Travel Log: Walking the Fort Worth Stockyards With Pendleton Whisky

(Photo: Pendleton Whisky)

Walking through the Fort Worth Stockyards feels like stumbling onto the set of “Westworld.” Boots and cowboy hats in every direction, wooden storefronts, brick streets, magnificent longhorns being led about by cowhands. The area doesn’t change, and every time I’m there, I feel like I’ve been transported to a different time — a welcome reprieve for a couple of days this May.

I was there as a guest of Pendleton Whisky, a brand that has embedded itself into this place with a thoroughness that goes well beyond a logo popping up on occasion. Pendleton is the first whisky sponsor of the Stockyards, as well as the official whisky sponsor of Cowtown Coliseum, the anchor of the district. Its name is on virtually every bar menu in the area. That level of presence can feel either natural or forced, and in the case of Pendleton and the Stockyards, this trip convinced me without a doubt it’s the former.

I flew in Wednesday afternoon and checked into Hotel Drover, a Spanish mission-style property sitting right in the heart of the Stockyards. The building is warm stucco and stone, with vintage neon signage burning scarlet against the Texas skies.

Hotel Drover

I filled the afternoon by walking through the Stockyards to Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que and grabbed a brisket sandwich with a friend who lives in town. I spent the next few hours knocking out some work before meeting the group for dinner at Lonesome Dove, where I was introduced to Pendleton Heritage Director Tia Bledsoe, a bustling ball of energy and our de facto guide for the trip.

It was my second visit to Lonesome Dove, and it confirmed what I took away the first time: Lonesome Dove is one of the better restaurants in Texas. Chef Tim Love’s menu is elevated cowboy-country, and every bite was delicious. We started with lobster hush puppies and rattlesnake-and-rabbit sausage, both excellent. I went with the chili-rubbed lamb chops topped with avocado salsa for my entree. For dessert, we shared bites of churros and a slice of ancho chile chocolate cake. Pendleton cocktails throughout, of course.

Thursday Morning: Cowtown Coliseum

After a serious omelet and good coffee from Avoca down the street at Drover’s restaurant (97 West Kitchen & Bar), we strolled a block up to East Exchange Street, where we watched the Fort Worth Cattle Drive, a twice-daily occurrence that’s  largely a tourist attraction but a cool thing to watch — if you’re an out-of-towner, the longhorns are a sight to behold.

Next up was Cowtown Coliseum for a tour led by General Manager Tim Long.

The building has history. Constructed in 88 days (an “engineering miracle,” Long says) in 1908, it has since hosted presidential speeches, the first Professional Bull Riding event and two Elvis Presley performances back when tickets cost a dollar. The listed capacity is around 3,500. Supposedly Elvis drew somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000 people for those shows, and nobody knows how. The Texas Rodeo Hall of Fame and Bull Riding Hall of Fame both live inside, and the building smells of old wood, livestock and history.

The tour concluded with a tasting of the full Pendleton portfolio.

The Tasting

Pendleton hadn’t been on my radar for years. As someone who spends a lot of his time reviewing high-end whiskeys, a Canadian-sourced, low-proof bottle built around approachability isn’t something I tend to gravitate toward. I’d tried the original expression some time back, filed it under “not for me” and moved on.

Tasting through the full lineup inside Cowtown Coliseum forced a more careful look, along with Bledsoe, who was there to answer any questions I had about the brand.

The tasting

The flagship Pendleton Whisky ($32.99) is exactly what it’s designed to be: gentle, smooth, easy-drinking. Honey, vanilla, a little strawberry candy. Thin mouthfeel, quick finish. At 80 proof, it doesn’t challenge you, which is something I’d knocked it for in the past. But tasting it in the Stockyards and seeing its impact on the culture made me realize something: That’s by design — this is whisky meant to fit in, not stand out.

Pendleton prides itself on being smooth enough to go anywhere — shots in a crowded Stockyards bar, whiskey cocktails, sure, but also Bloody Marys, margaritas and the Pendleton Pepper, which is exactly what it sounds like: Dr Pepper and Pendleton, and apparently a beloved staple in the Stockyards. The message is clear: You can put this in anything.

The Midnight ($45.99), a 90-proof expression finished in American brandy barrels, is a step up in complexity, with waxy stone fruit, apple and a cinnamon-and-clove finish. The brandy influence works well and makes it a strong cocktail base.

The 1910 Rye ($50) is 12 years old, distilled from a mashbill of 100% rye and bottled at 80 proof. More proof would help for me, but it’s a solid, easy-drinking rye, with plenty.  of spice and fruity notes.

The Directors’ Reserve ($214.99), a 20-year expression sharing the same (undisclosed) mashbill as the original, lands in an unusual place: big oak and low proof is a combination you don’t encounter often in America, but it makes for a pleasant sipping experience, light and sweet with added oaky depth.

My favorite Pendleton expression

The standout was the 1910 Bourbon ($49.99), which debuted in late 2024. At 10 years old and 90 proof, it’s the most expressive pour in the lineup, with jammy red fruit on the nose, cherry and apple candy on the palate, and an enjoyable finish with butterscotch and barrel char. When Pendleton wanted to bottle a bourbon, it went to MGP in Indiana, the same source its Proximo Spirits stablemate TINCUP draws from. More than any others in the portfolio, the 1910 Bourbon can stand on its own outside of a cocktail. It’s the one I’d buy.

Thursday Evening: The World Finals

After the tasting, I found a chair by the hotel pool, ordered an IPA and spent a few hours getting some writing done before dinner, which was at Cattleman’s Steakhouse (lots of red meat consumption tends to be a theme of any trip to Texas). From dinner, we boarded a bus to Dickies Arena for the PBR World Finals.

If you haven’t watched professional bull riding, it is one of the stranger athletic spectacles available to you. It’s rapid-fire: max eight seconds per round. Each rider is tasked with lasting eight seconds on an animal that weighs up to a ton and has no interest in cooperating. It sounds like a short period of time, but each tension-filled second feels like it’s going in slow-motion as the bull bucks and thrashes around, trying to throw its competitor off.

John Crimber, a 20-year-old Texan, took home the $1 million grand prize.

After the event, we took a bus back near our hotel, where Bledsoe took over. She is based in Oregon, where Pendleton is headquartered, but knows Fort Worth with the familiarity of a local and has unlimited energy.

She marched us through the Stockyards down alleys we wouldn’t have found on our own, into narrow dive bars and bull riding-focused sports bars, down into a crowded basement or two — ordering Pendleton cocktails at every stop. At each spot, Pendleton branding was on the menu and on the wall. It felt less like marketing and more like a brand that was truly integrated with the culture of a place.

My Takeaways

Pendleton isn’t chasing the same consumer who reads my reviews of the latest 140-proof Jack Daniel’s rye, tirelessly hunts for the new limited-edition Wild Turkey bourbon or frequents whiskey bars hoping to find a pour from the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.

Pendleton is built on ease of drinking, mixability and a lifestyle identity rooted in Western culture and rodeo, and the Stockyards is the perfect setting. Ordering a Pendleton cocktail in that setting feels like participation in something.

For drinkers like me, the purists who want a bit of “oomph,” the 1910 Bourbon is there as a solid option. For the rest of the portfolio, I learned I’m not the target audience, which is perfectly fine. Smooth, approachable whisky that can go in any drink has a massive audience; those of us with expansive bourbon collections and enough Glencairns to serve a small army are certainly the minority.

And even for those of us in that minority, light, approachable whisky has a time and a place. Somewhere around the third bar and as many Pendleton & Ginger Ales, the whiskey critic part of my brain clocked out.