Franklin Barbecue Photos (Austin, TX)

9:15AM

Where it all started for Franklin BBQ

Texas BBQ Run - Part 4 (Lockhart, TX)

Kreuz Market
619 North Colorado Street
Lockhart, TX 78644

www.kreuzmarket.com

We had finally arrived at our last stop on our first ever Texas BBQ run. Kreuz Market is located just down the street from Smitty's and Black's, and is about five times the size of either. They opened in 1999 by Edgar "Smitty" Schmidt's son, Rick. Rumor has it that when Kreuz moved locations he took everything, including the coals. I can personally verify that one thing made the move over, and that's Pitmaster, Roy Perez. Roy was generous enough to take some time out of his busy day to show us around.

Texas BBQ Run - Part 3 (Lockhart, TX)

Smitty's Market
208 South Commerce Street
Lockhart, TX 78644
www.smittysmarket.com

Our third stop on this Texas BBQ run landed us at Smitty's Market. Founded as Kreuz Market around 1900, it now stands as Smitty's Market since 1999. Originally, the location opened as a German butcher shop that would often smoke any of their leftover meats from that week and sell it to the public on the weekends. Edgar "Smitty" Schmidt bought Kreuz Market in 1948. The story goes that once he passed away he left the Kreuz business to his son, Rick, while leaving the actual building to his daughter, Nina. What he did to make sure his children worked together ended up driving them apart. In 1999, after stories of Nina excessively raising the rent, Rick had enough. He packed up everything, including the coals, and headed down the street where he would open up his own "bigger and better" Kreuz Market. The original Kreuz is now known as Smitty's with the new Kreuz market right down the street. Both are known for their legendary Texas BBQ.

The first thing you notice when pulling up to Smitty's is the massive amount of post oak wood they keep out back. All neatly stacked, and all arranged from oldest to newest. We walked in through the back door straight into the smoke room. You have to wonder how workers manage to stay standing in the constant smoky heat all day. We were only in there for about five minutes and that was about all we could stand. We ordered brisket, pork ribs, sausage, and a pork chop for everyone to try. One of the coolest things about Smitty's is how long it's been around. It still houses some of the original butcher machinery that was used early on. You can still see some of the weighing hooks and sliding tracks in the back near the kitchen that are all most likely original. We grabbed our food and quickly headed out of their infamous "smoke hallway."  

Texas BBQ Run - Part 2 (Lockhart, TX)

Black's Barbecue
215 North Main Street
Lockhart, TX 78644
512-398-2712
http://www.blacksbbq.com/

After a great first meal at City Market, we headed into the nearby town of Lockhart. Lockhart is home to three of Texas' most famous BBQ spots: Black's, Smitty's, and Kreuz. We decided that Black's would be our next stop since we wanted to do Smitty's and Kreuz back to back given their family history. Black's BBQ is recognized as Texas' oldest family owned and operated BBQ restaurant. When you walk inside the walls are sporadically decorated with old signs, hunting trophies, and local sport team photos.  

We stepped up to order the usual: brisket, sausage, and pork ribs. While talking to one of the gentlemen at the counter, he agreed to give us a tour of the pits and kitchen. They have an interesting system here. There are two post oak fueled pits in the back that lead up to a front pit. The back pits are used for cooking while the front chamber is just used to keep the meat warm until it's ready to serve. It sure beats steaming trays that a lot of places use. No meats are cooked overnight here. They're fired up that morning and used that day or the next. I thought this was a little different. No one wants to eat yesterday's meat when you're headed to a BBQ joint. This didn't seem to strike any of the workers as odd. Another thing that I found a little different was how hot they keep their pits here. They said usually around 350 degrees and up. This allows Black's to cook their meat in a shorter amount of time, but you can also sacrifice some of the tenderness and flavor by not leaving it cooking longer. They use the foil technique on some of their meats which allows the meat to cook in its own juices, steaming it and breaking down the tissue a little more than usual. During our short tour, the pitmaster was kind enough to cut off a sample of the freshly smoked beef ribs that just came out of the pit. This was honestly one of the best beef ribs I've ever tried. It was so tender and moist that it just melted in your mouth. It made me wish we had ordered a couple. He also threw a couple of small pieces of their smoked turkey on our order at no cost. Again, the turkey was smoked perfectly. It was juicy and had just the right amount of smoke in it. After our tour we said our thank you's and then headed to the nearest table to try the rest of Black's offerings.

Texas BBQ Run - Part 1 (Luling, Texas)

City Market

633 East Davis Street

Luling, TX 78648

830-875-9019

I get excited every time I head back to Houston. I get to spend time with family, I get to relax, and I get to eat...a lot. This past week was no different. A typical day consists of kolaches for breakfast, BBQ for lunch, and some Tex-Mex for dinner. These are three things I don't think I could ever get enough of. It was my dad's birthday this week and we decided to go on our first official Texas "Barbecue Run." For anyone that's new to this, a BBQ run consists of making a special trip to worthwhile BBQ spots and sampling each establishment's specialtes. For this run we were going to head a couple hours west to Luling and Lockhart to pay our respects to some of the original Texas BBQ spots: City Market, Black's, Smitty's, and Kreuz. Each place is Texas-famous in its own way and well worth the special trip. Our mission was simple. We'd try a little bit of BBQ at each stop, maybe talk to some of the pitmasters if they're available, and then head home before dinner. We had the determination, but did we have the stomach capacity for our smoked meat-mission? I was interested to see how the Texas style BBQ would compare to some of the places we've visited on our Georgia Barbecue Hunt. We loaded up the truck six deep and headed out in the morning.

The first stop on our mini tour would be Luling's finest, City Market. Jamie had never been to Texas before, and I couldn't think of a better to place for her to experience what Texas had to offer. We pulled into Luling and the only thing missing seemed to be the stereotypical tumble weeds rolling by. This town definitely has character. With all of the apparent locals inside, you feel like a tourist without any boots or a cowboy hat. When you walk inside City Maket, you get in line well before being able to enter the smoke room where you actually place your order. The employee working the pits was nice enough to give me a closer look at everything that was being cooked that day. Meats are cooked overnight using post oak, except for the homemade sausage which is usually only smoked for an hour for additional flavor. Since our BBQ run included four stops, we would be indulging in a "protein only" diet this day. Our meal for the first stop included brisket, pork ribs, and sausage served on old-fashioned butcher paper with bottled Big Red to wash it down.