This stuff's made in New York City!

One day a few months ago, the Outback that was in a shopping center relatively near us suddenly closed up shop. The renovations for the new tenant began shortly thereafter, and they finished...well, last week, apparently.

So tonight, Jerry and Helen and I went out for dinner... to the Lone Star Texas Grill.

And now I have some inkling of what it is like to see your country's pavilion at Epcot.

All the staff are dressed up in "Texan" outfits -- lots of cowboy shirts, a few people with boots, some poor guy in a bolo tie. They have a triangle they pull out to ring to let everyone in the restaurant know there's someone who's going to attempt their 72 oz. steak (this is apparently a Texan tradition, according to the menu .....I guess it's been around for a while at one restaurant that has "Texan" in the name?). The decor has lots of boots and cowboy hats and stars and longhorns and wagon wheels, as you might expect, as well as a giant light fixture shaped like a horseshoe, which... is relatively unexpected. They describe taquitos as "spring rolls" on the menu, and the queso is listed as "con queso", which...what?

But the most seriously brain-breaking thing there for someone actually from Texas? Especially for someone from Amarillo?

They have an item on the menu called Panhandle Tilapia.