Kreuz Market, a high cathedral of Texas barbecue

Kreuz Market, prices circa 2011

Editor's note: Barbecued Adventures will be relaunched in early 2014 with new posts about barbecue, pitmasters and related travel. This post dates back to Feb. 20, 2011. Thank you for reading and place come back often. 

As you might recall from my earlier article about Lockhart, Texas' Smitty’s Market, back in the late 1990s, a disagreement among family members led Rick Schmidt to construct a new home – some might say a cathedral – for his barbecue.

Mike Mills, in a profile of Schmidt in his book Peace, Love and Barbecue, retold a story related to him by a journalist. When the enormous building was going up, people would walk into Smitty’s and ask, “What denomination is that church they’re building up the street?” The staff would respond, “Why, that’s the Church of Kreuz!”

When we visited on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, it afforded us plenty of places to sit, but I understand that it is hard to find a table here on a Saturday.

Roy Perez

The sign on the door offers fair warning to traveling salesmen: “No Salesmen – Every Third Salesman is Shot & The Second One Just Left!"

Located about a quarter mile north of the old location, at 619 N. Colorado (also route 183), Kreuz Market obviously shares a lot of good DNA with those who continue to turn out tasty barbecue back in the original location at Smitty’s.

The fire pits at Kreuz Market are exactly the same as at Smitty’s. When the place opened in 1999, Schmidt and his longtime employee Roy Perez staged a ceremonial carting of the coals up the street to fire up the new pits with “authentic Kreuz coals.” 

So you know the family feud isn’t too fierce.

And they exclusively use oak. You should see the fence that surrounds the wood pile.

Along with the new building came new items on the menu, including pork spare ribs, beans, German potato salad, sauerkraut and jalapeno cheese sausage.

Because this was the third barbecue restaurant that we’d visited in Lockhart within about three hours, my wife and I opted to share some pork ribs.

We love the ribs!

While I could get into trouble ranking their beef brisket with the other haunts here, I believe we are on firm ground when I write that Kreuz’ pork ribs were the best we’d had in more than a week in Texas.

We visited with several other people who also had come from many miles away to eat at Kreuz Market, including a couple of brothers who had driven in from North Carolina (one of them took our picture seen here).

However, I am disappointed to report some false advertising about this place. In television programs and even on Kreuz’ web site, it was been reported that if you want barbecue sauce or folks, “they are missing in action from Kreuz Market to this day.” 

A sign inside proclaims, “No Barbecue Sauce: Nothing to Hide.”

Not true. As you’ll see in the picture, there is a barbecue sauce here and it is excellent. But I will agree that it also remains an optional condiment.

Another sign proclaims that they only take cash, no credit cards. Also not true, thank goodness.

Location we visited:
Kreuz Market
619 N. Colorado St.
Lockhart, Texas
512-398-2361

 
 

Smitty's -- A barbecue time machine in Lockhart, Texas

The open fire pit at Smitty's

Editor's note: Barbecued Adventures will be relaunched in early 2014 with new posts about barbecue, pitmasters and related travel. This post dates back to Feb. 14, 2011. Thank you for reading and place come back often. 



From the moment that you walk through the doors of Smitty’s Market, 208 S. Commerce St. in Lockhart, Texas, it’s like stepping out of a time machine that propels you back to the 1930s. 

There is very little light in the entry way, except for the glow from the fiery coals and logs emanating from the barbecue pits located down at the other end of the long hallway.

As you make it halfway down the hall, to your right is a doorway into a simple, more brightly lit dining area, where you can pick up sides, drinks and even ice cream and then sit with your food at long, communal tables.

But you’ll first continue down the hallway towards the brick hearth. The temperature gets higher and your anticipation for the barbecued meats and smoked sausage also rises.

Here you make your selection much in the same way they did more than 100 years ago. Smitty’s is located in the same building where Charles Kreuz opened a German grocery store for cotton pickers and other field hands who weren’t allowed in local restaurants.

You still get your food served the same way, on brown paper without sauce. Utensils are optional. Inside the much cooler dining room, you’ll also find crackers, local cheeses and RC colas.

It's somewhat hard to believe that Smitty's has a web site.

The dining room at Smitty's looks unchanged from the 1950s.

"This building has always been barbecue, and it has a great ambiance," says current owner Nina Schmidt Sells, in an article on the restaurant’s web site. "We always have repairs, upkeep and maintenance, but we do our best to preserve the building without replacing or detracting from anything."

Smitty’s is also a story of a family and a disagreement. 

In 1948, Charles Kreuz sold the business to Edgar Schmidt, who had worked there since 1936. In the 1960s, Edgar Schmidt closed the grocery but kept the restaurant going. About a quarter century later, he sold the business to his sons, Rick and Don, who ran it together until Don’s retirement in 1997.

The book, “Peace, Love and Barbecue,” by Mike Mills and Amy Mills Tunnicliffe, tells the story (albeit a one-sided story) of a “feud” Rick Schmidt had with his sister, Nina, which led to the opening of Kreuz Market (more to come later).

“It wasn’t a feud. It was just ‘get out’ and I got out!,” he said in the book. “After 99 years at the same location, I’m not proud of it, but family deals happen. When my dad died, he left the business to me and the building to my sister, so she wound up being my landlady.

“She decided she wanted to be in the barbecue business and I couldn’t get along with her and negotiate the lease. And I couldn’t buy the property,” he said.

Sells’ son, James Fullilove, became the pitmaster and the business was named for her father, “Smitty” Schmidt.

The smoked sausage at Smitty's brings on a smile.

I opted for their delicious sausage, which gave me a smile similar to the one you’ll see in the accompanying photo. The sign in the window proudly proclaims their “homemade wieners” for good reason.

Texas Monthly has named Smitty’s one of the top five restaurants in Texas. It is one of the four great barbecue joints here that contribute to Lockhart’s reputation as the “Barbecue Capital of Texas.”

As we left, the logs continued to burn in the old pit, giving off a warm glow that seemed appropriate for a late December day, turning out big flavored meats for those who followed us.

Location we visited:
Smitty's Market
208 South Commerce
Lockhart, Texas
512-398-9344

Lockhart, Texas: “The Barbecue Capital of Texas”

Caldwell County Courthouse

Editor's note: Barbecued Adventures will be relaunched in early 2014 with new posts about barbecue, pitmasters and related travel. This post dates back to Feb. 1, 2011. Thank you for reading and place come back often.

According to official sources, the town of Lockhart, Texas, is home to the state’s oldest public library and the oldest Protestant church.

The Caldwell County Courthouse aptly is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.

On the map, Lockhart would seem to be another small Texas town, located about 45 minutes south of Austin and about 90 minutes north of San Antonio.

On the day we visited, the downtown square resembled the sleepy Texas town depicted in the Academy Award-winning drama, "The Last Picture Show." Sadly, many shops were closed that Wednesday, including the consignment shop my wife wanted to inspect, as well as the bakery on the square. Some local teens, accompanied by an old hound dog, aimed us to a place for ice cream on this warm afternoon.

The 1996 Christopher Guest comedy "Waiting for Guffman" and the 1993 Academy Award nominated drama "What's Eating Gilbert Grape(starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp)" were filmed here, including at the historic courthouse square. The city's Wal-Mart store was used in the 2000 Natalie Portman film "Where The Heart Is."

But where I had seen Lockhart before had been on television.

The fourth episode of the Travel Channel’s “Food Wars” series featured a barbecue and family debate between two local joints, Kreuz Market and Smitty's Market. Together with Black’s Barbecue – the oldest such restaurant in the state to be operated by the same family – and Chisholm Trail Bar-B-Que, the town has been dubbed “The Barbecue Capital of Texas.”

By the Texas Legislature, no less, in 1999. Until recently, that’s also what it said on the welcome sign as you entered town on Highway 183. It's what drew us here.

Although it only has a population of about 12,900, an estimated 23,000 people eat at Lockhart’s four barbecue restaurants each week – or about 1.2 million a year (as reported in the state travel guide).

Diners at Black's Barbecue

So it is no surprise that Mayor Lew White closes the deal when describing his community on the city’s web site by saying that it has, “above all, the best tasting barbecue to be found anywhere!”

His statement is debatable, but from the moment we entered town, we knew we had entered into a historic place, a destination worthy of its billing. Over the next few postings, I’ll present each one of them individually, with the exception of Chisholm Trail (admittedly an oversight), which one local told me was “the new kid on the block.”

But there was only so much barbecue we could eat in one day.