After a long day of cross-country road-tripping, the hubs and I stopped in Amarillo to get gas and a late lunch. I needed to hop on some wifi to upload stuff for work and a Yelp search revealed several highly rated spots with wifi including JT. Much to our amazement, JT also has a huge patio that is dog friendly, which was perfect (or so we thought) since we had one of our pups in tow.
Bottom line: Great food, but beware of birds and bird poop!!! We were ambushed the entire time we were at JT's and even when we moved to a table farther from the tree, we still had to contend with the birds either pooping on our dog or trying to get our food. It really is a health and sanitation problem.
We were greeted in a timely manner by a nice young man. When he inquired about our drink orders, I asked about drink specials and he said they had small beers on tap for only $2. Score! I'm not a huge beer drinker, but after the long day, I decided to go for it. The "small" beer really wasn't--it was definitely a Texas small, so excellent bang for your buck.
The appetizers all looked amazing, but we settled on the green-chile-ground-beef queso. So yummy (but not so much when you're unsure if a bird just pooped in your cup of queso). The chips are also delicious!
For my meal, I ordered a shrimp salad that the server recommended. It, too, was very good but I could only eat half of it before my entire appetite went away due to the poop situation. The hubs enjoyed his meal, which was some kind of carne dish. He let me try his rice and beans and they did not disappoint--as authentic as my abuela's.
To be clear, the food at JT is awesome and having a pet-friendly patio is great. The bird situation, unfortunately, is not. I think we had between seven and ten poop issues--on us (bare skin and clothes), multiple times on our dog (which my husband thought was funny but not so much when he had to clean her), my work computer, and the table near our plates. We even had to request additional napkins to clean the messes and I went to the bathroom to clean my arm and jacket. It was pretty bad news bears. At one point, I had started throwing things at them to shoo them away and finally got completely fed up and sent the hubs inside to pay the bill while I took the dog to the car.
I was a little disappointed that our server never warned us about the birds or recommended a different table. We were only one of two tables seated on the patio, so we certainly had other options for seating, though it seemed no matter where you sat, the pesky birds of all shapes, sizes, and colors would be lurking above or nearby. I'd not recommend you sit outside unless JT's decides to cut down the tree or take some serious bird-deterrent action. read more