Day Trips

“Name your four favorite restaurants,” the producer of a nationally syndicated radio show told me. The National Public Radio show The Splendid Table wanted to know where I would recommend visitors to Central Texas go to eat. It was for a five-minute segment, so I had to narrow my list of favorite eateries down to an impossibly short list. I froze like a deer in the headlights.

When I finally got my voice back, I said: “To talk about food outside of Austin, you have to start with barbecue.” The state capital is surrounded by a higher concentration of top-notch barbecue joints than any other place on Earth. This is the Holy Land of smoked meats.

Llano and Taylor are each known for their excellent barbecue, but take the town of Lockhart, about 30 miles southeast of Austin, as an example of the quality of barbecue in Central Texas. Any town would be proud to claim any one of the four smokehouses within the city limits of the Caldwell County seat.

Texas barbecue lovers held their collective breath a few years ago when a family feud threatened to close Kreuz Market in Lockhart, one of the most sacred sites in barbecue land. Originally a meat market and grocery started by Charles Kreuz, the business had been at the same site since 1900. When sister and brother couldn’t come to an agreement on the rent, the restaurant moved to a new building on the north side of town. The sister reopened the red brick shrine to smoked meats as Smitty’s, in honor of their father, Edgar Schmidt, who ran the place from 1948 until he sold the business to his son and the building to his daughter in 1984.

Despite the family feud, Smitty’s and the Kreuz Market both make good smoked meats. I personally prefer Smitty’s sausage and Kreuz’s brisket, but most arguments about barbecue are a battle of personal preferences.

A block off the Lockhart courthouse square, Black’s Barbecue claims to be the oldest barbecue restaurant in Texas owned by the same family. The cafeteria-style eatery makes great smoked turkey and delicious fruit cobblers. Across town, the Chisholm Trail Barbecue on the south side has the best assortment of side dishes and the best sauce of any place in town.

But if you want really good barbecue, keep driving 15 more miles south of Lockhart on U.S. 183 to the Luling City Market (709 E. Davis, 830/875-3848). Besides barbecue, the town of Luling is also famous for watermelons and the sulfur smell from the oil wells around town. When asked about the smell, a local replied: “Smells like money to me.”

Luling City Market originated as the town’s meat market (don’t confuse the original with an imitation that opened in Houston a few years ago with the same name). On Saturdays, the line to order your meat by the pound from the chopping block can wind out the front door. This is one of the best all-round barbecue joints in the state. The sausage is awesome, the brisket is tender and juicy, and the ribs are meaty.

German settlers had a strong influence in Central Texas, and if you want good, authentic German food, you have to go about 40 miles north of Austin to the Walburg Mercantile Restaurant and Dance Hall (FM 972 at FM 1105, 512/863-8440). On Friday and Saturday nights enjoy a plate of wienerschnitzel, and then end the evening in the biergarten, dancing to the oompah music of the Walburg Boys. It’s a good idea to have a reservation on weekends.

If your tastes lean toward home cooking, then the Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls (211 U.S. 281, 830/693-2344) is the place for you. The little cafe on the hill overlooking the Lake Marble Falls is best known for its pies. They even have a “pie happy hour” on weekday afternoons. This is American comfort food at its finest, and no place to take your diet. The chicken-fried steaks are tender enough to cut with a fork, and grandma only wished she could make meat loaf as good as the Bluebonnet Cafe.

Well, that’s what I told a national radio audience. You can hear the interview after Sept. 1 at http://splendidtable.publicradio.org.

This article appears in September 1 • 2006.