Amado’s Longhorn Grill stands test of time

Nothing is more “Arizona” than a steak house shaped like a giant longhorn cattle skull.

With a cloudless, azure sky for a backdrop and the “Cow Palace” across the street, all the scene needs to complete the portrait of a romanticized Southwest is a tumbleweed, rolling in the wind.

The Longhorn Grill, a restaurant and bar off the Interstate 19 that serves American and Mexican food, has been an Amado landmark for nearly 40 years, and is as famous nationally as it is locally.

The architectural anomaly has been featured in Martin Scorsesee’s film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (1974), the Drew Barrymore chick-flick “Boys on the Side” (1995) and several independent films. It’s a favorite among biker magazines such as Easyriders and has even been featured in Hustler.

Owner Ed Madril opened the restaurant and bar in 1998 and is proud of the building’s colorful history.

“People are always asking about the skull,” said Madril. “It’s more than a restaurant, it’s a tourist attraction. I decided I should buy the place when I saw three or four families come in one day, all on road trips from out of state. They saw the huge horns from the freeway and were curious to see what this was all about.”

The building has housed a feed and tackle barn, Western clothing store, and an Italian restaurant before it was taken over by Madril, who recently renovated and expanded the restaurant area. Frank Bertolinni, who has owned the adjacent Cow Palace Restaurant since 1986, says he remembers the building being occupied by a “myriad” of businesses, including a roofing company and a graphic design firm. At one time it served as headquarters for the Arizona Rangers, a volunteer law enforcement group.

Madril says the adobe building dates back to the 1950’s, when everything in the area was a part of Kinlsey Ranch. The skull, 40-feet wide from horn-to-horn, constructed of rebar and plaster, was a late 1960’s or early 1970’s addition, but he doesn’t know who built it, or why.

“It’s a mystery,” said Madril.

RoadsideAmerica.com, the “online guide to uniquely odd tourist attractions,” says they had a hard time finding information about the building’s origins, too. One regular at the bar told them it was “built by a guy from California.” A poster on the Internet Movie Database claims the longhorn skull was constructed as a prop for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” which is plausible -- the film was made in the early 1970s and could have had a crew sent from California to build the set.

But like anything with a lost history, the building’s unknown origins add to it’s legacy.

You could see the concept as a testament to the roadside kitsch that invaded America in the 1950’s, when, for the first time, American families had the financial stability and leisure time to indulge in road trips in the station wagon. Roadside attractions began popping up along America’s highways, tourist traps like the famous teepee-shaped Wigwam Villages along Route 66, built in 1950 in San Bernardino, Calif., and Holbrook, Ariz. Or the dinosaurs rising up out of the desert in Cabazon, Calif., constructed around the time of the Longhorn. Gila Bend’s Space Age Lodge and Restaurant, built in 1962 during the space race, is shaped like — you guessed it — a space ship.

Motorists can see the horns poking out along I-19, but the building is facing South Nogales Highway, which used to be the main drag before the completion of the interstate in 1978.

The Longhorn Grill is a favorite among locals (who speak highly of the pizza), and is a great place to take guests for a good meal and a unique experience.

“Kids really love running through the cave,” said Madril, speaking of the front entrance to the restaurant, which requires patrons to enter through the nasal cavity of the skull.

The restaurant and bar is open seven days a week from 11 a.m.- 9 p.m, and is located just off the I-19 at exit 48, across from the Cow Palace.

Trust us, you won’t have a hard time finding it.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726