No two downtown Plano dining establishments are alike. But a small steakhouse in the neighborhood boasts an experience unlike any other. Situated on 15th Street, BAR-Ranch Steak Company is a neighborhood butcher and sandwich shop by day, and a luxury steakhouse by night.
Opened by Lane Rainwater in fall of 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant maintains an intimate atmosphere, which Rainwater says was ideal at the time of BAR-Ranch’s launch. Before opening the space, Rainwater worked in property management, running his own company. When meeting fellow business owners in downtown Plano, he discovered that the biggest gripe was that if they wanted to have a business dinner, they would have to go all the way to The Shops at Legacy. Additionally, there weren’t a lot of steak concepts in the downtown Plano area. Seeking to meet a need, Rainwater got the ball rolling on BAR-Ranch.
BAR-Ranch opened with only four tables inside, and heavily relied on word of mouth for awareness of the space. The restaurant now boasts less than a dozen tables, which is exactly the way Rainwater likes it. While he would like to expand upon his restaurant empire, he wants to maintain BAR-Ranch’s simple yet satisfying oeuvre.
“We’ll never be a 40,50, or 60-table restaurant,” says Rainwater. “It will always be seven to 12 tables. We may add a bigger butcher section or maybe a bar, but that's about it.” (Despite the name BAR-Ranch, the space doesn’t have a full-service bar, but rather, a fine selection of wines and beers, and a private bourbon collection.)
Provided that your TikTok and Instagram algorithm are curated to find dining hot spots in North Texas, BAR-Ranch often comes up as a “hidden gem” discovered by local meat connoisseurs. “We don't want to be something that's cookie cutter,” says Rainwater. “We try to remain a hidden gem. We want to remain unique. It means a lot to us.”
Over the course of the past four years, BAR-Ranch has become known within the community for their prime rib sandwich, which comes stacked with caramelized sweet onion, spring mix, and served with a side of truffle fries. Equally as good are the wagyu sliders, like the chairman, which comes with bourbon sauteed mushrooms and melted raclette cheese, or the Eastwood, with candied jalapeño, avocado salsa and habanero jack cheese.
In the evenings, the larger steaks, like the USDA prime chateaubriand and the Australian wagyu ribeye will cost you anywhere between $295 and $545, but these extravagant cuts make for an illustrious dining experience.
Also in the restaurant is a window with many of the cuts on display. Guests can get a comprehensive look at the dry-aging process. In the aging room, all of the cuts are aged for a minimum of 30 days, using Himalayan salt, and a unique set of steps specifically designed by BAR-Ranch to produce signature flavors.
“You’ve got wet aging and dry aging,” says Rainwater. “Wet aging being, the meat is wrapped on the crown back and it marinates in its own juices, and you can do that for 25 to 35 days. And the dry aging, which is what we do – we set the meat in an environment that is controlled. We control the temperature, and we control the airflow, all of that plays a part in controlling the different types of bacteria that help break down the meat.”
All of the meats are cooked to 134 degrees by executive chef Wilfred Calderon, using an Argentine wood fire to control the temperature.
Last November, Kelsey Kirwen was hired as BAR-Ranch’s culinary director after coming in to dine one night, and instantly hitting it off with Rainwater. She was intrigued by the comfort and luxury of the smaller setting of BAR-Ranch, as well as Rainwater’s techniques. Having held stints in Dallas restaurants like Dahlia, Monarch and Constellation Club, Kirwen says BAR-Ranch made for an environment she hadn’t experienced in Dallas – a smaller, more intimate space which maintains an air of elegance and familiarity. As the new Culinary Director, Kirwen hopes to implement more sustainability practices within BAR-Ranch.
“I try to incorporate everything from the off-cuts of meat, to the stems on parsley,” says Kirwen. “We try to utilize a lot of stuff here." One of their housemade desserts, for example, is a ricotta fritter, and they make ricotta cheese here in-house. "When we make ricotta, there's the whey that comes from the top," she adds. "So we'll save the whey and we actually turn that into a caramel." The result is an extremely scratch-made desert.
"We know that the cattle industry isn't really friendly to the environment," says Kirwen, "so everything that we can do here in the restaurant is something that we really pride ourselves on, just to try to cut out any type of unnecessary waste.”
BAR-Ranch mostly homes in on steaks, greens and sides like their flash-seared brussels sprouts in dry-age tallow with bacon, as well as their romano bourbon and brown sugar sauteed mushrooms. For dessert, guests can choose a chocolate, carrot or a red velvet cake, all of which are equally rich and indulgent.
Kirwen says guests can try some of BAR-Ranch’s more “composed dishes” at their monthly wine dinners, which take place on the last Thursday of the month.
During their time in downtown Plano, both Rainwater and Kirwen have come to know and love the local community. “You can go into any bar or any pub down here, and it doesn't matter if that’s your people or not,” says Rainwater. “You can make conversation and make more friends.”
Kirwen would have to agree, adding that the diversity of the restaurants in the neighborhood reflects upon the uniqueness of its people
“It feels like just a bunch of friends that are walking into each other's houses and coming to each other's places, which I think that it can get lost a lot in dining communities where everybody's more in competition with each other,” says Kirwen. “There's a mutually beneficial relationship with every single restaurant here, because there's not a lot of commonality. Everybody has their own unique concept, so nobody's really in direct competition with anybody else here, which is great. We all support each other.”
In an effort to maintain its originality, Rainwater sources meat from local farms, as well as farms based in Australia and Japan – with one of the prerequisites being that he ensures that nearby steakhouses don’t source from the same farms. Rainwater doesn’t claim to offer better steaks than anyone else in the area, but can ensure that a night at BAR-Ranch is unmatched.
“We can honestly say that when you come here, you’re going to have things that nobody else has,” says Rainwater.
This article was previously featured in Local Profile's latest magazine.
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