Buzzie’s BBQ served its last plate on August 3, 2025. The Kerrville restaurant that tied for best brisket in Texas according to Texas Monthly and won a national championship on BBQ Pitmasters sold its property after 32 years of smoking meat over live oak.
Harold “Buzzie” Hughes signed the sale papers on July 1, ending two years of negotiations. A local restaurateur who owns two other establishments in the area bought the building. The new owner has not disclosed plans for the space.
The Cost of Excellence
Buzzie worked 18-hour days for three decades. He started cooking barbecue at age 8 in 1965, learning to read smoke and wood instead of thermometers. That early education turned into a career that demanded everything.
“I plan to relax a little and do some fishing,” Buzzie told local reporters after announcing the closure.
He and his wife Brenda have four children and 14 grandchildren, all living in Kerrville. Brenda serves on the city council. The couple decided it was time to step back from the restaurant grind.
Building a BBQ Empire on $1,500
The Hughes family opened their first location in 1993, converting an old grocery and feed store in Comfort, Texas. Their entire savings at the time: $1,500.
Four years later in 1997, they expanded to Kerrville, taking over a former laundromat at Lemos and Schreiner streets. The Kerrville location became their home base.
In June 2007, fire gutted the Kerrville restaurant. The Hughes family rebuilt and reopened five months later. They closed the Comfort location in 2009 to focus all energy on Kerrville.
What Made Buzzie’s Different
The restaurant built its reputation on a 12-foot custom smoker locals called “The Beast.” The pit measured 8 feet deep on both sides, with 100-gallon water tanks providing moisture during the cook. Buzzie could smoke a ton of meat at once.
He used only aged live oak, seasoned for at least two years until the bark turned gray. Each brisket cooked for 13 hours. No thermometers. No shortcuts. Just decades of knowledge about how wood burns and meat responds to smoke.
That method earned recognition:
2010: Texas Monthly ranked Buzzie’s brisket number one in the state, tied with one other restaurant out of hundreds competing for the honor.
2012: Buzzie won the BBQ Pitmasters Season 4 Texas Championship on Travel Channel, beating established pit masters from Lockhart Smokehouse and Burnt Bean Co. in front of a national audience.
The restaurant also made Texas Monthly’s Top 50 BBQ joints list and won “Best BBQ in Kerrville” 28 consecutive years.
The Sale Details
After listing the property for two years, the Hughes family found a buyer in early 2025. The sale closed on July 1, giving them one final month to serve customers before shutting down operations.
The family had explored relocating to 2926 Memorial Boulevard but sold that property to Kerrville Pets Alive! instead. The brick-and-mortar dream was over.
Where to Find Buzzie’s Now
The closure does not mean the end of Buzzie’s barbecue in Kerrville. The family will operate a food truck and continue catering private events.
You can catch them at:
- Kerrville Fourth on the River
- Kerr County Market Days (first Saturday each month)
- Private catering bookings
The food truck allows Buzzie to cook on his terms without the demands of running a full restaurant seven days a week.
What Kerrville Loses
For 28 years, anyone wanting serious Texas barbecue in Kerrville had one answer. The restaurant became the benchmark other local spots measured themselves against. Visitors driving through the Hill Country added Buzzie’s to their routes alongside Lockhart and Llano stops.
The space at Lemos and Schreiner streets will get a new tenant. The smell of oak smoke and brisket that defined that corner for nearly three decades is already gone. What remains is a food truck, weekend appearances at community events, and the memory of what happens when someone spends 32 years perfecting one thing: smoking meat over Texas oak.