Hill Country Barbecue Market
Rick Schmidt of Kreuz Market in Lockhart christened this pit with a log of post oak in 2007.1 Meat still comes over a counter by the pound, the link or the bone. A carver slices it while you wait.5
Why go
Marc Glosserman's grandfather was a mayor of Lockhart.3 Kreuz Market has traded in that town for a century.3 A wooden board over the meat counter carries chalked prices in the Kreuz manner.1 Post oak comes up from Texas for the pit.4 The house puts the method in one line: salt, pepper, post oak and fourteen hours.4
Daniel Vaughn is Texas Monthly's barbecue editor and he came up in January 2013 to test it.1 He liked one thing on the tray. The Kreuz link they flew in then had a casing that snapped and ran hot fat.1 Time Out was still describing that import in 2018.3 The menu today names no Lockhart supplier. It calls the hot link and the jalapeno cheddar one hundred percent pork.5
Order this / avoid
- Order: a link of each sausage. Vaughn rated the Kreuz version above every cut of meat he ate.1
- Order: the center-cut pork spareribs and the cornbread with them.25
- Order: brisket by weight and ask for moist. That is the cut the New York Times critic Pete Wells picked out, according to Vaughn's account of the review.1
- Avoid: the beef back rib. Vaughn could not bite through it.1 I have found nothing published since that revisits it.
What locals & experts say
- Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor of Texas Monthly, who flew up to eat it (21 January 2013):
Most every cut of meat was tough and under-cooked.
1 - Neha Talreja, in The Infatuation's barbecue guide, where the room sits beside Mable's Smokehouse and Dinosaur BBQ:
we recommend focusing your attention on the peppery ribs and spicy sausage, which, along with the cornbread, are the best things on the menu.
2
Good to know
- Ordering: on butcher paper, with white bread and crackers. Sides and drinks are a separate line.3
- The room: a 250-seat duplex. The upper floor has outdoor, bar and communal seating.32
- The kitchen menu: a dry-aged brisket burger at $20, a brisket grilled cheese at $16.5
Verdict
could-visit — Take a group. The stage downstairs is a separate night out and not the reason to come.