Facebook > Email > More Pinterest Print Twitter Play

Dining Guide

Smolik’s Smokehouse

Photograph by Daniel Vaughn

The Smoliks are no doubt an important family in the history of Texas barbecue. A big part of that history revolves around the family’s Czech sausage recipe, and there’s a reason. It’s fantastic. Beef and pork is mixed with black pepper and plenty of garlic, then smoked over hickory. The casing have a great snap and the links are ridiculously juicy without being oily. Over a century of sausage makers in the family will get you results like this. And what, in particular, made this a Czech a sausage? “A Czech made it,” the staff replied.

City: Mathis

Cuisine:

Method: Gas-fired Rotisserie with Mesquite

Pitmaster: Mike Smolik

Rating: ★★★

Address: N. 10541 TX-359, Mathis, TX, 78368

Hours: Mon-Sat 10:30-9

Phone: (361) 547-5494

Website: www.smolikssmokehouse.com

Year Opened: 1989

Last updated: August 19, 2013

Reviews

  • Smolik’s Smokehouse (Top 50)

    By

    Just off Interstate 37, Smolik’s second location (the 1989 original is downtown) is worth a detour. On our stroll up to the counter, we perused vintage knickknacks and newspaper clippings lauding the proud Czech family’s history of smoking meat in …

  • Smolik’s Smokehouse

    By

    Always seeking a route away from the interstate, I found myself driving the back way into Mathis, Texas on FM 666. When I saw that the state had failed to skip that number when naming farm-to-market roads I just had …