Richard Lopez is the third-generation proprietor of the Gonzales Food Market in Gonzales, Texas, a storefront barbecue restaurant located on the town’s historic Texas Heroes Square. Richard grew up in Gonzales, working in the market alongside numerous cousins and extended family members. When his father decided to retire, Richard, who spent twenty years working for the corporate grocery chain Albertson’s, was eager to continue a family tradition. In spite of the long hours, Richard wouldn’t have it any other way. Because of the family’s dedication to the business, Gonzales Food Market is famous for its sausage, which is still made fresh, by hand, in the back of the shop.

Terry Wootan worked at Cooper’s when he was in high school.  After spending some years away from barbecue while focusing on his real estate business, he took over Cooper’s in 1986. In his first years operating the business, Wootan did all the cooking and his wife operated the cash register. They have since expanded to thirty-eight full-time employees, who serve the thousands of hungry customers who descend on Cooper’s each day.  While Cooper’s is a favorite of both Texas Hill Country locals and road trippers, dedicated eaters also fly into the tiny Llano airport for lunch by the hundreds each month.

Vencil Mares was born on November 10, 1923. A native Texan, Mr. Mares returned home from WWII and went right into the barbecue business. He began in Elgin, Texas, at the Southside Market in 1948. It was there, working in the smoke pit, that Mares learned the secrets of the barbecue trade, including how to make his much acclaimed sausage. A year later, he purchased what is now Taylor Café in nearby Taylor, Texas, and has been the owner and operator of the establishment ever since. Taylor Café’s hundred-year-old building is as distinctive as Vencil’s ketchup-based barbecue sauce, complete with jukebox, mismatched bar stools, and an antique cash register. Though the Taylor Café has been housed in the same building since it opened, there have been a few changes. Some years ago, for example, Mr. Mares added turkey sausage to his menu. But Taylor Café is still, at its heart, the same barbecue joint that it was in 1948.