While Pecan Lodge is a solid choice — it’s one of the longstanding barbecue spots in Dallas and still has a place on Eater’s barbecue map —it wasn’t on our list of suggestions for Cruise. What we’re really disappointed by is that in the era of Keith Lee food reviews, there was no follow-up video of Cruise eating and telling us his thoughts. Almost everything we know is third-hand: or example, the Dallas Morning News reported that a spokesperson (it’s unclear if they were speaking on behalf of the actor or the restaurant) said that Cruise said the beef ribs were the star of the show. What does that even mean? It implies that he ate and enjoyed the beef ribs, but it doesn’t explicitly say that.
Slightly more satisfying proof comes from Tribal All Day Cafe’s Instagram, of all places. Its founder was there when Cruise stopped by (tipped off by the restaurant owner network, we assume), and so we have actual confirmation that Cruise was in Pecan Lodge.
What we can see is that there is food on the table beside Cruise, which may or may not be where he sat to eat. That includes a tray with a grease stain, indicating some food must have been eaten off it by someone, at some point. Still on the tray is what appears to be brisket or a rib with a heavy bark. Directly behind Cruise is a paper plate with lots of wadded-up napkins on top and a little bit of this same bark-covered meat. So if this was Cruise’s seat, he got his hands dirty digging in.
But still, there are questions. Why is Cruise wearing sunglasses inside? Why is everyone else in this photo half a foot behind him? There is a mostly empty to-go container of mac and cheese at the end of the table — did Cruise eat that, too? What was the whole order? Did he only eat beef ribs, and is that because of a specific dietary regimen?
Our apologies to Cruise and his spokesperson, but we’re going to need a full video review, or this never happened.
