Wine | Down Home Traveler

Steak and Wine. Texas Hill Country. Small, Texas town. Surround yourself with friends, family and great people at this event. This is one that you won’t want to miss and I promise when you go home you’ll say to yourself, I can’t wait to go back next year.

Next Saturday, May 18th, the annual Texas Steak Cookoff in Hico, Texas is taking place. Here is your reminder and a few details about this great event!

Steak Cookoff

This year Nolan Ryan is opening up the event! That’s right – NOLAN RYAN!
Opening Ceremony 12pm
The Mayor, Mike James (Chairman of the Event), National Anthem, visit with the Longhorn and the sponsors (Kroger, Nolan Ryan and the Chairman of Nolan Ryan Meats) will officiate the ribbon cutting.
For $25, you will receive a bracelet which will allow you to enjoy appetizers and the steak dinner in the afternoon (ribeye steak, salad, baked potato and a drink) cooked to your perfection by the team of your choice. You’re belly will thank you for this day!
106 teams competing!
Winners announced at 7pm. Prizes for top five teams ranging from $500 – $2,500.

Live music includes four bands from 10am to 7pm.

Take Part in the Wine Tasting…

$20 Admission
11am – 5pm
Receive a commemorative glass.
Two tents this year includes 13 wineries from the great state of Texas.
Glass / Bottle purchases available.

PBR Rodeo

$20 Admission
Begins at 7:30pm – Will last around three hours.
Cody Ohl, legendary roper from Hico, Texas and one of the highest nationwide earners is assisting in putting on this event.
Will be held in the park area near town (within walking distance from the cookoff and wine tents).
Beer and BBQ will be served.

Need a Place to Stay?
Check out Stephenville and Glen Rose – multiple hotels / lodging options.

Need More Info…
Check out my previous experience. If this doesn’t convince you, I’m not sure what will!
Texas Steak Cookoff 2012
Texas Steak Cookoff 2011
Texas Steak Cookoff 2010

Buy Your Tickets Today
I’ll be there! If you’re headed there, let me know!

Granbury, TX. I’ve written about Granbury in the past (Granbury at Christmas Time and Paradise Bistro and Coffee Shop) . It’s a historic town just outside of Fort Worth. A reasonable distance for a day trip or for a small weekend getaway. The town square surrounds the beautiful, picturesque courthouse. Small shops fill the immediate square but if you look a little further you will find numerous historic landmarks, multiple bed and breakfasts and some really great restaurants. There’s even a drive in movie theatre just down the road for those evenings where you just want to relax.

Do I have a good picture painted in your minds? Well, let’s kick it up a notch.

The wine industry is booming in Texas. It seems like (to me at least) there’s a new winery that I’m hearing about almost every week and wine trail getaways seem to be becoming more and more popular every year. Case in point – the Granbury Wine Walk.

This year, Granbury hosted their annual Wine Walk in the Square. For a $20 admission, each person can attend on Friday and / or Saturday, receive a commemorative wine glass and 15 tasting tickets. Let me be the first to tell you – 15 tasting tickets is plenty. It’s actually quite a bit which is great because it really allows you to spend your time trying a wide array of wines and enjoying everything about the day.

With five locations set up around town, numerous wineries and businesses were found in each “cluster”. The lines moved fairly quickly allowing you to talk to others in line, hear what they like / recommend, peek into the vendor booths and listen to live music within each “cluster”.

(This sausage was so incredibly delicious!)

If you really enjoyed a wine, you had the option of purchasing a glass to take with you – I saw that most were around $5 a glass. If a glass wasn’t enough, you could purchase a bottle. Now I know, who wants to carry around bottles of wine all day?! This is one of my favorite things about this event. If you come across a wine that you must absolutely take home with you, you purchase it at the booth. They provide you with a card / ticket. When you are ready to head home, stop by the wine warehouse that they had set up and provide them with your tickets. They will give you all the wine purchased during the day and off you go! How fantastic is that?! Genius if you ask me!

I also had a chance to check out a few booths and found some great items. Unique, Texas finds are usually on the top of my list.

Sculpted Steel: This was a hand crafted steel guitar. 60 hours went into this and it is absolutely stunning!

I fell in love with this booth. They had a ton of unique wooden items (I bought a flat wooden spatula, because everything tastes better when you make it with a wooden spoon/item!), bright colored decor… I could’ve went on a splurge here.

But the day was all about savoring the wine…

This is a great getaway for a solo trip, couples, groups, girl’s weekends – keep it on your radar for next year. With lodging, dining, shopping and great wine all within walking distance – it’s definitely an event to check out in the future!