As you know, I am a huge advocate for small, local businesses, particularly, those who make, grow, and sell food or food related products. I do, from time to time, share larger chain restaurants when they are owned by locals or are working to support our local community. During Covid I shared posts from larger chains like O'Charley's who were offering curbside family dinners at a bargain price because I felt like it was important for our community to continue to support food businesses throughout the pandemic in ways that felt safe and affordable. When Texas Roadhouse asked me to share information about them, I was a bit hesitant, but after some thought I realized that a large, well known food business, in a prime location could actually draw visitors to get off of the Interstate and check out more of what Salisbury has to offer.
There is a level of local ownership, with all of the Regional Managers, and local General Managers being partners in the company! Additionally, there are several parts of the Texas Roadhouse business model that I sincerely appreciate. These include recycling their fryer oil, making the majority of their food from scratch, and supporting local community organizations. In fact, when I found out that they were hosting guests for two full days, giving away free meals and selling other items to benefit the Rowan Helping Ministries, I was all in. So, while I was there stuffing my face, I figured I wouldn't be much of a food blogger if I didn't write about it.
While this restaurant does offer a variety of salads, sandwiches, 
burgers and chicken, it's hard to go into a Texas Road house and not order beef. For dinner we enjoyed the Filet Medallions. These came served over a bed of seasoned rice with a savory brown gravy. They included a choice of two side items which included a house or caesar salad, reg. or sweet potato, green beans, steamed veggies, corn, rice, mashed potatoes or steak fries. We also tried the 11 oz. hand cut sirloin and the enormous ribeye and ribs combo.
Y'all, this was a Friends and Family trial run which always occurs before the official grand opening. The goal is to give the employees a chance to try everything out and work out any kinks before opening to the public. To our surprise, every item we tried was perfectly cooked. The steaks sliced like butter and the ribs had a sweet but smokey sauce that left them falling off the bone but with a sticky char that had everyone at the table smacking their lips.
Even the kids were thrilled. The Kid's Menu is extensive and is broken into Kids (smaller) and Ranger (larger) options. My little guy went for the mini Cheeseburger sliders with steak fries and was very pleased with his choice! And just when I thought the experience couldn't get any better, the music suddenly kicked in to high gear and Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You" started blasting from the speakers above our heads.
We thought it was a mishap when a full of flash mob of Texas Roadhouse servers start dancing through the aisles. Everyone in the place kind of stopped what they were doing and smiled at one another. I, of course, fumbled for my phone because I just had to catch this on tape for you guys! With a fun atmosphere and fresh food, Texas Roadhouse is certainly a welcomed addition to Salisbury and will assuredly have more people hopping off I-85 and spending some time and dollars here in Rowan! Our family left with full bellies and smiles on our faces.
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