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End of an Era: Prause Meat Market Closing

By Jeff Wick
From left to right, Brian, Mark and Gary Prause take down the exterior sign above Prause Meat Market Monday as they prepare to sell the historic building which has housed the market since 1953. The first Prause Market opened on the square in 1904. Photo by Jeff Wick
The first Prause Market was opened in 1904 on the square in La Grange by Arnold Prause. This picture of Arnold Prause and his son Glen was taken around 1913. Arnold learned the meat trade in Fayetteville in the 1880’s and 1890s before moving to the north side of the La Grange square and becoming the first generation Prause meat man.
Glen Prause Sr. is shown here standing in front of Prause Market with a grand champion show calf held by Morris Zapalac. Jimmy Prause, Glen’s brother, is standing in the far left of the photo in the doorway of the meat market. This picture was taken in 1940’s. They are the second generation of Prauses to run the market after it had moved to the east side of the courthouse square.
Glen Jr., James (Moxie) and Steve Prause are shown here in a photo from the 1960s at the VFW Hall cooking for an event. They were the third generation of Prauses working the market after it moved to the present location in 1953.
Steve, Glen Jr. and Moxie Prause in the market. This picture was taken in 1995.
This photo was taken in 2007, the fourth generation Prauses working at the market: Gary, Brian, Kathy and Mark.
This photo was taken around 1990 when 10 people worked the market – eight of them Prauses along with the late pitmaster Monroe Schubert and Dennis Ahlschlager.

One of Fayette County’s most historic family businesses is not going to reopen.

Prause Meat Market, which first opened on the courthouse square in La Grange in 1904, has been sold.

The market has been closed since March 31 as the members of the Prause family took pandemic precautions, but up until a couple of weeks ago, the family was still planning to re-open when the time was right.

Prause Meat Market has been for sale for years as most of the family members still involved with the business were nearing or past retirement age. The Prauses said several offers have been made to buy the iconic eatery during that time, but no offer was quite right.

But husband and wife duo Angelo and Aneca Hinojosa made the right offer. The Hinojosas are relative newcomers to La Grange. They recently moved here from Magnolia and purchased another local spot that has been on the market for a while, the KJT Retreat facility on Highway 71 and have been living there for nearly two months.

The Hinojosas run a produce company and supply watermelons all across America. They have 4,000 acres of watermelon fields in Texas and another 2,500 acres in Mexico.

Angelo, 46, and Aneca, 42, said they are excited to be part of the community. They do plan to keep the spot a restaurant and market but were still planning details about what type of food.

“It’s going to take a few months (before the new place would open),” Angelo said. “The place needs a lot of work and we still have to get permits.”

While it’s an exciting new chapter for the Hinojosas, it is the end of an era for the Prauses.

It was a bittersweet scene Monday as family members were cleaning out the store.

Brian and Mark Prause lowered the western-style “Meats and Delicatessens” sign with two cowboys roping a steer that loomed large overSee Prause , Page A4 the interior.

Then Gary joined Brian and Mark as the trio climbed up on the awning outside the store to take down the sign that said “Prause Meat Market – A Family Tradition Since the 1890s.”

It was Arnold Prause, who learned the meat cutting trade in Fayetteville in the late 1800s that started this family legacy. He opened the first Prause Market on the north side of the square in 1904.

Two moves and 116 years later the Prauses were still filling folks’ freezers and bellies. Prause’s has been at its cur

Prause’s has been at its current location at 253 West Travis St. since 1953.

For over a century, folks walking on the courthouse square could catch a smell of Prause barbeque when the breeze was right. Inside, people could get the ready-to-eat meat (orders were written out on paper plates) or a wide array of fresh meat to take home and cook themselves.

The walls were filled with a mix of deer heads, ducks, funny signs and local memorabilia.

Laurie (Prause) Stork came by the store Monday and took home a signed picture of the 2013 state semifinalist Leopard football team that had hung on the wall of the store. She had taught many of the players, and Prause barbeque had fueled many of that team’s wins.

“We survived the Spanish Flu, WWI, WWI, Korea, Vietnam,” said Gary Prause, who started working in the market back in 1966. “Four generations and 23 Prauses worked here. We feel so blessed.”

Gary teared up talking about how during the Christmas holidays, customers would flood them with gifts.

“The whole counter would be full,” Gary said. “For four generations the community helped us and we helped them.”

Mark Prause said he had been working at the market “since he was knee-high to a duck.”

“I think I was 14 when I started here and now I’m 56,” said Mark, who would wake up at 4:30 or 5 a.m. to get to the market to start fire for that day’s barbeque.

“This is your whole life. You’ve gotta love it. It’s a sad day for the family, a sad day for the public. We feel a sense of responsibility to the public. Customers are what make a business. People were calling us every day asking when we were going to reopen, but this is just something we had to do.” After four generations there

After four generations there were no more Prauses coming up to take the place of the older ones. Three of the five employees were 66 or older and either ready to retire, or about to be forced to by health issues.

“There’s a whole lot more good memories in here than bad,” Gary said, looking around the store. “We did as much as we could for as long as we could.”

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