Pittsburgh: Tequila Cowboy (September 2017)

Tequila Cowboy - Enormous Space Offers Something for Everyone

My spouse and I dined at Tequila Cowboy for an early lunch on a Saturday morning in late September 2017. We were on our way to a football game at Heinz Field, and we stopped at Tequila Cowboy for refreshments along the way. The venue is open daily from 11:00 am to 2:00 am for lunch, dinner, drinks, late night, and every time in between! It opens early on game days.

Tequila Cowboy opened in fall 2016 on Pittsburgh’s North Shore in a new building among other restaurants (including Little Red Corvette, BRGR, Bar Louie, Southern Tier Brewing Company [and eventually BURN by Rocky Patel]). The restaurant is located between football’s Heinz Field and baseball’s PNC Park and across the street from Stage AE (American Eagle). (Originally, this spot was reserved for Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill, but it never opened.) Tequila Cowboy is owned by the TC Restaurant Group, which also owns Luigi’s City Pizza, Crazy Town, and Sun Diner, all in Nashville. Other Tequila Cowboy locations include Columbus Ohio; Lansing Michigan; and two in Nashville.

The 17,000-square foot restaurant interior is enormous, with a large four-sided rectangular bar, a stage for live performers, and a mechanical bull as its centerpieces. A tequila bar is located up a few steps from the stage area, and a karaoke bar called WannaB’s is hidden in a back room. A separate 80s and 90s-themed bar called Little Red Corvette is adjacent. You can also dine/drink outdoors on the front sidewalk patio, which is enclosed with a low fence and offers high-top table dining as well as seating on comfortable sofas arranged around a coffee table gas fireplace. Indoor decor features marble countertops and reclaimed weathered wood on the walls and bar sides.

Tequila Cowboy offers casual American cuisine, including pub food such as burgers, sandwiches, and wings. On game days and prior to events, Tequila Cowboy serves an abbreviated menu that allows no customizations (for example, we wanted to omit the jalapenos on one dish, but it was not permitted). On the day we visited, we shared the dirty chips as a starter (kettle-cooked chips covered with shredded pork, cheese, scallions) followed by the hot dog (massive and covered with chili and jalapeno peppers) and the pulled pork sandwich (overly saucy and intensely flavorful). 

Although we enjoyed our time on the sidewalk patio at Tequila Cowboy and might return for drinks/cocktails, we would not dine there again on game day.