Beef: It's what's for dinner

Along with pork ribs, brisket, and chicken... Vegetarians, this post is not for you.

A few weeks ago, Jason and I found ourselves with a free Saturday afternoon, and somehow he convinced me to make the mother of all Texas BBQ treks. He begs to go have barbecue on a bi-weekly basis, and I usually turn him down. I can only eat meals that are entirely comprised of three to four different types of spicy, greasy meat about once every 2-3 months. But this particular afternoon I gave in. We consulted our Austin Zagat guide and decided to try Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano.

We looked at a map to figure out where Llano was and set off. We could tell it was a ways outside the city, but figured it was probably about a half hour or so into the hill country. It wasn't until we'd been driving for over 4o minutes, wondering when we were going to start smelling the barbecue, that we decided to plug the address into the GPS. Um, yeah. Turns out Llano is 75 miles away from Austin. I am not entirely clear how Cooper's made it in the Austin Zagat guide. But that is neither here nor there.

When we finally arrived, an hour and a half later, we could tell we were definitely the city slickers amidst some real Texans. This was no Salt Lick-- no tourists, no scenic hill country views, no quaint split rail fences, and definitely no Austin yuppies (except us.)

The protocol was simple. Roll up to the giant pit barbecue, hold out your plastic school cafeteria tray (the sanitation of which was somewhat in question), point at the meat you want, and watch as they dunk it in a massive vat of sauce and then plop it directly on the plastic tray. We then picked out some sides in little plastic containers, went through the cafeteria style check-out line, and found ourselves a spot amongst the locals at some long tables with benches. We ripped a piece of butcher paper off a large, communal roll, and served ourselves our meat of choice on the butcher paper. No plates needed here.

Delicious, yes. Scenic, no.

We definitely got some looks from the locals. Turns out most patrons at Coopers don't wear skinny jeans and ruffly J. Crew tops whilst enjoying their pork ribs. And the decor lacked a little finesse. But it sure was tasty.

(I can't help but wonder if some of the wall decor was once dinner...)

OK, so not the cutest pictures of either me or J, but it was a Texas experience we'll always remember. Definitely worth the three hours round trip and full tank of gas. Only in Texas, my friends. Only in Texas.