Food
Southside Market & Barbeque
The oldest barbecue joint in Texas, going since 1882, when William Moon sold fresh meat door to door and smoked whatever did not sell. That leftover became the sausage the town is known for. Order the all-beef hot gut on a saltine with table hot sauce, and a Slammer — sausage around a cheesy jalapeño, wrapped in bacon.
Meyer's Elgin Smokehouse
The Meyers family brought a German sausage recipe to Texas in the 1850s, and the all-pork original is still made to it. Sausage was always the point here — the restaurant only happened because people kept turning up at the factory wanting lunch. Get the Cowabunga: brisket under hot guts and grilled onions on sourdough.
Lo-Fi Coffee House & Studio
Southside Market started life on the south side of the tracks downtown, and that original building is still standing — it is a coffee house now. Very different from what it used to serve, and still worth the stop. Come here when you have had as much sausage as one person can reasonably manage.
Culture
The Owl Wine Bar & Home Goods
A boutique and a wine bar in one room, named after the old owl mural on the building. The episode gives it credit for downtown Elgin starting to come back to life, which is a lot to hang on one shop, but the block around it makes the case. Browse the home goods with a glass in hand.
Things Celtic
There is an Elgin in Scotland too, which is a better fit than it sounds — this shop stocks imports from Ireland and Scotland and will custom-make you a kilt, a sash or a tie. They will look up your family tartan for you, and if you have no clan to claim, there is a registered Texan Lone Star tartan.
Double R Hat House
Anybody can buy a hat off a shelf, and there is no personality in that. This shop started out working with ranchers and rodeo folks, and shapes each hat to the head and the character of whoever wears it. Brims run regional — big and rolled in West Texas, turned up in the panhandle, flatter further east.
Coupland Dancehall
The buildings date to 1904 and held a mercantile, a pharmacy and an inn before a saloon and then a dance hall were added. Stevie Ray Vaughan shot a music video on that stage. The current owners took it over when it was about to close for good, to bring dancing back. Eat the house barbecue, then two-step.
