Welcome to the Oral History Archive of Foodways Texas. Here you will find stories from some of the folks creating and shaping our many diverse food cultures. We are actively adding to our archive, so expect to find new histories on the site regularly.
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Texas Barbecue
Kerry Bexley, owner of Snow’s BBQ, and Ms. Tootsie Tomanetz, pitmaster, discussed opening a Lexington, Texas, barbecue joint at the end of the 1990s to serve Saturday barbecue to their community. It took a few years, but they opened Snow’s BBQ on March 1, 2003.Since then, good barbecue, good service, and friendly people have helped maintain a steady and consistent business for the last seventeen years. Snow's BBQ has been deemed best in Texas twice by Texas Monthly magazine in their Texas Barbecue Top 50 list.
Lolo Garcia claims to be the architect of both the smoked brisket-filled tortilla and the brisket and egg taco. He’s certainly one of the first to present the combo to customers. Garcia’s Plantation BBQ (since 1987) is a food trailer parked along a busy industrial highway in Richmond, Texas. The twelve-hour briskets are prepped, smoked, and sliced in the tiny confines of the trailer. Fresh scratch-made tortillas, pico de gallo, and fried eggs, round out one of the most inventive tacos in the area.
Born in Ville Platte, Louisiana, Thelma Williams relocated to Houston in 1969. After working and learning the restaurant and brisket trade at Kessler's Barbecue, she opened her own place in December 1999. Thelma cooked, her five-year-old granddaughter worked the cash register, and her customers ate in living room-type surroundings. A fire forced Williams to move in 2009; on Southmore she again smoked briskets for 16 to 18 hours over a mix of hickory coals and “a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.” Early in 2013, a rent dispute forced Thelma’s Bar-B-Q out of business.
Greg Gatlin opened his family’s namesake restaurant with his mother and father in June 2010. A graduate of Rice University, in business, Gatlin and his parents run their establishment like, what he calls, “a conglomerate of heads.” The brisket is smoked over hickory wood at 250 degrees for a dozen hours. Gatlin’s menu reflects Houston’s melting pot of cultures, including some traditionally non-Texas items like pulled pork, smoked turkey, deer sausage, and Louisiana-style dirty rice.
Nathan Jean “Mama Sugar” Sanders is a legend in the east Texas “Cowboy World” and the matriarch of a riding and roping family that bridges four generations. Born on a farm in Nacogdoches, Texas, by the time she was twenty years old, Sanders had enough of horses, mules, and cows and set off for Houston, to work in a series of restaurants. She became a leader and cook for her riding group, the Sugar Shack Trailblazers, cooking flapjacks with homemade sugar syrup, stews, and, of course, barbecue over an open fire.
As a child, Joe Sullivan ate at House Park Bar-B-Que and thought to himself that someday he wanted to own this restaurant or one just like it. In 1981, he fulfilled his childhood ambition by purchasing House Park, which sits near the Austin neighborhood of Clarksville where he was born and much of his family still lives. Sullivan cooks all of the restaurant’s meat himself, on the brick pit, which has been in place since 1943. Those wishing to try their first taste of House Park barbecue need to keep in mind that the doors are open only between 11am and 2:30pm Monday through Friday.
As a child, Joe Sullivan ate at House Park Bar-B-Que and thought to himself that someday he wanted to own this restaurant or one just like it. In 1981, he fulfilled his childhood ambition by purchasing House Park, which sits near the Austin neighborhood of Clarksville where he was born and much of his family still lives. Sullivan cooks all of the restaurant’s meat himself, on the brick pit, which has been in place since 1943. Those wishing to try their first taste of House Park barbecue need to keep in mind that the doors are open only between 11am and 2:30pm Monday through Friday.
Terry Wootan worked at Cooper’s when he was in high school. After spending some years away from barbecue while focusing on his real estate business, he took over Cooper’s in 1986. In his first years operating the business, Wootan did all the cooking and his wife operated the cash register. They have since expanded to thirty-eight full-time employees, who serve the thousands of hungry customers who descend on Cooper’s each day. While Cooper’s is a favorite of both Texas Hill Country locals and road trippers, dedicated eaters also fly into the tiny Llano airport for lunch by the hundreds each month.
Bobby Mueller was born in Taylor, Texas, in 1939. Louie Mueller was Bobby’s father, who opened the restaurant and grocery store in 1949. When not in school or in the service, Bobby worked with the family business, which he bought from his father in 1974, around the same time Louie Mueller stopped selling groceries. It was about this time when Bobby, himself, learned to barbecue. Today, Louie Mueller Barbecue remains a family business. After Bobby’s passing in 2008, his son Wayne took the helm to continue the tradition of quality barbecue in Taylor.
Lolo Garcia claims to be the architect of both the smoked brisket-filled tortilla and the brisket and egg taco. He’s certainly one of the first to present the combo to customers. Garcia’s Plantation BBQ (since 1987) is a food trailer parked along a busy industrial highway in Richmond, Texas. The twelve-hour briskets are prepped, smoked, and sliced in the tiny confines of the trailer. Fresh scratch-made tortillas, pico de gallo, and fried eggs, round out one of the most inventive tacos in the area.
As a child, Joe Sullivan ate at House Park Bar-B-Que and thought to himself that someday he wanted to own this restaurant or one just like it. In 1981, he fulfilled his childhood ambition by purchasing House Park, which sits near the Austin neighborhood of Clarksville where he was born and much of his family still lives. Sullivan cooks all of the restaurant’s meat himself, on the brick pit, which has been in place since 1943. Those wishing to try their first taste of House Park barbecue need to keep in mind that the doors are open only between 11am and 2:30pm Monday through Friday.
Born in 1944, May Archie had a career with the telephone company. When she married her husband, Horace Archie, in 2002, she joined his church, the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, famous in Huntsville for running a barbecue restaurant. In 2004, the original operators, Mr. and Mrs. Ward, needed to step down from running the restaurant they had started as a fundraiser more than twenty-five years previously. After learning the secret recipes and practices, Mr. and Mrs. Archie took over the business and have run it ever since.
Two interviews, May and Horace Archie, are featured for this establishment.
Born in 1947, Joe Capello started to work for the Ellis family at City Market in Luling when he was twelve years old. He has managed the restaurant since 1969, overseeing the post-oak-smoked brisket and sausage Mr. Howard Ellis learned to make at Kreuz Market in Lockhart. Known today for its Watermelon Thump festival that creates lines around the block for City Market, Luling has changed around Joe, but City Market has remained much the same—from the recipe for the barbecue sauce to the absence of forks in the restaurant.
Since 1981, Don Wiley has built over 1000 custom-made barbecue pits for businesses, college football teams, and individuals in and around central Texas and as far away as New Jersey and Colorado. Each pit is numbered and built to customer specifications. Some of his pits can cook up to 90 briskets or 1000 turkey legs at a time, depending on the needs of the customer. When asked what qualities distinguish a Texas-made pit from others, Wiley is quick to point out that Texas pits just “cook right.”
As a child, Joe Sullivan ate at House Park Bar-B-Que and thought to himself that someday he wanted to own this restaurant or one just like it. In 1981, he fulfilled his childhood ambition by purchasing House Park, which sits near the Austin neighborhood of Clarksville where he was born and much of his family still lives. Sullivan cooks all of the restaurant’s meat himself, on the brick pit, which has been in place since 1943. Those wishing to try their first taste of House Park barbecue need to keep in mind that the doors are open only between 11am and 2:30pm Monday through Friday.
As a child, Joe Sullivan ate at House Park Bar-B-Que and thought to himself that someday he wanted to own this restaurant or one just like it. In 1981, he fulfilled his childhood ambition by purchasing House Park, which sits near the Austin neighborhood of Clarksville where he was born and much of his family still lives. Sullivan cooks all of the restaurant’s meat himself, on the brick pit, which has been in place since 1943. Those wishing to try their first taste of House Park barbecue need to keep in mind that the doors are open only between 11am and 2:30pm Monday through Friday.
Lolo Garcia claims to be the architect of both the smoked brisket-filled tortilla and the brisket and egg taco. He’s certainly one of the first to present the combo to customers. Garcia’s Plantation BBQ (since 1987) is a food trailer parked along a busy industrial highway in Richmond, Texas. The twelve-hour briskets are prepped, smoked, and sliced in the tiny confines of the trailer. Fresh scratch-made tortillas, pico de gallo, and fried eggs, round out one of the most inventive tacos in the area.
Originally from Poth, Texas, Marvin Dziuk moved to Castroville in 1974 at the age of eighteen to manage Dziuk’s Meat Market, the latest branch of the family business. Dziuk’s Meat Market is known as one of the few establishments in Texas that makes and sells fresh Alsatian-style sausage, using ingredients from recipes that the pioneer families of Castroville brought with them when they arrived in Texas in the 1840s. The market is also a popular stop for deer hunters on their way to and from south and west Texas hunting leases.
As a child, Joe Sullivan ate at House Park Bar-B-Que and thought to himself that someday he wanted to own this restaurant or one just like it. In 1981, he fulfilled his childhood ambition by purchasing House Park, which sits near the Austin neighborhood of Clarksville where he was born and much of his family still lives. Sullivan cooks all of the restaurant’s meat himself, on the brick pit, which has been in place since 1943. Those wishing to try their first taste of House Park barbecue need to keep in mind that the doors are open only between 11am and 2:30pm Monday through Friday.
Richard Lopez is the third-generation proprietor of the Gonzales Food Market in Gonzales, Texas, a storefront barbecue restaurant located on the town’s historic Texas Heroes Square. Richard grew up in Gonzales, working in the market alongside numerous cousins and extended family members. When his father decided to retire, Richard, who spent twenty years working for the corporate grocery chain Albertson’s, was eager to continue a family tradition. In spite of the long hours, Richard wouldn’t have it any other way. Because of the family’s dedication to the business, Gonzales Food Market is famous for its sausage, which is still made fresh, by hand, in the back of the shop.
Terry Wootan worked at Cooper’s when he was in high school. After spending some years away from barbecue while focusing on his real estate business, he took over Cooper’s in 1986. In his first years operating the business, Wootan did all the cooking and his wife operated the cash register. They have since expanded to thirty-eight full-time employees, who serve the thousands of hungry customers who descend on Cooper’s each day. While Cooper’s is a favorite of both Texas Hill Country locals and road trippers, dedicated eaters also fly into the tiny Llano airport for lunch by the hundreds each month.
Vencil Mares was born on November 10, 1923. A native Texan, Mr. Mares returned home from WWII and went right into the barbecue business. He began in Elgin, Texas, at the Southside Market in 1948. It was there, working in the smoke pit, that Mares learned the secrets of the barbecue trade, including how to make his much acclaimed sausage. A year later, he purchased what is now Taylor Café in nearby Taylor, Texas, and has been the owner and operator of the establishment ever since. Taylor Café’s hundred-year-old building is as distinctive as Vencil’s ketchup-based barbecue sauce, complete with jukebox, mismatched bar stools, and an antique cash register. Though the Taylor Café has been housed in the same building since it opened, there have been a few changes. Some years ago, for example, Mr. Mares added turkey sausage to his menu. But Taylor Café is still, at its heart, the same barbecue joint that it was in 1948.
Iconic Restaurants
Matt and Janie Martinez opened Matt’s El Rancho on July 7, 1952, in Austin, Texas on Cesar Chavez Street. In December 1986, Matt’s El Rancho moved to their current location on South Lamar Blvd. Janie and her three daughters still run the family-owned business, which celebrated its 60-year anniversary on July 12, 2012. The restaurant enjoyed former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s approval as he used to enter the back door with a Secret Service detail to eat his favorite dish, Chile Relleno.
Betty Zentner was working in a department store in 1974 when she was presented with the opportunity to open Zentner’s Daughter, her San Angelo restaurant. By then, the Zentner name was well known in West Texas because Betty's father, John Zentner (1899-1994), opened a number of popular steakhouses throughout the region. True to the Zentner family tradition, the restaurant primarily focuses on its steaks. The restaurant’s interior pays tribute to the Zentner legacy, with rooms named after Betty's relatives and walls adorned with paintings and pictures of family.
This Marble Falls landmark originally opened on Main Street in 1929, and was moved to its current location on Highway 281 in 1946. Upon relocating, the restaurant failed once and changed ownership four times before John and Belinda Kemper bought it in 1981. The restaurant is widely known for its pies and southern comfort food. Although Blue Bonnet Cafe has undergone a few updates since the Kempers began running it, careful measures have been taken to preserve its Texas cafe mystique.
On July 4, 1935, Joe T. & Jessie Garcia opened Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant in part of their home in Fort Worth, Texas. Upon opening, the tiny house had a maximum seating capacity of sixteen. The Garcias served their famous enchiladas in the front room while they slowly expanded their home over the next few decades to accommodate more customers and their growing family. Today, the restaurant encompasses most of a city block and can serve around 2000 customers on the weekends.
Other Interests
In 1976, Johnny Halili immigrated from the mountains of Kosovo to Chicago penniless, unable to speak English, and having never spent time on the open sea. Within decades, he would become the largest holder of oyster leases along the Gulf Coast. He started off shrimping in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. He moved to Texas City, started working on oyster boats as a deck hand, and eventually, with his wife Lisa, bought his own boat and oyster beds. Today he is gradually transitioning the Prestige Oysters brand to his son, Raz Halili.
Brewers
On July 4, 1935, Joe T. & Jessie Garcia opened Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant in part of their home in Fort Worth, Texas. Upon opening, the tiny house had a maximum seating capacity of sixteen. The Garcias served their famous enchiladas in the front room while they slowly expanded their home over the next few decades to accommodate more customers and their growing family. Today, the restaurant encompasses most of a city block and can serve around 2000 customers on the weekends.
Brock Wagner is the founder and brewer at Saint Arnold’s Brewing Company in Houston, Texas. Growing up in Cincinnati and then Brussels, Belgium, Wagner gained an appreciation for wine and beer which carried through his college days at Rice, where he was introduced to home brewing. After a stint in Investment Banking, Wagner realized he needed to follow his true passion, brewing. For more than twenty years Wagner had been creating an institution that Houston and the region is proud to call their own.
Coop
Wheatsville Food Co-op is the longest established grocery cooperatives in Austin, opening in 1976. While it began as a small, cash-strapped venture depending on volunteers to run its store, the cooperative has grown into a respected member-owned business in its own right, grossing $14 million a year and enjoying over 10,000 members. Wheatsville employs a paid staff, and unlike some cooperatives that require members volunteer their time, it operates as a consumer cooperative, in which members buy shares in the business. Wheatsville’s success has depended on its hybridity: in order to satisfy a broad range of customers, it sells not only specialty, vegan, vegetarian, and natural and organic goods, but it also serves as a neighborhood grocery for daily shopping. In contrast, says General Manager Dan Gillotte, other food cooperatives’ mission is to supply goods that are strictly “natural” or organic; “most co-ops are more ‘pure,’…Wheatsville promotes local and organic, but we’re very responsive to our members in what we carry” (Dan Gillotte interview in Eat and Drink Austin Magazine
