Black’s has been around since 1932 and advertises being the “oldest family-owned barbecue restaurant in Texas,” touting various citations from Texas nobility. Barbecue is a crowded market in Lockhart, though, and the competition among the hegemony is tough.

The place looks the part, with smoke-stained brick, storied history, and pictures of Ann Richards and Longhorns sharing wall space with taxidermied deer heads. You stand in line in one room, where you pass with a tray before hot and cold sides of varying success (sweet pickles, good; beans, bland). Brisket, well-seasoned and imbued with plenty of Post-Oak smoke, is the best option here, although it’s pretty dry with the fat not well rendered. The sauce bottle explains that Black’s created it after “a lot of people from the North came down. They’d ask for it.” We’re not fans of the stuff, which tastes ketchupy and pumpkin-pie-spiced. Concessions like this, not to mention the proliferation of billboards along the highway, denote a lack of old-school Hill Country ‘cue ‘tude that may coincide with not-as-amazing meat.

Tender beef ribs are better than pork ribs, which are smoky but tough; turkey is good, but not moist enough. Sausage, though snappy, is mealy and just so-so on flavor. In a vacuum, Black’s is fine—even impressive, to out-of-state visitors. But Lockhart’s no vacuum, and Kreuz and Smitty’s have this one nailed.