Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 24

B-12 Santa Cruz Sentinel Sunday, Aug. 18, 1985 Fine Texas barbecued food in authentic atmosphere 'People like it like it as is. If we painted, business would fall Fred Fountaine eventually cripple the units. Fred likewise said he saw no reason to repaint the grease and smoke-stained walls of what once was a gymnasium. "People like it like it is," he said.

"If we painted, business would fall off." To make his point, he recounted the story of "three old ladies from Chicago" who showed up one day "wearing diamond rings and everything." They said they'd read about Louie Mueller's in a Kansas City newspaper. "We've been eating under chandeliers too long," Fred recalled one of them saying. Since then, he said, the three women return once a year and always insist that nothing be changed, especially the paint-peeled walls. As the visitor eyed Fred skeptically, a man from nearby Georgetown sidled up to the counter and ordered seven pounds of brisket, at $6.25 a pound, and a batch of sausage. "You come here often?" the visitor inquired.

"Yeah," he replied. "I love the food. And I'm crazy about the this central Texas city of 13,000, as illustrated by an encounter he had while vacationing on Staten Island in New York. "You from Texas?" a stranger Asked "Yeah," he replied. "Got a barbecue pit?" "Yeah." "Been there," said the stranger.

Recalling that episode, Fred smiled and said: "I can't go anywhere in Texas that somebody doesn't know me." From behind the counter, Fred greeted a recent lunchtime visitor with a smile and a greasy handshake and a $2.10 chunk of brisket. He slapped a $1 sausage on the butcher sheet and, with two slices of plain white bread, sent him on his way with a 40-cent cup of potato salad and a Coke. "The average meal costs $4 or less and you don't go away hungry," Fred reported later. The visitor noted that an ancient and perhaps inoperative temperature gauge indicated it was 92 degrees inside Louie's at noontime. "Can't have air conditioning because of the pits in here," said Fred, pointing out that grease would Fred, dispenses what is arguably among the best barbecue in the state.

In Texas, barbecue joints rival oil wells and mesquite trees in number, and the spicy barbecue sauce equals chili in pungency and the Dallas Cowboys of old in popularity. Besides Louie Mueller's, other favorites include the Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Joe Allen's in Abilene, the Salt Lick near Austin and Hammonds in Hico. On a larger scale, there is Angelo's in Fort Worth and Sonny Bryan's in Dallas, and any number of others the news media have never discovered because the natives, by design, have kept their tangy treasure a secret. Louie Mueller's was not so fortunate. A journalist named Paul commenting on the most beautiful sights in Texas, once said he'd seen a Padre Island sunrise, a Big Bend springtime and the Legislature rejecting a tax proposal by a 145-0 vote.

"But," he said, "none of these can approach the ecstacy of seeing 30 briskets bubbling in their own juices under the direction of Fred Fountaine at Louie Mueller's." By MIKE COCHRAN The Associated Press TAYLOR, Texas Besides a fine blend of grease and smoke, the walls at Louie Mueller's are covered with soft drink signs and beer clocks, newspaper clippings and business cards. A battered jukebox rests broken and silent in the corner, while a couple of overhead fans conduct a losing battle with the midsummer Texas heat. Customers in straight-backed chairs huddle over wooden tables and eat brisket and sausage off butcher paper, chasing the zesty barbecue with ice cold 81-cent beer and 50-cent Cokes. Louie Mueller's is what The New York Times had in mind when it reported recently on the art of smalltown Texas barbecue: "Aficionados say that real Texas barbecue can be had only in small towns, partly because health rules in larger cities make it impossible to run the greasy, studiously unkempt operations that earn the most stars in the barbecue book of greats." And so it is in this perfect setting northeast of Austin that Frederick Louis Fountaine, better known as ago, when a customer scribbled a note on the serving paper and sent it back. It said: "Fred, this is high-priced bone!" It was a point well taken.

"We switched to brisket and tripled our business," said Fred. At age 60, Canadian-born Fred Fountaine has been cooking for the Mueller family 37 years, 28 of them at the current location next to Ray's shoeshine parlor and across the street from Billy Evans' car sales. Louie Mueller's son Bobby now owns the store and grandson John Mueller works there, but it is Fred who literally gives it its special flavor. A twice-wounded World War II veteran, Fred was advised almost 40 years ago by Veterans Administration doctors in Rhode Island to move to Texas for the warm weather. His renown as a barbecue chef extends far beyond the boundaries of At 4 a.m.

Monday through Saturday, Fred tosses 25 to 35 slabs of brisket into the indoor pits at Mueller's and begins slow cooking with post oak wood. Ostensibly open from 7 a.m. until 6:30 p.m., Mueller's serves the bulk of its brisket and homemade sausage from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and shuts down when the food runs out, often in early afternoon.

Fred obviously prefers to run short than long, explaining, "Lots of people don't like leftovers." He brews his ketchup-based, liberally spiced sauce daily from a recipe he says he "perfected" 15 years ago after years of experimenting. Perfected may be the wrong word. "One day a customer told me, 'Fred, this sauce is and I just quit experimenting right there," he said with a laugh. Similarly, Fred cooked mostly steaks and ribs until about 20 years CASA VILLA FURNITURE, SINCE 1945. SANTA CRUZ COUNTY'S OLDEST.

LARGEST HOME OWNED AND OPERATED. CASA VILLA FURNITURE. SINCE 1945, SANTA CRUZ COUNTY'S OLDEST, as WITH OUR EYE ON THE SKY (EasaviLxa 8 as WE ARE HAVING A SALE WITH A REASON IT sol 581 58 "OPERATION FACELIFT" SOON TO REACH PHASE II During Phase I of our 40th Anniversary Facelift, we have reduced our over $800,000 inventory by $200,000. However, with Phase II scheduled to begin on September we need to reduce our inventory even further! During this second phase of "Operation Facelift," we will be operating with less than half of our main store capacity, so thing are going to get awfully crowded around here unless we can move some The savings are phenonenal-you can save up to 70. And remember.

phase i Ts5 -r THE REMOVAL OF OUR ENTIRE ROOF. THE BUILDINGS I MUST BE EMPTIED! I i you can save an additional 5 to 10 when paying cash! CometoCasa Villa and I I II SPECIAL 2 f-Ufl ISA lL II ENTIRE SHEET METAL i ANNOUNCEMENT HUGE RETAIL INVENTORY REDUCTION SALE CONTINUES DURING THE "OPERATION FACELIFT" OF OUR STORE! Tea carts. Bunk beds. Curio Cabinets. Bookcases.

Bentwood rockers. Oak rockers. Chests. Dressers. Sleepers.

Gun cabinets, Studio sleepers. Grandfather clocks. Tables, love Chest by lane. Flat top desks, Student desks. Executive desks, Woll units.

Stereo sound cobinets. Hundreds and hundreds of lamps and oil hard-to-find items! ROOFS MUST BE REMOVED FROM OVER if 15,000 SQ.FT. ARTIST'S DRAWING OUR COMPLETED FACE LIFT! phasejS 'ESTIMATED COMPLETION BY MID-SEPTEMBER (Before the rainy season!) HARD-TO-FIND ITEMS! We have over 17 different CURIO CABINETS of birch fruitwood ond oil reproductional oak consisting of comers octagons and plom chinas' Most hove electric lights glass shelves ond mony with mirror Bock) We hove dotens of HALL TREES ENTRANCE PIECES AND BACHELORS CHESTS' We ore proud of our tme selection of HARD TO FIND ITEMS that are so badly needed mobile hoies and apartments You will find some 35 or better METAL CHROME CRAFT DINETTES (many with large extension leaves of modern glass tops) Dmaire Solid Oak Round Pedestot Drop Leaves or Retrac tor Tobies Bentwood le Cream Chairs But cher Block Tables ond Tea Carts All located on The Second Floor Showroom Of The Large Building Directly behind the mam store fc'3s OVER 84 FREE PARKING STALLS OUR OVER INVENTORY IS STILL BEING REDUCED. COME NOW Save an I 1 Over GET III FOR GREAT SAVINGS! 1 Afrf. ftEE A ICR OVER 500 1 LAMPS PT WSSVJ CRH TAB 8MIJS fit 11 I When Poyng Co DlHIHCROOM'UyiW, IN STOCK 21 SAVE I 20 to 30 00 mS -wt, II MAIN STORE, PHASE II, OVER 10,000 SO.

FT. IS NEXT IN LINE. STOCKS MUST BE VACATED. I OVER 250 CHAIRS I IN STOCK I MUST GO! 20 to 30 it CASA VILLA HAS SERVED SANTA CRUZ COUNTY FOR ALMOST 40 YEARS OPEN MONDAY through FRIDAY 9 to 6 SATURDAY 9to5 CLOSED SUNDAY tgl JT: it Mar --f-nr 77' IFasaa-jcs c. FAST, FREE DELIVERY WITHIN 50 MILES, USUALLY SAME DAY 2701 41st Soquel 475-3200 AS PURCHASE (Across from K-Mart) OWNED AND OPERATED.

CASA VILLA FURNITURE. SINCE 1945. SANTA CRUZ COUNTY'S OLDEST. CASA VILLA FURNITURE. SINCE 1945.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY'S OLDEST, LARGEST HOME 7 mm ii tr hi ht IM i.