Texas Magazine

Dec 2012

DFW Special Edition

4 8 10 16 20

Fort Worth keeps the cattle drive cowboy alive twice a day all year long.

An outdoor picnic space in the middle of Fort Worth.

Editor’s Note It’s not every day we get to focus on one location, but that is just what we wanted to do for this issue. All too often, as publications we take a cursory look at the locations that peak our interest. For this edition we wanted to stop in on one town packed to the brim both with what makes Texas so special as well as enough history to get lost in.

The Dallas area has always maintained a distinct identity, with Fort Worth living in shadow. We took a deeper look at the historic cowtown but with what we hope are some surprises thrown into the mix for you. In the last few years Fort Worth has seen an upsurge of small businesses booming in a town rich with history, art and culture; but also stuffed full of college students and everything a college town brings along with it.

So from all of us at Texas magazine we hope you enjoy our little adventure through the backyard of Horned Frog territory as much as we did.

Thanks to … to my editorial board: Terry Eiler, Erica Yoon, Heather Rousseau, Will Parson, Taehoon Kim, Abby Fisher, Claire Harbage, Kate Munsch, and Megan Westervelt.

1 - Texas Magazine - December 2012

What does the Texas belt buckle mean to the Lone Star State?

Great flavors living in the largest restaurant space in Texas.

A rhinestone rodeo like you’ve never seen one (if you even have).

Cowtown Cattle Drive Keeping the spirit of 19th century cowboy alive Photos and Story by Michael Bou-Nacklie

M

ost of Fort Worth is still asleep, dim sunlight from outside is still barely visible but as hay is piled into the feedbags the stockyards are coming to life. It’s 6 a.m., one cowboy stands in a stall and preps for the day ahead, pulling on leather work boots complete with spurs, tieing a blue kerchief around his neck. A cool October breeze blows through the barn, a drover stops to enjoy the breeze and smiles “today’s going to be a good day.”

The horses are being prepped by a drover, a person hired to run a cattle drive, Tim Gray from Minnesota. A horse rancher for several years he is the first at the stables that morning. Before anything can happen the horses in their late teens have to be warmed up in corrals across the street from the stables.

Drovers work in turns having their horses run around in a circular corral to the get them ready for their long day.

The Stockyards in Fort Worth is the only place in the world that still holds cattle drive twice a day. Employed by the city, several cowboys from around the country work to warm up horses and cattle as part of the draw to the historic cowtown of Fort Worth. Before it’s more established modernity Fort Worth was once one of the main cattle trails across the south in the 1860’s. Cowboys would ride into what was then a meager town grown out of an army encampment/fort. Stocking up on provisions from local stores or visiting the variety of saloons (some of which still stand) before riding northward with their herds.

Tourists from across the country and the world come for the cobble stone thunder of 18 longhorn steers marching down the old town swaying their imposing horns under the guidance of a handful of drovers. Sporting a white handlebar moustache and bearing a striking resemblance to Sam Elliot in The Big Lebowski, David Mangold from Evansville, Indiana, came to Texas originally, “doing what all men do….chasing a woman,” he said with

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Ed Murphy adjusts his leather wrist cuffs early one morning as Tim Gray walks out to mount a saddle on his horse for the day.

Cowntown Cattle Drive - 4

“...that steer could swing his head and … take that kid’s head off”

The cattle drive team ushers down the 15 Longhorn as part of the mid afternoon drive with Texas police officers escorting the drovers.

A fully grown male Longhorn stands in a pen facing a “little” calf weighing in at 513 lbs.

a sheepish grin peeking out underneath his thick moustache.

One day he got a call from the head of the Fort Worth Herd asking if he would be interested in sticking around town a little longer. That was 8 years ago.

His quiet demure fits the bill of the persona he portrays, not so much as an act but more so from what years of raising livestock and herding cattle will do to a person, making them patient and observant.

He chats to tourists, leaning down on the horn of his saddle talking about the countryside of Kansas with the same ease as he does with the next group of Italian = trying their best to make sense of his accent.

He nudges his horse and rides up the thick, uneven cobble stone road. Stopping about half way, he reaches into his vest pocket and pulls out an old watch tied to the fourth button and checks the time. “It’s 11:40 time to go get this thing started.”

His thick fingers with blonde hairs reach for the whip on his saddle. A mean-looking leather thing, quickly unfurling it and letting the end hit the ground. He cracks it quickly.

The snap makes the street full of tourists come to attention. Other drovers have already started leading some of the herd up the street.

With Mangold at the head of the herd slowly leading it up the 300 foot street, a barrage of horns and hoofs stomp their way past professional and amateur photographers complete with children screaming.

A few times a day, several school groups are brought to the stockyards to learn about Fort Worth’s cattle trail history, from the different kinds of ropes and saddles drovers use to the brands common in the area. Students are shown how drovers rope a mock calf made up of iron pipes welded together.

“The idea is to show them the stockyards are more than just a bunch of BBQ restaurants,”

Cowntown Cattle Drive - 6

Ed Murphy, from Chicago Illinois rounds up the final portion of the afternoon cattle drive. The drive runs twice a day every day 365 days a year and is the only place in the world that continues this tradition.

said Drover Ricardo Gonzalez from New Mexico, the youngest of the drovers at age 24.

The Fort Worth Herd consists of 18 different steers of all colors and sizes. Early in the morning drovers clean the cattles enclosures filling them with fresh hay and sweeping the ground.

The new arrival to the herd is a “little calf ” chuckles Gray.

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“He’s huge for his age, he was 513 pounds when, they weaned him a couple of weeks ago, so he’s going to be a big guy. We have another calf over in the petting zoo that was bought at a sale, because its mother wasn’t taking care of him. The two of them are the same age and this one is three times bigger.”

Despite their calm demeanor, Gray warns Longhorns are not as domesticated as

many people think.

“You have to be careful. They’re not tame and that’s the misconception a lot of people have when they want to pet ‘em. They’ll put their little child close ‘em to take a picture.

When that steer could just swing his head and….take that kids head off.”

Unique to the U.S., originally imported from Spain in 1493, they ran wild and bred

with existing cattle that was already present in the Americas.

“If you look at what they have now in Spain they don’t have anything that looks like this,” Gray said.

“My theory is they brought the fighting bull type cattle that had a smaller horn which was the parent of these guys way back 500 years ago. There’s nothing like them, they’re

very unique. Also the cattle that came from Spain at that time, the corintes - is a small horned cattle – very similar to what they rope in the rodeos, that’s probably what they looked like back then, a smaller version of this.”

At 5 p.m. after the second cattle drive the drovers return to the 100-year-old stables.

In front of his horse, Gonzalez walks without a lead, hands in his pockets as his horse follows

like an obedient puppy. His head bobbing in the same intervals as Gonzalez’s, shoulders sway from side to side both visibly tired from their early day start.

Mangold undoes the saddle on his horse and brushes its coat softly, “If you ask me, this is the best job in the world, you meet interesting people, you work outdoors and it’s enjoyable, wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Cowntown Cattle Drive - 8

Food With A View

L unch

on the go in

DFW Tucked away in an industrial area of Fort Worth, with furniture warehouses and

mechanics surrounding the area, the last place you would expect to find would be a family friendly dining space.

With a menu that changes everyday, this isn’t your average lunch time picnic.

Photos and Story by Michael Bou-Nacklie

After working for 12 years as a chef in various restaurants, Russ Davis wanted his own business but a brick and mortar business would be cost prohibitive. Instead, he created The Drifting Bistro where he sets the menu and cooks whatever he feels like cooking. “The biggest part is the prep the day before, it can take up to eight hours.”

Stocked with up to few thousand cupcakes and other sweets the Red Jett Sweets truck caters to your sweet tooth.

Started by Christina Jett and Natalie Gomez, it was one of the first food trucks in the Fort Worth area. Everything is baked fresh and not refrigerated “because the cold can change the texture of the flavor,” Jett said.

Growing up around Japanese food in Denver, Col. Scott Kaiser always wanted to become a Japanese chef. Several years later - he married his wife Brandi, who is now his business partner in the Bento Box food truck. Everyday they prepare and serve fresh sushi, with a blend of traditional recipies along with some of Scott’s own creations.

Very few food trucks are extensions of a family business. Run by Brett Chandler, the Fred’s food truck is an extension of the famous chain. Started by his grandparents, Fred’s is a staple of the Fort Worth scene serving gourmet cowboy-cooking “We like to do simple things that people haven’t had before,” Chandler said.

Buckle - Up

Photos and Story by Michael Bou-Nacklie

Few things in Texas have as much meaning as what the rest of the world uses to hold up their pants.

The Texas belt buckle is one of the Long Star State’s most prized posessions. They are handed down from father to son, they are trophies, gifts, and keepsakes for generations. Looking for a buckle? Prices range from a fistfull of dollars to several thousand. Here are two distinct designers who embody the artisanal and the traditional style of Texas traditions.

The Designer: Nick Cunningham Working out of a trailer on the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas. Cunningham used to live in a home with stables with a full workshop at his disposal but a recent divorce has changed his situation quite a bit.

“I’m fine with the way things are now, things happen for a reason,” he said with a smile. “This trailer belongs to the son of one of my clients and theyre incredibly gracious.”

Wearing a leather apron with ‘Trickynick’ written on the breast pocket, a blue bandana wrapped around his head you get the feeling he’s not one to be messed around with. He sees himself as an artists who’s been incredible fortunate with clients ranging from the Bush family to baseball players. “Im the poorest man you’ll ever meet who has an agent,” Cunningham jokes while sitting at his work bench.

In the past his work has revolved around belt buckles, both for private use as well as rodeo buckles but he said he wants to steer away from that.

“I’ve been making buckles for so long I prefer to try different things. My father was a silversmith as well and I learnt everything I know from him.

When I was younger he would make pistol grips, cuffs, etc and I would put the details on them. That’s where all this started.”

His latest project is a Buffalo dollar coin which when it is done will be an anniversary present for some long time friends of his. While never sticking to a specific plan he says he prefers to have the whole process happen more organically and come “from wherever creativity comes from.

Working mostly with things he finds in salvage yards, Cunningham enjoys the unknown quantity of every project he undertakes. The part that I enjoy the most is just thinking about what this thing could become. “if you wanted to blame anyone it would be him,” Cunningham said with a chuckle.

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Buckle - Up - 12

The Designer: Clint Orms Located outside Austin, Clint Orms workshop sits in a quiet small town. Set up in a cul de sac of craftsman stores it looks like something out of a Lone Ranger, complete with a hitching post outside.

Orms pulls up in his Ford pick up with a large trailer hitched to the back. Fresh from an exhibit in New York Orms is bringing the Texas belt buckle to a world outside the southern states of the U.S. “I didn’t want to make just a belt buckle, it’s something that I really think needs to be staying alive. From the Western heritage to the values, it’s something we can all relate to and I think it touches everyone up to Wall-Street.”

Starting at 12-years-old, he was polishing his fathers brass belt buckles, by 13 he was tooling leather and by 16 he has making and selling silver and turquoise jewelry. He has been doing this for a long time.

His operation comprises of a large workspace with several designers on board but he works with the notion that every day in the shop is the super bowl. “We want to make things people will enjoy, not just something to wear,” Orms said. "I don’t know where else you could work, coming in every day not thinking its the super bowl everyday. “ The evidence of that comes through when buyers from as close as the Beretta family, to gun manufacturers in Belgium appreciate belt buckles as something with value and heritage. “I really like the thought of someone picking something up that morning and it’s a positive affirmation for them. It’s got to be when they touch it and strap it on, it kind of feels like a gun belt – laughs – it’s a tool, something that makes them want to do something better that day.“

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Buckle - Up - 14

Los Vaqueros Fine Cowboy dining right in your backyard Photos and Story by Michael Bou-Nacklie

M

y mother-in-law told me once, ‘be careful it gets in your blood and then nothing else is fun’.

Thirty years later I’ll tell you it’s true,” said Vicki Cisneros, part owner and co-manager of Los Vaqueros restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas.

Sitting at the top of the hill of the downward sloping road that is the Fort Worth Stockyards, the restaurant is an imposing structure.

At 33,000 sq ft, it is the largest restaurant space in the state it’s history equally as impressive.

Originally a meat packing plant after its construction in 1915, it went through several transformations before its reincarnation as a family dining experience.

It’s early Spring down in Cowtown so the weather has cooled from the balmy 90 degree summer days. Cisneros leads me into one of the unused dining halls, high ceilings and tall windows frame the room. White linens cover every table as upside down glasses and rolled up cutlery sits waiting for their next event. Nearby an open window blows in a cool breeze, the linens gently sway while glasses hum ever so quietly as the air rushes past them.

The road to transformation was faced with a daunting challenge when Los Vaqueros was looking to expand into its new facility.

“The place was a complete ruin, it was pretty much on the schedule to be demolished, and they didn’t demolish it because it was on the national registry of historical places.”

After convincing several banks to loan them the money they got to work on restoring the location. “We put a lot of work into it, (our daughters) tucked the brick, they painted these floors. I mean really, it was a labor of love. The mural out front that’s written in Latin, reads a ‘family united in love and patience,’ that’s supposedly our family motto,” Cisneros said.

A bride sips a Miller Lite beer at the bar with her father, just before her reception starts in the large garden located at the back of the restaurant.

An elderly man walks by with a guitar accompanied by fiddler and another guitarist.

Customers flag him down.

“It’s my daughters birthday,” while 15 - Texas Magazine - December 2012

Dinner and a show - every day there are musicians playing favorites for customers be it a birthday or just some classic country tunes.

another tucks a 10 dollar bill into the trubadors hand, “its our wedding anniversary can you sing something for us?” The whole place has a very familiar and yet new feeling, kind of like a warm blanket on a crisp night.

“There’s been a big push for customer intimacy from the National Restaurant Association and the Texas Restaurant

Association, they’re pushing things we’ve done things our whole lives,” Cisneros said.

“I have one little couple they’re in their 90’s.

They come once every week and when they don’t call and make their reservation, I am on that phone asking ‘are you guys okay? Is miss Billy okay?’ ‘Oh yeah she’s just a little under the weather tonight,’” we are seriously involved

with our customers.

Cisneros insists that Tex-Mex isn’t a mere compilation of dishes, but instead a true cuisine with unique differences with how things are made and prepared.

“Tex-Mex is truly based on a complimented conversion of two cultures, the cowboys and the vaqueros – one cowboy and

one vaquero,” she said. “With everything from the sauces in chimichaungas to Pico de Gallo which is the onions and the tomatoes you get a little bit of the true indigenous Mexican flavors.”

The food itself varies from region to region according to Cisneros, with each having different influences.

“Its different than interior Mexican food.

Its different than Santa Fe. Santa fe has its own New Mexico Mexican food. Then you have Mexican food in California that’s different.”

Each of these differences comes from the influences of the people who settled in those areas according to Cisneros.

“These are all spread into the US from Los Vaqueros - 16

(Below) Cook , Marlin Guzman from Fort Worth, furiously lays out several dozen tamales as the dinner time rush settles in at Los Vaqueros.

“There isn’t a time that this place isn’t buzzing with people, it’s been like this for the 15 years I’ve been here,” Guzman said. (Right) Los Vaqueros as seen at night through a prolonged exposure.

(Below) A bride to be sips a beer at the bar, just before walking down the aisle held in the outdoor garden just outside.

people who came from Mexico or people who came from Spain and depending on where they cross the border into Texas. Be it California, be it New Mexico, it makes a difference. If you go to California and order Chili Con Carne you’re not going to get it, they do some different stuff with sauces.”

She recalls when they first opened, the great grandson of Dominic Hart, owner of the building when it was a meat packing plant, came up to her and was insistent on telling her about what his great grandfather had wanted to do with the location.

Competing meat packing company Swifton Armory wanted to buy the location as well, however Hart would not sell on the premise

that the SA owners were from Chicago and the Hart’s were from Fort Worth.

That same kind of pride can be seen in the everday working of Los Vaqueros, from the hustle and bustle of the kitchen with Vicki and her husband John involved in every part of the process from cooking to talking to customers.

“You know frankly, Los Vaqueros is different things to different people, I guess you might say that. To me it’s a feeling, it’s a way of life, its what we’ve done for 30 years.”

“[It is] different things to different people. To me it’s a feeling, it’s a way of life.”

Los Vaqueros - 18

Brokeback Buckaroos Fort Worth plays host to a less conventional rodeo

Photos and Story by Michael Bou-Nacklie

The Will Rogers Memorial is a place of

the oldest cow towns in Texas.

tradition. It’s a baseball arena, a horse stable and

“We’ve never really encountered the ‘not

a large stadium. As you push open the double

in my backyard’ attitude from locals at least

doors past the stables it feels just like any other

not in Fort Worth,” said Gary Edlun, President

rodeo location across the Lone Star State.

of the Texas Gay Rodeo Association. Originally

Contestants stand around in leather chaps and

conceived as a fundraiser for muscular dystrophy,

black flak vests talking about their expectations

the WGRA was created in 1985 and now spans

of the day while holding cans of Bud Light.

25 associations across the U.S.

One cowboy sits in a stadium seat with his

Open to everyone, the WRGA events are

elbows on his knees as he prays just before going

non-discriminatory, “I have a 27-year-old son

into the chute packed with an angry bull.

who is straight and competes in the gay rodeo

Slowly you begin to realize that it’s not country music playing, but Beyonce’s Single Ladies blasting mercilessly over the PA system.

The kerchiefs tied around the necks of some of the contestants are more pink than you’d

with me,” Edlun said.

One thing that sets the IGRA events apart, Edlun said, is that even though the contestants are competing against each other they all look out for one another.

expect and the lack of women isn’t as much an

“If one of us needs something or one of us

oddity as it is expected for a sport normally

gets hurt, everyone of us is there to help that

reserved for men.

person out. We take care of each other,” Edlun

This is the World Gay Rodeo Association (WGRA) Finals and it is in the middle of one of

said.

This is not your grandfathers rodeo.

Brokeback Buckaroos - 20

Alana

Originally from Colorado, she has been

competing in amateur leagues across the country in hopes of becoming a professional steer rider. At the WGRF she placed second in her division. “I love this rodeo, it’s my favorite place to compete, even though I’m straight,” she said. “It’s much more relaxed and they’re less uptight about women competing here, I mean how could they? There’s drag queens afficiating while women work the chutes.”

Trixie

“Trixie is a lady, and nothing but trouble,

now if you’ll excuse me I have to go jump on a

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steer,” she said while stroking her beard and heading

illor mi, corerferunt over to the Wild Drag Event. Iteni is oneomnieni of the events musdanis quae volorum as unique to the gay rodeo league whereaut threeanmen ducidem endis idqueen minulpa have to tackle a steer,elicti get a drag to ride on voloratiis adi cum iscimus pos the back across a line and then tie a tasslesin on the tail molores aut late re of steer to sendit, win. By no means an easymolut feat, let alone nessedwhileminciaturem sporting a 5 foot highutatquam, peacock crown. cum aut ipienes trumqui volo te ea a aspicium solupta quissint velentia seruptatus dolor sim facienis apicaesse verum sequatem fugitaquunt.

Umquia nonsequo quiditio cuscim doluptio. Itatume pro ex eserovi Brokeback Buckaroos - 22

Taylor

“I’ve been jumping on bulls for as long

as I can remember,” he said while fiddling with his cowboy boots. Taylor competes across the country but originally comes from Las Vegas. “This rodeo was one of the places I’d come when I first came out to feel safe and among friends. I think a lot of people used it the same way over the last 20 years, you know, when being gay was a little less accepted.”

Lee

From Pasadena, Texas was named

Mr. Texas Gay Rodeo Association 2013.

“I’m one day old,” he said laughing about his new title being only a day old. The WGRA is made up of 25 associations from around the country, said Lee. “Like anything this event is a gathering, for a lot of people. It’s one of the few times they can be amongst the LGBT community. We don’t want people to think we limit it to people like us, there are a handful of straight people who compete as well and we don’t care; come here ,win some money, compete with the best, have fun, thats what this whole thing is about.”

23 - Texas Magazine - December 2012

Brokeback Buckaroos - 24

Sable

First got involved in the Nevada

Gay Rodeo Association 8 years ago when a friend brought him on as a score keeper.

Now crowned as the Miss International Gay Rodeo Association, he is just as in love with the organization as he was then.

“It feels like you have an extended family, an unconditional acceptance. It’s family, friends, life, humanity, the thing we all crave.

You just have to be willing to walk through the door to get there.” he said.

Jake & Mikey

“It was a

whirlwind romance, I first saw him at a restaurant with some friends and he was just too cute, so I butt into whatever boring conversation he was having,” Jake said. Mikey chimes in “it was a bar and he was way too drunk, but he had enough of a smile I wanted to chat to him a little longer.”

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Cowntown Cattle Drive - 26