 April 20, 2008 - Any show about Texas food has to feature barbecue. Arguably, the official food of Texas, barbecue brings Texans together like nothing else. Nearly every weekend, you can find a barbecue fund-raiser, a barbecue contest or people in their back yard cooking up barbecue. In the first episode “Barbecue Joints,” Texas Food TV visited three barbecue restaurants in and around the Brazos Valley. Each offered a unique approach but wound up at the same place - serving great tasting barbecue.
Holy Smoke
Our first stop was just off I-45 on Montgomery Road in Huntsville. There, you’ll find the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church or what some folks call, “the church of the holy smoke.” Right next door, separated by 12 feet of asphalt, you’ll find New Zion Bar-B-Que. Horace and Mae Archie run this eatery that was started more than 25 years ago by one of the parishioners, Annie Mae Ward.
According to Rev. Clinton Edison, the church pastor, Mrs. Ward’s husband, D.C. Ward, was painting the church as Mrs. Ward was cooking her husband’s lunch in a 55-gallon drum on the church lawn. Edison said, “Once she fired that pit up, she couldn’t even cook dinner for people stopping and wanting to know if they were selling barbecue.”
The next week, Rev. A.C. Harris, the former pastor, gave Mrs. Ward $50 to start the business and the rest, as they say, is history. While we were shooting the New Zion segment, we met customers who traveled to Huntsville specifically to taste the ribs, brisket, chicken and sausage that Mr. Archie and cook, Robert Polk, continue to prepare in the tradition started by Mrs. Ward.
We met Comal County Deputy Sheriff Manuel Sanchez who said that the church barbecue is well-known in law enforcement circles. Rule of thumb...if you don’t know where to eat in a town, look for the police cars. It’s a pretty good bet that the cops eat at the good places. Huntsvillians favor New Zion Bar-B-Que as well. We met three Sam Houston State University students who dine at the famous landmark at least twice each week.
Sausage by the Pound
Our second stop was in Elgin, a railroad town that was established in 1872. Ten years later, Southside Market and Barbecue, famous for its “Elgin Hot Sausage”, was established. In 1968, Ernest Bracewell bought the place. He, his son, Billy, and grandson, Bryan, have carried on the sausage-making tradition that has spanned generations of Texans.
Southside Market and BBQ houses a meat market, a barbecue restaurant and a sausage production plant where it produces sausage that locals refer to as “hot guts.” The 22,000-square-foot facility was built in 1992, the same year the Texas Legislature proclaimed Elgin the Sausage Capital of Texas.
Over the years, Southside Market and BBQ survived ownership changes, expansion, a location move, and even a 1983 fire that gutted the dining room at the old downtown location. One thing has remained constant – famous Elgin Hot Sausage. Director of Marketing Rachel Bracewell said the sausage recipe has basically been the same since 1882. “We haven’t tinkered with the original recipe,” she said.
President Billy Bracewell said production was 30,000 pounds of sausage each week until they moved into the automated facility. “The processing plant used to be housed in a 15-foot by 30-foot room,” he said. Today, sausage production can exceed 100,000 pounds a week. Southside Market and BBQ sells more than 2 million pounds of hot sausage annually.
General Manager Bryan Bracewell said the sausage plant maintains strict standards of cleanliness. A USDA inspector is on the premises during production hours. “We actually have an inspector here five days per week,” he said. Because Southside Market and BBQ is a federally inspected plant, they can ship Elgin Hot Sausage anywhere in the United States.
At least one customer agrees that sausage is king. While standing in line to order lunch with his family, Elgin native Frank Carlos Jr. shared his experiences at Southside Market and BBQ with his two daughters and their children. “My daddy used to bring me here when I was 10 years old,” he said. “When my daddy was alive, we’d come down here and get sausage every week.”
Recently, Southside Market and BBQ gained notoriety for something other than sausage and barbecue. In the movie, “Friday Night Lights,” the coin toss that determined Odessa Permian’s football playoff fate in 1988 was conducted in the dining room at Southside Market and BBQ. The scene opened with a clear shot of the exterior sign and culminated with the deciding toss in the easily recognizable dining room. Billy said that the actual coin toss never took place at Southside Market and BBQ because they were still located in downtown Elgin in 1988.
In 1992, the Bracewells bought the old Security National Bank on Highway 290, expanded the facility and relocated. Billy said he thought the producers of the film where just scouting for a location that looked like a truck stop and settled on the current building.
Southside Market and BBQ has a connection to the Brazos Valley too. Both Bryan and Rachel Bracewell graduated from Texas A&M University in 1998. The good news is you don’t have to drive to Elgin to experience Southside Market and BBQ. With just a few clicks on internet, you can have famous Elgin Hot Sausage delivered to your home. Just visit their Web site at http://sausage.cc and click the link to the online store.
Barbecue the Old-Fashioned Way
For our third stop, we came back to the Brazos Valley. Martin’s Barbecue is the oldest continuously operated restaurant in Bryan owner Steve Kapchinskie said. The land where the current building stands at South College and Sulphur Springs was purchased in December 1924 on what was then a one-lane country road connecting Bryan and College Station.
Kapchinskie said Martin’s Barbecue is located in a place that used to be called “Midway” because it was midway between Bryan and College Station. This restaurant has survived the Great Depression, thousands of Texas A&M graduations and changing times. Some of the customers that Kapchinskie calls “the old timers” remember the days when horse-drawn wagons and Model T Fords parked side-by-side at Martin’s.
Bryan and College Station have changed, but one thing that has remained constant is the way the Kapchinskie family goes about making barbecue. Each Tuesday through Saturday at about 8 a.m., Kapchinskie, a third-generation barbecue expert, stokes the oak fired, 65-year-old pit that was built by his grandfather, then loads the cooking grates with ribs, brisket and sausage. In a few hours, the meat transforms into that tender barbeque that customers have been experiencing for 80 years.
Recently, Texas Historical Commission marker was placed at Martin's Place. The marker commemorated the trade name, Martin’s Place. With a name like Kapchinsie, how did they come up with Martin’s Place? Kapchinskie said, “My grandfather’s first name was Martin. It was easier to say than Kapchinskie.”
In the beginning, Martin opened a butcher shop and started preparing barbecue as a side business. Some of the bricks from the original pit are still visible in the north parking lot of the current location. In 1939, he built the current building and in 1951, the familiar horseshoe bar and neon sign were installed. Other than the food, perhaps the most appealing part of the Martin’s experience is the old time feel of the restaurant.
|
