Cinnamon rolls. Buffalo rib-eyes. Dots. Here’s a by-the-numbers look at Stock Show chow
You can’t walk very far at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo without running into a concession stand. They don’t all sell the same stuff, but you’ll be able to find some of the things you’d expect to see at an event like the Stock Show — corny dogs, funnel cakes, turkey legs — and some stuff you might not expect, like authentic Italian food.
Which made us wonder: How much of that stuff is sold during the Stock Show’s three-week run, which ends Saturday? It turned out to be a tougher question to answer than we thought.
Coburn’s Catering Service, which wrangles all the Stock Show vendors, declined to give out hard numbers — either money or units — on concession items. A few individual vendors had some educated guesses on certain items, but others also declined to give out info.
(But to give you an idea, in 2013, the Houston Chronicle did its own by-the-numbers story and found, for example, that 4,500 pulled-pork sundaes were eaten at that year’s Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.)
Still, we found numbers, including from Coburn’s Catering itself, which has a Stock Show history dating back ... well, a number of years.
1947: Year that Coburn’s Catering began working the Stock Show
4: Number of generations that Coburn’s Catering has been in the Coburn family
17: Number of vendors (including itself) on Coburn’s Catering’s vendors list for this year’s Stock Show (it can seem like more because most vendors have multiple booths). The list does not include some places mentioned in this story.
7: Width, in feet, of the cast-iron skillets at Texas Skillet, known for its hunger-busting steak and potato burritos and other wares.
1,000: Number of calories in a Stubby’s Cinnamon Roll served “all the way” — that is, topped with icing and pecans (hey, nuts are good for you, right?)
5: Approximate number of one-hour bull-riding classes you’d have to take to burn off the calories from that cinnamon roll. It’s tougher to calculate for rodeo riders, but if they are crazy enough to ride a bull, they can eat whatever they want, right?
30: Length, in minutes, of nap desired after consuming said cinnamon roll.
2,000: Number of “dots” in a 5-ounce cup of Dippin’ Dots, the cryogenically frozen ice cream, according to Thrillist, which went deep into Dippin’ Dots world with a 2014 piece called “18 Things You Didn’t Know About Dippin’ Dots.”
12: Varieties of fudge served at the biggest of Mansfield-based Frontier Fruit & Nut Co.’s stands, including new flavor sea-salt vanilla and seasonal pumpkin-pie fudge. (They also have 10 flavors and two sticks’ worth of beef jerky, but we didn’t count the nuts.)
12: Diameter in inches of tortilla used for a burrito from Tad’s Bodacious Burritos, which infuses ingredients into the tortillas. “That means a chipotle cheese tortilla for the chipotle beef, a garlic herb tortilla for the garlic chicken and a spinach tortilla that’s green for the vegetarian,” owner Tad Blood told the Star-Telegram in 2014. (Yes, you can find vegetarian food at the Stock Show.)
50: Amount, in dollars, you’ll pay for a 12-ounce buffalo rib-eye, the most expensive food item on the menu at Reata at the Rodeo. (Unless you count wine as food, then it’s the $100 per bottle Estancia Meritage on the wine list.)
250: Amount of buffalo rib-eyes Reata at the Rodeo expects to serve.
1,600: Amount of servings of carne asada, Reata at the Rodeo’s top seller, that the restaurant expects to serve. The carne asada ($30) is topped with Reata’s cheese enchiladas.
5,436: Distance, in miles, from Verona, Italy, to Weatherford, home of Mamma Monica Italian Restaurant, which has a stand at the Stock Show. According to a Star-Telegram story from 2017 (the stand’s first year at the Stock Show), Monica Russo moved her family from Verona to Weatherford because her son was a cutting horse fan.
4,500: Number of turkey legs that Burger Chili Shack in the Round-up Inn estimates that it sells during the run of the Stock Show.
7,000: Number of turkey legs that Burger Chili Shack estimates that it sold in its best year.
This story was originally published January 30, 2018 at 6:20 PM with the headline "Cinnamon rolls. Buffalo rib-eyes. Dots. Here’s a by-the-numbers look at Stock Show chow."