Home » Latest » Cooking & Food Experiences » The 84 Year Old BBQ Legend of Texas

The 84 Year Old BBQ Legend of Texas

6

InfoSearched 92 0 Cooking & Food Experiences, Instagram

8.4

SaveSavedRemoved 4

A Brooklyn pizza guy pulls an all-nighter at the best barbecue joint in Texas.

Frank Pinello, the Brooklyn pizzaiolo who fronts Munchies’ digital series “A Frank Experience,” heads to Lexington, Texas, for an episode titled “The 84 Year Old BBQ Legend of Texas.” His assignment is simple to state and brutal to execute: work a full overnight pit shift alongside 84-year-old pitmaster Norma “Tootsie” Tomanetz at Snow’s BBQ, then help serve the Saturday-morning crowd before the meat runs out.

Tomanetz has been smoking meat in Central Texas since 1966, and she still holds a weekday job as a custodian in the Giddings school district before showing up to run the pits at Snow’s. Pinello’s night with her covers shoveling coals into open pits, managing the fire, and mopping brisket, pork ribs, pork steak, chicken, and jalapeño cheddar sausage links with Snow’s dry rub and onion-and-vinegar sauce.

• Snow’s BBQ was founded on March 1, 2003, by Kerry Bexley and operates only on Saturdays, opening at 8:00 AM and serving until sold out.
• Texas Monthly ranked Snow’s the No. 1 barbecue restaurant in Texas in both 2008 and 2017, and Tomanetz was named a James Beard Award semifinalist in 2018.
• Tomanetz has worked Central Texas pits since 1966, splitting her week between a custodial job in the Giddings school district and the overnight cook at Snow’s.

An Overnight Shift That Doesn’t Stop

The episode frames Snow’s around its one non-negotiable rhythm: the fire has to be tended all night for the doors to open at 8:00 AM sharp. Pinello joins Tomanetz shoveling coals into open pits and adjusting the fire by feel, then works through the mop routine on brisket, ribs, pork steak, chicken, and the jalapeño cheddar sausage links that have become part of Snow’s signature spread. There’s no shortcut in the process — just repetition, timing, and a pitmaster who’s done this exact overnight cook for decades.

The Résumé Behind the Rub

Snow’s didn’t build its reputation overnight. Kerry Bexley opened the joint on March 1, 2003, and within five years Texas Monthly had already crowned it the No. 1 barbecue restaurant in the state, a ranking the magazine repeated in 2017. Tomanetz’s own recognition followed in 2018, when she was named a James Beard Award semifinalist — a rare nod for a pitmaster who still clocks in as a school custodian on weekdays and only fires up the Snow’s pits on Saturdays.

Snow’s BBQ: open one day a week, ranked No. 1 in Texas twice, run by an 84-year-old who mops the floors at a Giddings school Monday through Friday.

Counter Duty With an Electric Knife

Once the sun’s up and the smoke’s done its job, the job shifts from the pit to the counter. Pinello grabs an electric carving knife and joins the Snow’s staff slicing and serving the line of barbecue enthusiasts who’ve already gathered in rural Lexington by daybreak, waiting for brisket, ribs, and sausage links that sell out fast every single Saturday. It’s the payoff end of the same overnight labor — no rest between the fire and the front counter.

For anyone who wants to see the technique up close before attempting their own version at home, the knife work on both ends of the operation — from mopping meat on the pit to portioning it at the counter — is worth studying the way you’d study any other kitchen craft, the same way precision knife skills get broken down in other cooking segments, or how a chef like the one in Gordon Ramsay’s home cooking attempts turns a simple technique into the whole difference in a dish.

Snow’s still only opens one day a week, and Tootsie Tomanetz is still the one running the overnight cook that makes the Saturday line possible — the same routine she’s kept since 1966, custodian job and all.