Prosecutors go out to lunch a lot. I'm wondering where is the best place to eat in your jurisdiction.

If you are in Georgetown (Williamson County), you will want to try out the Monument Cafe. Fantastic food and be sure to try the banana black bottom pie.

Wouldn't it be nice to HAVE a choice! Out here in the boondocks, we have Gloria's Cafe (home cooked food served buffet style), the DQ, and Rick Murray's BBQ. If ,prosecutors want something else out here, they gotta drive 20 miles.

Help us out by identifying where your office is located by home seat and county or any other identifying place.

Doesn't everyone eat on the Riverwalk for lunch?

Sorry, guys, I have you beat. I love to cook, so always have a full 'fridge - and I go home to enjoy that food as well as the company of my 5 month old puppy, her uncle, grandmother - and my spouse! Joys of a small town - we live in the country and are less than 5 minutes from the office!

Lisa, you have never invited your local District Attorney home to eat your home-cooked meal! We normally go to Little Pablo's for great burgers and steak fingers or Big Boys' Bar-B-Q, which was recently written up in Texas Monthly. A problem we have, as do most small town prosecutors, is finding a place to eat where we have not prosecuted the cook or the waitress, or both. In the other county I serve it is Mexican food or a girlie place with salads and sandwiches. That's it for Sweetwater and Colorado City, USA.

I thought I was the only one with the problem of finding a place to eat where I haven't prosecuted the help. At least we know who is tampering with our food.

In a small town, the problem of who prepares and serves your food seems to be a real concern because we know all those folks and that is the type employment for which they qualify. For the past few years, I've been eating at Subway in Synder because I can see the food being prepared. Not very glamorous, but "safe". Occassionally, I venture to a buffet where the food has been cooked and set out before I arrive. I jokingly tell my wife one day I'm going to die of some horrible disease at I got years ago before I realized some of the defendants we prosecute are creative in seeking revenge.
Are we being too cautious? Never give a last name to the pizza place on a delivery.
Curiuos how others feel about this issue!

A trip to a local restaurant -- for a prosecutor -- probably should be prefaced by a check with the local probation department to see who's working at the particular eatery to pay (or not pay, as the case often may be) probation fees. Although there may be precious little consensus on where to eat lunch in Amarillo, some of the better, yet offbeat, destinations include Beans 'N Things (one of TM's ten best BBQ joints), OHMS Cafe (for people who eat and drink with their pinky sticking out), Blue Sky Cafe (good burgers, if you don't mind standing in line) and Tacos Garcia. And, yes, you're right. I did not list the Big Texan.

It is amazing who comes out on these posts when food is the topic. To take this one step further (farther?), who do you normally eat lunch with? Co-workers? A focus group? These are guys who keep me focused on what I should be doing. Otherwise I can sometimes become too callous and forget what the community/victim thinks of crime.

There is only one place in Spearman (Hansford County) to eat where I have not prosecuted someone for something. But after 25 years I have probably filed something against about 20% of the people in the county, or their son or father, or cousin or something. One just has to do their job, appear fair and impartial and most defendants, but certainly not all, know they messed up and you just had to do your job.
I certainly have had my pedigree misinterpreted by a few but I am astonished by the number of people that say "hi John" on the street(which I do answer to)after I have "sought justice" against them in court.

I do try to avoid a place while the case is active. But being a misdemeanor prosecutor I do not get to ship them off. You cannot live in a small town and avoid all the people you have had for defendants. I don't worry about it as much after these many years.
John Hutchison, Hansford County Attorney, Spearman, Texas

After the graphic images you have put into my head I may never eat out again!! Arties ( a small orange building) in Beeville has great Mexican food and Huge homemade flour Tortillas. I did hear a particularly nasty story about a defense/ divorce lawyer being served some tainted ice tea. It was so disgusting I just wrote it off as well deserved.Gross!!!!!

Great to hear from Hansford County. So, where should I eat there?

Excuse me, in Hansford County the only truly defendant-less beanery(for now) in Hansford County is �The Hungry Cowboy�. It is a BBQ �joint�; the kind that does give you a plate, knife, fork and spoon with which to eat. Some in the Austin area are not so accommodating Come and see us.

Some how my post turned quotes into question marks. I'll try again as it looks odd to have question marks sprinkled through my sentences.

Excuse me, in Hansford County the only truly defendant-less beanery(for now) is "The Hungry Cowboy". It is a BBQ "joint"; the kind that does give you a plate, knife, fork and spoon with which to eat. Some in the Austin area are not so accommodating Come and see us.

It seems to work the other way when you're a criminal defense attorney.

When I worked for the Public Defender's Office, at one time I represented what I called the "Olive Garden Mafia"--3 or 4 waiters all on smaller felonies (small drug possessions, UUMV, that sort of thing). When the Olive Garden was busy at lunch and I'd put my party's name down on the waiting list, inevitably one of my former clients would show up, see me, go "SHHH" and take us straight to a table ahead of everyone else. (Hey, when you're making as little as an Assistant Public Defender does, you take your perks where you can get them.)

I also have walked into one of the local's famous small Mexican food joints to have the cook see me, yell out my name, and ask where the heck I had been--he had been looking for me. NOT that he needed me but he wanted my card, just in case. He made me one great burrito.

[This message was edited by Versel on 08-24-04 at .]

When I worked for Ft. Bend DA's office, many moons ago, a bunch of us used to eat at the joint 2 or 3 times a week. There are 4 prison farms there, and each has an officers' dining room. We switched around according to where the best graze was.

They grow their own veggies, and the side dishes were great. The main dish could be pretty good too, altho occasionally you'd get "neck bone soup." It was a lot like eating at The Black Eye Pea--good Texas cooking. Then the Ruiz "reforms" kicked in, and restricted officers to exactly the same food as the inmates. This meant we were only given 1 choice for a main course (instead of 4), and no milk in the coffee.

I've gone to eat at the joint in Cuero a couple of times in the last couple of years, and the food is quite differant. It is as if some crazed dietitician had taken over the receipes. It tasted like nothing was cooked with any salt, and the greens were cooked with no bacon.

But, as the warden told me, "we may not have the best food in town, but we do have the cheapest." It's still all you can eat for $1.00.

I wish I had read this before going through Georgetown; the Monument Cafe sounds great-we stopped at McDonalds. Alas, in our college town, College Station, the kids flock to chains. Most local efforts seem to fail but La Bodega and Cafe Eccel across the street provide nice lunch fare.

As I'm reading this thread, I'm thinking how great it would be if TDCAA would publish a guide on where to eat in every county seat in the state. Us Prosecutor Assistance types would pay top dollar to avoid spending half our time on the trial and error style of restaurant selection in small towns that don't have Subway.

Perhaps such a publication could also include a list of restaurants to avoid. Boy, could I contribute to that list. Wish I could remember the name of the Chinese restaurant in Plainview that put ketchup all over their szechuan chicken. Or the Mexican restaurant in Ozona that puts cream gravy on their green enchiladas....

Hey Terry, by saying used to eat at TDC, I hope you mean many, many years ago. When I go to any of the units, which is too often for my taste, I won't even drink out of the water fountains. And, anyone who knows me, knows I love to eat -- but if I ever get caught and convicted, I vow not to eat anything from a prison chow hall. I could write a book ( as far-fetched as that sounds) about the cases we have prosecuted that occurred in prison kitchens. But since that won't happen, I'll just share with the hungry folks out there what a FOOD SERVICE MANAGER from the Stiles Unit told me during a trial in Jefferson County: "I quit TDC, couldn't stand what was going on in the kitchen..." This guy was one of the higher paid employees of the prison system, had worked his way up to managerial position, his vocation was 100% involved in the kitchen, and he quit because of what was going on in there.

Bon apetit