Alvin and Wanda Schulze opened Schulze’s Bar-B-Que in Rosenberg, southwest of Houston, in 1990. Their son, Clifford, and daughter, Teresa Schulze-Mielsch, helped run it for decades before Alvin died in 2021. Around that time, Clifford and his wife, Sherry, had been looking for the right property for a second location. A plot of land in Fulshear didn’t work out, so they looked farther west, to New Braunfels, where they reached another dead end. “Everything we tried, we were just hitting a wall, and I thought, this just isn’t meant to be,” Sherry said. Then their realtor asked them what they thought about Seguin.
A big red metal building that once housed Smoking Charlie’s Barbecue had sat vacant for years on the north side of Seguin, east of San Antonio. It wasn’t listed for sale, but their realtor inquired and set up a tour. Sherry said it felt right as soon as they walked in the doors. “That was the place we needed to be,” she said. “It was in our gut and I felt it in my heart.” After they spent several months renovating, Schulze’s Pit Room opened in January 2023.
The new Schulze’s isn’t a carbon copy of the original. (Clifford sold his interest in Schulze’s Bar-B-Que to his sister.) The barbecue sauce—a great balance of savory, sweet, and peppery—may be the same, but the menu and the cooking process of the meats diverge. Two huge thousand-gallon offset smokers sit under a shed roof next to a storage building that doubles as a sausage workshop. Robert Celestino II runs the smokers, and Bill Dumas, known as the Sausage Sensei, came on staff to revamp the sausage options.
On my visit, a butcher paper sign next to the counter detailed the ingredients in the Costa Rican coffee-and-cocoa sausage that was the special of the day. With hints of coffee flavor dominated by dark chocolate, mace, and crunchy toffee pecans, the sausage was certainly unusual. It flew closer to the sun than the hearty smoked brisket boudin that was well seasoned and had a better snap to the casing. You’ll find the latter on special more often, so keep an eye out for it.
The ribs, sliced brisket, and turkey were more conventional. The fatty brisket was tender and smoky but a bit dry around the edges. The turkey was dry all the way around, but I did enjoy the tender pork ribs. They were heavily seasoned with a peppery, sweet rub that formed a sticky bark. Those ribs tasted even better dunked in the aforementioned sauce, and I was happy to be able to take in the great weather while dining on the large patio.
Two types of chicken are available: the Southwest, a boneless, skinless chicken breast that’s marinated and smoked, and the smoked half chicken. I ordered the latter. Celestino seasons the bird and smokes it low until it’s nearly done. The chicken is then moved to a charcoal grill for the final few minutes of cooking so the skin is crisped nicely. It’s an excellent bird that’s incredibly juicy and tender and has that extra boost of flavor from the charcoal. It was the best bite I had at Schulze’s.
The sides at the original Schulze’s in Rosenberg are as varied as the offerings in a Luby’s cafeteria line. When I visited a couple of months back, I was taken with the sweet and crunchy carrot salad—raisins included. The Seguin location has a more focused selection, and I enjoyed the creamy mac and cheese and the well-seasoned green beans.
Schulze’s Pit Room is a family-run barbecue joint that has come full circle. Sherry and Clifford’s daughter, Kayla Schulze Gray, was born eighteen days before the original Schulze’s Bar-B-Que opened, in 1990, which is the reason Sherry stepped away from the business for several years. Now they’re all part of the team running this new version of Schulze’s in Seguin, a town they’ve come to call home. “We didn’t know anything about Seguin and didn’t have any ties here. We knew we liked the area,” Sherry said. She also noted that the locals have welcomed them better than the family could have hoped. “We’ve been blessed,” she said, “It has just worked out really well.”
Schuzle’s Pit Room
1013 Schriewer, Seguin
Phone: 830-491-5124
Hours: Tuesday–Thursday 10:30–8, Friday–Saturday 10:30–9, Sunday 10:30–3
Pitmasters: Robert Celestino II and Bill Dumas
Method: Oak in an offset smoker
Year opened: 2023
