Coopers Bar-B-Que

Flashing sign - Trip Highlight! Trip Highlight! Trip Highlight! Being a fan of Kansas City Bar-B-Que, I was on a search for some good down home Texas style Bar-B-Que. Pam, who I will remind you grew up vegetarian, and still leans that way spotted a recommendation in a travel book. "Best Bar-B-Que on the Bluebonnet Trail" it said. So we plan our stop in the metropolis of Llano Texas.

I hear you asking; what does a vegetarian do at a Bar-B-Que joint? She has learned to skip the meat (which draws plenty of strange looks here in Texas) and order a bunch of side dishes, i.e. cornbread, green beans, corn on the cob, baked beans, salad, cole slaw, etc., etc. There is lots there if you really look. So being a good sport, we pull into Coopers.

As we drive up the smokers are aglow.

The sauce is bubbling.

The tables are ready.

The meat seems done.



It's time to eat. Oh how I wish I had a camera ready when we walked up to the smoker. Pam was asked "Mame, sausage, chicken, pork, brisket or ribs?" She calmly asked for the pork and he chops off a chunk. Next question "Mame would you like some sauce on that?" Pam graciously says yes please. He stabs her chunk of pork, dips it in the pot of bubbling sauce, and slaps it on the red tray. Yes that is a tray like you get at a super buffet. Same questions and drill for me except I get the brisket. Once dipped, he slaps it on the tray and points us inside.

Once inside, the staff takes our tray and slices our meat choices. Sides you ask? Well beer of course! Oh, you mean food? Well there's potato salad and cole slaw and berry crisp. "On the table are beans and jalapenos" she says. So much for the vegetarian ordering sides.

They weigh our meat, slap down a couple pieces of butcher paper (plates she says), get our crisp, and send us on our way. She was right, there were beans in the picnic table room and jalapenos. Finally our table is set:


So in we dove. I must say, Pam did quite a job on that chunk of pork but admitted that next time she wanted some of my briskett. She was particularly impressed with the loaves of bread scattered around the tables for folks to eat out of. The only real flaw was the lack of Lone Star beer. The only thing to really wash down Texas bar-b-que.

This one we will remember.