April 23rd, 2007
Lockhart - Barbecue Capital of Texas, pt. 2
Seventy miles east of San Antonio is the sleepy little town of Lockhart. There isn’t much to see besides the enormous and beautiful city hall (why a town so small has a hall so large, I’ll never know) and picturesque downtown storefronts. The reason we went: for its renown barbecue. We stopped at Black’s first, just because that was the first address Jen entered into the GPS navigator. It’s been in town for over 75 years and the steady line of customers at the counter will keep it there for a while longer. I ordered just meat so that I could save room for a visit to one of the other restaurants. Jen tried two sides, figuring they’d cleanse her palate as she sampled the meats. The baked potato turned out to be twice baked with smoky bacon and cheese, and the creamed corn was actually a bowl of cream with some corn thrown in. Almost richer than the meat.
The next restaurant was just down the street, but we needed to find something refreshing before we could take another bite. We were both still hungry, but the intense, rich flavor of the brisket and sausage drove us to Dairy Queen for a couple of slushies.
Opened in 1900, Kruez’s Market serves its meat on butcher paper with a plastic knife and nothing else. You order your food at the butcher counter, right in front of the pits. Tables are set up in a separate room so guests can enjoy their lunch out of the heat of the pits. The brisket, shoulder, and a pork chop, accompanied with some white bread to cut down on the richness, were surprisingly different from what Black’s served up.
Neither restaurant serves their barbecue with sauce. Black’s started making it available when the northerners started requesting it, but the folks at Kruez’s are offended if you ask for it.
On a side note, our trip to Lockhart included a drive through Luling…it has over 200 oil well pump jacks within its city limits.
City Hall
Kruetz’s wood pile for their smokers
Backyard oil well pump jacks in Luling, TX
