Family Beef: Black's and Terry Black's barbecue feud still burning

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In Texas' state-designated BBQ capital, two legendary Lockhart families run the town's most iconic barbecue joints as a rising star joins the scene — and all vie for coveted spots on the Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ list. Explore our project online now and watch the documentary June 5 at 7 p.m. on the KXAN+ smart TV app.
LOCKHART, Texas (KXAN) – 'In no way, shape, or form do I ever see there being a 'Kumbaya' moment where we come together and are buddy-buddy.'
That is how Mike Black, co-owner of Terry's Black's Barbecue, describes the current state of his relationship with his uncle Kent Black, owner of Black's Barbecue.
The family's tense and prickly dynamic dates back more than 15 years and has become the latest of two prominent barbecue family feuds in Lockhart. Dubbed the 'Barbecue Capital of Texas' by the state legislature in 1999, the city draws thousands of meat-loving pilgrims each year to its historic joints.
After years of mistrust, firings, lawsuits and intense rivalry, both sides acknowledge that repairing the relationship will be hard to do.
One sticking point in particular is still quite visible. Directly across the street from the original Black's Barbecue location in Lockhart is a building with two large signs that read 'The Corporate Office of Terry Black's Barbecue.'
While Kent said the sign across the way is something 'I don't even notice anymore,' it's indicative of the lingering issues the families have not resolved.
When twin brothers Mike and Mark Black were growing up in Lockhart in the late '90s, the two would spend their summers, sometimes in 100-degree heat, chopping post oak in the lot behind their grandparents' restaurant.
It's the same undeveloped lot where cord after cord of wood still sits, lining the restaurant's delivery entrance while drying out in the Texas heat.
At the time, Edgar Black Jr. and his wife, Norma Jean Black, owned Black's Barbecue. Originally opened in 1932 by Edgar Jr.'s father, Edgar Black Senior, the restaurant holds the claim to fame as the state's oldest barbecue joint owned by the same family.
Years later, when Mike graduated from Texas State in 2010, he needed a job, and he said his grandfather was happy to employ him.
It was a family affair with Kent serving as general manager, his brother Terry Black the accountant, and Mike trimming and serving meat. From the outside, it appeared the family was working together in harmony. But like baked beans on the back burner, in reality, they said a strain was simmering.
'It was a tumultuous three years to say the least,' Mike said. 'We butted heads from day one. My uncle always looked at me as kind of a spy, like I was watching over him.'
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Sitting in an empty dining room before his restaurant opened for business, Kent denied being an overbearing boss to his nephew. However, the third-generation pitmaster — dressed in a cowboy hat, red handkerchief around his neck, and work shirt with his name and job title embroidered in it — said he was bemused by his nephew's hiring.
'When they were younger, they didn't have any interest in working here,' Kent recalled. 'So, yeah, we were all surprised.'
What was already a strained relationship boiled over in September 2013 when Mike and Mark, then 26 at the time, made a move to open Black's Barbecue Austin, along with their dad Terry and older sister Christina.
Mike, now 37, said an agreement had previously been reached inside his grandmother's Lockhart home that his side of the family would open and own a new location in Austin, while Kent's side would open and own a restaurant in San Marcos.
Kent, a former prosecutor for the state of Texas, tells a different story.
'I was never asked about whether or not they were going to open a place in Austin. That just kind of appeared,' he said.
There are no public records confirming either version of the alleged agreement.
For Mark, who was re-entering the barbecue industry for the first time since working at his grandparents' restaurant as a kid, it was a wake-up call on what can happen when you mix family with business.
'I don't know why they did what they did,' Mark said.
Kent said, for him, it was the name 'Black's Barbecue' that was the sticking point. He said his parents legally owned the name and never gave Terry's side of the family permission to use it.
When the sign went up on Austin's Barton Springs Road announcing the new joint, Kent said he initially asked his brother and the twins to change the name. When they didn't, he sent them a warning.
Kent called it a 'letter,' while Mark called it a 'cease and desist order.' Regardless of its legal weight, it was enough to get them to rename the restaurant after their dad.
'My parents owned the business, and they pushed back on Terry and his kids for not running the business the way my parents wanted it to run,' Kent said.
In between the original opening and re-opening under a new name, Mike said Kent fired him, Mark, Terry and Christina, from Black's Barbecue.
'Lawsuits started flying and all that,' Mark said. 'Terry was completely cut out of the family. Still don't know why.'
In 2017, the patriarch of the family, Edgar Black Jr., died at 91 years old.
In the days that followed, brothers Kent and Terry reopened their lines of communication to plan a visitation and funeral.
Stories differ on what the two families disagreed about during the visitation. However, both said it resulted in a heated argument at the funeral home.
The funeral still went on as planned the next day, but it was the last time Mike and Mark saw or spoke to their now 93-year-old grandmother, Norma Jean.
Mike and Mark both spoke to us separately from the dining rooms of their restaurants, with Mike in Lockhart, and Mark in Austin.
Both said the families' next public feud occurred four years later in 2021, with a dispute over a billboard.
Along the side of U.S. Highway 183 on the south end of Lockhart sits an old shed, a few shipping containers and lots of tires. As told by Mark, his father Terry owns the land and leases it out to the Rodriguez Tire Shop.
There's also a billboard on the land, towering over the road. It used to contain an advertisement for Black's Barbecue, attempting to lure in drivers to stop for a meal as they entered town.
'It was a sign that I owned, and I had the permits, and I had all of the state licenses,' Kent explained.
But Terry Black's Barbecue wanted it gone.
'We told Kent, 'Hey, since we're no longer involved in Black's Barbecue, we're going to put our billboard up, so you need to take yours down,' Mark Black said.
Mark said rather than take his sign down, Kent cut the whole billboard down with a saw.
In response, Terry Black's Barbecue sued.
When asked about the allegations of cutting down the billboard and the lawsuit, Kent cited the settlement terms.
'They were not supposed to discuss the case, and so I'm respecting the settlement order that says to not discuss the case,' Kent said.
A Terry Black's billboard now sits on the property.
The billboard dispute kicked off the first of three conflicts, all involving signs.
In 2022, two signs popped up directly across the street from Black's Barbecue, just a block away from the historic Lockhart Square.
A nondescript wood and brick building painted tan now has a sign reading, 'The Corporate Office of Terry Black's Barbecue' hanging on the front of it and plastered on its side.
In the front window to the right of the front door is black lettering that spells out 'Terry W. Black / Certified Public Accountant / Certified Financial Planner.'
Written after the address on a sign screwed in above the door is an asterisk followed by the message 'not affiliated with the location across the street.'
'I don't understand why they had to put those signs up there,' Kent said. 'That was a little bit of overkill.'
Kent owns the building that has his brother's name and family business written all over it.
For years, Terry worked out of the building during the time he helped run Black's Barbecue before Kent took over. Mike said his father has a long-term lease on it, and as a result, is free to put up whatever signs he wants.
'It just eats him a lot,' Mike said about his uncle. 'His little minions come outside and they cry about it. They get so upset. It cracks me up.'
The sign across the street from Black's Barbecue went up at the same time Terry Black's Barbecue was making a significant expansion into Lockhart.
After first opening in Austin, then Dallas, Mike and Mark began construction on a third location, this time in their hometown, and on a lot their father owned.
Just a half mile from the restaurant where the twins worked as boys, they opened Terry Black's Lockhart, making it the first restaurant people reach when driving in from Austin.
'They're like, two blocks from Black's Barbecue,' said Texas Monthly Barbecue Editor Daniel Vaughn, who's followed and written about the feud. 'They're also just 45 minutes from their Austin location. From a business standpoint, this is not a wise decision. They were really trying to send a message that they can compete in Lockhart, too.'
However, the twins point out that Lockhart holds a special sentiment for them. Regardless of the message being sent, there's still a line of people each day, at times out the door, looking for good barbecue.
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'(We) finally made our way back to Lockhart, Texas, which is our hometown,' Mike said. 'It's been a raging success.'
When asked about the new Lockhart location, Kent said, 'It's a free country.' However, he also questions his brother's motives.
'I don't quite understand why he decided to come to Lockhart and compete against his mother and father,' he said.
Before the Terry Black's Barbecue Lockhart restaurant even opened, the marquee was up and taking shots at its new neighbor, Blacks Barbecue.
During construction, the sign read 'another 230,353 reasons why you should eat at Terry Black's BBQ.'
That number was a not-so-subtle reference to the $230,353 Black's Barbecue was ordered to pay in 2022 as part of an investigation into illegal tip sharing.
The Department of Labor recovered the money in back wages for 274 workers after an investigation found Black's Barbecue gave a portion of employee tips to restaurant managers. That practice is not allowed under federal law.
In a statement to KXAN News at the time, Black's Barbecue said in part:'Black's BBQ was not aware that Department of Labor (DOL) rules had recently changed in 2020 and that managers should not receive tips… When notified of the rule change, we quickly and voluntarily came into compliance…'
'There was a ton of publicity about that, so we tried to use it as help for us opening,' Mark said.
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But Mike also said the tips investigation indirectly affected Terry Black's.
'People were pointing the finger at us saying, 'they don't pay their employees tips,''' he said. 'We had to quickly go on the defense and say, 'No, no, that's not the case. That's these guys. Totally different brands.''
Both families expressed frustration with the confusion between the two restaurants.
'A lot of people think they're part of the original Black's Barbecue company, but they're not,' Kent said. 'I'm sorry to the public if it's a little confusing.'
At present, Black's Barbecue has four locations. In addition to the original Lockhart location, there are also restaurants in Austin, San Marcos and New Braunfels.
Terry Black's has expanded even further. After opening in Austin, the restaurant added Dallas, Lockhart, Waco and Fort Worth, with plans to open in Houston and San Antonio.
Any potential resolution to the feud feels elusive, though both sides point to the family matriarch, Norma Jean Black, as a person to start with.
'Terry, Michael, Mark and Christina – they need to talk to their grandmother,' Kent said. 'They don't interact with her anymore. They have never reached out to her on Mother's Day, her birthday, Christmas, any of that. She's 93-years-old. She's at home. She's not driving around in a car. She's homebound. She would love to talk to them. They know where she lives.'
Mark said he believes his grandmother needs to be the one to extend the olive branch, while Mike is more pessimistic about reconciliation between the families.
'That relationship, it's sailed,' he said. 'It's been done for many years, and at this point, I see no reason in trying to reconnect.'
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Since opening in 1932, a year after Norma Jean was born, Black's Barbecue has weathered many seasons, but none as bitter as this 15-year family feud. Like a storm-damaged oak, Kent hopes the fractured limbs can mend, and that new growth might still take root.
'I'm over it,' Kent said. 'I would hope they would be over it.'
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