Reata Aiming to Lasso Cowboy-Food Lovers With Big Appetites

If you’re planning to open a cowboy restaurant in Los Angeles, I guess the lure of a Rodeo Drive address is irresistible. And to Texans accustomed to wide open spaces, a 350-seat place in the Rodeo Collection might have seemed, well, petite.

Reata, which is Spanish for “rope,” features not one, but two full bars and a winsome hostess wearing a microphone headset to help wrangle the hoped-for crowds. Paintings of western scenes “after Frederic Remington” decorate the walls, along with moody cowboy portraits, and old leather and fur chaps framed as fine art.

Visitors can sprawl in rangy leather armchairs, or climb on one of the tall bar stools. Those vintage saddles are tempting, but somehow I don’t think we’re meant to ride ‘em. Every once in awhile a tall, striking figure in outsize black cowboy hat and long black coat strolls through, counting heads.

Executive chef and partner Grady Spears was discovered at a little place in Alpine, Texas, where he cooked up the kind of rustic campfire food he used to make in his cowboy days. City folk were captivated, and investors appeared to help him open a bigger restaurant in San Antonio, and now this.

Leafing through his handsome cookbook, “Cowboy in the Kitchen: Recipes From Reata and Texas West of the Pecos,” in the cowboy-themed gift shop (cowboy love-poetry, anyone?), I find some recipes that sound tasty. There’s his sourdough biscuits for one (scone-sized and laced with pecans). His stacked enchilada of quail, tortillas, cheese and salsa verde harks back to childhood tortilla pies. But what am I or anybody to make of falling-off-the-bone tender wild boar ribs rubbed with an apricot glaze and presented in a peanut dipping sauce? While peanut butter may have been a staple of cowboy pantries for all I know, this is a weird combination. Next time, I’ll get the calf fries, a.k.a. Rocky Mountain oysters. Now that’s a new one on Beverly Hills.

Plates are hugely oversized. My cowboy Porterhouse weighs in at 24 ounces and is topped with a mess of smoky red sauce and melted cheese. Ordered rare, it comes medium rare (though our waiter did offer to exchange it); the meat just isn’t very flavorful in itself and beans are severely over-salted.

Chicken fried steak looks like a geological formation with a lake of “gravy” the consistency of wallpaper paste in the middle. The Vaquero sampler seems to hold one of just about everything on the menu.

It’s hard to believe anybody in Beverly Hills could ever be this hungry. Or, even so, that you could round up 350 of them.

BE THERE

Reata, 421 N. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills; (310) 550-8700. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Appetizers $4 to $10; lunch items $8 to $10; main courses $15 to $38. Full bar (two). Valet parking. Gift shop.