The Pit at 4707 Burnet Road closes when the food is gone. It was going fast today. I saw State workers, service people tied to a beeper, hospital workers, retired people, and those, like us, escaping the downtown hordes and showing off a little bit of the typical Austin that never needs to advertise and seems never to appear in print.

The line does often stretch out the door, but only because the Pit is tiny indoors. Some of us went for lean brisket and some for the chopped-beef sandwich. Everybody selected tea as the beverage. The Pit has one of those patent press-down dispensers for the straws.

The Pit is tiny and so the restrooms are tiny as well, but they are among the cleanest in town. To entertain the solitary diners who sit in front of it at a sort of bar, there’s a television with the volume turned down very low, set to deliver financial news. A lot of the Pit’s business is takeout. Everyone is very polite and patient in the close quarters. You can see from the photo that the Pit has a proper notion of what desserts are proper to accompany barbeque.