The Matchcover Storyteller

You may remember our look at Johnny Utah’s in New York ?City and its mechanical bull  —  the one causing some legal problems for the western-themed bar and restaurant.    

Now we take you to the Cowgirl Hall Of Fame on Hudson St. in NYC’s West Village.   It’s been there since 1989, serving up Texas-style barbecue, margaritas, “snake bite” apps, quesadillas and more.  Its genesis was a visit by Texas-born owner Sherry Delamarter to the real Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum in Hereford, Texas.*.   She brought the imagery back to The Big Apple, and it worked.

Along with Johnny Utah’s it was one of the first western-themed bars in New York.   It was one of the first to offer a Texas-style kids menu and service that included roping demonstrations outon the now-long-gone parking meters on Hudson Street.

It appears to be a stopping off spot for many country recording artists from Dolly Parton to Billy Ray & Miley Cyrus.   It figures prominently as a place of comfort in NYC’s Pride community; there’s also a lovely NY Times nostalgia from a couple of years ago!

Today, the place is simply called “Cowgirl”.  It has a nautically-themed sister establishment, “Cowgirl Seahorse” on Front Street under the Brooklyn Bridge (the South Street seaport).  And there is, or was, one in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Sherry’s other interests have been in Tortilla Flats, Gulf Coast and Sugar Reef eateries)

This is the only matchcover I can find for Cowgirl.   There are lots with cowgirls on them if that’s a category for you, but this is it for the restaurant. (It’s a woody,, too!)   Nor could I find any for Sherry’s other restaurants, but now the search is on.

• * Hereford, Texas was also the site of a WW II prisoner-of-war internment camp.  The story is in the Jan/Feb 2025 RMS Bulletin.