Day Trips
The Gonzales Food Market makes headlines as well as terrific barbecue and sausage
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Jan. 21, 2005
The Gonzales Food Market makes headlines as well as terrific barbecue and sausage. It might just be the most unknown famous barbecue joint in the state. Critics rave about the quality and flavor of the Lopez familys smoked meats, but outside of Gonzales the 45-year-old market is little known except among the truly avid barbecue aficionados.
It's not that barbecue journalists haven't been trying to spread the word about GFM (the market is identified by its initials to the regulars). Robb Walsh includes the market in his book Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook. The San Antonio daily newspaper has run a couple of stories about the Gonzales institution. Texas Monthly magazine and the Dallas paper have discovered this outpost of sublime eating. The Chronicle has tried to point readers there in the past by selecting it one of the top 10 restaurants of 2002 and "Best Restaurant Within 60 Miles of Austin" in 2003. Maybe you'll listen to me.
Best known for the daily offerings of brisket, sausage, and lamb ribs, the weekend special of beef ribs is worth standing in line for. The meats are slow cooked to their most tender. The red barbecue sauce accents the meats without smothering them. The wide variety of side dishes makes the plates a complete meal. This is a dining experience that is a masterpiece.
"To take the time to do it all right is an art," says Rene Lopez Garza, one of four co-owners. "Basically all of the meats are cooked the same way," he says, "slowly, using indirect heat and smoke. It's time-consuming to cook at a little lower temperature, but you get a better flavor."
GFM partially cooks all one kind of meat on a certain day, such as brisket on Mondays. Then each morning what is needed for that day is put on early to complete the cooking by lunch. This gives them fresher tasting meats. "Sometimes we run out, though," Garza says.
The methods and recipes have been tested through generations of Lopezes, beginning with Garza's grandfather Feliciano (Chano) and his sister-in-law Maria de la Luz Gonzalez. Chano Lopez immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico during the Depression. He worked all kinds of jobs, including helping to build the Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, until he settled down in Gonzales to run neighborhood bars. Then he and Maria decided to try their hand at a neighborhood grocery store half a block west of the county courthouse.
"It was kind of a general store," Garza says. "We had a little bit of everything. If we didn't have it, we tried to get it." Soon after opening, they began selling barbecue and homemade sausage from the meat counter on weekends. Pretty soon, the smoked meats were one of the most popular commodities, and they were offered every day.
"Basically the government made the decision to close the grocery store for us," Garza says. Patrons could not buy hot meats with food stamps, but rules said that cooked cold meats were permissible. An inspector decided that GFM was more of a restaurant than a grocery store. "Not being able to accept food stamps took away a big chunk of our grocery clientele," Garza says.
The restaurant entered its fourth generation when Adrian Lopez took over pit-boss duties along with Jose Rameriz after two longtime chief cooks passed away within six weeks of each other last summer. Eight out of 16 employees at GFM are descendants of Chano and Maria. "We're just doing what grandpa taught us," Garza says, "and we were taught well."
From the original store, the market's dining room has expanded twice. Lunch and supper are served buffet style. The pork, beef and lamb ribs, brisket, pork steaks, and chicken can also be purchased by the pound; hot or cold. The side dishes of beans, cheesy potatoes, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, and salads can be purchased separately by the pint and quart servings.
The Gonzales Food Market is on the north side of the Texas Hero's Square in the middle of the block at 311 St. Lawrence. The market is open Monday through Saturday, 8am-7pm. For more info, call 800/269-5342 or go to www.gonzalesfoodmarket.com.
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