T-Bone Tom's Steakhouse Restaurant

T-Bone Tom's calls itself a steak house, but the steaks aren't in the same league with the USDA Prime stuff you get in downtown steak houses. T-Bone Tom's steaks are cut from USDA Choice beef, which puts them on a par with the ones at the Saltgrass Steakhouse on the boardwalk. Both restaurants charge $20 for a 12-ounce rib eye.

I sampled something the menu calls "Tom's Choice," which is a marinated rib eye. It was a half-inch thick, very tender and full-flavored. Like most rib eyes, it had a fair amount of gristle. I am guessing there was some soy sauce in the marinade. I ate it outside on the deck with a cold beer and steak fries. The fresh air and charcoal smoke aroma reminded me of cookouts in the backyard long ago.

Now granted, a USDA Prime steak and a glass of fine wine in a plush steak house is a pleasure of a higher order. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy a juicy cookout steak on a Styrofoam plate with a cold beer down by the sea every now and then. And besides, when was the last time you got to listen to the swampy blues of Tom "Big Daddy Gumbo" Dardar at a downtown steak house?

It really doesn't matter whether you eat a steak, one of the excellent hamburgers or the classic chicken-fried steak. The real reason to go to T-Bone Tom's is to help keep the wild spirit of old Kemah alive.