After several years of travelling around South America, Greg Hill, 47, did a four-country tour of Southeast Asia that included a month in Cambodia.

“I couldn’t keep away,” he says.

Today, Hill has been in Cambodia for 13 years in Cambodia, and is married with two children. Lone Star Saloon came about, he says, because his favourite riverside watering hole, California 2, where he met is then wife to be, closed in 2008.

“California 2 closed in 2008, and my wife needed a job and I needed a place to hang out,” he says laconically.

Originally located on Street 172, between Norodom Boulevard and Street 51, Lone Star moved to its current location on Street 23 close to five years ago, with the addition of four rooms for guests that are almost always fully booked.

“We get a lot of regular guests – people living in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City,” says Hill, who adds that the kitchen serves up Texas-Southern cuisine.

“Our signature dishes are ribs, chicken-fried steak and pulled-pork sandwiches,” he says.

But Hill’s passion is barbecue – to the extent that he’s gone as far as to form the Cambodian Barbecue Association with three fellow devotees. Other members include Americans Chad Foucher of Rory’s Pub on Street 178 and Rock Foundation founder and executive director Brett Medlin.

Medlin, who hails from Louisiana but has spent time in Texas attests to the standards of Hill’s Texas barbecue standards.

“We’re a fledgling club for people who like to get together and have fun with barbecues,” says Hill.“We’re going to rotate around venues and turn it into something that bar owners and individuals want to be part of.”

The barbecue association will be coming together today make this year a bigger than ever 4 July Independence Day party.

“This will be our sixth annual 4 July anniversary barbecue,” says Hill, who adds that there will be a tent outside the bar with slow roasting/smoking cookers, and that food will be served from 3pm “until well into the evening”.

Hill also promise face painting, United States Department of Agriculture approved smoked beef brisket, pork ribs, chicken wings, burgers, hot dogs, side dishes, and “some surprises …”

The cost for the all-you-can-eat feast is $10 per person – children under 10 free.

Lone Star Saloon

#30, Street 23, Phnom Penh

Tel: 012 577 860