Llano — Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que

People drive from all over Texas to stand in front of an open mesquite pit and point at what they want. That's the transaction at Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano — meat selected directly from the pit, weighed, and handed over. The current description places Cooper's operating since 1953, and the region's barbecue culture runs deep enough that Llano's identity is partly built around it. This is the pilgrimage, not the approximation.