In 1944 my Dad Rudy Smrkovsky, and my Uncle Tony Smrkovsky purchased City Meat Market in when it was located in downtown Schulenburg, Texas. Prior to City Market the building was a saloon. I still remember the swinging doors in front, like Kitty had in the show Gunsmoke. There was an old adobe hut in the back full of little brown jugs, which my brother and I took to the creek and shot with 22's. It was a lot of fun but dumb.
In 1961 my Dad bought out my Uncle and we later moved the Market to our present location at 109 Kessler Avenue (Highway 77 North in Schulenburg).
In 1982 my Wife Carolyn and I purchased City Meat Market from my Dad and Mom. Back then, all recipes were a handful of this and a handful of that. It was a chore to develop a recipe that was consistent. Most Czechoslovakian sausage makers' recipes were a handful of this and a pinch of that (my Dad's family was from Czechoslovakia). I remember telling Willie (the sausage maker at the time) to stop when he put two handfuls of salt and a handful of pepper so I could weigh the ingredients.
City Market makes a homemade weiner, which is unique to Texas in that my Uncle Tony brought this recipe from a kosher meat market in Nebraska. In 1979 the Houston Post wrote an article about our homemade weiner, they referred to them as "viners". We still use the same recipe today. In 1992 we made a 50 foot weiner which we took to Thornton, Texas and they made a record breaking corndog using our 50 foot weiner.
In 1983 we were the first to develop jalapeno sausage. It was so different that Texas Monthly wrote an article about us in their December issue. Today we produce two kinds of jalapeno sausage; a Pork & Beef (hors d'oeuvre) and a Pork jalapeno which is a cooking kind.
In 1996 we made the decision to share our products with everyone and built an inspection plant and later expanded in 1999 to better serve our customers.
Today we produce 10,000 pounds of sausage per week and cook a lot of Bar-B-Que on Saturday. Every Saturday we serve Bar-B-Que Brisket, Bar-B-Que Pork Shoulder, Bar-B-Que Pork Ribs, Bar-B-Que Turkey Breast, Bar-B-Que Sirloin, Bar-B-Que Chicken and Bar-B-Que Sausage.
Bring your family and friends and come on in to enjoy a meal with us! We look forward to seeing you!