After constructing a nationally acclaimed barbecue vacation spot with 2M Smokehouse, Esaul and Grecia Ramos have launched a brand new vacation spot eating expertise in Castroville and are serving to to put in writing a brand new chapter within the story of their charming new hometown.
As an alternative of cloning 2M and its Central Texas barbecue with a South Texas accent, Esaul Ramos and his enterprise companion Joe Melig went for extra of a basic Central Texas method.
“It’s simply less complicated, extra conventional,” Esaul Ramos stated.
However there’s no mistaking the 2M stage of high quality and a focus to element.
Contemplate the mac and cheese. As an alternative of a mere scoop, a server right here holds a to-go container and ladles melted cheese on the underside, swirls it round, drops a scoop of the dish after which gently pours one other ladle of cheese sauce on prime for a wealthy, creamy and spectacular mixture.
That very same stage of affection comes by way of in a pulled pork sandwich when a cutter massages a handful of shredded meat with mustard-based sauce and pork jus earlier than nestling it in a sturdy but delicately flavored bun from Grecia Ramos. In fact, the Texas trinity of brisket, pork ribs and sausage preserve the deliciously excessive stage of excellence anticipated from the 2M household.
The couple initially didn’t plan to return to Castroville till traders on this city intrigued them with the prospect to be a part of redeveloping a quaint, but historic metropolis that’s nonetheless considerably of an unheralded gem. They not solely opened their companies however moved to Castroville.
“We simply took every thing that I didn’t like and made certain that I didn’t do it, after which put in every thing that I want I had,” Esaul Ramos stated. “2M is type of like shifting out of your dad and mom’ home into an condo; and Blu Lacy is like shifting out of that condo, and you obtain your self a home with some land, and perhaps cattle and stuff within the again. I say that’s as a result of there are numerous way more shifting elements to it and stuff. However I adore it.”
In the meantime, Grecia Ramos, a pastry chef skilled on the Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio who had labored at a number of bakeries round city, didn’t intend to have her personal area. She deliberate to bake her creations in a nook of the barbecue spot.
“As we had been strolling round one of many traders talked about, ‘Hey? You recognize I’ve been wanting by way of your Instagram, and it seems actually good. We must always have a bakery,’ ” she recalled. “They introduced me plans and a future contract, I used to be like, ‘Oh, you guys are severe.’ ”
Her enterprise, Baked by Grecia Ramos, sits subsequent door to the barbecue spot with outside seating, a play space and a bar sitting between them. Her pastries carry a classy sweetness, whereas her tackle café de olla highlights Mexican cinnamon and a contact of anise, with the standard piloncillo taking a supporting function. Benefit from the café de olla with a shatteringly crisp and deeply satisfying pan au chocolate and it’s as excellent a pairing as brisket and Shiner Bock.
Blu Lacy, named after the Texas state canine, opened to sturdy crowds practically instantly due to 2M’s fanbase. Then clients made their method to the bakery and now it fills up recurrently. The 2 companies shortly grew to become stops on Castroville’s month-to-month Fiorella Friday occasion, a long-running downtown occasion impressed by San Antonio’s First Friday.
“We have now a bar. Each Friday, Saturday, we’ve stay music,” Esaul Ramos stated. “It will get actually, very nice on the market.”
Blu Lacy Smokehouse
1303 Lorenzo St., Castroville
830-359-8720
Baked by Chef Grecia Ramos
409 Paris, Castroville
bakedsatx.com
Eat This:
Dino rib at Blu Lacy
Mac and cheese at Blu Lacy
Croissant at Baked
Any muffin at Baked
