A re-created wooly mammoth watches over the dining room of the new restaurant. Suzanne Rehak photo

By RICK WEBER
CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT

A year ago, Herman Meyer was sitting in his office at Midway Food Market, kicking back with Alaskan friend Darrell McDonald. Around 11:30 a.m., they decided to wander out and eat lunch at the store’s barbecue area.

Eyeing a line that went out the door, Meyer turned to McDonald and said, "Let’s wait until it clears out."

They came back 15 minutes later, and the line was still out the door. And then something caught Meyer’s eye: By the exit stood a man who was trying to put a forkful of beef into his mouth while balancing his tray on the top of the garbage can.

While Meyer, 74, appreciated his determination and deftness, he couldn’t shake one thought in his head: It’s time to expand.

Meyer had been thinking about taking his 12-year-old barbecue out of the market, which he had established in 1967, and putting it in its own building. Now he knew it was the right thing to do.

"It’s kind of an overwhelming reason for expanding, don’t you think?" he said.

Meyer didn’t have to go very far. He bought a 1.66-acre spread about 200 yards west of the market’s location on Highway Boulevard in Katy, navigated a maze of permits and inspections, and has now opened the 4,875-square-foot Midway South Tex Bar-B-Que & Smokehouse, 6025 Highway Blvd.

"I enjoy business," Meyer said. "You know, I always kid my daughter, Tricia (Karvounis), ‘You’re not in favor of this. I’m spending your inheritance.’ She keeps saying, ‘Dad, don’t say that.’ I just enjoy being in business and looking to the next day. I never want to quit. I enjoy what I’m doing. I enjoy people.

"We’re excited. We want to keep things simple. We want to give better service, more parking, a nice, clean place to do business."

City councilman Larry Gore, who offices Larry Gore’s Eagle Lake & Katy Prairie Outfitters at Meyer’s strip center, said he expects nothing to change — other than a more comfortable eating space.

"He’s very good at barbecue," Gore said. "Everybody in town knows about it. When hunters from out of state come in, that’s where they want to go. One time, during an election, a candidate for Congress came through. Where did everybody want to meet him? At the barbecue.

"It’s like a little country café you find in small towns. Now, he’s expanding to make it more modern, but it’ll still have a country-type atmosphere. I think it will work very well. His barbecue is unique. With him, it has to have its own flavor."

And he’s not just talking about the food. Meyer, a renowned big-game hunter, has decorated the walls with stuffed trophies, many of which he bagged himself — elk, deer, wolves, ducks, geese — along with framed photos of late-1800s Katy, acquired by historian Roberta Rylander.

But he expects the talk of the town will be a re-created woolly mammoth, which was known to reach a height of 13 feet and a weight of nine tons before it became extinct in the Pleistocene. Meyer’s version is just from the shoulder up, but dominates an entire wall and required six workers to hang up.

"It’s kind of me," he said. "I thought, ‘I betcha I’m the only kid on the block with a woolly mammoth.’ "

The opening of the new barbecue has added another chapter to Meyer’s legacy and rekindled nostalgia among those who have been in Katy for decades.

"Herman’s a great guy," said Katy City Administrator Johnny Nelson. "He’s got a good business, and he takes care of his business. He has the best meat counter around here. Everybody comes out here to get Herman’s sausage and to buy at the meat counter. He’s just been a successful businessman who has supported most everything that goes on around here. You can always count on him to give you his support. He’s a good man."

When Meyer got out of the Army in 1961, he couldn’t find a job that would utilize the business administration degree he had earned at the University of Texas. So he went to work for Bill Dube in the grocery business. Eventually, he started thinking, "Do I want to do this the rest of my life? Why not try to make money for myself?"

Within a year, he bought a small store at 5901 Highway Blvd. He turned it into 6,000 square feet, adding 3,000 later. They did deer processing in a tin shack behind the store.

"You like to think you’re making money while you’re sleeping, even if it’s only an ice machine making the money," he said. "So I got the brilliant idea to make a few spaces for rental property. We built a 125-foot strip, with a pharmacy, restaurant and barbershop. It went over good, so we added another 300 feet. We’ve always been rented."

The deer processing took off immediately.

"Katy’s always been known as a hunting community," Meyer said. "Rice farmers couldn’t wait to finish their crop so they could start hunting on Nov. 16. They only had one crop, and they planted it later and harvested it later. It was a rush to get finished. They’d bring those deer in, and we probably did 100-125 a year."

Meyer added the barbecue in 1998, carving out a 1,200-square-foot area in the market.

"We could seat 40 people," he said, "but we have no parking. We have a great tenant in Los Cucos, but it also occupies my parking. We toyed with trying to keep everything under the same roof, but with the big competition we have in the grocery business, barbecue’s the best thing going for us other than deer processing. Tricia said, ‘Let’s cut down on groceries and expand the barbecue.’ I said, ‘That’s a great idea, but where are they going to park?’ When people can’t find parking, they go somewhere else.’ "

"We started the business in ‘67 with almost nothing, and we’ve had good support from the people in Katy from Day One," he said. "I’m just appreciative to have a place to work and make a living. I just hope and pray for success."