Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill

Fancy, delicately-crafted culinary delights Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill does not make. The beer comes in mason jars and the food is fried. It's pretty straightforward, there are rotating be-sequined saddles instead of disco balls, and our lunch-time conversation included trying to decide whether a neighboring couple were meth or coke addicts. This, of course, just added to the charm because their erractic-ness was just another distraction in the huge, open space, along with the neon lights, the bar with real cowboys sitting at them, and the murals on the walls.

An ideal drinking landscape: a mural of the Eagles' album Hotel California, the American flag, and a neon outline of Oklahoma.

We couldn't decide on the appetizer so we got two: chips and salsa (a fresh pico de gallo) and, well, "fries." This time, calf fries, "a cowboy classic." Of course, a hand-breaded and deep fried classic with spicy, horseradish cocktail sauce.

On the right, sliced, breaded, and fried calf testicles. I'm eating them more frequently than I'm getting Starbucks lattes these days.

One fried item at Toby Keith's certainly wasn't enough, so I ordered up myself some fried catfish, fried okra and cowboy caviar (black eyed peas, simmered with crispy bacon and red onions). Beans, okra, and catfish rank among WalMart, Sonic, and Kansas City BBQ as my favorite things from the Midwest. And what an appropriate atmosphere--the longhorn skull above the door was hung the only appropriate way: upside down.
Mom got a hamburger...with freedom fries. The food wasn't so hot, but we still loved it.