Inman's Kitchen Pit Bar-B-Q (Llano)

LLANO: Inman's Kitchen Pit Bar-B-Q
809 W Young
Llano, TX 78643
325-247-5257
Open Tues-Thur 8-6, F 8-8, Sat 8-6

It's funny what happens when an owner finds out you'll be writing about their joint. I'd visited Cooper's and Laird's multiple times on previous trips to Llano, but this was my first trip to Inman's. My hesitation was mainly due to the few kind words I'd hear about this Inman's location, but I found a few items good enough to keep me coming back.

My first bite was from the long, thin pork spare rib. The generous black pepper in the rub gave it a good bite, but still allowed the salt and smoke to work together for a good bark. The meat was moist and perfectly tender, and their nice level of smokiness made for the best pork rib in Llano. A unique turkey sausage was juicy with lots of smoke and salt. I've had much leaner versions of this link which were very dry, but this was a good link. The brisket was sliced thick with a great crust and smokering. It looked like it would be a winner until I tried to pull the slice apart for a bite. I couldn't tug on it hard enough to tear it apart and had to resort to a knife. It was just as tough to chew.

Another specialty sausage was Inman's answer to the jalapeno-cheddar beef links around the state. The jalapeno-swiss turkey link is stuffed into a synthetic casing. It's about the circumference of a hard salami, but the meat is juicy with some good heat. Unfortunately, the link had an odd texture and an overprocessed flavor that didn't match the regular turkey link.

When the meal was about over, owner Horace Oestreich came over to check on us and I told him about the tough brisket. He quickly had another order of brisket brought out which was, you guessed it, much more tender, and down right good. It's too bad they don't bother serving the good stuff on every brisket order. You can at least be assured of a good crunchy cole slaw, excellent pork ribs and a great link of turkey sausage.

Rating ***