Ahead of retirement, Texas Monthly food critic reminisces on changing culinary landscape

When it comes to understanding the ever-changing food culture here in the Lone Star State, there are few people who have paid closer attention than Patricia Sharpe .

Sharpe started out as an editorial assistant at Texas Monthly in 1974, and for the past five decades has traveled around Texas eating, reviewing and documenting the flavors around the state.

In her time as a food critic, she's compiled lists of the best places eat, won awards from the James Beard and Texas Restaurant Associations, and after almost 50 years on the job, she's getting ready to step down .

She joined the Texas Standard to share her experiences as a food writer and critic. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Patricia Sharpe: Well, I think that you can only do so much traveling to the five big cities – or here and there around the state – until you just get exhausted doing that. And I think the pandemic, when I had a little break, it showed me just exactly how tough that was.

So after that, I thought, you know what? Maybe it's time to let somebody else do this for a living.

Do you have any favorite restaurants or meals that you still find yourself thinking about even years after the fact?

You know, I do. I think there was a wonderful restaurant in Dallas called Routh Street Cafe. Stephan Pyles was the chef. And it was a real groundbreaker in terms of introducing Southwestern cuisine to Texas.

I had several marvelous meals there in the '80s, and I still think about them to this day.

Well, you mentioned the '80s. You started in the '70s. Has food culture in the Lone Star Star State changed in the past few decades?

Yes, I think that it has gotten a lot more sort of oriented toward almost like a bar culture.

It used to be that you went to a restaurant and you had a nice meal in a quiet setting – something that was a little upscale that had tablecloths and draperies and carpets.

And now all of that is gone because restaurants decided they wanted to save money on their laundry bills and cleaning bills and look modern. And it's just much more like a bar.

And we don't have appetizers and entrees and dessert anymore. We have small plates and large plates. So it's very different.

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Now, how about the food that's being served? Is it still a lot of the same staples or has it gotten, I don't know, more diverse or more experimental? Or what would you say?

Well, I think you hit the nail on the head there. It is much more diverse and it is much more experimental.

And that really started to go back to Routh Street Cafe in the '80s – that really started then. And with immigration being such a strong force, especially in the hospitality industry, and creativity and the celebrity chefs, I think things are much more imaginative and much more creative than they were when I started out.

It must have been fun for you to watch the Michelin Texas Guide come in and kind of do this job that you've been doing for ages. They named a lot of barbecue, a lot of sort of traditional Tex-Mex.

Do you think that it's sort of hard, though, to kind of jump in from the outside and get a good grip at it, from your perspective? Did they get some of it right? Or were there things that were missed?

I think they got a lot of it right. But I do think there were some glaring omissions.

I mean, I've talked to people in several cities – my fellow restaurant reviewers or just people in the food business – and I think that everybody thinks that maybe the second time around they will correct some of these oversights.

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So at Texas Monthly, you know, there's been a barbecue editor for a long time and a taco editor more recently. Where did that place put you as sort of the generalist? Did you still touch on those other cuisines, or how did that work?

I am more of the fine dining editor – the sort of fine and moderate dining editor.

I was actually thrilled when we decided to have a barbecue editor and a taco editor because I had been running those top 50 and best stories for a number of years. And so I was very glad to hand that off to somebody who wanted to specialize in it.

» WHERE THERE'S SMOKE: The Standard's recurring segment with Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn

Well, I know you handed off tacos, but I got to ask... It's always such an argument and Austin and San Antonio have this feud . If you were going to make the call – you're on your way out, nobody can be mad at you anymore – which city do you think makes the best tacos here in Texas?

Well, I think you've got to give primacy to San Antonio because it is the one that, despite what has been said and argued about San Antonio, really deserves credit for the breakfast taco.

Austin has great breakfast tacos. But as far as who was first and who was doing it the longest, you know, it's San Antonio.

Well, you know, you mentioned hitting the big cities in Texas – and of course, you know that that is where a lot of the great restaurants are. But when you think about those areas outside of the big cities, are there ones that come to mind that are worth maybe driving a few extra hundred miles?

Well, for sure. One that I can mention that is a huge favorite of mine is the Perini Ranch Steakhouse , which is in Buffalo Gap, and that is near Abilene. And they have been around for 40 years. And that is the best country steakhouse in Texas and one of the best steakhouses, period.

It's a fun drive out there. And it's so picturesque, so rustic and homey, and the service is so good and they really make you feel welcome. They give you that big Texas welcome. I would say that's one of the great restaurants in a small town.

I love that. Well, if you were to project forward a little bit, where do you think food culture is headed in Texas?

Well, I think that it's probably more of the same that we've seen, like in the last 20 years, which is to say, fine dining and everyday dining merging together, lots of interplay among different cuisines, people drawing from other cultures, lots of mixing and matching.

And I think that the era when all the chefs stayed in their lanes and they did primarily one cuisine, I think was not entirely gone by any means. But I don't think that's the wave of the future.

Well, any tips for regular Texans heading out there wanting to have a nice time at a restaurant? How would you suggest they approach a menu and I guess make the most of their time and deal with service and that sort of thing?

Well, I think you probably want to take a look at what you normally like. If you're normally a steak and potatoes kind of person, I wouldn't go to the Japanese restaurant and vice versa.

I would recommend that you look at the Texas Monthly dining guide, of course. But if you're someone who likes to take a chance, then by all means do that.