Acclaimed restaurateur Ben Berg has once again blessed Houstonians with his heralded pop-up The Ranch Saloon + Steakhouse, bestowing Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo attendees an on-site fine dining experience unlike any other. What’s fun about the restaurant’s immersive decor is that it’s personal to its proprietor.
Berg Hospitality shares an extensive history with award-winning interior designer Gail McCleese of Sensitori, but The Ranch is the one spot that Berg handles all by his lonesome — in the span of just five weeks. Planning begins in July because, as Berg tells CultureMap: “The rodeo is not going to wait for us.”
The pure, unadulterated gusto that Berg brings to his restaurants — a group that includes B&B Butchers, Annabelle Brasserie, Buttermilk Baby, and Turner’s Cut — makes it somewhat difficult to remember that he is a New York native. His Wagyu-Excelente beef comes straight from Gearhart Ranch in West Texas, which inspired the interior for his rodeo pop-up.
“Once you enter there, you’re supposed to enter a different world,” Berg says. The multitude of dimly-lit chandeliers are not just for looks: “The original idea was twilight, just like at the ranch,” he adds. “Everything we do, we want to take you out of feeling like you’re at NRG Park.”
Berg chose to drape, quite literally, the walls of “The Ranch” in fabric printed with scenic photos taken from his personal experiences at Gearhart Ranch: “Those are real cowboys out there,” says Berg. “I did the ‘round-up’ with the whole cowboys and everything. All the cowboys, all that stuff — that’s all from the ranch.” For added authenticity, the bandanas are all “stuff we picked out,” as well.
For a dash of added fun, popular Texas (and native Houstonian) artist Laura Goodson collaborated with Berg on a collection of her ongoing series of cowboys, cowgirls, and bandits. Starting with 93 pieces of original works — the largest collection of her work ever shown — spanning paintings, sculpture, and her newly-created neon collection, a dining experience at “The Ranch” is very much like dining in an art gallery. Goodson doesn’t have prints made of anything, so all of her works are true originals — 10 of which sold opening night.
“The Ranch is nothing short of amazing,” says Goodson. “Ben puts on a good show every night — it’s almost unavoidable. I love watching the shock on impact; it’s on another level.”
Goodson has also found herself taking numerous commissions from patrons who want to see themselves reflected in her contemporary, monochromatic, western artworks. A self-proclaimed “masterful improviser,” Goodson makes it easy to see how diners walk away with works that start at $300, but can easily end at $3,600.
If your party indulges in pre-dinner drinks from one of Berg’s now famous “margarita trees” beneath a Goodson original, you have to take it home, right? At that point, it’s a friend! With a Goodson original practically at every table, a party of four becomes five—Hey, Cowboy!
Later this month, many rodeo-folk will find themselves taking the short jog to Round Top, Texas, for the spring antiques show. Goodson recently set up shop in her eponymous art gallery on Henkel Square, next to the enormously popular Italian restaurant Lulu’s.
Just across the park from Goodson’s new Henkel Square gallery in Round Top is renowned purveyor of luxury vintage attire Modern Marla. Berg tapped proprietor Marla Hurley to outfit the very Instagram-friendly photo room at The Ranch with aesthetically-pleasing vintage decor and accoutrements extremely fitting to a Texas ranch — complete with a tobacco-brown Chesterfield sofa. If the ever-so-popular #theranchatrodeo Instagram is anything to go off of, the move has proven to be a success. If you don’t have a photo in the booth or a Goodson original on your Instagram story, did you even go?
On Thursday, March 13, The Ranch will host a live painting by Goodson that’s so enormous it requires scaffolding. If OpenTable has any of Berg’s 250 seats available, it’s a do-not-miss component of a visit to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Otherwise, there is a 200 person walk-up bar available for those willing to wait. Good luck!
