Marfa, TX: Day 2.5

Apr 18, 2010 by Monica Danna    1 Comment     Posted under: travel

So after we toured the amazing Chinati Foundation, we headed back to the casita and John cooked for us, a recipe from the novel, Marfa Shadows.

The second part of our day began at Cochineal Restaurant, with an amazing dinner of fried chicken, biscuits, and mashed potatoes. The modern, red-accented decor was a perfect juxtaposition to the home cooked faire. It was a perfect Saturday afternoon meal.

Cochineal

After dinner, we walked across the street to the Marfa Book Store for John’s reading and book signing. It was a packed crowd, as all of Marfa came out to support their prodigal son. We chatted with the adorable Tim Johnson, owner of the book store, and checked out the quaint gallery attached to the store.

John reading at Marfa Book Store

We headed back to Cochineal for dessert and some conversation on the patio, then back to Padre’s. Fellow Houstonian and El Orbits front man-turned-Mr. Marfa, David Beebe, invited us out to visit his restaurant and bar, Padre’s, while we were in Marfa. Apparently, it’s the only place in town for a beer and a band. We had visited with him the night before, and headed back on Saturday for more mixing with the Marfa locals. Beebe’s quite the character, even in Marfa, in a town where, as a local girl near the fire pit explained to us, “You’ve got to be eccentric here, or you just fade away.”

It was around that fire pit that we encountered Cowboy Ty Mitchell. A 6’4″ slender man, who we nicknamed Sam Elliot 2.0. He was everything we expected to find in a sleepy West Texas town, and nothing we could tear ourselves away from.

Cowboy Ty

We sat and talked with Ty for hours. He told us story after story, sprinkling in the most amazing sidebar quotes that had us giggling like school girls. Stories of him in the military in Central America, descriptions of life in Marfa, all while rolling and smoking his own cigarettes. Natch.

Ty told us that he’s scored a part in the next Cohen Brothers movie, entirely believable, as there is not one person I can thinking that embodies “cowboy” more than Ty.

We sat and observed the local Marfa folks as the waiter who served us dinner arrived and kissed her boyfriend, Tim, the owner of the Marfa Book Store, who of course hugged Cowboy Ty, and high fived the others around the fire pit. There was something magical unfolding about our experience in Marfa, and we all felt entirely privileged to be observing life in this small Texas town.

[full set here]

Got anything to say? Go ahead and leave a comment!