My favorite fake quote about Texas BBQ is a line that I coopted from the movie Kill Bill referring to the quality of samurai swords.
If you’re gonna compare Texas BBQ, you compare it to all the BBQ ever made…….. that wasn’t made in Texas.
Bar none, the best barbecue we’ve ever had has been in Texas. Honestly, of the top 10 meals, at least 7 have been somewhere in Texas and we’ve been to amazing places outside of the state.
Even the brisket in a breakfast taco at Buc-ee’s is better than you’ll find at most other places.
We’d already found our favorite places to go when visiting New Braunfels (between Austin and San Antonio.) Our usual trip was to Salt Lick in Driftwood. The combination of the food and atmosphere made it a Texas experience.
It took a lot to pull us away, but we eventually took a trip to Lockhart, home of the most well-known names in Texas BBQ. That’s where we were introduced to Smitty’s smoked prime rib.
When we visit New Braunfels, we usually spend the day at Schlitterbahn or tubing the Comal River. Some days we feel like driving for dinner and on other days we want to stay close to the hotel. On our recent trip, we had a day when we didn’t feel like going anywhere. The shorter the drive, the better.
I searched for nearby barbecue places and one place stood out with numerous 5-star reviews. It was so close by that we couldn’t believe we’d never passed it.
Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que
1125 TX-337 Loop, New Braunfels, TX 78130
The original Cooper’s in Llano, TX has been there since 1962. The New Braunfels location is a baby in comparison, opening in 2008. We’re embarrassed to say that it was 1/2 a block from the corner where we’ve turned to go to Schlitterbahn since we’ve been visiting the area.
Now that we know more about what to look for when going to eat barbecue, we were happy to see that the front door opened into the room with the pit and a listing of prices of meat by the pound on the wall.
This wasn’t a tourist trap.
We didn’t take pictures on our first visit, as we wanted to make sure it was good before writing anything about it. Here’s a picture from their Twitter account which gives an idea of the selection.
They have both plain and jalapeño cheese sausage, brisket, ribs, chicken, turkey, pork loin, pork chop, prime rib and even baked potatoes. On the weekends, they serve ribeye steaks but they sell out earlier than we were able to get there.
Cooper’s serves the usual Texas accompaniments of sliced bread, pickles and onions. In addition, they have complimentary pinto beans, which were amazing.
We tried the pork chop and turkey and also got a side of mac and cheese (with local Shiner Bock to wash everything down).
Since everything was great on our first visit, we returned later in the year to stock up. We got sausage, brisket and ribs to bring home (using our special technique) and will have several meals until we return to the area next summer.
I want to keep trying new places but if we keep finding great ones, we’re going to keep going back to our favorites. Add Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que to the list of places we’ll go back to.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
