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Day trips out of Austin.
Smitty's and Kreuz were one Lockhart business in one building until a will split the name from the room in 1999, and you can eat both sides of that in an afternoon, with Barbs and Black's inside the same short walk of the courthouse square. The other drive is Dripping Springs, and the closing times fix its order: bread at Abby Jane, beer at Jester King, then cask off Acopon's four hand pumps. Barbs trades two days a week and the bakery shuts before the beer starts.
Lockhart has slipped by the state's own measure: Barbs B Q is the only room there on Texas Monthly's most recent Top 50, it opened in 2023, and it trades two days a week. Go anyway, because Smitty's and Kreuz were one business until an inheritance split the building from the name in 1999, and you can eat both sides of that in one afternoon. Dripping Springs is the shorter drive, and the stop that justifies it is cask ale pulled off Acopon's working hand pumps in a county where the default is a lager under an oak tree. Run each day in the order the closing times force: Barbs first on a Lockhart weekend, Abby Jane first on a Dripping Springs morning. Out here there are no Austin inspection scores at all, and a missing score is not a clean one.
Lockhart's four pits on one square.
Four pits sit inside a ten-minute walk of each other on and around the Lockhart courthouse square, and that walk is what the drive buys. The town calls itself the barbecue capital of Texas, and Texas Monthly's Top 50 runs every four years: the 2021 edition opened by saying that for the first time no Lockhart joint made the fifty at all, and the 2025 edition put exactly one room back on, Barbs B Q, which opened in 2023. That fixes the order of the day, because Barbs trades Saturday and Sunday only and sells out. Everything else is walkable from it. Smitty's Market is a block away, Black's Barbecue Lockhart a couple of blocks north, and Kreuz Market half a mile up at the top of town with the longest hours of the four. The thing to know before you eat is that Smitty's and Kreuz were one business until 1999. Edgar Schmidt bought Kreuz Market in 1948 and left the building to his daughter and the business to his sons, so when the sons moved out, the pitmaster carried the burning coals up the road and the daughter opened the old room under her own name. You can eat both sides of that inheritance in one afternoon.
- Barbs B Q$$
Chuck Charnichart wanted lime acidity in the rib glaze and could not make juice survive the smoke, so the zest goes over the serrano-syrup ribs at the counter instead. The green spaghetti is her mother's recipe, poblanos and jalapenos and cilantro pureed with creamed cheese and sour cream, and the corn tortillas run on masa bought from Nixta Taqueria in Austin. It holds a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand from the inaugural Texas guide.
- Smitty's Market$$
Smitty's stands a block from Barbs in the 1925 brick room that held Kreuz Market until the split, and the queue runs down a hallway past open fires burning a few feet from your ankles. Anne Cruz calls the brisket balanced and the pork ribs dry, so order the brisket. The counter hands out spoons and knives and no forks.
- Black's Barbecue Lockhart$$
Two blocks north, this is the pit that cooks for Black's on Guadalupe in Austin every morning. The beef rib is the order, and it is the one room in Lockhart open for dinner, so it also works as the last stop.
- Kreuz Market$$
Kreuz took the business half of the 1999 split and sits half a mile up at the north end. It cooks salt, pepper and post oak, sells by weight, keeps the sides on a separate counter and seats six at a long table without a folding chair in sight. Daniel Vaughn orders the spareribs with a whole ripe avocado added at the till, which is a thing only a meat market lets you do.
Make a walk of it
Take Barbs at opening on a Saturday or Sunday, then walk a block to Smitty's and two more to Black's. Kreuz is half a mile north and stays open latest, so it is the one to leave until the appetite comes back.
Barbs B Q · Smitty's Market · Black's Barbecue Lockhart · Kreuz Market
Bread, beer and cask at Dripping Springs.
Fitzhugh Road runs west out of the city and Dripping Springs itself sits about twenty-one miles from downtown, so this is a half-day rather than an expedition. Start at Abby Jane Bakeshop on Fitzhugh, where the heritage grain is milled next door and goes straight into the bread and the sourdough pizza. Carry on to Jester King for the barrel and spontaneous beer that never reaches a supermarket shelf. Then keep going another six miles into the town itself for Acopon Brewing Co., which is the reason to make this drive at all: four working hand pumps pulling Dark Mild, Special Bitter, Golden Ale and an ESB, in a county where almost nobody else attempts cask. If the afternoon is holding, 12 Fox Beer Co is on the same road and keeps a barbecue truck in the yard.
- Abby Jane Bakeshop
Abby Jane goes in the morning, because it is the only one of the four that will be shut by the time the beer starts. Barton Springs Mill is next door, so the grain goes from mill to oven without a truck in between, and Abby Jane Love came to it out of Qui, Vespaio and Dai Due, which is a run of kitchens that take sourcing seriously. Order the croissants and a sourdough pizza.
- Jester KingFitzhugh Road, southwest Travis County
Jester King brews inside a hundred-year-old machine shop on a working farm, on mineral-rich well water and a house culture caught off its own foraged flowers and berries. Drink the barrel-aged and spontaneous releases here, because the lagers are in H-E-B and these are not.
- Acopon Brewing Co.$$
Acopon pulls four cask hand pumps under a screen showing English football with British commentary, which is a combination I have not found anywhere else out here. Karnstein took gold in Amber and Dark Beers at the Texas Craft Brewers Cup in February 2024, and Gaspipes is the house session bitter. The food is a trailer on the patio and it does not run every day.
- 12 Fox Beer Co$$
Add 12 Fox only if the afternoon is holding; it sits further west on the same road. House beer pours alongside organic European and Hill Country wine, and Gummies BBQ works the yard on days the taproom itself is shut, so check the calendar before you drive. I have not found a review of the beer, the wine or the barbecue.
Make a walk of it
Take Abby Jane while it is still morning, give Jester King the afternoon, and finish at Acopon in the town centre for the hand pumps. Add 12 Fox on the same road if the light is holding.
Abby Jane Bakeshop · Jester King · Acopon Brewing Co. · 12 Fox Beer Co
Jeff's take.
I asked for Lockhart on its reputation, and Daniel Vaughn's own list has been correcting that reputation since 2021. Barbs opened in 2023 and is the one room there the list still names; Smitty's and Kreuz are worth the drive for what they are, whatever they rank. Dripping Springs came back stronger than I expected, because four working hand pumps in Hays County is a rarer thing than another farmhouse ale, and I asked for Acopon by name. My saved note on Burnt Bean Company, fifty miles south in Seguin, reads "#1 in Texas. See awards and press for details.", and that is a third drive on a day of its own. Check the days before you leave: Barbs trades Saturday and Sunday, Abby Jane Thursday to Sunday, and 12 Fox opens three days a week.
Questions, answered
Is Lockhart worth it without a car?
Plan on driving, because I have no transit information for Lockhart and I am not going to imply that I do. What I do know is the shape of the trip: twenty-seven miles straight south of downtown, which The Infatuation clocks at forty-five minutes, and a whole afternoon of walking between counters once you are there.1 Without a car, Black's Barbecue Austin on Guadalupe serves the same family's meat, cooked in Lockhart that morning and driven up.2
as of Aug 2026
Smitty's or Kreuz, what is the actual difference?
One building and one recipe, split down the middle by a will. Edgar Schmidt left the brick room to his daughter and the business to his sons, so the sons moved the name up the road and the daughter reopened the room she had inherited under her own.3 Smitty's Market is the room, and you queue through the pit hall to get to the counter.4 Kreuz Market is the business, half a mile north, still salt and pepper and post oak with the meat sold by weight and the sides on a separate counter.5 Eat at both and you have eaten the argument.
as of Aug 2026
Which day should I drive to Lockhart?
Saturday or Sunday, because Barbs B Q trades those two days only and the queue forms an hour before the doors.6 It is also the only Lockhart room on the 2025 Texas Monthly Top 50, which is where the town actually sits on it.7 Black's Barbecue Lockhart runs every day into the evening, later still on Friday and Saturday, so leave that one until last.8
as of Aug 2026
Do these out-of-town places have health inspection scores?
They carry no city score. Austin Public Health inspects the City of Austin, unincorporated Travis County and parts of Williamson County, so Lockhart in Caldwell County and the Mercer Street end of Dripping Springs in Hays County sit outside its reach, and a missing score out there is a gap rather than a clean bill.9 Jester King is the odd one, because its Fitzhugh Road address does fall inside that reach and still holds no record.
as of Aug 2026
What is the right order for a Dripping Springs afternoon?
Take the bread first, the beer second and the cask last. Start at Abby Jane Bakeshop on Fitzhugh Road, where Barton Springs Mill next door mills the heritage grain that goes into the bread and the sourdough pizza, and which will be shut by the time the beer starts.10 Carry on to Jester King for the barrel-aged and spontaneous releases that never reach a supermarket shelf, since the lagers are in H-E-B.11 Finish six miles on at Acopon Brewing Co. for four working hand pumps, which are the reason the loop is worth writing down.12
as of Aug 2026
What Austin is known for
It covers 2 of the things Austin is known for: The Central Texas pit, Outdoor craft breweries. See the cards and their rooms.
How this was written
Jeff's argument, filled in from the sourced entries. Every room here has its own sourced entry, and nothing on this page adds a fact that is not on one of them. Last read through Aug 2026.