Stephan Nedwetzky’s circuitous path to becoming a barbecue joint owner in tiny Van Alstyne, about an hour north of Dallas, has been filled with pitfalls and second-guessing. The native of Dallas’s Pleasant Grove neighborhood spent his adolescent years in Rochester, New York, but after leaving the Marines in 1999, he came back home to Texas. “Being a Texan, I missed barbecue so much,” he said. He starting smoking in his backyard in Plano while running a landscaping company. After entering a barbecue competition in 2010 (even though Nedwetzky describes everything he turned in as “horrible”), he caught the bug. “It started to interfere with my landscaping business,” he said. So he shut it down to focus on barbecue.

“Everyone either laughed at me or told me I was stupid,” Nedwetzky said of the response to his decision. He wondered if everyone was right until he served what he considered the perfect brisket at a pop-up event. Will Fleischman, then-pitmaster at Lockhart Smokehouse, tried it and was impressed. “That’s still the best one that I’ve ever cooked,” Nedwetzky said. When a second Lockhart Smokehouse location opened in Plano in 2014, Fleischman asked him to come aboard. Nedwetzky worked there and at Smoke in Plano in what he calls brief stints before getting his own food truck. He called it Pit Commander Barbecue, his original competition team name. Nedwetzky chose the name because people said his long beard gave him a resemblance to Phil “Duck Commander” Robertson from the Duck Dynasty reality show. The “pit” part refers both to the old brick pit his father, who was a mason, built at his childhood home and to the mosh pit he helped whip into a frenzy while playing guitar for the heavy-metal band Lethargy during his days in Rochester. Either way, he said the name is a heck of a lot easier to pronounce than Nedwetzky Barbecue.

Pit Commander struggled to make a mark in the DFW scene, so in the winter of 2016, Nedwetzky loaded up some Texas post oak and went to Fort Myers, Florida. His sister lived there and selfishly wanted some good Texas barbecue nearby. “That’s where it really took off,” Nedwetzky said. His month-long visit turned into six months. But the draw of Texas was strong, and he returned in the summer. That’s when Yolanda Russotti, a woman he knew from Rochester, came to visit. “The first time I tried his brisket, I was like, ‘Will you marry me?’ ” she said with a laugh. She moved to Texas a month later. They married and now have a young daughter together.

The family alternated between Florida and Texas and rotated between serving barbecue and slinging barbecue pizzas under the name Texapolitan Pizza. In 2019, Nedwetzky and Russotti found what they thought would be their permanent barbecue home in the East Texas town of Murchison, but they closed their restaurant there in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began. Nedwetzky couldn’t find a barbecue joint to hire him, so he worked for Chipotle by day and Pizza Hut by night to make ends meet. The couple headed back to Florida dejected, thinking they’d had enough of trying to succeed in Texas barbecue.

Then, out of nowhere, the State Fair of Texas emerged repeatedly in Nedwetzky’s dreams while back in Florida. “I kept waking up in the middle of the night smelling the fair,” he said. He checked the fair’s website last year and saw that it was accepting applications for new vendors. He submitted Texapolitan, and it was accepted. The couple took it as a sign to come back to Texas. After positive feedback from the fair’s organizers, the duo put a deposit down on a $30,000 wood-fired pizza oven from Italy. A month after moving back to Plano, they got word that a barbecue joint in downtown Van Alstyne had closed and the space was available. They took it and opened Pit Commander Barbecue last July.

As the couple started to build the business, they had to close the restaurant so they could serve at the fair in September. They made a daily average of 280 pizzas, topped with freshly smoked pork belly burnt ends, for 24 straight days. They credit the folks at Smokey John’s Bar-B-Que, a longtime fair vendor, for acting as their mentors and helping them through the process. Now they can’t wait for the fair to fire back up this year, but there’s plenty of barbecue to cook in the meantime.

Pit Commander Barbecue is open Thursday through Saturday for lunch. This past weekend was its most successful, with an early sellout on Saturday. I was there on Thursday for a second visit. The first, back in November, was a mixed bag of excellence and disappointment, but the restaurant was navigating a broken water line in the kitchen. This trip was far better, and I finally got to try those pork belly burnt ends from the famous State Fair pizza. They were perfectly cooked and heavily seasoned and glazed. The salt and sugar competed for dominance with the clean smoke flavor. I actually preferred the thick slice of pork belly, which Pit Commander sells as bacon brisket, an apparent homage to Dayne’s Craft Barbecue, in Fort Worth. It was more subtle than the burnt ends and seemed to melt on my tongue.

Nedwetzky is trying a few brisket suppliers to find the right quantity and quality of fat. He thought the lean side of what he was smoking this past weekend was on the dry side, and I agreed, though it was plenty tender, with a nice line of rendered fat on top. There will be a new brand of beef on the smoker this week.

Nedwetzky learned to make sausage at an old German butcher shop in Florida, and he uses those skills at the restaurant. I loved the jalapeño-cheese link, which was bursting with juice when I bit into it. Ask for it unsliced to get the most out of the experience. There were plenty of jalapeño chunks, but the spiciness was pretty tame. The bacon-wrapped jalapeños brought a bit more heat, and the bacon was nicely crisp. The tender spareribs got a hefty dose of rub and a splash of sauce, but the flavors dissipated in the foil wrap. I had planned to try the pulled pork, but it was off the menu. “We couldn’t sell a butt to save our lives,” Russotti said.

She makes all the sides, though most are Nedwetzky’s recipes. The potato salad was a bit soupy and spicy, which is how his folks like to make it. I liked the crunchy slaw, and the sweet broccoli salad was a good way to get something healthy. The mac and cheese made with creamy queso was tasty, but it was the pinto beans, in a savory broth spiked with chunks of tomatoes, onions, and brisket, that spoke to me most.

Russotti also makes all the sandwich buns from scratch. She uses a simple, Austrian-style white-bread dough to make knotted rolls. To me, it was reminiscent of a pretzel bun, though paler in color. It was perfect for the daily special of a thick, smoked brisket burger topped with American cheese, barbecue sauce, and pickles. The signature dessert is an Italian love cake, whose recipe is from Russotti’s family. To give it a Texas barbecue feel, Nedwetzky added bananas to the mix, creating Banana Love Cake and a potential rift in familial relations for messing with a recipe. I enjoyed it, though it wasn’t as sweet as I’d expected.

Van Alstyne is right in the middle of a dead zone for Texas barbecue along U.S. 75, and Pit Commander Barbecue fills the void admirably. When Nedwetzky and Russotti found the location, they hoped their joint could become a community favorite, but they knew it would take time for word to spread. Business is building slowly, but, Russotti said, “we’re still gambling on us, and we believe in what we’re doing.” If the barbecue joint flourishes, the next move will be a brick-and-mortar for Texapolitan Pizza. “Pizza is easier and the profit margins are insanely better,” Nedwetzky said, adding that making barbecue is more stressful than making pizza. So why not focus on pizza? “We’d still have to make barbecue for the pizza,” he said, so they might as well plan for both. Russotti said it’s also about building a solid foundation for their young daughter, who suffers from spina bifida. “We want to leave her something that’s going to take care of her for the rest of her life when we’re gone.” I think the community is up to the task, if only so we can keep a family of barbecue diehards in Texas and out of Florida.

Pit Commander Barbecue224 E. Jefferson, Van AlstynePhone: 972-400-0234Hours: Thursday–Saturday 11–3Pitmaster: Stephan NedwetzkyMethod: Oak in an offset smokerYear opened: 2022

As major manufacturers of semiconductor chips expand with massive projects in Sherman just north of Van Alstyne, officials in the small southeastern Grayson County city are positioning to get in on the action.

The efforts underway in the city, whose motto is “Proud Past, Bright Future,” highlights how success on the economic development front in one city can provide opportunities that spill into surrounding communities.

“We see what Sherman is doing, and we’re looking to bring in companies and industry that supports the chip manufacturing,” said Rodney Williams, executive director of Community & Economic Development for Van Alstyne.

Van Alstyne, with a population of about 6,500, has had a couple of recent wins in the city’s Cold Springs Industrial Park, where construction is underway in a second phase. A new street linking the park to County Line Road is slated to open by the end of the month.

Allen Commercial Millwork will build a roughly 44,000-square-foot facility in the industrial park. DreamLine Windows & Doors, a manufacturer of glass doors and windows, is moving its headquarters and a manufacturing facility totaling more than 100,000 square feet to 7.5 acres the company bought in the industrial park.

DreamLine may also build an events center for the city on part of the property.

“They’ve been proactive with not only wanting to bring their headquarters here, but wanting to engage with the community, which is a nice partnership,” said Tiffany Chartier, executive administrator of Van Alstyne Community & Economic Development.

In Sherman, 15 miles north of Van Alstyne, Texas Instruments broke ground in May on what will ultimately be up to four new semiconductor wafer fabrication plants at a cost of roughly $30 billion. The project by Dallas-based TI is expected to create 3,200 jobs.

In addition, GlobiTech in June announced plans to build a $5 billion plant in Sherman that’s expected to create 1,500 new jobs and turn out more than 1 million silicon wafers monthly when production begins as early as 2025.

Williams and Chartier expect Van Alstyne’s already bustling single-family and multifamily housing market to get busier with the influx of workers at the semiconductor plants going in nearby.

Year-to-date through July, the number of single-family home permits in Van Alstyne is up 24% to 290, compared to 234 issued in the same time period last year.

Van Alstyne ended last year with 399 building permits, which was up sharply from 52 in all of 2018, 109 in 2019, and 156 permits in all of 2020.

In the interview that follows, Williams and Chartier discuss the developments in Van Alstyne.

What differentiates Van Alstyne and what’s driving its growth?

Williams:Van Alstyne is in a unique place because we're exactly equidistant from Grayson County and Collin County. We're 15 minutes from the county seat of each.

McKinney has a downtown historic downtown. We have one, and Sherman has one. So it's odd how we kind of mirror. Our downtown is actually laid out like McKinney's. We're not McKinney. Obviously, we're much smaller. But in recent years, we've seen what I call a suburban flight. We've seen quite a few move-ins from as close as Prosper, definitely Dallas, Allen, and California. A lot from California. Our residential numbers are blowing up. We have a lot of ETJ (extra-territorial jurisdiction) land. We have 70 square miles of ETJ.

How is your economic development structured in Van Alstyne?

Williams: We have CDC (Community Development) and EDC (Economic Development). Since we're under 20,000 (population), our CDC is commercial and retail, quality of life projects, all in one. EDC is strictly focused on industrial manufacturing. That's our industrial park. It's an 80-acre park. We just purchased Phase II, which was 40 acres, probably two years ago. We continue to go through the park and link two roads, 3133 and FM 377, which will be a feeder straight to 75. That is just about to open, which is a big deal for us.

How will that work?

Williams: FM 377 becomes County Line Road, and County Line Road goes straight to 75. The city is working with the county to straighten it and widen it. We're hoping to move 90% of our truck traffic, and semi traffic, down that road on the south end of town. That’s why this road is really important.

What’s the tie-in with Sherman?

Williams: Initially I thought we would have land for companies coming to support the Sherman project. That (industrial park land) sold out so quickly we don't. So we are going to be buying more land. We just took out a $2.4 million bond to buy more land to build more industrial, and we are looking to bring in companies and industry that support chip manufacturing.

We are unique because our south into town has been planned well. The south end of town is zoned industrial. We're trying to keep everything relatively clean. It's not green by any means. but we also are not doing cement batch plants and rubber plants and that sort of thing. So our next phase then, phase three of our expansion, is going to be expanding the industrial park. We're trying to get land around it now. And we're going to start trying to attract those chip manufacturers.

How is your housing market?

Williams: We've got land and we've got builders building homes anywhere from $230,000 to $2 million if you want. So these thousands of employees coming in to Sherman are going to need a place to live. We think we're set up. We've got an apartment complex called The Brooks that's expanding into phase II, adding 100 units. We see ourselves as being in a good spot to help that expansion to Sherman.

Chartier: It's a great place to live, work and play. It caters to the family who wants to get away from the city and have a home on, let's say, three acres. Or if you didn't want that, then you could have a little studio loft apartment in the city. It gives you both of those, depending on what you're looking for.

What’s your strategy for bringing in companies to support chip manufacturers?

We've just started the process of figuring out who we're talking to, what their needs are, and what companies will actually support these companies. We're probably the only town between Sherman and McKinney that has industrial land. So our next purchase, which we'd like to be 30 to 40 acres at least, really set that up to benefit what Sherman's doing. They've done such a great job, we just want to kind of play off that.

What type of companies?

We don’t know (yet). Companies that provide logistics, for instance. There are raw suppliers to the chip industry that provide the raw plastic and rubber and that sort of thing. Not rubber factories, but just providers. It's hard right now because while this has been announced and talked about for a while, they haven't started building anything yet. So we're still trying to figure out the parameters of what they need, who they need, and how much of it they need.

This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.

Ranked by Population Growth Rate 2016-2020

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McKINNEY — For the third time this postseason, the Celina baseball team held an opponent off the scoreboard. In the case of Thursday's one-game regional quarterfinal against Van Alstyne, the Bobcats got to spread the wealth at multiple ballparks.

A mid-game lighting issue at McKinney's Al Alford Field prompted an abrupt change in venues through four innings of Thursday's ballgame. The contest was relocated to McKinney Boyd High School with the action between the two district rivals delayed 40 minutes.

"We've been put in some bad situations this year and this group has shown me and each other that whatever adversity is in front of them that they will respond to it very well," said Troy McCartney, Celina head coach.

The Bobcats were unfazed, shutting out the Panthers 5-0 to punch their ticket to the regional semifinals.

They did so by besting Van Alstyne for the third time this season, having swept two regular-season meetings by a combined score of 23-0. The Panthers offered a bit more resistance on Thursday, with starter Matthew Crawford striking out five batters during his first swim through the Celina batting order.

Instead, it was the Bobcats' patience at the plate that paid off, helping spur a three-run fourth inning that materialized without Celina so much as recording a hit. A grounder by junior Noah Bentley was thrown well high of first base to put the first of three consecutive runners on base. Senior Ty Marthiljohni and junior Jackson Rooker drew walks to load the bases, and Bentley later made his way to home plate after Crawford was called for a balk following what the umpire deemed an illegal pitch for not having both feet on the rubber.

"It's called the hybrid rule. The pitcher can't be staggered. He has to have both feet on the rubber," McCartney said. "One of the umpires called an illegal pitch ... when you don't have runners on base, it's a ball, but in this situation since we already had guys on base, it's a balk."

Sophomore Major Brignon then plated a second run on a groundout and Rooker scored on a passed ball to suddenly up the count to 3-0.

"I was really impressed and proud of my guys on how they stayed in it," McCartney said. "I felt early that we put some pressure on ourselves and weren't having very disciplined at-bats. We were giving those guys strikes. Then the second and third time through, we were much more disciplined and playing like who we have been all year."

And even though Celina's newfound momentum was short-lived with play suspended between the fourth and fifth innings, McCartney praised his players for handling the circumstances.

"We got on the bus. I didn't turn the AC on, I had them roll their windows down to just keep them warm but still get a little breeze," he said. "I didn't want that AC to make them tired at all. They stayed in it on the bus and were focused the whole time. It was awesome and they eliminated all distractions."

When play resumed, Celina didn't miss a beat — particularly junior pitcher RJ Ruais. The Baylor commit is yet to allow a run during the postseason, logging a second straight complete-game shutout on Thursday. He struck out eight batters and allowed just four hits.

"RJ is obviously a phenomenal ball player, but I think the most impressive thing is that he's such a great guy," McCartney said. "He does well in school and there's never any problems with him off the field. He's super competitive and the exact kind of player you love coaching."

The run support was there as well. Brignon singled in another run in the sixth inning and Rooker put an exclamation mark on the win by successfully stealing home. Rooker scored two runs on 1-of-1 from the plate plus two walks, while Ruais also logged a hit.

Celina will continue their postseason next week at a time and place to be determined against either Liberty-Eylau or Bullard.

"What's special about this group is the way they rally and always have each other's backs. I'm very honored to be able to coach these young men," McCartney said.

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For more than 60 years, North Texas restaurateur Bill Smith stood at a hot stove cooking eggs and pancakes at Bill Smith’s Cafe in McKinney. Today, that historic restaurant is gone — flattened to make way for new construction — and Smith has left the town he watched grow up.

But 83-year-old Smith is not finished cooking. After his 66-year-old breakfast and lunch cafe closed in 2022, Smith opened Bill Smith’s Buffet on Lake Fork. By fall 2023, he plans to open Bill Smith’s Cafe in a different Texas town, Van Alstyne. It’s 15 miles north of the original in McKinney, a short drive from small towns like Melissa and Anna.

“I think he saw a little bit of what McKinney used to be, in Van Alstyne,” says Rodney Williams, executive director of Van Alstyne Community and Economic Development.

Indeed, when Smith’s dad opened the cafe in 1956, it was a diner in a sleepy town. Ranchers and farmers would stop in, sometimes before sunrise, for coffee, breakfast and small talk. Williams was born and raised in McKinney and says he has eaten sunny-side-up eggs, sausage and bacon at Bill Smith’s more times than he can count. His family would stop in after Saturday morning soccer games when he was a kid.

Williams and economic development executive administrator Tiffany Chartier ate at the restaurant on its last day in 2022. At the time, they didn’t know Smith would be interested in relocating his cafe.

Smith simply said he was ready for a break after working 12- to 14-hour days. “I thought, well, this’ll be nice. I can go fishing,” Smith says.

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“But it didn’t take me long to realize I like working more than I like fishing.”

Williams and Chartier showed him Van Alstyne’s one-and-a-half square-block downtown where $5.3 million in city bonds were spent to build a concert venue and $8.2 million more is earmarked for fixing the roads. Construction on a barbecue joint named Tender Smokehouse is expected to start in early 2024.

Williams’ goal is to “change the trajectory of downtown,” and he’s been at it for six years. Plenty of storefronts are vacant or need work, but Williams believes Van Alstyne can be a charming destination.

And in no uncertain terms, bringing Bill Smith’s Cafe to Van Alstyne could be the difference maker, Williams believes.

Smith is like the Reba McEntire of Van Alstyne, you could say: Reba opened a restaurant in her small town of Atoka, Okla., with the simple hope to be a catalyst for change.

Smith’s restaurant will open at 233 E. Jefferson St., in the heart of downtown Van Alstyne. The shop was most recently a cleaners, but in the early 1900s, it was L.P. Welker Harness and Buggy Shop, a wagon wheel repair business. Building owner Billy Turner has kept the original brick walls, which lend character to the long, narrow space that will soon become a restaurant. Smith and Turner plan to build a patio on the east side, where the small Aztec movie theater used to show Billy The Kid. The Aztec theater burned down in the late 1950s, a historian told Williams; the lot has been vacant since.

Turner, Smith’s landlord, has lived in Van Alstyne all his life. He is buying buildings downtown with intentions to “keep them as original as we can,” he says.

Smith kept the classic neon sign that hung outside the McKinney restaurant for decades. Williams and Chartier plan to work with the city to get the right permits to hang it.

That old sign is important to some Bill Smith’s Cafe regulars: “Some people have said, ‘The food just wouldn’t taste the same without the sign,’” Chartier says.

She wrote a touching tribute to Bill Smith’s Cafe on Facebook. “Bill Smith’s Cafe sold more than just eggs and bacon. Much more,” it reads. “The cafe offered a nostalgic feeling, a time when people were more important than cellphones. And the sign directs attention to a place where all are welcome and connections are made, from handshake deals to pats on the back.”

As eager as Chartier and Williams are to bring a legacy name to their downtown district, Smith seems just as ready to cook hashbrowns, pancakes and chicken fried steak for the North Texans he fed for decades.

Soon, he’ll be getting up at 3 a.m. again so he can open the restaurant by 4 or 5 a.m.

“I’ve got to get the gravy going,” he says matter-of-factly. “I’ve got to get the biscuits going.”

Bill Smith’s Cafe will be at 233 E. Jefferson St., Van Alstyne. The owner hopes to open the restaurant by fall 2023.

The 66-year-old Bill Smith’s Cafe in McKinney closed in 2022 but is expected to relocate to Van Alstyne this year.

According to The Dallas Morning News, Smith is still feeding North Texas residents and guests, even at 83 years old. And he set his sights on opening a new location — Bill Smith’s Cafe in Van Alstyne — located 15 miles north of its original location in McKinney. The grand opening is scheduled for fall 2023.

Local Profile visited Bill Smith’s in McKinney shortly before it closed permanently. Opening in 1956, the restaurant served up country classics and breakfast favorites. The cafe held the esteemed title of being Collin County’s oldest family-owned restaurant, proudly displayed by a county plaque adorning its entrance. Its rich legacy stood as a testament to its enduring presence.

When Bill and Jeanette Smith originally opened the cafe, it was in the middle of a cotton patch. It was a one-room cafe — a grill featured in the center — customers gathered around the watch the true magic of cooking. As the Dallas Observer pointed out, a mountain of bacon was served any time of the day, even at 4 a.m. when its doors opened in the mornings.

The cafe began as an original family affair with Smith’s children working in the cafe. Bill Smith Jr. eventually ran the McKinney location. But on July 31, 2022, the restaurant shut its doors. However, the delicious history of Bill Smith’s Cafe isn’t finished.

“I’ve opened up every morning for nearly 50 years,” Smith previously toldWFAA. “I don’t want to tear up right now.”

Located at 233 E. Jefferson St., in the downtown area of Van Alstyne, Bill Smith’s restaurant is set to open its doors in the fall of 2023, this time in neighboring Grayson County. According to The Dallas Morning News, the site was previously occupied by a cleaner, and this historic space once housed L.P. Welker Harness and Buggy Shop, a renowned wagon wheel repair business dating back to the early 1900s.

But the new location will hold the same history as the McKinney site. The ‘50s neon sign that hung outside the McKinney restaurant for decades will be moved to the new location.