Dallas wowboys
Clare Fitzsimons explores the super-sized state of Texas
Texas is best known for cowboys, westerns, Stetsons, the iconic TV soap Dallas and super-sized steaks. And while it has all of those things in abundance, there’s another side to the Lone Star State, too. Just loosen your belt buckle before you go...
Small-town charm
Chocolate-box houses, white picket fences, people who wave and smile in the street, whole towns supporting the local school sports teams. When most of us picture small-town America, it’s this idyllic vision – so often seen in TV and films – we imagine. But then we visit and somehow seem to end up in the big cities, New York, LA, San Francisco, wondering if that real America is actually out there.
Finally I have my answer, it exists, in one corner of Texas at least.
Grapevine, just outside Dallas, even has the perfect sounding name. And no wonder as it’s a place that celebrates all things wine (Texan wine obviously).
Sadly we’d just missed the wine festival Grapefest, but there was still time for a tipple or five at the Messina Hof winery, one of several along the main street.
Thankfully I’d lined my stomach with what must be the biggest sandwich I’ve ever eaten (more on Texan portion sizes later) from Weinberger’s Deli.
OK, technically Grapevine is a city but it feels like a town and is a charming mix of old and new – as they call themselves “Vintage Texas”.
At one end of town sits the historic railroad. Forget mod cons and high speed travel, why would you want that when you can have an old-fashioned train with coaches from the 1920s, complete with original features and staff in full Wild West outfits and regalia as you chug your way towards Fort Worth’s Stockyards area.
Embrace your inner cowboy/girl
The Stockyards area is full-on cowboy country, known as Cowtown. You can find a long-horn cattle drive through
the street and a queue of cowboys riding horses at the traffic lights.
Stetsons and cowboy boots abound and dozens of shops to buy your own – though beware, they’re not cheap!
Once you’re fully kitted out there’s only one place to head… the rodeo.
While not for the faint-hearted, especially watching the bull riding and barrel racing (haring round oil barrels on horseback), it’s an undeniably Texan event complete with lasso tricks, horse choreography and lots of dicing with death.
There are plenty of bars and restaurants to relax in but follow the crowds and they’re all heading in one direction Billy Bob’s Honky Tonk.
This is everything you could ever want from a Texan night out. Big name country singer on the main stage, tick. Rodeo bulls to pose on, barbecue food and beer, tick.
And for those who prefer to take part, the dance area is packed with people doing line dancing or the two-step – throwing people around like they’re doing a very energetic jive. Word to the wise, it’s rather intimidating to join in.
City slickers and culture
If that’s all sounding a bit, well, cowboy for your tastes, you can have a sophisticated night out.
Both Dallas and Fort Worth or, as everyone there refers to them, The DFW, have a healthy nightlife scene, and after landing with a dose of jet lag, taking in the view from the open-air rooftop bar – complete with pool – at my historic Dallas hotel, The Statler, was a great way to acclimatise.
Perhaps the thing Dallas is most famous for is the assassination of President John F Kennedy and The Sixth Floor Museum takes you through that fateful day. You can see the famous grassy knoll, the route the motorcade took, and where killer Lee Harvey Oswald took his shot.
Fort Worth has its fair share of culture too with artwork scattered across the city, including a giant silver cowboy hat for the obligatory snapshot and the huge concrete waterfalls of Water Gardens.
There are art galleries and museums for every taste, including the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, with dazzling rhinestone covered outfits from rodeo stars to the life story of Annie Oakley – yes, the one who got her gun.
If you want to tie your trip to a big celebration time Grapevine is also the Christmas capital of Texas, while the amazing Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens also have a festive spectacular.
But I visited just before Halloween where the Arboretum’s pumpkin
festival was a sight to behold with entire houses made from them.
Plus I had a little trick or treat memory to bring home after trying my hand at glassblowing (or helping at Vetro in Grapevine at least) to make a bright orange pumpkin.
Typically Texan
There’s a real sense of Texan pride too, and nowhere is this more obvious than at the State Fair of Texas, part funfair, part food and drink festival, part craft show and with a mini zoo, complete with bison, camels and zebra.
Standing front and centre is Big Tex, a 55ft statue of a cowboy. Head into one of the tents and there’s another statue, this time made entirely from butter.
He wasn’t on the menu but we might have saved a few calories compared to the fare on offer as the food theme this year was deep fried. From deep-fried candy pecan bacon bread pudding to deep-fried surf and turf empanadas, Rodeo donut cheeseburger – that’s a cheeseburger with a doughnut top and bottom instead of a bun – and deep-fried sushi.
I settled for my first ever taste of an American staple, the corn dog. A hotdog dipped in cornmeal batter and (you guessed it) deep fried. Tasty but I think I’ll stick with a normal one in future.
Food and drink
– barbecue – and it’s a serious business. It’s also a seriously messy business, something the entire kitchen roll on each table at Terry Black’s Barbecue should have tipped me off to. Forget the knives and forks, this is about gnawing.
In Texas, the beef brisket is king, but other options include a whole beef rib (indescribably huge) and I opted for pork ribs (about 15 times bigger than the ones from your local takeaway).
And there we get back to those portion sizes because everything in Texas is bigger. Much, much bigger.
There are the usual enormous steaks, but you can get something different too. At Reata in Fort Worth, the frankly gigantic buffalo steak I ordered could have fed at least two people but was delicious.
My checklist of typically American staples was added to with the fried green tomatoes at Provender Hall in the Stockyards and the chicken fried steak (steak deep fried – yes, that again – in fried chicken batter and smothered in white gravy) at the Texas Star Dinner Theatre murder-mystery show in Grapevine. Where you get Tex food everywhere, there’s almost as much Mex, too. And it’s not just your average burrito. The deepfried
Standing front and centre is Big Tex, a 55ft statue of a cowboy
cactus (anyone sensing a theme?) at Don Artemio in Fort Worth was delicious, as was their deconstructed Tres Leches cake.
Meanwhile at Beto & Son in Dallas the tacos were to die for and you get some added theatre with made-at-the-table guacamole and a round of liquid nitrogen margaritas also created tableside.
All in all, Texas gives you everything you could want, fabulous ( fried) food, friendly folk (and yes, they do say “Y’all”), cowboys, wonderful wine and more margaritas than you can shake a tequila worm at.
Yee-haw to that...