Since 1965
The Coyotes Ate the Chickens. The Rest Is Texas History.
Before it was a restaurant, this stretch of County Road 1004 was a chicken farm, right up until a pack of coyotes cleaned out the coop. The farm lost its chickens, Glen Rose gained a legend, and the Loco Coyote was born.
For sixty years, folks have made the drive down the twisty county road for oak-smoked barbecue, chicken fried steak the size of a hubcap, and onion rings people cross counties for. Sawdust on the floors. Willie Nelson on the walls, and more than once at a table. Bikers and the after-church crowd sharing picnic benches like old friends. That’s Loco.
1965
Local barbecue legend Tom Hammond opens the Loco Coyote on the old chicken farm, and starts adding locals and tourists to the coyote family.
The Decades After
The Coyote becomes a destination: hubcap chicken fried steak, three-inch-thick ribs off the oak pits, beer buckets, Mason-jar margaritas, and an hour’s wait nobody minds.
2013
Longtime regulars Loyd and Becki McClanahan take the reins, add the bar and the open-air stage, and bring live music to the deck.
2016
Texas Highways magazine features Loco Coyote in “Howling for Barbecue,” making official what Somervell County always knew.
2026
After a rough stretch of years, the news breaks that Loco is closing its doors. The post goes viral. Regulars mourn. And one family who’d been riding out here for years decides that can’t be the end of the story.
The next chapter
Keeping a Local Legend Alive
Tommy Ruston had been riding out to Loco for years. It’s the kind of place a Texas backroad ride is supposed to end. When the closing announcement hit, he did what any regular would do: he brought his son Justin straight out for one last round of those legendary onion rings.
Somewhere between the onion rings and the drive home, “one last visit” turned into “we can’t let this place die.” The Rustons, the family behind Ruston Cattle Company in Ennis, stepped in to take over the Coyote and bring it back.
The plan isn’t to change Loco. It’s the opposite: build on what made Loco great, undo the years of unwinding, and double down on everything that made this place a legend: the pits, the portions, the music, and the feeling that everybody at these tables is part of the coyote family.
Every plate helps write the next chapter.