Romanticizing Texas Roadhouse

An ode to meat & potatoes

When I moved home after college graduation, my life turned into one long weekend. I went on walks in the morning, took my time preparing breakfast and lunch, and met up with friends around dinner time for water ice or ice cream. At the end of last month, I got my first Big Girl job, and my daily routine is much different from the earlier days of my summer. My first alarm goes off at 6 a.m., and by 7:45 I’m on a train headed to 30th Street Station. Work is fun, but it’s work, so it’s not always the thing I look forward to the most in the day. Which brings me to today’s topic: romanticizing my post-grad life.

By the time I get home from work, I’m ready to sleep, but there’s more to look forward to in life than the comfort of one’s own bed. Some girlies go on Hot Girl Walks after work, while others meet up with friends for drinky-poos (I’m both of those girlies). When I have plans to socialize after work, it’s all I think about — all day long. So as soon as I finished my breakfast at my desk on Monday, I began counting down to 5 p.m. in anticipation of Texas Roadhouse.

My dear friend Bridget visits the Roadhouse more than anyone else I know, so it only made sense to pay it a visit to celebrate the end of our summer and Maura’s return to college. I hadn’t been to Texas Roadhouse in over a decade — I was practically going in blind but stepping into the wood-paneled, neon-covered dining room brought me back to my childhood. I remembered fearing every birthday performance was intended for me even if it was the dead of winter (my birthday’s next week); the way the kids at the table would stare each other down over the last roll; the excitement one experienced when ordering a Cactus Blossom (which we did not order this time around — sorry to disappoint). The place is wild. We were asked if we’d be picking our steaks out “fresh” from the deli case up front, signaling our passage into adulthood because I don’t remember that happening when I was a kid. 🥺

Shine bright like a diamond.

The whole experience was iconic, but so is any meal I ever eat with Bridget and Maura. (If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get to see our vlog.) This is the group that I rarely fill in on my life because we do a good job of keeping up with each other. So instead of talking about us, we talked about grade school and our families and spilled the tea on local politics and lore. We devoured those rolls, and I actually really enjoyed my chicken. Two birthday saddle celebrations happened, neither of them at our table (thx god)! The place was packed — a melting pot of Montgomery County of sorts.

Life post-grad has been super busy, and sometimes you need to think about Texas Roadhouse all day to get through the workday. It was a simple meat and potatoes meal, but I felt it was worth sharing because heck yes I’d go back to Texas Roadhouse.