Rooted in small-town Texas
TexasInaBox.Com is located at 124 and 126 West California
Street, in the small farming and ranching town of Floydada (pronounced Floi-day-duh),  situated
on the high, flat southern tip of the North American Great
Plains. Floydada is in the middle of one of the largest
beef and cotton producing areas of the world - we're just
down the road from the famous Matador
Ranch. The area is
ideal for agriculture, since the land is fertile and very,
very flat.
 We are based in, and have restored, a building erected
in 1926 about one block west of Floydada's courthouse square.
Just a few doors down is our bank; a drug store; a good
Tex-Mex
cafe (Azteca); an old-fashioned general store and auto
parts shop (Caprock), and; several other locally owned,
family businesses.
-->> Click here for more about
Floydada and a glimpse into small town Texas life.
How TexasInaBox.Com started -- in California?
A division of Flatland Food, Inc. (if you want to know
where we came up with that, you should visit us someday),
TexasInaBox.Com was founded by David Carr.
As a prodigal son of Floydada, Texas who tired of the
high-tech life outside of the Lone
Star State - living in big cities from coast-to-coa st and
across the Atlantic and spending an inordinate amount of
time in airports - David decided to start TexasInaBox.Com
back in his hometown.
While living outside of Texas, David often lamented not
being able to readily find the food he loved as a youth
and during his days at the University of Texas at Austin.
His parents Charles and Ann Carr, still farm cotton in
Floyd County which is the county in which Floydada is located.
In 1990, Charles began experiments to make his own beef
brisket. It started simply enough, the Carr's would have
brisket for special occasions and when company came over.
Then word about their brisket spread and they catered several
benefits for a local school.
It was marrying a California girl, Michelle, in 1995 that
lead David to the idea for TexasInaBox.Com.
Their wedding was in Mill Valley, California - just across
the G olden Gate bridge from
San Francisco. Wanting to invite as many of their friends
as possible to the rehearsal dinner the night before the
wedding, they eschewed the traditional, expensive restaurant
meal and had David’s family bring Charles’ brisket
to California.
Doing their best to throw a traditional Texas barbecue
for 75 friends and family, David’s Aunt Beth and
Uncle Bruce graciously supervised the kitchen. David cooked
a pot of pinto beans, they rounded up some potato salad,
and his Aunt Mary cooked peach and blackberry cobblers.
Playing cowboy has great appeal!
They
decorated with blue denim tablecloths, used cowboy bandanas
for napkins and miniature cotton bales for  centerpieces.
Suffice it to say that the food was a hit!
In fact, there was no food left – friends of Michelle’s
mother didn’t move fast enough to get cobbler – they
had to resort to going into the kitchen to scrape the pans
with spoons (not a mistake they'll ever repeat!)
Even though David had his mind on other things that night,
he remembered several key lessons:
- A Texas barbecue is a unique, fun event - even more
so for non-Texans.
- Hickory-smoked beef brisket freezes, ships, and reheats
extremely well - in fact it’s delicious!
- A Texas barbecue is a relatively easy, inexpensive
way to feed a lot of hungry people and leave them wanting
to schedule the next party.
That’s how TexasInaBox.Com was born!
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