In my highly professional and totally expert opinion, no matter how fatty or juicy or upscale a hamburger is, it’s still only good for sopping up one or two drinks. Your constitution might be such that a burger or other equivalent booze sponge is good for five or six beers, but mine is not, especially when said beers are 7 percent alcohol by volume. Thinking a big fatty meal will keep drunkenness at bay is (barely) acceptable logic at two in the morning, because after you’ve shoveled a chicken-fried steak in your face, you’re probably just an hour away from conking out at home. At two in the afternoon, however, using lunch to pad your body alcohol content isn’t such a great idea, because you probably still have stuff to do.
Or at least I did on Monday, when I hit the West 7th Street corridor to check out Rodeo Goat. I figured I’d go have a pint, give the place a once-over, and get a sandwich to eat at home before digging into a stack of freelance work. I got a pint of Revolver Blood and Honey, figuring I could eat a sandwich at home any time (like at 2:30 a.m., for example). By the time I’d put in an order for the Oh Whitney burger and a side of fries, I’d just about finished my beer, so I thought, “What the hell” and ordered a Peticolas Velvet Hammer.
I waited patiently for my meal, gazing at the Goat’s scenery. Overall, it’s tastefully spare: a lot of exposed concrete that lends itself to the establishment’s icehouse aspirations — the grill is out in the open, situated near the bar, separated from the rest of the place by a rack of kegs. The room is big, divided into a side with tall four-to-six-seaters and another populated by more traditional restaurant furnishings, i.e. booths and checkered tablecloths. I sat at the bar, vaguely L-shaped and built from Plexiglas-topped unfinished plywood affixed to black-painted steel-diamond plate. Above the taps is the taxidermied mascot, Billy Goat Shaver, forever kicking its hind legs in the air and wearing a Santa hat.
My burger, topped with an “exotic mushroom blend,” marinated onions, cucumbers, sriracha mayo, and melted gruyere, was awesome. I didn’t mean to wolf it down, but I was mostly done with my second beer, and that’s precisely what happened. General manager Landon Amis, whom I know from when he managed The Flying Saucer, came by to see how I liked my burger. It was half-gone by then, and in between handfuls of fries I told him I thought it was pretty good. “Yeah,” he said. “We set out to be a kickass icehouse that also has good burgers, but it’s kind of turned into a kickass burger place that has some really good beers.”
Amis isn’t far off. I spotted Lakewood Temptress and Rahr’s Winter Warmer on tap, plus a ton of craft bottles in the cooler. As for the eats, they make for a solid roster of creative (if a little pricey) burgers plus appetizers like cheese fries and Frito pie. I would’ve gone for the Caca Oaxaca burger, but I thought eating a big slab of beef with chorizo ground in and topped with a fried egg would’ve made me tired. Maybe the heavier, fattier choice would’ve been a better decision, seeing as how I ordered a third beer (another Blood and Honey). By the time I got home, those pints had caught up with the burger’s caloric onslaught, and I didn’t get anything done besides walking down the street to another bar. –– Steve Steward
[box_info]
Rodeo Goat
2836 Bledsoe Av, FW. 817-877-4628.
Contact Last Call at lastcall@fwweekly.com.
[/box_info]
