Day Trips: LaVaca BBQ, Port Lavaca

Kelli Nevarez of LaVaca BBQ in Port Lavaca is a member of a very exclusive club. She is one of only a handful of female pitmasters in the state and the only one listed solo among Texas Monthly's Top 50 BBQ Joints of 2021.

A former first-grade teacher in her early 30s, Kelli loves to talk about barbecue. When she's not minding the pits out back, she is often helping out on the serving line or cleaning tables and talking with customers.

"I like the serenity of time in the pits," she says, "but being on the serving line is the best. The hardest part of the job is to slice the meats and serving the customers. I like talking with customers about my food."

She owns the restaurant in a former gas station in Port Lavaca a few blocks from the old town center with her father, Lupe, an engineer at a nearby chemical plant, and her mother, Christine, a retired teacher who works the cash register. Her siblings are an engineer and a software programmer.

Christine says it was a natural progression for her daughter to take over the pitmaster duties when they needed help at the restaurant. Prior to opening the restaurant, Kelli accompanied her father as he perfected his smoked-meat chops on the barbecue cook-off circuit.

One of the friends Kelli and Lupe made while attending cook-offs around the state was Ernest Servantes, who went on to open the Burnt Bean Co. (No. 4 on the 2021 Texas Monthly Top 50 list) in Seguin.

"We like to visit him every now and then," Kelli says. "I love his pork chops."

The Nevarezes opened the barbecue joint in 2019, which coincidentally backs up to the elementary school where she taught. "The kids were as excited about the restaurant as I was," Kelli says. "At recess they would run to the fence to check on the progress of the construction."

Lupe designed and built the two big metal pits with Kelli's and Christine's heights in mind. They're low enough that the women can reach every portion of the grills and easily load oak wood in the firebox.

For the first couple of years the restaurant was open, Kelli refused to call herself a pitmaster.

"I always felt it was a title that had to be earned," Kelli says. "I'm not a trained chef. I learned everything I know about cooking from my father and mother. A pitmaster has to know every aspect of the business from start to finish, from pit to serving line. I wanted to earn [the title] before I used it."

That validation came in 2021 when Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor for Texas Monthly, added the 2-year-old barbecue joint in a small township on the coast to the prestigious list of Top 50 joints in the state.

Kelli says the No. 1 trick to cooking good brisket is to not baby it.

"Start with a quality piece of meat," she says. "And then just leave it. Let it cook."

She says the mistake most home barbecuers make is checking on the meat too often.

"Go low and slow," she advises. "Trust the process and let it cook. [Brisket] is a lot more durable than you think. Use time and temperature as guidelines, but low and slow, baby, low and slow."

I visited the restaurant late on a Friday afternoon in February. They were sold out of a lot of the meats, but the brisket was some of the best I've had in a while. The slices of meat were lean, yet moist, with a bark that had a bit of a spicy kick. The turkey was full of smoky flavor without being dry, and the sides were sinus-clearing spicy. Kelli says their meats are cooked pretty traditionally, but with a modern flavor and texture profile. Their ribs are a little sweeter than some with an added spicy kick.

"We like to add a little modern Hispanic kick to our foods," she says. "[Our food] gives a little Latin kick in the butt."

The free single serving of vanilla Blue Bell ice cream was a nice touch that pushed the dining experience over the top.

Christine says it was her idea to give away the single-serving cups of ice cream. One of seminars she gave when training teachers was on customer service and was illustrated with a restaurant that offered free pickles with a meal.

"We already gave away free pickles with the barbecue, so I came up with Blue Bell ice cream," Christine says. "Customers seem to really appreciate it."

LaVaca BBQ is at 532 N. Virginia St. in Port Lavaca and is open Thursday through Saturday. The satellite location in Victoria is at 2001 N. Navarro, and will become their flagship location in 2024. For more information, go to lavacabbq.com.

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