Belton, Temple and Salado
19 open around Central Texas
Bell County keeps its own towns. Belton runs a smokehouse, a meat market and two pizza ovens within a few blocks. Temple holds the breweries. Salado pours in an old cotton warehouse and Rogers grows its wine out on a farm.
The towns
Restaurants8
Schoepf's BBQJeff ★★★★★ 2024?
Solid · Texas barbecue, Hill Country direct heat · Belton · $$
walk-in
They burn mesquite down to coals and cook straight over the fire in steel box pits, and the two-inch pork chop that comes off them is a dish Daniel Vaughn has praised twice.
Miller's SmokehouseJeff ★★★★★ 2023?
Solid · Texas barbecue, coffee · Belton · $$
walk-in
Miller's dropped its offset smokers for a wood-fired rotisserie and Texas Monthly still put the black-crusted brisket in its 2025 Top 50.
Fire Street Pizza?
Solid · Neapolitan-style wood-fired pizza · Belton · $$
walk-in
Jason Brumbalow spent three years working through Jeff Varasano's 22,000-word dough recipe before he ever opened a door.
Narunya'sjust added?
Solid · Thai, Surat Thani · Downtown Belton · $$
walk-in
Narunya came to Central Texas from Surat Thani in 2007, could not find the food she grew up on, and went to Le Cordon Bleu so she could cook it herself.
Treno Pizzeria & Taproomjust added?
Listed · Wood-fired pizza, self-pour beer · Downtown Temple · $$
walk-inthe room’s own account
The Durfanater comes out of a wood oven under cup-and-char pepperoni, ricotta, shaved garlic and Mike's Hot Honey, and you pour your own beer off a 36-tap wall.
Oakfire Pizza and Brewingjust added?
Listed · Pizza, craft beer · Downtown Belton · $$
walk-in
They brew their own beer on the premises of a downtown Belton pizza place and put the tables on the roof.
Water Street Waffle Cojust added?
Listed · Belgian waffles, breakfast · Historic Downtown Belton · $$
walk-inthe room’s own account
Belgian waffles on imported flour and pearl sugar, served next to smoked Louisiana meat, in the downtown Belton room where the company started.
Yucatán Tacos & More (Belton)just added?
Listed · Yucatecan Mexican · Belton · $
walk-in
Cochinita pibil, the slow-roasted Yucatecan pork, going into corn tortillas made by hand, from a small operation on East Central Avenue.
Provisions4
Green's Sausage Housejust added?
Solid · Czech-Texan sausage, kolaches, diner · Zabcikville · $
walk-in
Jerome Green ground sausage to his family's Czech recipe behind a Zabcikville general store in 1946, and his sons Charles and Marvin are still in the business.
L&R Old Fashioned Meat Market & Sausage Shop?
Listed · Butcher, Texas barbecue · Belton · $$
walk-inthe room’s own account
A Belton butcher since 1988 that cuts steaks to the thickness you ask for and smokes its own sausage. The barbecue pit runs every day and lunch is 11 to 2.
Robertson's Hams & The Choppin' Block?
Listed · Smokehouse, butcher · Salado · $$
walk-in
A Salado smokehouse curing and smoking its own ham, bacon, sausage and jerky since 1971. Jerky orders over $100 ship free, which tells you what most people leave with.
Best Quality Meat & BBQ?
Listed · Butcher, Texas barbecue · Temple · $
walk-in
Best Quality Meat & BBQ is at 2410 Wilson Place in Temple, and the name is the whole of what anybody publishes about it. Whether it trades today is not established.
Craft beer3
Bird Creek Brewingjust added?
Solid · Craft beer, burgers · Downtown Temple · $$
walk-in
Bare Bones Disco is a pale ale, and it took gold at the 2026 Texas Craft Brewers Cup while the brewery carried home the Brewery of the Year cup.
Barrow Brewing Company?
Listed · Craft beer · Salado · $$
walk-in
Graydon and KD Hill petitioned Salado into a local option election before they could pour anything, then turned a pole barn granary on the creek into a taproom.
Bold Republic Brewing Company?
Listed · Craft beer, American · Temple · $$
walk-in
Adriane Hodges moved the whole brewery from downtown Belton to two acres in a Temple sports park and put in a 15-barrel steam brewhouse.
Coffee1
Brew Bros?
Listed · Coffee, brunch · Temple · $
walk-inthe room’s own account
An independent coffee counter on South 31st in Temple, open at seven every morning of the week. What the shop roasts, and who runs it, is not published anywhere.
Producers3
3 Texans Winery and Vineyardjust added?
Listed · Texas wine · Temple · $$
walk-inthe room’s own account
A mother and her daughters put 4,000 vines in the ground off Highway 36 in 2009, Malbec and Cabernet and Tempranillo, and have added a thousand more since.
BeeMaRosa Vineyard & Wineryjust added?
Listed · Texas wine · Belton · $$
walk-inthe room’s own account
Wild muscadine growing against the building was what gave the family the idea, and what went in the ground instead was Tempranillo, Cabernet, Petite Sirah and Tannat.
Dancing Bee Wineryjust added?
Listed · Mead, honey wine · Rogers · $$
walk-inthe room’s own account
They ferment mead beside the hives that make the honey, and one of the bottles is a bochet, honey cooked to caramel before the yeast gets near it.
Elsewhere around Central Texas