Eats Beat: From cowboy cuisine to all-night chili

You might say the Stock Show has more than fair food.

Sure, there are corny dogs. But Fort Worth’s annual festival of all things cowboy has a blue-ribbon Texas restaurant, along with an insiders’ all-night cafe.

Reata at the Rodeo is the traveling version of the downtown “cowboy cuisine” standby. With the same furnishings and Hollywood-set decor, it’s a mini-Reata. The menu features a 14-ounce charbroiled rib-eye ($39 with sides) and a pepper-crusted tenderloin ($38). And besides the expected beef, the restaurant also serves entrees like mahi-mahi and a bison rib-eye, plus grilled salmon and burgers ($12, lunch only).

Reata is best-known for its starters and desserts, and the rodeo version has the tenderloin tamales ($13), elk sausage with cheddar grits ($13) and banana pudding, apple crisp or chocolate tamales for dessert ($7). Open for lunch and dinner beginning Friday — and just for lunch until then — it’s in the Silver Spur Room inside the Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibits Hall; 817-336-5766, reata.net.

Also at the rodeo, Reata operates La Espuela, the Tex-Mex restaurant, and the private Backstage Club.

All-night chili

Deep inside the newly refurbished Cattle Barn 2, the Stockman’s Cafe is an all-night food counter for the cowboys, 4-H exhibitors, early risers and late partiers. A simple grill with just a few tables and chairs, it was included in the Cattle Barn 2’s fix-up as part of the new Tower Promenade project.

The cafe’s crowning glory is the Coburn barbecue catering family’s cattle barn chili, an old-school bowl of red with plenty of spice — guaranteed to speed any recovery. It’s $5.50 alone or as a Frito pie. Go for the Johnsonville brats, the burgers or a big cattle barn breakfast ($7), and expect to elbow your way to a table alongside ranchers and ranch teenagers.

The Coburns are marking 70 years as the Stock Show’s primary food vendor. Coburn’s barbecue is sold in the Round Up Inn room in the Carter Exhibits Hall, along with Cajun dishes, burgers and Tex-Mex from other vendors.

(And don’t forget: The new Taco Heads is right across Montgomery Street.)

J.R.’s: nice spice

Best dish of the SafeHaven Celebrity Chefs charity dinner Sunday night came from a familiar favorite: J.R.’s Steak & Grill. The Colleyville prime steakhouse served chef Todd Phillips’ venison on cheddar grits.

Jon Bonnell of Bonnell’s served short-rib slices on sweet-potato puree, and both Trio New American Cafe in Colleyville and Nonna Tata in Fort Worth impressed with chocolate desserts. (Valrhona chocolate s’mores, anyone?)

The Celebrity Chefs event is a special benefit to serve children needing help from the SafeHaven women’s and children’s shelter. It sells out every year, so get on next year’s list: mid-citiessos.org/celebritychefs.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 8:27 AM with the headline "Eats Beat: From cowboy cuisine to all-night chili."