Martin's Place

The plaque covers the building and its regulars. The food changed more than the room. Steve Kapchinskie told Texas Monthly in 2014 that the indirect-heat brick pit burns oak and has no thermostat; he manages hot and cold spots by feel. Brisket became the focus only around 1972 and 1973, after years of cutting up whole animals when brisket counted as scrap. The meat market faded in the 1960s as new stainless-steel rules made it less worthwhile, and air conditioning arrived in 1985. This is a private business.

What the plaque says

Martin's Place In December 1924, Martin Kapchinskie purchased land at this site, along a one-lane country road connecting Bryan to Texas A&M University, near the communities of Union Hill and Midway. Here, he opened a store for travelers and named it Martin's Place, where he offered groceries, a public telephone, gasoline and barbecue. The original building was a wooden, screened structure, with a small pit inside, and tables and a large pit outside. During the 1930s, Kapchinski sold some of the surrounding land to maintain the business during the Great Depression. By 1939, he had enough money to build a more substantial building, a red brick structure with a kitchen inside and a barbecue pit attached at back. The interior, designed like a café, included a tall bar. Following World War II, Kapchinskie's son Albin joined him as partner. Albin, who had served during the war as a butcher in the Navy, added a meat market to Martin's Place in 1951. A horseshoe-shaped bar replaced the original tall bar. In 1955, Albin purchased the business from his father, who retired to Michigan. As Bryan and College Station grew and the automobile greatly changed the way people lived, Martin's Place became more than a rest stop for travelers. Still in the Kapchinskie family, the restaurant has become part of local life and a place of fond memories for generations of Texas A&M University students. Longtime patrons of Martin's recall "Uncle" Steve Holik, who served tables from 1946 until 1987, and for decades area residents came for daily domino games and to shoot pool. Although the world around it has developed rapidly, Martin's Place has changed little from its early days, remaining a popular stop for rest and refreshment. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 2.8 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 22 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Navasota — 23 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 25 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.

More markers nearby

• First National Bank of Bryan — 0.6 mi
• The Woman's Club — 1.7 mi
• First Presbyterian Church — 1.7 mi
• Texas AMC and WWI — 1.8 mi