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Q&A

Snow’s BBQ is only open one day a week but, from this tiny restaurant, Kerry Bexley sells what has been named the best barbecue in Texas.

How did you go from being a rodeo clown to creating the barbecue that Texas Monthly magazine anointed number one in the state?
Well, if I wasn’t 42 years old I’d love to still be a rodeo clown. Right now, I also work at a surface lignite mine, am a real estate agent and an auctioneer. I love a challenge.

I started working on the barbecue in 2002 because I always enjoyed dealing with the public and I wanted a place for my daughters to learn how to work. I already had a good location here in Lexington, a place where I used to run a farm store. The pit boss, Miss Tootsie Tomanetz, who from 1976-1996 served barbecue at her meat market, told me what kind of pits she liked to use and we began building. We knew we wanted it to be a Saturdays-only deal. Never considered adding another day.

How has life changed since last summer when you were selected by the magazine?
When Texas Monthly told us we’d been chosen, they asked if we were ready for what was coming our way. Well, we weren’t ready. The crowds…it’s been a lot. Recently the line out front was 90 people deep and not one person was from Lee County where we live. But it’s a prestigious honor. We are blessed. But it has changed the way Miss Tootsie and I do things.

What do you serve?
Brisket, pork steaks, sausage, chicken, ribs, homemade potato salad and cole slaw and beans. I do all the seasoning and all the brisket cooking. The secret is to be very basic with seasonings and pay good attention.

Why did you name your restaurant Snow’s BBQ?
Snowman was my childhood nickname. Before I was born my brother was asked if he wanted a little brother or sister. He said he wanted a snowman, and it stuck.

What’s an average Saturday like for you?
I try to be here by midnight on Friday and put the briskets on. Miss Tootsie arrives at 2 a.m. and we start cooking the pork ribs and chicken. We wrap briskets in foil in the early morning hours and begin preparing to open at 8 a.m. Some people start lining up at 6:30. We serve until we run out of food, which is normally between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

You recently started taking orders over the internet and shipping. How is that going?
From day one it has been a guessing game about how much meat we are going to need. We only serve fresh. What the shipping has allowed us to do is to go ahead and fill our pits up, maintain more regular hours, and if we do have something left over, we can prepare it for shipping out on Tuesday.

If you knew it was going to be your last meal, would you eat barbecue?
Not barbecue. No. It would probably be a ham sandwich and iced sweet tea. |SFM|

Susan Segrest is a contributing editor to Specialty Food Magazine.