The Original Family Beef: Kreuz and Smitty’s reconcile differences, move forward as family ...Middle East

In Texas’ state-designated BBQ capital, two legendary Lockhart families run the town’s most iconic barbecue joints as a rising star joins the scene — and all vie for coveted spots on the Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ list. Explore our project online now and watch the documentary June 5 at 7 p.m. on the KXAN+ smart TV app.

LOCKHART, Texas (KXAN) — “Every family has their problems and their disagreements. It's just that ours was pretty national news, worldly news,” Nina Sells recalled. 

She sat on a long dining bench inside her downtown Lockhart barbecue joint, Smitty’s Market. Sunlight streaming in from windows illuminated her hair — a stark contrast to the dark walls of the century-old building covered in soot from decades of barbecue pit fires.

The building, largely unchanged since it was built in 1924, wasn’t always called Smitty’s Market. For many years, it was Kreuz Market, a meat market turned full-time barbecue restaurant that helped pioneer Texas-style barbecue and contributed to Lockhart’s reputation as the "Barbecue Capital of Texas."

But a disagreement between Nina and her brother, Rick Schmidt, changed the business and their family forever, making an imprint on Texas barbecue history and the town. 

‘Raised in the barbecue industry’

According to Nina, her father, Edgar “Smitty” Schmidt, went to work for the Kreuz family when he was about 13. He eventually bought the business and became the Kreuz Market owner in 1948. 

“My brothers and I were raised in the barbecue industry. We watched our dad work very hard,” Nina said. 

In 1984, Smitty sold the business to his sons, Rick and Don Schmidt. In 1990, Smitty died and left the building to Nina, effectively making her the landlord to her brothers. 

Rick became the business’ sole owner in 1997 after Don’s retirement, according to the Kreuz Market timeline. 

Tensions surrounding rent and the lease started to bubble. When asked about the disagreements, Nina, who was the county clerk for more than two decades, peered cautiously over her glasses.

She said Rick had a few years left on their long-term lease, and the rent hadn’t been increased in several years.  

“It just wasn't economical to keep this place going on what the rent was,” Nina said, adding the old building required lots of maintenance. 

Nina said Rick wanted to buy the building, but she declined. All of this prompted him to move Kreuz Market to a new building in 1999. 

“It was one of those deals where there was no right answer,” Rick’s son and now-owner of Kreuz, Keith Schmidt, explained. Keith began working with his dad two years prior and expressed to him that moving such an iconic, historic business was a risk.

Nina said she felt deep down that maybe her brother wanted to expand to a newer building to accommodate customer demand.  

Relocating Kreuz Market

The search for a new spot was on. Keith said they had offers coming in for new locations, but his dad wanted to keep Kreuz in Lockhart close to its original building. 

“He wanted [Kreuz] here, which is why we're a quarter mile away on the same road. This was not the ideal spot, and he paid a lot for this lot,” Keith explained.

Both Smitty’s and Kreuz sit on Commerce Street. Traveling between the two, tourists pass by a small park, railroad tracks and the county courthouse along the short commute.

Media coverage of the business split escalated on moving day when Rick and Kreuz Market transported hot coals from the old pits in the original building down the street to the new place’s pits to start a fire. It was shown on national television, Nina remembered. 

“We had a police escort,” Keith said. “We had just a pack of cameramen and everything watching, and we dragged it down Commerce Street here. Brought it in here and started the new fire.”

Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor at Texas Monthly and main curator of the magazine’s Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints list, has long reported on Texas barbecue history and described Nina and Rick’s disagreement as a “very public feud.” 

“It was a very symbolic move of like, 'we are moving the family fire.' That's symbolism right there,” Vaughn said about Rick moving the coals. 

“I think there was, like, true animosity in the family,” he added. 

The new Kreuz Market building is expansive — 25,000 square feet. Keith said the large space allowed them to evolve over the years and launch new services like online orders, catering and wholesale. 

Birth of Smitty’s Market

Rick and Kreuz Market moved out of the old building at the end of August 1999, Nina said. Now left with an empty space, Nina and her family quickly turned around and opened a new barbecue joint in September. She honored her father by naming it after him, and thus, Smitty’s was born.

It took a few years after its opening to get Smitty’s Market off the ground. Nina largely credits the restaurant’s growth and success to her son, John Fullilove, who continued Papa Smitty’s hard-working legacy — the same mindset that inspired Nina when she was younger. 

“This young man worked his heart out. ... He put his heart and soul into working and making it go,” Nina said. 

John was recognized for his efforts in the barbecue industry in 2003, landing the cover of Texas Monthly when Smitty’s ranked in the top five of the magazine’s barbecue joints list. It marked a turning point for the business following media coverage of the sibling split. 

"We had some negative press. So when this [cover] came along, and we thought, ‘Gosh, it's been four years. Maybe this is OK,'" Nina said. 

Nina still keeps copies of her son’s Texas Monthly issue in her home, along with other news articles about the business, both good and bad. 

“If you're going to have a successful business, you've got to be there, and you've got to know what's going on, and [John] did that,” she said.

Nina lost both John and her second husband in the span of a few months. Her husband, Jim Henry Sells, died in September 2022, followed by John in January 2023. 

Over the years, Smitty’s Market added buildings to expand dining space, but Nina preserved the original building from 1924, keeping the barbecue pits in the same spot, the restaurant’s website said. Nina said she felt “entrusted” to take care of the building.  

“Just couldn't see taking these walls and trying to renovate them and make them new,” she said.

Even with the notoriety and longevity of the Kreuz brand today, Keith recognizes some people will still choose to eat at Smitty’s for the nostalgia. 

“I can tell you, 100%, there are people that still go there just for the building,” he said.

‘There was no feud.’

Though some remember Nina and Rick’s disagreement as dramatic, in hindsight, Keith said it’s a lot simpler than that.

“There was no feud. They just never got along,” he said. Nina echoed the same sentiment. 

“[Rick] didn't want a little sister coming in and ever telling him what to do, which I did not do, but we just didn't get along,” she said. 

Rick died in 2019, almost a year after his wife, Keith’s stepmother, died from cancer. Keith called it “the worst year.” 

“[My father] did not want to do anything. I'd go over there and sit with him… broke his heart,” Keith said.

Six years later, Keith said he feels like his father is still at Kreuz, in a way.

“His table’s back here, where he used to sit and drink beer with his buddies and stuff. So, I mean, what he did for this place isn't gone,” he said, adding that he doesn’t regret his father’s choice to branch out to a new location. 

“It forced him to do something he never would have done on his own, but couldn't have been more right to do,” he said.

Though Keith often played the communicator between Nina and his father, he reaffirmed that his aunt always treated him like family. They still meet up for holidays.

A special moment in their relationship was formed when Keith asked Nina to be involved in Rick’s funeral. 

“That really, really touched her and showed her that I had absolutely no bad feelings at all to include her,” Keith said. 

Reflecting on the past, Nina said, “It was a hurtful time.” She said she wishes she and her brother had kept their business dealings private instead of speaking with reporters. 

“Rick had made the statement that I ran him out, I wanted the building, and that's not true. I wish we could have gotten along,” she said, shaking her head.

Nina focuses on her remaining family now, especially her grandchildren, she said. Barbecue continues to run strong in the family, and it all started with Smitty. 

New generations of Schmidts carry his legacy together, having opened a restaurant in Bee Cave called Schmidt Family Barbecue in 2013, as well as the Lockhart Smokehouse restaurants in North Texas in 2011. 

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