Lonnie Ray's BBQ: Texas smoke in the heartland of Missouri

I got a chance to try some "Texas-style" BBQ on a trip last week to Columbia, Missouri. I'm alway skeptical when I hear those words and I'm not in Texas. The meat is usually cooked on a gas burner and that ain't Texas-style in my book.......

Longtime friend Jim Curley, a photojournalist in Columbia, drove us north 21 miles to Harrisburg, population 184, home of Lonnie Ray's BBQ. Mike Whiteley, owner and pit boss, has been cooking most of his life and opened Lonnie Ray's seven years ago.

Jim had heard about the Gee Wilikers sandwich, a wholly original choice you can order at Lonnie Ray's. I doubt you'll find this creation anywhere else. It consists of ample portions of smoked bologna, then pickle slices, pepperjack cheese, three layers of onion rings and cole slaw, topped with secret Wilikers sauce. Here's a fun video on Myspace about Lonnie Ray's BBQ and the unique Gee Wilikers sandwich.



The outside looked promising, a small joint with BBQ hand painted in red over the door. Since we were there to try a range of meats we ordered the combo plate, consisting of brisket, pulled pork and baby back ribs, along with three sides. The waiter returned with a plate stacked high with meat and we dug in.

The brisket was really good, with texture and taste similar to Pecan Lodge in Dallas. I thought I tasted a hint of mesquite smoke, which would be very unusual for Missouri. The pulled pork and ribs were very good as well, though not quite as smokey as the brisket.

After lunch, we got the full pit tour from Mike. He cooks with a mix of hickory and pecan, all of which he chops and splits himself. He uses mesquite every now and then when he can find it, but I was fooled a little on the brisket's flavor profile.

No gas is used in the cooking process, only wood and smoke, which is a point of pride for Mike and a rarity for commercial BBQ in this part of the country. We talked Texas cooking techniques and I told him about some of the joints the Posse has visited over the past couple of years.

Mike insisted we try some smoked bologna, or "Arkansas round steak" as he calls it. He warmed up a big chunk and we dug in one more time, bringing back memories and reminding me of the cooked bologna sandwiches I ate growing up. The next time I'll try the Gee Wilikers for sure......

Lonnie Ray's BBQ, 81 East Sexton Street Harrisburg, MO, (573) 874-0020. Open Tues-Fri 11am-8pm, Sat 8am-5pm.







Photos by Chris Wilkins

Lady Gaga, Texas BBQ and Aaron Franklin

If you can work Lady Gaga into a conversation about Texas barbecue, then it's probably going to be a pretty good conversation.

That was true Thursday morning when I stopped by Aaron Franklin's new place in Austin on my way back to Dallas. It was just after 9 a.m., still about two hours until he opened for business, so Franklin had a few minutes to show me around.

"What are you doing in town?" he asked.

I explained that I had gone to the Lady Gaga concert the night before at the Erwin Center. (Terrific show, btw.)

One of her stage props was a red neon outline of a pig with red neon letters "BBQ" in the middle. Who knew Lady G was a barbecue fan?

"Don't know much about her," Franklin said. "Poker Face?"

That's her, I said.

I reminded Franklin that he was on the verge of attaining Gaga-like status in Texas barbecue circles.

"That Aaron Franklin is a ....... rock star," Nick Pencis of Stanley's in Tyler said after tasting Franklin's barbecue earlier this year.

After operating out of a trailer for about a year, Franklin moved to a permanent location, with indoor seating, in March. The building is a couple blocks east of I-35, near the state capitol.

"We're already running out of room," Franklin said as we walked through his dining area. On Saturdays, he said, customers start lining up at 9 a.m. On weekdays, 10:30 a.m. He opens at 11. At the trailer location, he would often sell out by noon. Now, with an extra pit in use, he can go to early afternoon.

Franklin said he has the capacity to cook about 600 pounds of meat a day on his three homemade, tank-style smokers, located on trailers behind the building. He is still working through the city permission process for two brick pits he wants to build. He plans to begin on the enclosure for one of them next week.

He also wants to build a patio area near them.

"So people can watch the pits," he said.

The cooking chambers on the brick pits will hold 42-inch racks and be 16 feet long. Franklin estimated that they will triple his cooking capacity to 1,800 pounds of meat at a time.

That's a lot of barbecue. The last time we were at Snow's in Lexington, which is only open Saturdays, pitmaster Kerry Bexley said he was down a bit, but still cooking about 800 pounds a day.

Gonzales Food Market: Three generations of BBQ mastery

After breakfast at City Market in Luling, we headed southeast on Hwy. 183 to the old town square of Gonzales, home to another one of the best BBQ joints in Texas.

Gonzales Food Market was founded 52 years ago by the Lopez family as a small grocery and meat market, with one brick pit constructed to cook sausage. Two more pits to smoke a wide array of meats followed. Second and third generations of the family still run the joint, which morphed into more of a restaurant in the mid-1970s.

When we arrived at 11:30 am the line was already long, a mix of locals, tourists and bikers. Richard Lopez, grandson of founder Feliciano "Chano" Lopez, was working the busy counter but spotted our cameras. He offered us a pit tour as soon as the line calmed down a little bit.

We chatted with a table filled with four generations of a family from Houston, who frequently make the 135-mile drive to eat lunch at their favorite BBQ joint in the world. They passed on condolences to Richard, who lost his dad Pablo Lopez in February. Pablo owned and managed the Gonzales Food Market for over 50 years before he retired. His obituary in the Gonzales Inquirer states, "The business was his pride and passion."

As promised, Richard took us behind the scenes of his operation, which features three pits including the original brick pit shown in the top photo. On an average Saturday, they will cook 600 pounds of meat, so all three smokers were still going strong as noon approached. They cook with a mix of post oak and mesquite.

After the tour, we settled down to a plate of brisket, sausage and beef short ribs. While the brisket was really good, though not overly smokey, the smoked sausage and short ribs stole the show for us. The sausage has made onsite for over 50 years and it's some of the best sausage you'll ever eat. The beef short ribs were out of this world, rivaling the pepper-encrusted beef ribs at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor.

This is one of those joints you'll want to come back to over and over again. Richard made us feel like family, taking time out of a busy Saturday to show Jeff and me the operation, all the time talking barbecue history and technique. For a BBQ roadtripper, it just doesn't get much better than this.....

Gonzales Food Market, 311 Saint Lawrence St, Gonzales, TX, (830) 672-3156. Open Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat 7am-6pm.

Photos © Jeff Haynes & Chris Wilkins

Family Tradition Bar-B-Q: New stop on the central Texas BBQ trail

UPDATE: This joint closed in October 2011. The Fogle family hopes to open a joint near Lake McQueeney sometime in Spring 2012.

An unexpected stop was awaiting us as we threaded our way on the blue highways around the Interstate 10 corridor looking for the next BBQ joint to visit. We had planned a fourth stop at Schulenburg City Market, but they were closed when we got there. We were on the prowl for a replacement.

In the tiny town of Waelder, population a little over 900, we stumbled into the newly opened Family Tradition Bar-B-Q. Waelder is north of Gonzales and east of Luling, both previous stops on this I-10 BBQ roadtrip. Family Tradition had opened a couple of days earlier in an old gas station just south of Hwy. 90, the main drag through town.

This place is a family affair, as the name indicates. Competition trophies line the wall behind the counter, a great sign for potential diners. Melissa Fogle owns the business, which is run by her dad Jerry.

After several years of winning BBQ competitions around the state, the Family Tradition team decided to park the smoker and open a BBQ joint. Jerry has been cooking for 40 years and the meats we sampled off his pit were the best overall we had so far that day after stops in Luling, Gonzales and Hallettsville.

First, Jeff and I tried the ribs, which were smokey and perfectly cooked, then Jerry's handmade sausage which was equally good. He then invited us to try the latest brisket off the pit, which had been smoking for 30 hours. I was a little skeptical at first, I've had 36-hour brisket before at Clark's Outpost in Tioga, where the taste was great but the meat wasn't moist at all.

This brisket was amazing, both tender and juicy while bathed in post oak smoke. This alone was worth the small town stop, which can easily fit into your next south-central Texas BBQ tour.

I heard from Melissa a couple of days later through our Posse facebook page.

She writes, "If you are traveling along Interstate 10 in Texas, between San Antonio and Houston be sure to stop off in Waelder. Just a few miles into town you will find Family Tradition Bar-B-Q. It just opened up, but it's sure to win your approval. It's family owned and operated. See you there!"

Family Tradition Bar-B-Q, 110 S. Ave. E, Waelder, TX, 830-788-7600. Open Wed-Sun 10am-7pm.

Photos ©Jeff Haynes & Chris Wilkins

City Market in Luling: First stop on the I-10 BBQ roadtrip

I was joined by an old friend last weekend on a quick five-stop BBQ roadtrip. Sports photographer extraordinaire Jeff Haynes, who was in San Antonio covering the NCAA basketball regionals for Reuters, had a down day on Saturday so we headed east on Interstate 10.

The original plan was to hit three city markets and see what we found in between. All three joints were threaded together by I-10 between San Antonio and Houston. They had all received five stars from our friend Daniel Vaughn, aka the BBQ Snob, so I knew it would be a tasty journey.

We planned take Hwy. 90 into Luling, stopping at City Market for brunch, then head south down Hwy. 183 to Gonzales Food Market. Then take Hwy. 90 east through Shiner and Hallettsville, head north up Hwy. 77 ending up at City Market in Schulenburg. Nothing goes together better than blue highways and BBQ smoke.

It was 10:30 am when we arrived at City Market and things were already hopping. We shot photos for a while, but the line started building quickly at the twin doors that lead in and out the smoker room and serving counter. In classic central Texas tradition, you get your order in one place and pay in another.

We ordered brisket and ribs. The ribs were very good but the brisket was a little disappointing. It looked good with a nice smoke ring, but didn't have much smoke. We grabbed some sauce, which had a distinctive mustard base and tangy flavor. I usually don't use sauce, but this was very good and helped amp up the brisket.

Judging from the growing crowd, this joint has a loyal following and I can't wait to visit again. We missed out on the beef sausage, which by all reports is spectacular, but we were pacing ourselves. One stop down and more to come. On to Gonzales........

Luling City Market, 633 Davis St., Luling, TX 78648, 830-875-9019,
Open Mon-Sat 7am-7pm.


Photos © Jeff Haynes & Chris Wilkins/The Texas BBQ Posse

Texas BBQ wins another convert

Before Dan Sweet made his recent pilgrimage to the Central Texas barbecue holy land, he called the Posse. The Oregon resident, who works in corporate public relations, said he had won a Texas tourism essay contest and that one of the research resources he had used was this blog.

Thanks, Dan. It’s always nice to get a nod.

Anyway, for his essay about starting the church of Texas barbecue, Dan and his wife, Cheryl, won a five-day trip to Austin and the Central Texas barbecue trail. Last week, they went to Lockhart, Taylor and other famous barbecue towns and ate at many of the famous joints, including Kreuz Market and Louie Mueller’s.

And, it seems, Dan and Cheryl quickly learned one of the most important lessons about barbecue tours: eat small portions.

“We were so stuffed yesterday that it's almost difficult to even think about more food today,” Dan wrote in an email to the Posse.

Dan wrote about his trip on his blog and Facebook page and also was written about in a story in the Taylor Daily Press.

He told the paper that he travels quite a bit for work and had been to North Carolina and Louisiana, which claim to have the best barbecue.

“The food is okay, but it’s not Texas barbecue,” Dan told the Daily Press. “The people aren’t bad, but they’re not like Texans.”

The Texas tourism folks, it seems, could not have picked a better spokesman.

Dan is already talking about another trip here so he can get to some places he missed, like Franklin and Lambert’s in Austin and Smitty’s in Lockhart.

“I believe those three omissions alone warrant a return trip as soon as I can make time!” he wrote in an email.

Photo of Louie Mueller Barbecue by Gary Barber