The First Texas Roadhouse Location Wasn't Where You'd Think

The best way to explain Texas Roadhouse is that it's essentially Outback Steakhouse, except with Texas instead of Australia. Its logo features the state of Texas with a cowboy hat perched jauntily atop its panhandle. It serves hearty slabs of beef and smoky ribs, marrying the state's twin loves of steak and barbecue. Its mascot is an armadillo by the name of Andy, who wears a teeth-clenched grin that makes him look for all the world like he's from "Attack on Titan." And every so often, just to make sure they really hammer home the theming, the waitstaff gets together and line dances.

If a steakhouse was themed this heavily around any other part of the world, it would be a clear indication that it was founded by someone who wasn't from there. But, well, this is Texas. It's famous for many things, but modesty and restraint are not among them. Why wouldn't a chain restaurant this aggressively Texan originate in Texas?

You wouldn't think a chain like Texas Roadhouse would be born in Indiana. That's a state known for corn, racecars, and college basketball — not steak. You also wouldn't think Texas Roadhouse would be born in Kentucky, which is known for bourbon, racehorses, and ... also, college basketball. But the point is, it's not known for steak either.

And yet in 1993, the Green Tree Mall in Clarksville, Indiana was home to the world's first Texas Roadhouse. It was the brainchild of W. Kent Taylor, a businessman who was a KFC manager in Louisville, Kentucky (just across the Ohio River from Clarksville). After getting rejected over 80 times by possible investors, he convinced three doctors from Elizabethtown, Kentucky to pitch in by sketching out the restaurant's design on a cocktail napkin. Soon enough, even though more of the first five locations failed than succeeded, Taylor built Texas Roadhouse into a chain with over 600 locations across 10 countries.

Before there was Texas Roadhouse, however, there was Buckhead Mountain Grill. Taylor had lived in Colorado for some time before returning to Louisville, and he had an abiding love for the Rocky Mountains and their majestic ski slopes. After meeting with John Y. Brown Jr., the former governor of Kentucky and the businessman who turned KFC into a fast food juggernaut, Taylor got the necessary money in 1991 and opened Buckhead Hickory Grill, a Colorado-themed steakhouse in Louisville that soon became Buckhead Mountain Grill. The partnership between Taylor and Brown was short-lived, however: a dispute over profit splitting led Brown to leave, and forced Taylor to commit to a different branding if he wanted to expand.

Taylor eventually sold his shares of Buckhead Mountain Grill to focus on Texas Roadhouse, and the Louisville location closed in 2020 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is, however, still a location in Bellevue – another town across the Ohio River from a major metropolis, this time Cincinnati.