Smitty's Market
The queue runs down a hallway with the pit fires a few feet from your ankles, and at the end of it you buy meat by weight.1
Why go
This brick building went up in 1925 and housed Kreuz Market for 99 years.2 Edgar Schmidt, a butcher who had worked there for years, bought the market in 1948 and sold it to his sons Rick and Don in 1984. When he died in 1990 he left the building to his daughter Nina Sells and the business to his sons, so in 1999 Rick Schmidt moved Kreuz Market up the road to North Colorado Street and Nina Sells opened the room she had inherited as Smitty's Market.2 That account is Kreuz's own, written by the side of the family that left. The fire stayed behind. The walls carry a layer of smoke and soot, and Anne Cruz describes the pits burning within a few feet of the line.1 It sits a block off the Caldwell County courthouse square, with Barbs B Q on one corner and Black's a couple of blocks north.3
Order this / avoid
- Order: brisket. Anne Cruz:
The classically Central Texas brisket has a fragrant bark and plenty of moisture, and is perfectly balanced without tasting overly salty or smoky.
1 - Avoid: the pork ribs. The same review names them as the weak cut, dry against the brisket, and says the meat can run inconsistent across the block.1
- Practical: there are no forks at this counter, only spoons and knives, so expect beef fat on your fingers.1
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation, Anne Cruz (page dated 4 October 2023), ranked fifth of five in Lockhart in May 2025. She likes the brisket and does not pretend the rest holds up:
Our only complaint is that the meat can be a little inconsistent across cuts
.1 - Texas Monthly's barbecue editor puts it on the map without ranking it. Daniel Vaughn places Smitty's a block from the courthouse square and records a Smitty's employee walking into Barbs B Q in uniform for brisket.3
- Texas Monthly's Top 50 does not carry it, in either live edition. The 2025 list's Lockhart block holds Barbs B Q alone, and the 2021 edition states in its own opening that no Lockhart joint made that fifty at all.6
- No MICHELIN Bib Gourmand. The inaugural 2024 Texas Bib article lists one Lockhart restaurant and it is Barbs B Q. Nothing is claimed about the Star or Recommended tiers, which were not enumerated for this town.7
Good to know
- This is a day trip. Lockhart sits about 27 miles straight-line south of downtown Austin, which The Infatuation clocks as a 45-minute drive, and this room is a two-minute walk from two other pits.8
- Hygiene: Austin Public Health has no jurisdiction here, which is a different statement from no record. Lockhart is in Caldwell County, outside the agency's reach, so the absence of a record says nothing about the kitchen.5
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: Not one of my saves; I asked for a Lockhart barbecue day and this is one of the four pits it covers.
Verdict
could-visit — The building is the point. Kreuz Market traded here for 99 years, and when Edgar Schmidt died in 1990 he left the brick building to his daughter Nina Sells and the business to his sons, so in 1999 the business drove up the road and the pits stayed. You queue down a hallway with the fires a few feet from your ankles and order by weight at the far end. Anne Cruz calls the brisket fragrantly barked and balanced, and in the same breath ranks the room fifth of the five in its own town and says the pork ribs come out dry. Order brisket, skip the ribs, and read this as the historical stop on a four-pit walk.