“I’m encouraging that, but if he comes to me at 20 and is like, ‘I want to work here, I want to do this,’ I’ll say sure.”

For us to be around 80 years, it’s a combination of everything. We make good food and it’s affordable. Elm is a little different now than it was 15 years ago. A lot of people were afraid of Elm, and now they’re not. I feel like, finally, Elm has been reborn a little bit. There’s consistency in our food, it’s always good and people like us. All those things go along with it. I know it probably sounds like a cliché, but it’s a relationship building thing. I know a lot of my customers by their first names. I know where they work. You always hear about small business and community, but that really is what it is.

My favorite thing to eat is the Belt Buster. It’s like a Frito pie with beans and cheese and everything on it. Or we have a newer thing called the Deluxe Sandwich. We toast the bread. We have our au jus, like our gravy, and we take some jalapenos, onions and cheese and melt it all in the gravy together and then put it on the sandwich. That’s pretty good.

I’m being completely honest, but Parker’s favorite thing to eat (at DeMaria’s) is pickles. He’s a picky eater. He likes his chicken nuggets and mac and cheese.

I’m torn on my son (owning the restaurant someday). It’s all up to him. If he tells me, ‘I really, really want to take it over,’ then of course I’m not going to say no. But there’s a part of me that wants to encourage him to do more with himself and think outside the box, like find something he really wants to do and go for it. Do I want to keep it in the family? Yes, but I don’t want him to feel that pressure. You know what I mean? I’m really trying to be like, ‘You go be the best you could be. If you want to be an architect, go for it. Go be an engineer. He’s smart. He’s in (gifted and talented) classes and he plays on Minecraft and builds all kinds of stuff. So, I’m encouraging that, but if he comes to me at 20 and is like, ‘I want to work here, I want to do this,’ I’ll say sure. But yeah, I’ve thought about it.

I play golf. It’s kind of my main hobby. My son’s getting into it a little bit, so sometimes we’ll all go play. He’s doing golf camp this summer. We’ll see how that goes. And we go to Poage Park a lot.

We eat at DiCampli’s. We like Wako Roll. And a lot of times on Sundays, we’ll go to BJ’s. The bar is open seating, so you can walk right in and sit down. They always have sports on the TVs. I’ll drink a few beers and that’s dinner on Sunday. That’s like our guilty Sunday spot.

In 2021, Blake DeMaria bought Tony DeMaria’s Bar-B-Que from his dad, Geoff, making Blake the fourth generation to own the restaurant that opened in 1946. It began as a Tony’s Market and Grocery, but sold barbecue on a to-go basis only. When construction on Interstate 35 began, sit-down service was offered. Geoff bought the place in 1985, and in 1995, the business was moved a couple of blocks to 1000 Elm Ave., where it’s now located, and quit selling groceries.

Blake, 35, graduated from Lorena High School and McLennan Community College, and worked in finance for a while before joining the family business full time. As a kid, he had worked there on Saturdays, and during his senior year of high school, he was in a work-study program that allowed him to leave campus after two class periods and work the rest of the day.

Blake and his wife Erica — who works for her father’s business, O’Henry Tents, and as a designer for a construction firm — have one son, Parker, who recently finished second grade at Woodway Elementary School.