Every time someone in my vicinity starts to wax poetic about the virtues of barbecue from some Southern state (reader's note: this means "The South" and not Texas), these eyes of mine reflexively roll.
If you're standing close enough to me at one of these times, you might be able to hear me utter some combination of words under my breath. No need for specifics. You have an imagination. This is because I am a Texan and my grandfather is a cattle rancher and, therefore, when it comes to the core of a barbecue plate, I prefer good old Texas beef brisket.
This happened once again this week at a pub in Austin. Someone from North Carolina began to prattle on about pulled pork and then someone else chimed in by saying something about honey barbecue sauce or something. I stopped listening. But then, perhaps sensing my displeasure with the conversation, someone brought up Lockhart, Texas, which is supposed to be sort of a hotbed of Texas barbecue. Texas Monthly's barbecue-dedicated website places two Lockhart establishments — Kreuz Market and Smitty's Market — among "Our five best joints."
Before Tuesday, I had not been to Lockhart, which is kind of surprising as I'm currently a restaurant blogger with deep Texas roots and have been, for the last 15 years, a sportswriter in this state, meaning that I've traversed many square miles of Texas highways and dined in many a small Texas town.
At any rate, the time came on Tuesday for me and my buddy Brian Patterson, now an Austin resident, to grab our friend, Josh Hicks, who was the aforementioned North Carolinian, and make our way to Lockhart for barbecue. They are musicians and therefore available to eat barbecue with me in a far-flung Texas town (reader's note: Lockhart is about 30 miles southeast of downtown Austin) in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon.
We chose Smitty's as Brian had done a little research and made the call. There are three "famous" barbecue joints in Lockhart, Black's along with Kreuz and Smitty's. Brian learned that Smitty's was cash only and BYOF — Bring Your Own Fork. This was interesting enough for us to choose it. I wasn't going to take some sort of Lockhart Pepsi challenge by dining at all three. I'll be back probably.
But, having been there now, I don't think it's necessary to make three trips to Lockhart to eat great barbecue. Smitty's was excellent. But it didn't beat Tony DeMaria's here in Waco. DeMaria's has been named by Texas Monthly among the state's best barbecue as well. So if you live in Waco and you're craving legendary Texas barbecue, it's really only necessary to make a trip to Elm Street. I understand, obviously, that it's fun to drive around the state to see all that's out there.
I just had to get that out of the way.
Now, about Smitty's. It was definitely cool. It was lodged in an authentic meat market and the smoker was housed in a back room where the smokers were heated by piles of burning mesquite.
The brisket came in two varieties — lean and fat. I chose fat. I want to be a healthy person. I really do. But when it comes to brisket, I can't resist the tender, flavorful fat variety. Josh, to his credit, chose lean and seemed to enjoy it.
We all doused our brisket in both the hot and regular sauce. The non-hot sauce was pretty sweet, not tangy like a Texas barbecue connoisseur might be used to. The hot sauce sort of tasted like buffalo sauce. All good.
I'm not going to rate it here. I don't even want to compare it to DeMaria's or Cooper's in Llano, Texas, or Schoepf's in Belton. Smitty's, like those other three, was great Texas barbecue.
And that's good enough for me.
One more bite: If you love Texas barbecue and visiting the many BBQ joints around the state and you have a smart phone, then check out the Texas Monthly BBQ Finder App. It not only, presumably, locates great barbecue it also gives the user the opportunity to accumulate points by checking in at Texas barbecue restaurants. There's a leader board too. Someone who goes by the handle RIOGAILTX has apparently visited 95 Texas barbecue restaurants and checked in 149 times for a leading total of 624 points. So that's something to aspire toward.
