Don’t mess with Texas
Some of the best barbecue in the world can be found in small central Texas towns like Lockhart and Luling. When barbecue shrines matter of factly serve unpretentiously great food wrapped plainly in butcher paper, the effect is unsettling to someone used to eating mediocre barbecue at inflated, big city prices.
The one slice of brisket I ordered at Kreuz Market (photo below) cost me a paltry 96 cents. You might ask how a restaurant would be willing to sell just one measly slice of brisket, and the answer lies at its humble beginnings.
These joints started life as meat markets and groceries which sold lunch to cattlehands and cotton pickers at the turn of the previous century. These working stiffs may have been too poor to eat in restaurants, but they could afford cheap cuts of smoked meats. The butchers would sell it by the pound, along with pickles, saltines, and “rat cheese,” which were the only side dishes available in those days. Since every grown man carried a pocket knife, no utensils were provided. Communal knives were chained to the wall at Kreuz Market for any hapless schmuck who forgot his.
The tiny town of Luling has two top notch BBQ joints
Brisket and links served with no plates or utensils. City Market Luling, Texas
Skip forward to 2006, and barbecue isn’t cheap any more. Finding skilled pitmasters to babysit a cooker for 18 hours isn’t as easy as hiring a high school kid to flip burgers, and retail prices reflect that expense. All the same, prices here seem low compared to restaurants paying rent in West Los Angeles.
The style of barbecue in Central Texas is austere: a monastic incantation of meat, salt, pepper, smoke. It might be the purest expression of barbecue I’ve found. Dry rub still hasn’t encroached on a minimalist style that predates the Depression, but barbecue sauce is available (on the side) at the places which have caved in to modern times.
The wee town of Luling has two renowned barbecue joints (City Market and Luling Bar-B-Q), but its larger neighbor Lockhart has no less than four (Black’s, Kreuz Market, Smitty’s Market and Chisholm Trail). I only had time to visit City Market, Black’s and Kreuz Market in a progressive dinner blitzkrieg.
Black’s Barbecue has continuously operated in this location by the same family since 1932. It looks exactly as you’d expect an old time barbecue joint to look. Its woodpaneled walls and timeworn cafeteria tables might have been last updated during LBJ’s administration. Like the other shops I visited, you order at the back of the restaurant, where the BBQ pits are walled off in a room designed to keep smoke from infusing the whole building.
Black’s Barbecue. Lockhart, Texas
Slicing a rack of ribs at Black’s. Note the brick BBQ pits.
Time warp
Brisket, pork rib, and sausage at Black’s.
Kreuz Market dates back to 1900, but a recent famly spat forced the current owner to move the business into a larger building down the street from its original location. His father willed the original building to his daugher Nina, and the business to his son Rick. The children don’t get along, yet both of them wanted to continue in the barbecue business. So Rick built a big new building and took the Kreuz name with him, while his sister renamed the old place Smitty’s, after their father “Smitty” Schmidt.
Kreuz cooks shoulder clod, an unusual beef cut that’s leaner than brisket. I was stuffed by this point so I didn’t try the shoulder clod, the pork chops or any of their famous sausages. Rick Schmidt’s method of cooking shoulder clod is in Peace, Love, & Barbecue. I plan to cook it at home to see what this Texas specialty is all about.
The pits at this new location are designed exactly like the pits from the original Kreuz store. Post oak logs fire the brick pits, rather than mesquite, which is more commonly employed in Texas. Heat and smoke are drawn across the long brick pit and up the chimney at the far end of this photo. This is only one of the ten or twelve such pits I saw that supply their 23,000 square foot restaurant.
Note the open firebox and the blazing flames. Kreuz Market cooks hotter and faster than most places (400 degrees F versus the usual 200-250, so the pitmasters must be attentive to avoid burned meat.
Elvis lives
96 cents worth of Lone Star brisket. No BBQ sauce, no utensils!
Every little town in this part of Texas seems to have a smokehouse or a hole in the wall with a barrel smoker out back. Most aren’t as nationally famous as the three places I’ve mentioned here. Unlike other barbecue restaurants across America, these can trace a direct lineage to their 19th century German immigrant ancestors who settled this region. Outsiders gradually brought influences like barbecue sauce and side dishes, but the core Texas values remain stubbornly intact at these old school joints: meat seasoned only with salt, pepper and smoke, and served without plates or utensils. Eating cottonpicker style is a proud anthropological legacy from families who’ve been keeping their food real for over 100 years.
For further reading about barbecue across the vast nation of Texas, visit DallasFood.org and Texas BBQ Trail.
City Market
633 E. Davis St.
Luling, TX 78648
830-875-9019
Blacks Barbecue
215 N. Main St.
Lockhart, TX 78644
512-398-2712
www.blacksbbq.com
Kreuz Market
619 N. Colorado St.
Lockhart, TX 78644-2110
512-398-2361
www.kreuzmarket.com
May 9th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Mmm…Mmm…Mmm…BEEF. It’s what’s for dinner. hahaha! Looks absolutely delicious! Have never been to Texas myself. The thought definitely scares the living #$@* out of me.
“Who’s them Oh-ree-en-tals??” (Did you see Ron’s Asian Stories?)
May 9th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
I made that trip back in May of 2005. Glad to see nothing has changed. It’s really a pilgramage to the Texas BBQ Mecca. You can read about my experiences here.
http://whitetrashbbq.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_whitetrashbbq_archive.html
May 9th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Kristy, that’s hilarious! Don’t hold it against them that they’re from Texas, all the Texans I know personally are fine people : )
I play this game called “Let’s count the Orientals” at appropriate times: NHL games, Jimmy Buffett concerts, etc. I start: “One… *crickets* …”
Robert, thanks for the link to your Lockhart trip. It’s a trip to Mecca like you say, but the crazy thing is there’s scores of little joints scattered all over this part of Texas, and I’ll bet you some of the lesser known ones are just as good or better than the famous ones in Lockhart or Luling. Sort of makes you want to sell the house, and wander the Texas countryside like the BBQ seeking version of Caine in Kung Fu
May 12th, 2006 at 7:11 am
Ummm real Texas BBQ. I have a friend who is from some small town in Texas like Luling. He also cooks a great brisket which reminds me of the above.
May 12th, 2006 at 7:46 am
You are a man on a mission…of the bbq variety… I agree with Kristy: as a half-breed myself I’m not sure I’d jump on the next bus waaay out there…BUT anyone who can do such fabulous things with beef can’t be all bad!!
May 13th, 2006 at 5:00 am
As a native Texan from the Hill Country now living in Los Angeles, this post not only makes me happy but so damn proud. Informative and beautiful and illustrates everything I love about my people and our bbq. I can smell it now and my hands feel greasy.
Man oh man, you just did us proud
May 14th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Prof…dang…you went to Texas to eat. That’s all I ever wanted to do…go to Texas for some bbq brisket!!! Hope to see you at Manna so we can talk Texas bbq over Korean bbq!
May 15th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Funny, I recently went to almost the same places and, in a couple of cases, took almost the same photos! Nice report.
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8035
May 15th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Sylvie: Much as I like Texas style cue, I have much love for Memphis ribs and the Carolina pig roast!
Matt of the Hill People: you should be rightly proud. I’m more fascinated by the culture of BBQ in this part of Texas rather than any particular restaurant’s food.
Jeni: A quick flight to Texas ain’t nothin. The previous time I visited, I flew from L.A. to NYC to meet up w/ a buddy of mine. We drove to Texas for a BBQ pilgrimage. Hit various BBQ meccas in Kentucky, Illinois, Memphis, Dallas, and Austin before coming back through New Orleans, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Oh yeah, one of our closest friends was getting married sometime during our BBQ mission. Seemed like convenient timing, so we fit that in too.
MikeG: Thanks for the link to your report! It’s funny how these famous places draw so many pilgrims. Next time, I’m exloring the lesser known places. Found a smoke house in Katy, TX that looked promising, but it hadn’t opened in time before my flight back home. Speaking of BBQ meccas, have you visited Mike Mills’ place in Murphysboro, IL? It’s a nice day trip from Chicago.
May 20th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Professor,
Great blog. I have added it to my bloglines
Nothing like a great brisket to make the heart happy…but like you say pork and ribs can make the heart sing! Congratulations on your showing at the recent contest…sounds like y’all did rather well for your first. You were smart to join forces rather than try it as a single.
Have you tried Mike Mill’s place in Las Vegas? Also good. Look for my name in Mike’s book….my real name…not The General.
Let me know if I can assist you in any way as you prepare for your next competition.
TG
May 22nd, 2006 at 6:16 pm
wow… to eat BBQ in a real Texas BBQ joint would be better than eating pizza in Italy..
sad to say, but the best brisket i’ve had in CAL was at Wood Ranch… depressing isn’t it.. but i have to admit it was pretty good for a chain.. ;p
June 12th, 2006 at 9:51 am
You can also go to Luling City Market when you’re in Houston.
June 22nd, 2006 at 11:54 am
Woohoooo, real brisket! Nice reporting. Now you’ve made me extremely hungry. I’d love to check out more places in that area. Black’s looks great!
Here are a few photos that should look familiar to you:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=c4k1fw3.4u7pyakr&x=0&y=ltgnzi
Just have to add a couple things: in addition to the German influence on this style of BBQ, there are some seriously proud Czech roots there as well. See Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook by Robb Walsh for more info-great book.
“Elvis” in your photos is Roy Perez, one heckuva pitmaster and cool dude. Did you have a chance to chat with him about Kreuz?
Lastly, after reading through the comments, I wish people would stop being afraid of Texas and the south in general. Like ANY place in the US, it’s got the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sure it’s not pleasant to be stared at or called names, but avoiding large areas of our country doesn’t solve anything either. Kudos to you Professor for following what you love.
July 20th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Have you given up on posting or is there just nothing new to say?