Inside Tim Love’s 25-Course Anniversary Menu Opus at Lonesome Dove

The original Lonesome Dove in the Fort Worth Stockyards celebrates 25 years in business this year — and chef and owner Tim Love is ready to take a victory lap. “The local critic here, Bud Kennedy, was like, ‘Three people have tried fine dining in the Stockyards; it doesn’t work,” Love says. The restaurant, to date, has proven otherwise. For a special May anniversary dinner menu, Love went through his archive of dishes to dig out some classics, add in some unexpected riffs, and, of course, cook plenty of wild game. The menu is separated into five acts (thematically called sea, air, land, beef, and sweet) and offers a whopping 25 courses in total.

The tasting menu will be available for $250 per person — almost a steal given the number of courses — with wine pairings at an additional cost from May 2 to May 6 at Lonesome Dove in Fort Worth. Run, don’t walk, because reservations are available now on Tock. Here’s a sneak peek at what to expect from the anniversary dinner.

Sea: Lobster with corn cake and cilantro orange butter

TL: “This is like a dish we had early on called lobster cakes, and this is a play off of that. It’s a butter-poached lobster on top of a sweet cornbread cake with a cilantro orange butter and cilantro garnish. When we did lobster cakes, the thought behind it was that everyone in Fort Worth knows the crab cake. I wanted to do something similar but different. Most of the food we served in the Stockyards back in the 2000s was ahead of its time. It’s a decadent dish with the butter, and its much softer than it was as a lobster cake. We’ve never served exactly this dish in the restaurant — it was created with this menu in mind.”

Air: Stuffed pheasant wing with onion feathers and hot sauce

TL: “Since we’re going in flights, we tried to figure out some different vessels to carry the food. We went shopping for a bunch of different tiles and wood pieces, which is fun. This particular dish I also came up with just for this menu. The little crispy onion feathers and hot sauce — it all reminds me of a play on Thanksgiving. We poach the meat, pull it off, make the stuffing, mix it in, and wrap it back around the bone. The hot sauce give it an acidity kick. That sauce has a lot of vegetables in it so it has a lot of thickness — it’s tomato based with vinegar, carrots, onions, celery, and chilis in there.”

Land: Foie gras cappuccino

TL: “I created this dish in 2003, when I was asked to cook at the [James Beard Foundation Awards]. I wanted to something wacky and I love foie gras. This is an emulsification of coffee, orange juice, and roasted fat from the foie gras with a light, orange whipped cream. It’s a really outlandish dish that fits into the realm of wild game, with the duck liver in it. Foie gras is so sweet and rich, it made me think of the rich foam on a cappuccino — getting that savoriness with coffee is something I like to do, while the acidity from the orange combats the heck out of it. It is an unexpected dish from me, obviously. I like to stir in the cream and then sip it, slowly but surely. You can eat it with a spoon though.”

Land: Elk loin with salsify and candied blueberry

TL: “This is a dish that has been on the menu for awhile — it is one of our most popular dishes. It’s an elk loin with crispy Swiss chard, roasted hen of the woods, parsnip puree underneath, and candied grapes. Elk has been on our menu from the get-go in various cuts, and this rendition came to the menu about 11 years ago. It’s been a mainstay. It’s super good for you — it is about 96 percent fat free, and one of the leanest red meats. I am a big game hunter, so I like the taste of wild game. It gets a bad rap, with people saying it tastes gamey, but usually that means it isn’t cooked right. This cut is basically a New York Strip, the backstrap. It is super tender, it has a nice chew to it, and it absorbs flavors really well.”

Beef: A5 snow aged wagyu with mole

TL: “In the last six months we added a ‘gold’ steak menu, and we wanted to feature some of that. There’s an A2 spinalis [ribeye cap] on the menu and this is an A5 — to me it is the absolutely most spectacular beef in the world from that category of meat. It’s from the province of Megata. It’s rich, well-marbled, Japanese beef that is aged in an igloo instead of a refrigerator so that it has more moisture to give even more flavor. We do have this on the menu now, and have for the last six months. It is a one bite delight, in my opinion. The mole provides a huge amount of acidity to combat all that fat. Getting it into one bite is important. It finishes the dinner — so it’s the last savory course, last bite before we get into sweets. We’ve served a lot of beef here, so you have to have a bad-ass beef.”