The best ideas happen when you least expect it
Photography by Kathy Tran
Photography by Kathy Tran
Photography by Kathy Tran
Photography by Kathy Tran
Three years ago, brothers Ian and Eric Fletcher were taking on the brunt of the summertime heat in the pool. As all Texas summers suggest, a beer was needed. Their father grabbed one and handed it over to Ian.
“Sorry, it’s not cold,” he said. “It’s rodeo cold.”
Rodeo cold? The brothers had never heard the phrase. The beer had been in the freezer, but now the ice had melted and the beverage was somewhere on its way to being room temperature.
Rodeo cold.
“My brother said that’d be the name of our next concept,” Eric says.
That cool breeze you feel on Ross Avenue? Well, it’s Rodeo Cold. The 1980s Texas-themed backyard bar, launched by Ian, Eric and Robert Drummond, has already started rounding up regulars despite only having its soft opening back in December.
The feeling of a neighborhood bar is something their team was eager to capture, especially since they were taking major inspiration from Ian and Eric’s dad, Stan Fletcher.
“My dad started off at the original Chili’s as a bartender in 1978. The original Chili’s on Greenville Avenue was a neighborhood bar,” Eric says. “We wanted to have kind of an ode to him and Chili’s.”
On Wednesdays, you can find a team setting up microphones in the bar for a weekly event they call “Showtime at the Rodeo,” aka their take on karaoke.
Their karaoke gives you 30 seconds to impress the crowd, whether it be a stunning stage presence or revealing the voice of an angel, before you’re liable to getting an assortment of plushie vegetables playfully thrown at you — the bartenders prefer the term “gently tossed.”
From the deep fried beef balls called Wrangler Danglers, their upcoming summer activity called Chicken Shit Bingo (yes, there will be live chickens) and the Trinity Shiver shot, you’re bound to find something that may pique your interest or at least make you crack a smile.
Their lighthearted and comedic approach to their Texas theme juxtaposes their approach to curating a pleasurable experience for patrons. After all, this isn’t their first rodeo.
“We have Green Light Social. We started in Austin eight years ago,” Eric says. They moved the concept to Dallas in 2022.
Their dad was yet another kind of inspiration when they thought about the level of service they wanted to bring to Ross Avenue.
Photography by Kathy Tran
Photography by Kathy Tran
Photography by Kathy Tran
“I remember going with him in the ’90s to that original Chili’s, and still regulars would recognize him. He was working for corporate at the time, but still people — 15 years later — recognized him, and it always stuck with me.”
The bar feels familiar, like coming into a warm house on a cold day. A warm house that offers free chili after midnight. The decor alone feels as if it’s been there for years, with a cowboy boot, vintage or western decor and string lights nestled into almost every corner your eye can reach.
High tables fill the space in between the bar and booths. The wall is almost entirely covered in hand-picked vintage frames, western photos, LED signs and the occasional animal head.
The space feels lived-in, and the kicker is: the front portion is only one-third of the entire establishment. The team hopes that by the summertime, the outdoor portion of the property can bring the rest of the backyard bar to life with cornhole, life-size beer pong and human foosball soccer.
Ultimately, the trio behind the bar wanted this concept to be an extension of their growth and stage of their lives.
“My brother, myself and my partner, Robert, we can do the nightclub scene. We’re good at it, but we wanted something that, as we get older, we enjoyed going to ourselves, and we’ve always wanted to do a neighborhood bar.”
