Saddle Ranch Chop House

Micah and I discovered this restaurant down the road that we love! And the strangest things happen to us while we are there. Well, we’ve been there twice and weird things happened both times at least. I don’t know what will happen next time, but this place is full of surprises…

Let be back up a minute though. When I say restaurant, I really mean restaurant/bar/club/honky tonk all in one. It’s called the Saddle Ranch Chop House and it’s the weirdest place ever. The first time we walked in there were tons of little kids running around everywhere, mainly hovering around the mechanical bull. Right in front of us was the bar and as we waited for a table, we started to notice college-age kids wearing strange outfits grouping in this area. After a while we realized we were witnessing the start of a golf-themed frat party. To our left there were normal tables, mainly filled with nervous parents going out for one last dinner with their college freshman, as it was ASU move-in weekend. Fine family dining. Micah and I chose to eat out on the patio, where it was more of a date-night scene. Couples in their 20s and 30s. Open fire. Rustic tables. Yet, the waitresses looked a little like Hooters waitress, but more urban cowgirl. Short shorts, ripped shirts, boots. Weirdest place ever.

However, we love it! Not only was our food delicious, but they start out every meal with free mini biscuits and mini cornbread muffins with HONEY CINNAMON BUTTER. Seriously, it’s the best appetizer I have ever had. Many of you know about my passion for biscuits. During our meal the manager stopped by our table just to check in. Micah asked him a few questions about the business, and before we knew it the guy was giving us free dessert for no reason. We spent our one month anniversary date sitting by the outdoor fire toasting marshmallows and making s’mores for free.

Our second visit was on a Monday night. I have a night class on Mondays, so I don’t get home until 8pm. Clearly, Micah and I don’t like to eat dinner together that late, so we have instated DESSERT MONDAY. Since we both just do dinner on our own, we go out and try a new dessert place every Monday when I get out of class. It’s amazing. Well, one Monday the two places we tried to go to happened to be closed – very inconvenient… don’t they know about Dessert Monday? We were right next to Saddle Ranch, so we decided to go there again and try their skillet cookie, which was our 2nd choice on our free dessert night. The place was pretty much dead on a Monday, a couple of families, no small children or intoxicated golfers. While we were waiting for our dessert, however, a guy came up to us and begged us to ride the bull. Apparently, this was the guy in charge of bull riding and he hadn’t given a single ride all night. He was bored out of his mind. It was supposed to be $3 per ride, but when he saw we weren’t that interested, he basically forced us to ride it for free. Can’t pass up some free entertainment to go with Dessert Monday, so we signed our lives away on the waiver and rode the bull. I begged him to go easy on me, due to my only other bullriding experience in high school, where I felt like my wrist was broken by the end. He didn’t toss me off, but the bull made a weird girating movement at the end of my ride which was very awkward. Micah told him to go all out, which he did. The funniest part was that the guy announced us over the microphone as if there were actually people in the restuarant that cared that we riding the bull. I’m sure his “Here we have Jen facing the bull!” simply interrupted to two dinner conversations going on in the corner, but we can’t complain about our free 8 seconds on the Saddle Ranch bull.

Maybe we will try their brunch next…