Black's Barbecue has been smoking meats in Lockhart for more than eight decades, but now a member of the famed barbecue family is hoping to light a fire in San Marcos.

General Manager Kent Black said he is planning to open a new restaurant in a vacant warehouse at 500 Hull St., off South Guadalupe Street between downtown and I-35.

"I would do something similar to what we have in Lockhart," Black said. "I'm born and raised in that cooking style, and I might have a few tweaks of my own, but it's going to be old-school barbecue."

Black said he is aiming to open the restaurant by the end of the year or in early 2014.

According to city of San Marcos records, Black is proposing a 4,650-square-foot restaurant with indoor seating for 100 people, as well as 2,850 square feet of outdoor seating for 50 people. The restaurant would serve alcohol and be open from 10 a.m. until midnight.

Because the .62-acre site is currently zoned for light industrial use, which does not permit a restaurant to operate, Black has requested that it be rezoned for mixed use. The San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved his request July 9.

The commission also approved a conditional use permit allowing Black's to serve alcohol. The San Marcos City Council must also approve the requests, tentatively scheduled for hearings in August.

Open since 1932, Black's bills itself as "Texas' oldest and best major barbecue restaurant continuously owned by the same family."

The San Marcos location would be owned by Kent Black and his wife Candy, rather than by his parents, Edgar and Norma Jean Black, who are retired. In addition to overseeing the restaurant in San Marcos, Kent said he would continue to operate the family's flagship location 18 miles up the road in Lockhart.

"We've been asked for decades to do this, to come to another city, but one of them is a lot of work by itself," he said. "We're just real cautious."