Cooper’s Comes to the BCS Area

Ever since my BBQ Road Trip with Eric, I’ve been itching to try some more of the excellent BBQ we sampled on our quest. I had heard rumblings about Cooper’s Old Time Pit BBQ opening in College Station. I was pretty ecstatic, and a smidge skeptical. A student of mine let me know it had opened, and I knew I had to try it soon.

I walked into the new building, and remarked upon the differences between this establishment and the Llano location. In Llano, the meat pit is outside, and the building has a real vintage feel to it. The College Station location has the meats inside, joined by an indoor bar and a place for folks to play games outside. Essentially it FEELS like a college joint.

I got up to the meat pit, and I’ll be honest- the sheer amount of choices were overwhelming. I stuck to the brisket, pork loin, cabrito, jalapeno cheese sausage, and pork chop, along with some potato salad, jalapeno/bacon mac and cheese, and some apple cobbler. Oh, and I grabbed some excellent complimentary beans.

I had everything dipped in their wonderful thin sauce. The brisket rub had some excellent salt, more so than the Llano version of the direct heat cooked cut had when I visited there. Because of the cooking method, there is less smokiness, but the rub and sauce went a long way to give that unmistakable BBQ flavor, avoiding the roast feel so many other joints have. It’s the best version of Hill Country style brisket that I’ve tried.

The sausage was fantastic as well. While I prefer the jalapeno to the jal/cheese, this was still a well seasoned link, with plenty of heat. If you only try Cooper’s once, you have to grab the sausage. The pork steak was even better this time around, with the heavier rub giving more flavor, with a peppery kick.

However, the pork loin impressed even more. There was lots of salt and pepper flavor, but the thing that put this cut over the edge was the fresh off the flame taste imparted by the pit. This might be the best pork loin I’ve ever eaten. The loin also offers the customer a better chance at price control since it doesn’t come in giant chop form.

Another change I made this time around was the cabrito. Instead of getting the loin, I snagged some ribs. The meat was that right combination of greasy, gamy, and tender. The sauce went particularly well with this cut of goat. The rub on the skin was more subtle than the beef, and the goat did most of the talking here.

I think the loin might be a bit more meaty, but this is certainly a novelty in BBQ land. The sides were fantastic, with the well seasoned beans and potato salad being a perfect replica of the sampling I had at the Llano location. I can’t recommend the potato salad enough, with a unique mustard tang driving home its homemade roots. The Mac and Cheese was also quite good, with real cheese flavor coming through with every bite, along with a smidge of heat. The apple cobbler was another hit, perfectly sweet, and clearly made from an in-house recipe.

I was mighty impressed with what I’ve tried there. My wife was similarly wowed, with the sausage being maybe her favorite item. She did lament that the only two sauces were the thinner vinegary sauce and the thicker sauce they seem to reserve for the chopped beef sandwiches. She softened her opinion once she tried the sauce dipped meat surrounded by meat.

A word of advice- watch how much meat they are pulling off the grill. They will ask you if every cut is okay, and if you are price conscious, don’t be afraid to ask for less.

MEAT SCORE- 8.9

TOTAL SCORE- 9.2