"8 Days a Week"
...reads the sign outside Black's Barbecue in Lockhart. Norma and Edgar Black, co-owners of the oldest family-owned barbecue restaurant in Texas, say people are always asking where that eighth day comes from. "If you're here as much as we are, you find a few extra days in that time," Norma says with a laugh. "It's easier to remember when we're closed - Thanksgiving and Christmas - than when we're open."
Black's looks like you'd expect a barbecue restaurant to look. Framed photographs of local high school football teams and hunting trophies cover the walls. A photograph of former Texas Governor Ann Richards, back when she was still state treasurer, fills a spot on the wall, too.
This restaurant has been in the family since 1932. Norma remembers a time when women did not go inside most barbecue restaurants. At Black's, women went to a side window to order. Things have changed a lot since then, but the recipe for brisket is still the same. "It's simple," Edgar says. "You just need salt, pepper, the right wood and a few family secrets that I can't tell you."
"We didn't have a sauce when we first started," Edgar explains. "My wife, she makes it. We added it after a lot of people from the North came down. They'd ask for it." Norma's sauce is red-orange, hinting of lemon and a little cumin; "eight" days a week it simmers in an electric cooking pot not too far from the restaurant's cash register.