Ruby’s Brick Pits

Our pits were modeled after the pits at the original Kreuz’ Market (currently Smitty’s) in Lockhart, Texas. They are made of brick and mortar, with a firebox at one side and the pit itself extending out from the firebox. This creates a cooking area where the smoke and heat pass through, but the meats are not cooked directly over fire or coals –as in grilling, or Cowboy cooking.

Ruby’s method harkens back to the smoke-boxes of the German and Czech settlers, who handcrafted sausage and preserved it and other meats by long, slow smoking. This is a tried and true slow-cooking process which is completely fueled by oak wood. Today, most BBQ joints use Southern Pride smokers or similar large stainless steel box smokers which rely on gas or electricity and very little wood. Ruby’s cannot cook the volume that other restaurants can with gas pits, which have rotating racks allowing you to smoke 40 briskets at a time. Our method requires more human intervention and care. We feel the seasoned brick pits result in a unique taste and texture of a back roads Texas product.

Ruby’s “hand-crafted food”

A little known fact: most BBQ restaurants purchase cartons of potato salad and cans of beans — some restaurants enhance them before serving, others do not. At Ruby’s we make everything on premise –from fresh produce. (We even make our own chicken stock and veggie stock!) Our beef brisket is all natural, steroid-free beef and the all beef sausage is from the Meyer’s Sausage in Elgin, Texas. Cooking with brick pits requires time, care and patience. In fact, we are perhaps the ONLY barbecue in Austin that still uses brick pits to smoke our meats. Again, this is a labor-intensive process, but I think you’ll find our efforts are worth it! You can find cheaper BBQ, just not better!