Hooker's Grill Video(Texas Country Reporter)

Meet a woman who's serving up an old fashioned burger, with a big story behind it.

Ruth Hooker
Hooker’s Grill
213 W Exchange Ave
Fort Worth, TX 76164
Phone: 817-773-8373
Website: https://www.facebook.com/hookersgrillFTW

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Texas Country Reporter

Video Script:: 

[Music] here in the Fort Worth Stockyards raised walkways wind up and down Exchange Avenue they were once used to keep horses and livestock from splattering the finely fitted crowd with mud but these days those sidewalks lead to hungry hordes of locals and tourists to a restaurant where the family name has a well a bit of a soiled reputation hooker is my last name I thought forever I thought you know maybe I shouldn't call it a hooker but we do have fun with it I will say that because we do happen beyond a corner you know no place better for a hooker to be then on a corner that's one thing I've learned about being here Ruth's hookers been serving up old-fashioned recipes out of this sliding window for the past few years from Kony's to milkshakes and baloney sandwiches there's something for everyone on the menu at hooker grill but it's the sweet smell of caramelized onions and the sound of sizzling burgers that really steal the show [Music] we take fresh meat it's not frozen we take a handful of thin onions they're caramelized on to the patty and it comes naturally with just mustard and pickles that's it so that's an Oklahoma fried onion burger but it's so simple and it's so old-fashioned the burger itself has been around since 1924 it was brought about in the Depression because meat was so expensive and onions were not so they kind of used onions as a filler you know kind of cheating just a little bit but what they didn't plan on was how awesome it was going to be the Oklahoma onion burger is simple but unique meat onions pickles mustard and bread it's different from anything we've had before on this side of the Red River and it's just one of many traditions from Ruth's family coming from behind the counter I brought in the Indian tacos which is also something that you would find in any Native American state really my mother grew up in southeastern Oklahoma and so she's Choctaw so we're part of the Choctaw Nation it's something that I'm really proud of I'm a female Native American business owner I think that's awesome I've had ancestors that came across the Trail of Tears and I just feel like that can't all be for nothing so anything that we do supports everything that they did in the past [Music] pride heritage tradition for Ruth hooker her little place at the stockyards is so much more than a burger stand it honors her ancestors and shares the Choctaw culture with every single customer in Choctaw there's a saying and this is actually our tagline and this is chappy salaah cheeky and so in Choctaw that means til we meet again so Native Americans in general and Choctaw specifically do not have a word for goodbye and so they don't believe in an end to something so a lot of my customers have come to understand what that means to say she piece a lot cheeky so we hope that they come back it makes me proud to make my parents proud everybody wants your people be proud of you and that's really probably the most important thing to me I think I'm a much parents proud sees a lot to keep sheep it's a lot to eat [Music] [Music] you