“8 Days a Week” (Black’s Barbecue in Lockhart)

Black’s Barbecue in Lockhart is the oldest family-owned restaurant in Texas (since 1932). Black’s slogan is “8 Days a Week.”
 
The Magnolia Cafe in Austin has a slogan of “24/8”—twenty-four hours a day, eight days a week.
 
   
Black’s Barbecue (Lockhart, TX)
“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.
 
Austin (TX) American-Statesman
Central Texas Barbecue Guide - Playing favorites
Who serves up the best barbecue in town? That depends on whom you ask
By Dale Rice
AMERICAN-STATESMAN RESTAURANT CRITIC
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
In much of Texas, it’s the culinary equivalent of Friday night football. There are competing loyalties. Reputations to be maintained.
 
There is one difference, though: These fires get stoked more than one day a week.
 
Here, barbecue is more than a one-night stand. How about a sausage wrap for breakfast. Brisket for lunch. Ribs for dinner. With homemade sides piled on. Eight days a week, as the sign at Black’s boasts.
 
Hobson’s Choice
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Lockhart - Barbecue Capital of Texas
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Black’s
“8 Days a Week” ...reads the sign outside Black’s Barbecue just a few blocks across the town square from Smitty’s. Norma and Edgar Black, co-owners of the self-proclaimed “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 likes to say. “It’s easier to remember when we’re closed - just Thanksgiving and Christmas - than when we’re open.”