There are fancier places, more sophisticated places, and certainly more historical restaurants (such as The Savoy) to take out-of-towners to get a taste of what Kansas City is all about. But few restaurants capture the flavor, color, and gusto of Kansas City's rollicking cowboy past like the 52-year-old Golden Ox. The landmark in the old stockyards is known for sizzling char-broiled steaks, fluffy baked potatoes, and warm rolls with giant squares of butter. Radio personality Walt Bodine once took a visiting dignitary to dinner there "because the guy said he wanted to see a cowboy and, sure enough, there was one at the bar." At a recent lunch, a lantern-jawed cowpoke -- straight out of a John Wayne movie -- was hunched over a bourbon at the bar, his calloused hands and weathered hat proving that he was the real McCoy. The cattle drives and the stockyards may be long gone, but at the Golden Ox, the Old West lives on as if time has stood still.
