Houston Rodeo Food Is Wilder Than Ever. Here’s What’s New and What to Eat in 2025.

Sip on Beyonce’s signature cocktail and pickle juice concoctions, take a trip through Trill Town, and sink your teeth into indulgent foods on sticks at this year’s Houston Rodeo

Between the concerts, roping competitions, and thrilling rides, lies the heart (and stomach?) of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Each year, rodeo fans weave through hundreds of food booths and, as usual, this year brings dozens of new — wild — dishes and new vendors. Picking which ones to drop your dollars on is always a challenge. Among the new foods at the rodeo this year, the dirty soda craze makes a big appearance; a couple of notable State Fair of Texas vendors join the fun; San Antonio’s famous Mamacita’s will serve up Mexican food; cheese curd tacos from the Minneapolis State Fair make it to Texas; and, to kick things up a notch, rodeo-goers can find cotton candy bacon on a stick.

---

The Trill Town takeover

Scurfield Group

Bun B, the co-founder of Trill Burgers, returns to the Rodeo in a major way with the debut of Trill Town. The new 9,000-square-foot tented area will offer all things Trill Burgers, with its signature smash burgers, plus a new fun collaboration with Truth BBQ that yields Truth BBQ brisket burgers and loaded brisket fries. Rodeo-goers will also get to try Trill Tenders for the first time, with dishes from Trill Burger’s sister concept, including chicken tenders, loaded chicken fries, and chicken sandwiches served with its signature sauces.

Aside from the food, expect dirty sodas and lemonade from the Trill Lemonade stand, a live DJ, merchandise for sale, games, and a full bar. Bun B is also bound to make an appearance.

The Ranch returns

Brian Kennedy

Berg Hospitality, the restaurant group behind local spots like Prime 131, the Annie Cafe, and B&B Butcher, returns to the Rodeo with its over-the-top Ranch Saloon and Steakhouse. The standalone fine-dining restaurant, which first debuted in the Rodeo in 2022, takes up 16,000 square feet in a climate-controlled tent in NRG Park on the southwest corner of the NRG Astrodome and offers three distinct experiences. Diners seeking a more casual experience can go to the Saloon, which offers a tavern-style menu with dishes like whipped ricotta, corn souffle, and steak frites in its main bar area, and the Porch, a covered outdoor patio with cocktail tables. The Steakhouse, which serves an array of steaks, including Texas and Japanese wagyu, offers a more formal dining experience that’s reservation only, while the outdoor walk-up window offers a to-go menu with ritzy versions of carnival fare, including corn dogs and hot dogs made with Texas wagyu beef. For the first time, cheeseburgers and Carvel’s Flying Saucer ice cream sandwiches, which are served at Berg’s Heights restaurant Buttermilk Baby.

Hometown Hero Sandwich

Goode Company’s rodeo booth will offer a meat-loaded Hometown Hero Sandwich, stuffed with brisket and Czech-style sausage and dripping in barbecue sauce and queso, with a side of chile con queso, chocolate chip cookies, and pralines. Now, that’s a meal.

Spicy Pickle Roll-ups, Pickle Juice drinks, and Churro Bowl Sundaes

Casa de Yummy is kicking up its classic rodeo offerings (street tacos, Hot Cheeto Queso Nachos) with at least two dishes that can help knock out a hangover. The Spicy Pickle Roll Up, a pickle wrapped in a fruit roll-up and Hot Cheetos, hits on sweet, salty, and crunchy, while its Pickle Juice concoction features a Tajin rim. The Churro Bowl Sundae, topped with Fruity Pebbles, is best enjoyed with a color-changing spoon.

Corny creations

Known for its classic roasted corn and corn in a cup, longtime Houston Rodeo vendor Fields of Corn is switching it up this year with the debut two new corn-focused dishes — a savory deep-fried corn a stick, served ranch and buffalo sauce, and for dessert, a creamy corn cheesecake.

Texas Buckiin cocktail

Hometown hero Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has her own cocktail because, of course, she does. The Third Ward native’s new whiskey brand SirDavis American Whisky is an official sponsor of the Rodeo and will pour up in-stadium for premium ticket holders. Festivalgoers can try Queen Bey’s Texas Buckiin cocktail, which is a combination of SirDavis, lemon juice, honey syrup, and ginger beer.

SirDavis Whiskey

Chicken and Waffle Sliders

In addition to its bone-in fried chicken, chicken tenders, fried chicken sandwiches, and sides like macaroni and cheese, loaded fries, fried okra, and mashed potatoes, Darlin’s Fried Chicken will serve up a sweet and savory mashup with its new chicken and waffles sliders. Hand-battered chicken tenders are sandwiched between two slider-sized waffles and served with rich syrup, making for a dish that won’t force you to choose between dinner or dessert. Located in Rodeo Plaza, Booth #RP130.

Drizzle Cheesecakes

Kathy Tran

Love cheesecake, but wish it were more portable? Drizzle takes that favorite dessert and puts it on a stick. But there’s more! These cheesecake slices are coated in a sauce and then rolled in crumbs to create flavors like Sweet and Salty Pretzel, Strawberry Crunch, Biscoff Delight (a 2023 State Fair winning flavor), Churro Crumble, Hazelnut Deluxe, and more. The vendor will also unveil a brand new exclusive flavor for the rodeo: Caramel Crunch Cheesecake. The booth is run by two-time Olympic swimming contestant Stephen El Gidi, who retired from his life as an athlete to pursue his true passion: chocolate.

Dirty Sodas

This Midwest trend that went wild on TikTok last year is worth trying to see if it is your speed or not. Cowboy Kettle Corn will sell several varieties, including the Cowboy, a combination of Coke with cherry, lime, and vanilla; Coconut Cowboy (Mr. Pibb with coconut and lime); the Dirty Cowboy (cherry Coke with piña colada cream and lime), the Dolphin Breeze (Spring with coconut and blue raspberry with a little gummy shark on top), and the Sour Gummy Refresher (a contradiction in terms made from Spring with sour cherry topped with Sour Patch Kids). This is for you if you already have a hella complicated Sonic drink order. Trill Town will also serve its selection of dirty sodas at its lemonade stand.

Richie’s Cheese Curd Tacos

Step out of Texas and into Minnesota with a cheese curd taco. Rodeo vendor Richie’s is set to sling this northern export, which looks a lot like San Antonio puffy tacos but is filled with meats like bratwurst, fried chicken, and bacon with a crown of flavored cheese curds (Those are big, chunky, squeaky, wet pieces of curdled milk — and they’re more delicious than they sound).

Palmer’s Hot Chicken

This Dallas chicken spot is known for its Nashville-style hot chicken sandwiches and for the hot chicken and pimento cheese in pancake batter balls that it unveiled at the Texas State Fair in 2024. They are the epitome of combining spicy, savory, and sweet foods and a must-eat bite.

Mamacita’s

Houston has excellent Tex-Mex and Mexican food, but so does San Antonio. The two cities just may dance toe-to-toe for the titles of best in the state. Mamacita’s is consistently named as one of San Antonio’s best Mexican food spots, and this Central Texas chain will make its debut at the rodeo to stand up to the judgment of Houstonians. What makes it special is how it taps into Persian, Mexican, and Spanish food traditions. Its founder, Hossein Hagigholam, immigrated to Texas from Iran in the 1970s and fell in love with Mexican food. Mamacita’s restaurants, the first of which opened in 1985, are known for combining the architecture of all three cultures into a grand experience. At the rodeo, the restaurant will serve Drowning Taquitos — taquitos swimming in guacamole and pico.

Rousso’s Fat Bacon

Find this booth to unlock the rodeo food you never knew you needed: Cotton candy bacon on a stick. These hearty slabs of bacon are about as long as your forearm and as delicious as pork belly — they are soft and chewy, not crispy. The Rousso’s team takes the cooked bacon, sticks it in a cotton candy machine to coat it, and then heats that cotton candy to make it melt and stick to the bacon. Voila, your new favorite food is born. This one also took a top prize at the 2024 State Fair of Texas.