Babe's Chicken Dinner House

Roanoke, Dallas · Southern · $$

Roanoke is a small town north of Fort Worth, and Babe's anchors its main street the way a grandmother anchors a Sunday afternoon. The menu is brief by design: fried chicken or chicken-fried steak, with mountains of mashed potatoes, cream gravy, biscuits, and corn arriving in bowls until the table says stop. It's a model that hasn't needed changing in 30 years and a Texas ritual worth understanding.