Cowboy Capital of the World Offers Authentic Texas Hill Country Food, Hospitality & Precious Memories

Our granddaughter was the seventh generation of Dennises that have stepped foot in the OST (Old Spanish Trail) Restaurant in Bandera, Texas.

Great, great grandfather Jeremiah Thomas Dennis was there with his son, my great grandfather Allen John Dennis in 1921. I first stepped foot in OST in 1960, with my grandfather, Jack L. Dennis, Sr. and father Walter Allen Dennis. We had come from the Bandera racetrack after our horse, Ralad, came in first place.

I’d accompany Grandpa and Dad often for horse races there, in Fredericksburg, Brady, Boerne, and at Alamo Downs in West San Antonio throughout the early 1960’s.

Ralene, Ralad, and Mildred’s Pet were usually in at least one race each season.

Today, I am fortunate to dine at OST at least once a month with a fun group of men from nearby Medina. Other times Dodie and I will eat there with fellow church friends on Sundays (She sings with the Praise Team and I am a Deacon at the 1st Baptist Church of Medina).

OST is among our favorite restaurants in the Texas Hill Country. Our #1 favorite is just up the street on Highway 16 going north still within the Cowboy Capital of the World city limits. It’s the very unique The Hen’s Nest.

The “Nest,” as we usually call it, is owned and run by Sheli Hinton, one of the most observant and friendliest ladies we have ever known. A few years back I posted a review and graded The Hen’s Nest the highest rating (9.7 out of 10) ever after over 50 years of grading restaurants around the US, Canada, and Mexico.

Since that review, we have been blessed to meet some of our readers and friends who happily traveled to Bandera to eat at The Hen’s Nest:

(A big shout out to “The Texas Lady” from near Austin, our 1971 champion McCollum high school quarterback, now dentist, Bruce Vetters and his wife now living at Medina Lake. From San Antonio, dear friends Liz Hajek and Sue Pape were kind enough to meet us there. Doug and Pat Pritchett from Columbus, GA have also dined with us).

IMG_20260607_131350040_HDR — Pritchetts from Georgia

Sheli is not only known for her cooking, but she is an expert at hiring, training and developing an outstanding staff. She’s quite a community contributor to first responders, sports teams, and Young Life (military children Christians…).

We love her staff so much that when one of them moved to Mesa, Arizona after graduation from Bandera High School last Fall, we made it a point to dine with Micah near his residence by Arizona State University in November, 2025.

Bandera

Many people don’t know that the Cowboy Capital of the World began as a cypress shingle mill on the Medina River in 1853.

Sixteen Polish families from Silesia came in 1855 to work it, and remained. They actually built St. Stanislaus, which is still standing as the second oldest Polish parish in the country.

From the mid-1870s through the early 1890s the legendary Western Trail moved seven to ten million longhorns north out of Texas, with Bandera being a critical staging point on the trail.

Toots Mansfield earned his first world championship in calf roping in 1939 and continued to win six more.

Although the downtown historical marker says 1938, it’s wrong. It was indeed 1939. But in ’38, the year my mother Geraldine Arthur was born, the honor went to Clyde Burk out of Comanche, Oklahoma.

Today, when you visit, there is no way to escape the feel of the Old West. With around 900 people, multiple rodeos, and two different outfits staging gunfights on Saturday, there’s no doubt this is the Cowboy Capital of the World.