here. We are glad we did, and we will be back!!

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