Dinner at the Gun Barrel

The Weeks' took Joe and I to dinner at The Gun Barrel Steak & Game House on W. Broadway in Jackson Hole. Can I say a big WOW!?!?! It was a fantastic place - both visually and food wise.

We met there with some other friends of theirs who had been spending the week with them at a dude ranch in the Tetons. (Brooke in front, Vickie (l), Freddie next to her and Joe and I on the left)...Vickie and I shared an order of Fried Green Tomatoes which were herb encrusted and lightly fried, drizzled with a chipotle mayonnaise sauce. Yum, yum!!!

My dinner was a mixed Game Grill which was a combination of elk chops, buffalo prime rib, and venison bratwurst (see my plate below). It was fantastic!!! This was the first time I'd ever eaten elk and it was the best meat I've ever eaten. I could have and would have eaten the bones clean if we hadn't been in such a fancy-schamanchy place.

About the Gun Barrel Steak & Game House... it opened in 1993 in what had formerly been the Wyoming Wildlife Museum & Taxidermy. The Gun Barrel Steak & Game House name was taken from the small east Texas town of Gun Barrel City. The original 1950’s hand-painted town sign was given to us by the town.

Many of the museums full mount game trophies, which were taken from around Jackson Hole, can still be seen - some even in front of their original painted dioramas. In addition to these indigenous animals, there are numerous others from around the world, many of which were collected by the restaurant. Most of the antique cowboy artifacts also come from Wyoming and many have historical significance; Hank William’s 1800’s buffalo coat that he wore on the Lone Wolf album; two Harrison Crandle colorized photographs taken in Grand Teton National Park in the forties; and eight original Edward Curtis portrait photogravures of American Indians taken circa 1890. There is even a very large gun which is an .82 caliber rampart gun from India forged in the 1700’s.

The original museum structure was completely refurbished with lodgepole pine. The logs were hand-peeled in the parking lot using draw knives to remove the bark (notice the cut marks) and the milling was the subject of a Carhartt catalog shoot. The detail logs around the front entrance and bar were removed from Shadow Mt. north of town. They also set the old bugling royal elk which was outside the old museum, atop the building and now it is a Jackson landmark. The mural on The west wall outside is a re-creation of Bierstadt’s Buffalo Hunt.

Almost all of the fixtures in The Gun Barrel Steak & Game House were designed for the steakhouse, including ironwork, lighting fixtures, tables, and mesquite grill. The Gun Barrel has recently been the site of a Browning catalog shoot and an NRA video on game preparation.

Hank William’s 1800’s buffalo coat that he wore on the Lone Wolf album, this coat was also used as a prop in the 90's classic "Dancing with Wolves".

This was a collection of barbwire through the years. Quite fascinating.