Texas Gluttony

[chefrodrigo]

Hang on...Cooper's is in Llano, right? Or are there two?

I vote for this THREAD to be the BEST of egullet, hands down. The photos are exquisite.

Who do we tell about this>???????

Hey Foodie

There are 2 Coopers and according to the last Texas Monthly top 50 the one in Mason has moved ahead of the one in Llano. I believe it might have something to do with G Dubya saying the Llano Coopers was his favorite bbq. Sales go up and quality goes down. Texas Monthly said that with the meals they had there recently it almost didn't even make the top 50.

See you soon

Rodney

[chefrodrigo]

The photos are exquisite.

I agree! I have to tell you, I drove chefrodrigo to the airport for Texas & was sulking the whole way knowing what feasts lay in store for him & Kyle without me (boo hoo). After about 3 days of looking at their photos, I was calling him a motherf*er too. I have since broke down and yes have bought an unplanned for ticket to join them for the tail end of their BBQ trail.

Yippy!

Yippy indeed.

You have a real treat waiting for you when you arrive. Don't have any of those yummy plane treats.

See you tomorrow

r

[chefrodrigo]

chefrodrigo promised me that those sweetbreads at Rincón del Viejo were wheat gluten! No wonder they were so good.

-Sean (now slightly less than mostly vegetarian)

I still promise. Oh how I love Mexican wheat gluten.

[Mabelline]

The Mexican Tofu rocks, too! I'm now awaiting your posts with a mental fork in hand. My only complaint is maybe youall aren't hungry enough!! More pictures,more meat, more indulgence!!

[eem]

You have a real treat waiting for you when you arrive. 

My mouth is gushing!

[foodie52]

Thanks for dropping by CM today and introducing yourselves.

These are two of the cutest guys you'll ever want to meet!! I can't believe we have to give them back to Portland...

[chefrodrigo]

We are coming to the end of our trip now and this will be it until next week. We'll be visiting family thru the weekend and have Monday and Tuesday of next week to eat.

This post comes with great difficulty. We were looking so forward to the 2 Coopers. First we went to Mason, one of the top 5 in Texas Monthly, and on the way back Llano.

In Mason we ordered brisket, pork ribs, jalapeno sausage, regular sausage, and beef ribs. The brisket was dry, dry, dry, the pork ribs were tough, the regular sausage was average, the jalapeno sausage was good but nowhere close to Muellers, and the beef ribs were the only winner of the day.

We were so confused after that meal we headed to Llano hoping for something better. We had read the sirloin and pork chops were the highlights so we ordered that since we had just eaten 30 minutes before.

What to say?? We watched them pull both meats out of the smoker. The pork chop looked impressive but lacked any smoke flavor. The sirloin was a nice medium rare but tough as a boot.

We have tried to refrain from negative posts for the whole trip but this was so disappointing we had to tell the truth.

The meat sure made a pretty picture though

This boggles the mind. Why would any respectable bbq establishment have this on every table?

Eem is arriving tomorrow and we are going back to Smitty's in Lockhart to make up for the ordeal we went through today. We'll let you know if its as good as the first time.

Rodney/Kyle

[Jaymes]

Cooper's is "Cowboy BBQ" wherein the meat is cooked directly over the heat, rather than smoked, as the old-style German meat markets do it. When I first moved to Austin, I visited Cooper's in Llano regularly, and found it wonderful. But sometime during the last few years or so, it's gone badly downhill. I don't know what's wrong. I read somewhere that their fame had resulted in too many customers, putting too much demand on the capacity of their pits, which then had resulted in rushing the meat. Also, they began to put great emphasis on their mail order business, not to mention catering Pres Bush's BBQ "do's." All in all, the last two or three times I drove out there, I was greatly disappointed and decided no longer to bother. Sad, really. But I did hear that they were going to give up the mail order business and try to get back to doing what they did do best, before fame and fortune sucked them (and their meat) dry.

Let's hope that's right.

Oh, and while you're back in Lockhart revisiting Smitty's, I'd sure be interested in hearing your opinion as to how Black's brisket compares.

Edited April 8, 2004 by Jaymes (log)

[RolloGroast]

I followed these fellows from No Teeth in Rockdale to McBee's in Pleasonton and my only regret is that I didn't take the 4 hour lunch they suggested to me on Monday so I could join them at Louis Mueller's. I can't wait to try Smitty's.

!Hasta Lunes para Wagyu!

[chefrodrigo]

We made it back to Smitty's yesterday after picking up eem at the airport. We were happy to see that their meat is just as good later in the day, around 4pm, as it is early.

We ordered brisket, sausage, and pork chops. We tried to get some prime rib but they were out.

Smitty's

Jaymes, we did make it to Blacks right after Smitty's. They make a fine brisket over there. Nice and black on the outside and very smokey inside. Its one of the better briskets we tried on the trip. We both preferred Smitty's but Blacks was a contender for second place.

Blacks brisket

We kinda overdid it yesterday by starting with a breakfast of brisket tacos at John Muellers. By the end of the day we called mercy and went to Central Market and bought a cart full of fruit.

Rodney/Kyle/eem

weekend vegetarians

[jschyun]

I need to get my ass to texas

[danunger]

Love the glutalogue, although it does raise fits of jealousy in me. I've noticed one glaring omission though, no mention of Waco. No, I'm not talking about any forgotten fabulous BBQ spot there, but rather it's two heavenly concoctions, the elixirs of the gods--Dr Pepper and Big Red. It's hard for me to think of any better accompaniment for BBQ and Tex-Mex than these--certainly no better digestifs exist. Dr Pepper's medicinal qualities are as manifold as they are mysterious and the next time you feel the need for a piece of fruit, have a Big Red instead!

[Richard Kilgore]

What a trip! Thanks for the great photos, folks.

[chefrodrigo]

We just wanted to sum up the trip and thank everyone for their replies. It has been a lot of fun keeping this thread going.

Our favorite place on the trip was Smitty's in Lockhart. They had the all around best meat. A very close second was Luling City Market. We would highly recommend any of the others with the exception of both Coopers(maybe we caught them on an off day).

Austin finally has good bbq in the city limits at John Muellers.

Apart from the bbq one of the finest meals we had was the chicken fried steak and catfish at the Country Inn in Sommerville.

Raynickben you guessed it early. We are opening a bbq takeout spot in Portland. We wanted to come down and taste the best Texas spots because that is the style we will be cooking.

The trip really paid off. We ended up getting pointers from several people. We learned a few things and also reinforced some things we already do.

Thanks Again, and let us know if you are ever coming to Portland.

Rodney/Kyle

[Raynickben]

Best of luck Rodney and Kyle with your new BBQ endevour in Ptown. I wish I was there to support you but once you have your location, name, etc. let us know. I have a lot of friends I can send your way and they are really hungry!

[Jaymes]

We are opening a bbq takeout spot in Portland.

Well, I hope y'all get it all figgered out by summer, 'cause I'm taking a road trip up that way.

[Tremors]

Lucky for me I live in Portland so I am pumped about your BBQ place, especially with all this great research!

Where will you guys belocated and what's the potential start date?

The West Bros. BBQ (now defunct) in Eugene had a great wall mural of a BBQ trip that the owners had taken with pics, map, etc. It was a great idea - maybe you can incorporate your trip as decor. It will get patrons salivating that's for sure.

See ya as soon as you open!

[chefrodrigo]

We're starting out about as small as you can. We bought a concession trailer at the corner of SE 6th and Hawthorne. The name of the place is going to be LOW Barbecue.

We are also going to be selling at the farmers market downtown on Saturday and that starts May 1st.

We hope to have the trailer open for lunch on the following Monday May 3rd.

We'll put some updates on the PNW board if anything changes.

See You Soon

Rodney

[ExtraMSG]

I want to know how, much, if any weight you guys gained. I just did a "tour" myself, mostly Mexican, pizza, and ice cream and gained 20 lbs in 10 days.

If you need a tester, I'm back on low carb, so I'll stuff as much meat as possible in my mouth. 6th and Hawthorne will be an interesting location. I bet you guys will do well at the Farmer's Market. The sausage guys there last year had by far the biggest lines. I'll be interested to talk to you guys about it since I've been thinking of doing something similarly (not BBQ, though).

Thanks for the great glutton-logue.

[markf424]

Incredible post. I just got back from the Llano Cooper's this weekend (as is evidenced by this thread) and was actually impressed with it - the brisket in particular. Perhaps they had an "on" day, or perhaps because I haven't been to Lockhart, Louie Mueller's or even John Mueller's for BBQ, I just haven't had good BBQ to compare. Based on this post, I'll make a trip in the next week or two out to Smitty's and/or Black's and pick up some tasty. I'll be sure to report in. Hopefully I'll redeem myself.

[chefrodrigo]

I want to know how, much, if any weight you guys gained. I just did a "tour" myself, mostly Mexican, pizza, and ice cream and gained 20 lbs in 10 days.

If you need a tester, I'm back on low carb, so I'll stuff as much meat as possible in my mouth. 6th and Hawthorne will be an interesting location. I bet you guys will do well at the Farmer's Market. The sausage guys there last year had by far the biggest lines. I'll be interested to talk to you guys about it since I've been thinking of doing something similarly (not BBQ, though).

Thanks for the great glutton-logue.

I don't think there was that much gain on the trip. I put on about 4lbs in 2 weeks. We did decide early on to stay away from the sides and only have the meat. If we could have just stayed away from the beer we probably would have lost some weight.

You'll probably recognize the trailer if you drive down Hawthorne its been there for years. Its caddy corner to the Multnomah County building.

Rodney

[chefrodrigo]

Incredible post. I just got back from the Llano Cooper's this weekend (as is evidenced by this thread) and was actually impressed with it - the brisket in particular. Perhaps they had an "on" day, or perhaps because I haven't been to Lockhart, Louie Mueller's or even John Mueller's for BBQ, I just haven't had good BBQ to compare. Based on this post, I'll make a trip in the next week or two out to Smitty's and/or Black's and pick up some tasty. I'll be sure to report in. Hopefully I'll redeem myself.

markf

I saw your post and wished we had tried it on the day you were there. I've heard they do have on/off days and we definitely caught them on an OFF day. Please do give Smitty's a try. I'd be interested in how you feel about it since you caught Coopers on a good day.

Rodney

[catiii]

Chefrodrigo:

Your food pics and descriptions were excellent.

But: I AM LOSING MY MIIIND!!!

It is 3am and I am now starving! I feel like a junkie that needs a fix!!!

When I get off at noon Fri, I'm gettin' on my motorcycle and making a straight line for the nearest small town to engage in consumption in mass quantities!

[NW_Texan]

Rodney/Kyle-

The pics made me homesick...wish you had gotten up to Ft. Worth to try Railhead...another trip perhaps. I'm interested in finding out more about your set-up in Portland...interested in doing the same type of thing on the Eastside of Seattle...no decent 'que here to save my life. Hope you will contact me...

David in Redmond

dwall817@yahoo.com

[chemprof]

Rodney/Kyle-

Good luck with your barbeque venture in Portland...hopefully it will be appreciated and successful (by me for sure if I ever get back there!). Thanks for the wonderful pics of Texas 'cue. I went to grad school in College Station, and I especially appreciated the pic of Duddley's Draw, the site of many, many youthful pitcher of beer (grad school is stressful!). It looks like it's still as charmingly decrepit as it was in the '80's.

Anne