Boot Hill Bar & Grill, Vega Texas

STEVE COLE WRITES: We live in Amarillo (duh, Amarillo Design Bureau, get it?). 45 miles west of here on I40 is a town called Vega. Lots of cowboys, not much else. I knew it well when 18-20 since I was always driving truckloads of lumber there for my dad's construction business (he built about half of the houses in Vega).

A couple of years ago, there was a reality TV show called Popularity Contest shot in Vega. Every week, the town voted which contestant they liked most, and the lowest vote-getter was sent home. A lady chef named Rory came in second, but she fell in love with a cowboy, sold her restaurant back east, moved to Vega, and her new restaurant Boot Hill Bar & Grill opened last week. Rory was later on the reality TV show "next food network star" and again came in second (and again was robbed of her rightful victory). But the show mentioned that her new restaurant would be opening soon.

Leanna got her new Honda minivan yesterday, and we decided to drive over and see this place. We had very nice steaks, and told the waitress to tell Rory we had driven out from Amarillo to see her place, and wanted to meet her "just for a second" since we knew she was busy. We were escorted to (and into!) the kitchen, where Rory thanked us for coming by and apologized she had no time to chat. We told her we had seen both of her TV series and thought she had been robbed, which seemed to make her day.

I think she should be on HELL'S KITCHEN next. She'd be the first chef to stand up to Gordon Ramsay. (He's the famous British chef who demands perfection by yelling at people. We have a saying: "If Hitler could cook, HE would be on television.") Rory is now a true Texan, and she just has to mention to him the percentage of Texans who routinely carry concealed firearms. Blast his bollocks, Rory!