I've been known to hop in my car and drive more than two hours into the hill country to eat at the pit-barbecue hot spot known as Llano, Texas, home of the original Cooper's.
In fact, I even wrote about Cooper's during the summer while my dad and I were playing golf just down the road in San Saba, Texas.
Well, I have good news, because if the folks opening up a new barbecue joint in McGregor can pull off what they're hoping to pull off, then those of who love places like Cooper's won't have to drive nearly as far.
On Sunday, during an excursion to the Coffee Shop in McGregor for Sunday lunch, I spotted the new sign for Coach's. Intrigued, I drove back out to McGregor in the afternoon to poke around the new place.
Actually, I didn't have to do much digging. Gary Zacharias, one of the owners of the coming barbecue restaurant, and sign-maker Mark Cunningham were working on the signage out front. Zacharias kindly showed me around the framework for the restaurant.
On one end, Coach's will feature an enclosed patio type of room where they'll house the pit. That's where customers will peer into the barbecue smoker and choose their piece of meat. The cook will wrap it in butcher paper and send the patron inside to order sides and settle up.
On the other end, Coach's has a garage-door style opening onto another patio which will be ideal for a whole bunch of people to get their barbecue on when it's nice outside.
In between, well, there's a dining room. Zacharias said there will be many big-screen TVs around the main area. Good thing. At a place called Coach's, you better be able to watch the game.
Zacharias indicated he and his partners are hoping to have Coach's ready to open for business in early November.
Coach's will be right next door to Coffee Shop. Will that make this little area of McGregor the McLennan County go-to location for good-old-fashioned Texas food? I'll answer with this proposal: If you ever show up at Coffee Shop and it's packed, it will be real easy to audible and go to Coach's (unintentional, but very smooth double football reference), and vice versa.
