Saturday, April 30, 2011: The Beer Kooler (Lometa, TX)

Twenty miles from Goldthwaite, en route to the BBQ & goat cook-off, I decided to stop in Lometa and take some pictures of The Beer Kooler. The sign says "Bar-B-Q & Sausage Wraps," so I wanted to check it out. I've passed it many times without stopping, but I was in no hurry, so I pulled in. I didn't intend to eat, as I was 20 minutes from a BBQ cook-off, but I did.

Granted, I've only been on a fraction of the roads in Texas, but it's the first drive-thru beer barn I've seen that serves BBQ. The kitchen is small, and the window looking into it is tiny, so I couldn't see what all was in it. The smoker is out back.

Other than sausage (regular or jalapeno), your choices are chopped beef or sliced beef. I opted for the chopped-beef sandwich, which is better described as shredded beef. (Makes no difference to me how it's cut, so long as it tastes good.) It was a fairly big sandwich. Pretty good value for $5. The best I could tell, the beef was smoked well. Good coloration. I say "best I could tell" because the sandwich came with sauce already mixed into the beef. If I'd known this, I would've asked for sauce on the side. I don't have any reason to think that the meat wasn't tasty, but I don't have a reason to think that it was - simply for the fact that the sauce overpowered it. The bun was good. The pickles were good. I just wish I could've gotten an idea of how moist and flavorful the meat was. I'll definitely go back and will try again, sans sauce - that is, if the place is still around. It's for sale (for $649,000).