All guides to Marfa will tell you to put Jett’s at Hotel Paisano on your list. We quickly realized in this quiet West Texas town — you really only have a few choices (especially if your journey doesn’t fall between Friday at 12p until Sunday). We were lucky to snag a room with a balcony at the Hotel Paisano, and after an afternoon of lounging around and drinking cocktails we made our way down the tiled stairs and took a right into Jett’s Grill. It’s a quaint little restaurant - the patrons on a Thursday were an older set here for a weekend trip. There was even a group of four women who looked like they have been doing yearly Marfa trips for the past twenty-five years
(Spoiler alert, we saw them come up the stairs later with
mini wine bottles covered in blankets, so they’ve finally
curated these getaways).
(if you’re a Texas-native, you know white gravy is the holy grail of condiments)."
The real star of the restaurant isn’t the white linens or the quaint ambience, but the four star dishes. Pistachio crusted chicken-fried steak with jalapeno gravy, tortilla crusted chicken breast with green beans and fresh avocado sauce along with great choices for appetizers, and the prize steak filet that adorns the top of the main dishes makes it hard to choose. We went with the first options, and they did not disappoint. The portions are definitely Texas-sized in this fine dining atmosphere. I’ve never had a fried steak whose crust was so flaky and the meat so tender. The surprise of this dish was the white gravy (if you’re a Texas-native, you know white gravy is the holy grail of condiments). The faint jalepeno was not hard to miss in this unique twist on gravy, and generously covered the mashed potatoes and chicken fried steak so that every bite was coated with this gem. Patrico chose the tortilla-crusted chicken accompanied by avocado- cream sauce. Again, the sauce really stole the show here - generously complimenting each piece of the tender chicken. The entrees were just as unique as the hotel they were being served in, but a to-go box was definitely needed. Yet with one look at the dessert menu, we opted to continue with this smorgasbord.
this sickening-sweet dessert
-We mean sickening in the best of ways."
Come here famished, because you’re going to want to add dessert to the bill. We chose the fudge brownie with Mexican-vanilla ice cream - a relatively simple dessert by nature, but Jett’s put together such a masterpiece of a warm fudge lapped with generous scoops of ice cream that made us forget how full we were. In fact - we would have gone back for seconds here. The Mexican-vanilla adds a subtle spice to this sickening-sweet dessert - We mean sickening in the best of ways.
By time we wrapped up the last bite, the restaurant started to fill with Hotel Pasiano’s patrons along with a few locals. Everyone was in good spirits, enjoying each-other’s company and sipping on the finely curated cocktails from their elegant bar. This is a place you could spend an evening at and not be mad that you didn’t leave your hotel grounds. Most took their parties outside to the courtyard where string lights set the a movie-like scene with the gentle stream from the iconic fountain humming in the background.
Jett’s is truly a staple in this special town that can’t be missed. While we didn’t have any white-linens for the rest of the trip, the food at Jett’s was memorable and a special start to our sojourn to Marfa, TX.