In Texas’ state-designated BBQ capital, two legendary Lockhart families run the town’s most iconic barbecue joints as a rising star joins the scene — and all vie for coveted spots on the Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ list. Explore our project online now and watch the documentary June 5 at 7 p.m. on the KXAN+ smart TV app.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — It started with a phone call to Texas Monthly Barbecue Editor Daniel Vaughn.
I explained to him that KXAN was spitballing the idea of a documentary on Lockhart barbecue, but wasn’t sure if there was enough substance there.
He cut me off, and said something to the extent of, “There’s absolutely enough there. Most people have no idea what’s gone down.”
Vaughn was referring, in particular, to the beef between Black’s Barbecue and Terry Black’s Barbecue, a feud he’d written about just a few years prior.
While casual fans of barbecue are aware that something happened to create a family rivalry, many don’t know what.
Moments later, Vaughn told me about the 1999 split between Kreuz Market and Smitty’s Market. That 1999 falling out was the first of two major family feuds in Texas’ state-designated BBQ Capital.
Twelve months after that phone call, KXAN’s feature-length documentary is set to premiere. Here’s some of the conversation Director Eric Henrikson and I had as we reflected on the past year.
These quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Eric Henrikson: Lockhart is the declared state capital for barbecue. It was declared by the state legislature in the ’90s, and so it’s held this special title. These are some of the oldest barbecue restaurants in the state. As these families have grown larger and larger, and their empires have grown larger and larger, they have splintered off into little subsets.
These are the barbecue restaurants that were on the top of Texas Monthly list way back when it first launched in 1997, and now, almost 30 years later, most of them have dropped off that list over time.
Now there’s a new player on the scene, Barbs B Q that’s gotten a lot of attention across the state.
Tom Miller: The thing that’s different about Family Beef from a lot of the other reporting that’s been done is that we have all of these restaurants opening up and speaking to us on the record, on camera, about their feuds, about the history of their restaurants, and about this Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ list.
Often what’s happened is people will hear a story second-hand, or they’ll read one person’s account. As far as we can tell, this is the first time that you have all of these restaurants coming together and saying, ‘OK, you want to know what happened? Here’s the story.’
To be fully transparent, I don’t think that Black’s Barbecue wanted to talk about its feud with Terry Black’s Barbecue. These are two nephews and an uncle who are sparring, but they did once we started asking the questions.
Eric: They are very talkative once they get going, which is very fun. Kreuz and Smitty’s feud, which started in 1999, the problem with that feud is it happened 30 years ago. Memories have shifted a little bit. The narratives that you’ve probably heard about the feud itself and how contentious it was — they have different perspectives now in the 2020s than they did in 1999.
Some of the things they told the press then, they’re telling us different stories now.
Hearing that perspective is really interesting. Hearing the Black’s perspective is really interesting. And getting to be inside these restaurants and see how they’re really run and operated, and how this feud has maybe altered how they run and operate their businesses, is very interesting, too.
Tom: I think the biggest difference with this storytelling is with Kreuz and Smitty’s; these are two families that have reconciled their differences and have come back together and are on good terms.
Whereas with Black’s and Terry Black’s, they are very much still in the middle of a red-hot feud.
The Business of Barbecue
Eric: They’re selling themselves on classic, traditional barbecue. When you go to Lockhart, you’re driving to Smitty’s, you’re driving to Kreuz, the way they’re built is different from how you would build a barbecue restaurant today.
A lot of the barbecue restaurants in town are open air, they’re at food trucks. These are — you walk inside, the walls are blackened because there’s so much smoke that’s been generated over 100 years.
They’re selling that as part of their business model.
Tom: The older ones are really marketing and leaning on their legacy, whereas I think some of the newer restaurants, like Barb’s and even Terry Black’s, are leaning on how they’re pushing barbecue forward.
In Barbs’ case, in particular, she’s really hanging her hat on just having some of the top-rated barbecue in the country, and certainly in Texas.
Eric: You walk in the door, there’s a James Beard Award on the right as soon as you walk in. There’s articles by New York Times and Bon Appétit, and all these big names right when you walk in.
The other places, they’re advertising the same families owned this for 100 years, and it’s the fourth generation. Go to Black’s, and on the wall as you’re walking in, past the market that they owned in the 1930s, is every name of every Black family member that’s owned that restaurant, which is pretty cool.
Tom: Mike Black, who’s a co-owner of Terry Black’s, and Mark Black, both told us that their Austin location is the most successful restaurant in the country in any genre. On the surface, that sounds incredible, but if you walk in there on a Wednesday at lunchtime, you’ll realize they have a line out the door.
People are paying $50-60 per tray, and the line is constant. When you start running the numbers, realizing how much money they could be making, it adds up.
We asked them for their sales numbers. They didn’t want to share that with us. They only said that their data shows that they are the busiest and most successful restaurant in the country.
Challenges
Tom: The biggest challenge for me was just the scheduling. It was trying to coordinate with five restaurants for multiple interviews, multiple shoots. These are very busy and very successful business people. For the most part, they were happy to give us their time, but it often would require three or four or five calls before they’d even pick up. And then when I did get that opportunity for them to pick up, I’m trying to get everything scheduled for the next month.
One example with Barbs, the way I originally got her to agree to do the interview, is I went to her restaurant as a customer to eat. While I was at the counter talking with her I said, ‘I’m Tom Miller. I work with KXAN. We’re doing a documentary on Lockhart barbecue. Will you please be in it?’ And that’s how the conversation got started.
Eric: And that was after like, a month of trying to get a hold of her. That was on top of his normal day.
He’s downplayed it, too. He said five restaurants. We also drove all the way to Fort Worth. We also went to Franklin’s. We visited Mill Scale that builds all the pits for all these barbecue restaurants. So he put in more work than that. He’s downplaying how much juggling he’s had to do.
It has been the juggling that’s been the hardest part though. We’ve started filming last June. We’re wrapping [this] week… hopefully. It’s been a full year for us on top of, he still anchors every morning. I report three to five times a week. We’re doing (the documentary) on top of that.
It’s not a studio. You’re in an oven for hours on end. We’re pouring with sweat. The physical toll was hard, the length of time was hard, and keeping everything in our minds was hard.
Tom: I will say we’ve eaten a lot of good barbecue.
Eric: We have eaten a lot of good barbecue.
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