cooper's old time pit bar-b-que is one of several restaurants created by the cooper family since the 1950s. george t. cooper opened "cooper's pit bar-b-q" in mason, texas in 1953. george's son, tommy cooper, opened his own barbecue restaurant in llano in 1962, naming his "cooper's old time pit bar-b-que". tommy cooper's restaurant went on to become the most famous of the various cooper family restaurants. tommy cooper died in 1979; his restaurant was operated for a few years by texas barbecue chef kenneth laird, and then the llano restaurant was acquired by current owner terry wootan in 1992. in 2005, tommy’s son, barry, returned to the business & together with wootan, expanded cooper’s business to open five more locations to date. today, cooper’s old time pit bar-b-que operates in six cities across the state of texas. (llano, new braunfels, fort worth, austin, college station & katy)