Web Posted: 07/21/2004 12:00 AM CDT

Bonnie Walker
San Antonio Express-News

GONZALES — Texas barbecue is like falling in love. It's hard to describe to someone who has never experienced it.

Drive 70 miles for good pit-smoked meat? Sure, no problem.

Our question was whether the barbecue at the Gonzales Food Market was as good as proprietor Richard Lopez had told us it would be in a phone call some time back. A sunny Friday afternoon a few weeks ago seemed a good time to drive over and find out.

At the end of our journey we did, indeed, find some great smoked meat. Even the drive was pleasant, taking us through some scenic rural countryside. In the bargain we learned a little more of our Texas history.

Gonzales, the county seat of Gonzales County, is at the confluence of the Guadalupe and San Marcos rivers, on U.S. 183 South, between San Antonio and Houston. One of its claims to fame is being the site of the first skirmish in the Texas Revolution.

According to the Handbook of Texas Online, on Oct. 2, 1835, "Texans led by John H. Moore resisted Mexican dragoons sent to retrieve the town cannon. Challenging the Mexicans to 'come and take it,' the Texans rallied around the gun and fought the Battle of Gonzales."

Now, every October, Gonzales celebrates "Come and Take It Days" where the town observes its legacy as "the Lexington of Texas."

The Gonzales Food Market, 311 St. Lawrence St., is just a short block away from the stately county courthouse set in the center of an old-fashioned plaza. Take a walk around the block and you'll find antiques and bookstores, the Republican Party headquarters, gift shops, a video store and other expected small-town attractions.

The aroma of mesquite, oak and smoking meat welcomes you to the store long before you open the front door. Coolers keep things comfortable, but there is a bustling warmth to the interior, even though it's the slow time, middle of the afternoon. Tables and chairs are available in a couple of dining areas; ordering is done at a walk-up counter.

On the far side of the room a refrigerator case contains plastic bags of sausages ready for take out. The market's own barbecue sauce and meat rub are packaged and displayed inside the front door next to a tray stacked with plastic-wrapped hunks of yellow cheese.

Above the cheese on the wall is a poster portrait of Ray Charles, signed by the musician. He was a longtime fan of the food market's smoked meats.

In the lighted case at the ordering area, freshly smoked, shiny sausages are piled high. Three massive, well-used butcher-block tables hold center stage and at one of them a woman is tackling a black-crusted hunk of brisket with a large slicing knife.

Teresa Magallanes of Midland stood in line with her sister, Trina Magallanes. Sausage was the big draw, Trina and her sister agreed. "It's just something about the good taste it has. The first thing we do when I come (to Gonzales) is come here to eat," Teresa said.

We'd placed our order for sausage sandwiches, ribs and briskets as soon as we arrived, and we had to agree with Magallanes. The sausage was moist, smoky and perfectly seasoned, having a somewhat coarse texture that was still more tender than it was chewy.

The pork ribs had an appealing, crackling surface of paper-thin fat seasoned with a house-mixed rub that didn't overpower the smoky pink meat beneath. Coleslaw, beans and potato salad, along with a glass of iced tea, made it a perfect mid-afternoon lunch.

For the classic experience, however, Richard Lopez would have suggested a soda rather than my unsweetened tea.

"A Big Red soda water and a hunk of cheese with your barbecue — you've got all you need right there," said Lopez as he took us on a tour of the premises.

Founded in 1959 by Lopez's grandfather, Feliciano Lopez, the market was at first a neighborhood grocery and meat market.

"They cooked a little bit of meat for the customers so they could sell more product, but eventually the barbecue started taking over," said Lopez.

From the beginning the store was very much a family business. Feliciano's son, Pablo, as well as his daughters Elisa and Emily, and sister-in-law Maria de la Luz Gonzales, worked side by side.

"It was a gamble, but they were very successful in what they did," Lopez said. "The sacrifices they made, the business knowledge they gained — if it hadn't of been for them, we wouldn't have what we have now."

Pablo Lopez, Richard's father, is still involved in the business, though much of the management has passed to Richard, along with his wife, Diane. Ray Lopez, Richard's brother, is a pit boss, and works back in the smoky rooms where the store's two brick pits are stoked each day. The Lopezes' cousin, Rene Garza, is also co-owner, doing customer sales behind the meat counter.

Soon, Lopez says, there will be a third pit built outside in the back. Two others working the smokers are Gilbert Alvarez and Jose Ramirez. In addition to walk-in customers, the market also does a brisk mail-order business. Rifling through a stack of orders, Lopez read off the list of destinations. "California, Dallas, Indiana, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas — these sausages go all over," he said.

Lopez describes the sausages as "99.9 percent beef" (the casings are pork). He keeps a good fat-to-meat ratio going, around 70 percent lean to 30 percent fat. The sausages are hand-stuffed in a small, refrigerated room off the main customer area. The seasonings are also mixed in-house.

The brisket is the No. 2 seller, Lopez said. There isn't a fancy way of doing the meat, he said. It's not marinated, but is rubbed with the house blend. Then it is smoked a few hours one day, refrigerated and put back in the smoker the next for eight to10 hours. Lamb ribs, beef ribs and chickens also go into the smokers each day.

Some 300 pounds of sausage are cooked daily; 600 pounds might go into the pits on a busy Friday while 800-900 pounds of sausage might see them through a busy Saturday.

Gilbert Alvarez, who has worked for the Lopezes for 23 years, wiped his face with his hand and shrugged when I asked him how he could stand the heat back in the smoking rooms. "We take breaks, we drink a lot of fluids," he said.

Later, we sit and talk to Rene Garza, who has worked in the store since he was a child.

"I was behind the register at 10," Garza said. "'Earn your keep,' Grandpa said. I've seen four generations of customers coming in here myself. ... Some people come in here three times a day to eat."

As we left, we grabbed some of the sauce and rub to go along with the bag of refrigerated sausages we were taking back home. We passed customers in line, closer to dinnertime now.

Beverly Jean Hunt, a lifelong Gonzales resident, was waiting for two big, white paper-wrapped packages to take out.

"I come here every day, whenever I get a chance," she said. "It's just real good, that's all I can say."