Celebrating the Legacy of John Fullilove, Lockhart BBQ Pitmaster

The much-loved pitmaster of Smitty’s Market, John Fullilove, passed away on January 2, peacefully in his home with his cherished chihuahua, Lulu, by his side.

The son of Texas barbecue royalty, Fullilove was born into the family that owned Kreuz Market–a business founded in 1900 and purchased by his maternal grandfather Edgar “Smitty” Schmidt in 1948.

John did not initially plan to be part of the family business. However, he made an abrupt career change in 1999 when he replaced legendary pitmaster Roy Perez at Smitty’s Market.

This event marked a major moment in Lockhart BBQ history as it started the great feud between once-united joint Kreuz Market which split into two establishments–Smitty’s and Kreuz–both located less than half a mile apart from each other.

Under Fullilove’s management as pitmaster, Smitty’s quickly ascended to the top five best barbecue joints according to Texas Monthly magazine (2003) and remained its elevated position within the competitive Texas BBQ scene four years later.

Texas barbecue lost an icon who will be deeply missed.

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Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.