Go Back
Print this page
Louie Muller bbq exterior
Crackly-skinned sausages have made Louie Mueller (pronounced “Miller”) one of Texas’s most popular barbecue restaurants. Since the 1960s, Mueller’s son, Bobby, has made all-beef sausages from scratch.
Smitty Market
After being cooking in a smoke pit, the sausages at Smitty’s Market, above left, become incredibly juicy, arguably the juiciest in the state. Pitmaster and manager John Fullilove, above right, inherited the business (formerly Kreuz Market) from his grandfather, Edgar A. “Smitty” Schmidt.
Smitty Market
The interior of Smitty’s Market, located in the oldest barbecue building in Lockhart, Texas’s barbecue mecca.
South Side Market
At the Southside Market, each spicy sausage link, above left, measures six inches long and weighs about a quarter pound. Hugo Velasco, above right, smokes the sausages in a pit.
Smittys Market
Smitty’s Market is stocked with seasoned oak firewood, which keeps its pit engulfed in clouds of smoke.
Louie Mueller BBQ
Housed in a former basketball court, Louie Mueller, above left, has sepia-hued walls that show the wear of continuous smoke-roasting. Although the sausages at Southside Market, above right, come with sauce, they are so flavorful that they need no adornment at all. Side dishes include pickles, raw onion, and sometimes orange cheese.
Louie Mueller BBQ
Vending machines line the wall inside Louie Mueller.
Smitty Market interior
The photographs on the walls at Smitty’s Market, above left, offer a glimpse of the restaurant’s rich history. In the 1970s (when it was Kreuz Market), knives like the one pictured at right were attached to benches for the customers’ use.
South Side Market
After the sausages at Southside Market are smoked, they are scored in four places so diners can easily separate them into segments.
Louie Mueller interior
A menu, above left, displays the choices at Louie Mueller. Coleslaw and potato salad weren’t added until 1974, when Bobby Mueller purchased his father’s business and added his mother-in-law’s recipes. The high windows and dark interior, above right, give the place a churchlike ambience.
Louie Mueller interior
The walls at Louie Mueller are decorated with notes from its loyal customers.
Louie Mueller exterior
The exterior of Louie Mueller also shows wear and tear.
Subscribe to Gourmet