Chef Jon Bonnell passes for a B-list culinary celebrity thanks to his cookbooks. His restaurant sometimes slips onto the B-side of popular memory, too—overshadowed by new and lustrous venues. By comparison, in contemporary Fort Worth Bonnell’s cowboy kitsch theme seems at bit dated. “Oysters Texasfeller” or pommes frites served in a basket formed from real potatoes (also fried) are far too cute to merit the restaurant’s three-digit for two final tab. Game meats ranging from buffalo to elk seem too gimmicky.

Yet the chef’s cooking is beyond B-list, almost causing guests to forget the upscale tackiness. Roasted tomato and jalapeño soup underscores smoky tang with mellow heat. The aforementioned “Oysters Texasfeller” fix crispy fried shellfish against more robust andouille, spinning the mineral-sweet and meaty-hot flavors around rich sauce and bright greens. Pork and redfish come wrapped in Texas pecan crust. In fact, Bonnell was one of the area’s earliest practitioners of local, seasonal cooking (although his version of local includes the likes of kangaroo and wild boar in addition to grass-fed beef).

Bonnell’s wine list extends several pages, from let’s-have-another-bottle affordability to $1,000 labels. While the Old West fixtures and cutesy names may knock the restaurant from trend-seeking minds, it remains a destination.