Employee Heather Dunn carries trays of food to costumers waiting in the dining room at Pittsburg Hot Links in Pittsburg, Texas Friday February 17, 2017. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

PITTSBURG – Deep in the heart of Pittsburg, there’s a restaurant so revered for its hot links, people drive from states away to partake in an iconic delicacy that some view as a slice of heaven in butcher paper.

Jimmie Martin, a Pittsburg long-timer, is one of them.

He loves the sausages so much some might describe him as a super fan.

“I’ve been eating them since I was 4 or 5 and I’m 80 now,” he said. “I eat them at least once a week. Hot links have always been here, all my life.”

Martin’s loyalty is directed at Pittsburg Hot Link Restaurant, 136 W. Marshall St., a family owned business with roots in the area dating back to the late 1800s.

There have been tweaks over the years, but the overall product is much the same as the early years, it seems.

“I remember you could get six (links) and a soda pop and have a nickel left over out of a quarter,” he said. “It costs a little more than that today… they’re still real good.”

A LEGACY OF LINKS

The legend of this famous dish started in 1897 when entrepreneur Charlie Hasselback arrived in Camp County with an appetite-pleasing hot link recipe.

He started small, offering links for sale from a back street locale and serving them with crackers on heavy market paper with a savory sauce.

“It was always a working man’s meal,” said Sonya Warrick-Barker, who helps her family keep the business humming. “It was made with a cheaper cut of meat.”

But the result was a burst of flavor that outside competitors found difficult to replicate and diners found hard to resist.

Word of Hasselback’s simple, yet satisfying meal spread and soon, a hot link legend was born.

The growing business changed locations and ownership several times over the years before closing in the 1990s.

By that time, however, multiple hot link creators were calling Pittsburg home, using a recipe based on Hasselback’s original.

Mrs. Warrick-Barker’s late father, Gene Warrick, and grandfather were among them.

In later years, Warrick and wife, Madeline, retooled some components of the business, transforming it into today’s Pittsburg Brand Hot Links.

“It’s a part of everyone’s lives, if you’re from Pittsburg,” Mrs. Warrick-Barker said. “I guess it’s an identity, not on purpose. But it seems like anywhere you go, people know Pittsburg for hot links.”

BEHIND THE LEGEND

There’s nothing fussy about the eatery.

It features a combination of family-style picnic and booth seating with plenty of napkins.

Links sold at the restaurant are prepared nearby, also in a family-owned and operated facility, and then cooked on sight.

Gas-powered ovens transform the delicacies into juicy, tantalizing morsels, available for dining in or take-out.

Links are also sold to out-of-towners and sent to dinner tables far and near, from New York to California.

It takes about 40 minutes to cook ‘em up right.

But they don’t last long, especially around lunch, said cashier Heather Dunn, as the mid-day line forms and then snakes around the restaurant’s perimeter.

“Fridays and Saturdays we’re extra busy,” she said.

Pittsburg Hot Links offers a full menu, featuring items such as chicken-fried steak, beef stew and catfish.

Apparently, it’s the links that keep people coming back for more.

It’s not unusual for people to drive in from Oklahoma, Arkansas and points throughout Texas to buy sausages.

An ample amount of wall space in the restaurant is devoted to dozens of abandoned customer ball caps, emblazoned with advertising logos and quips.

“The first time, I think they (customer) put their hat down and they walked off and left it,” Mrs. Warrick said. “We put it up there.”

When no one claimed the hat and others were left behind, a humorous, conversation-sparking tradition was born.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Mrs. Warrick said she and her late husband wanted the restaurant to be a place where people can enjoy a good, affordable meal in a friendly, comfortable environment.

It took years to complete the vision.

The couple met and married while he was in the U.S. Navy, and she accompanied him back to his hometown of Pittsburg, struggling in the early years to make ends meet.

“I remember when we didn’t have anything to eat,” she said. “I would go home and make a pot of beans and cornbread.”

Nonetheless, the couple raised a family of six, balancing the challenges of parenthood with selling hot links.

Mrs. Warrick carried on after his death, later passing day-to-day operations to their children.

One of those offspring, Mrs. Warrick-Barker, essentially grew up in the restaurant.

“I was born and put in a bread box under the counter,” she said with a grin. “They used to call my dad, ‘Mean Gene the Hot Link King.'”

A big positive for customer loyalty is the restaurant’s history, she said, describing the novelty of visiting with longtime customers who remember the early days of the hot link.

“Our customers are like family,” Mrs. Warrick-Barker said. “People remember us when they came here with their grandparents. On a Saturday, this is the place to come.”

Her aunt, Betty Smith, remembers when her own parents carried the torch, and she said there’s a reason why things are pretty much the same.

“We’re the best,” Mrs. Smith said with a wide grin. “If it’s working, leave it alone.”

Her husband, John E. Smith, another super fan, agrees.

“I’m 88 and I’ve been eating them for 80 years,” he said. “They are about the same, still good. I’m planning on eating them 10 to 12 more years at least.”

TWITTER @ TMT _ Jacque