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Lisa Sanders Perini \u201984<\/b><\/p>\n
Real Texas Food<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> By\u00a0Sara Ann Hutto \u201917<\/b> Perini and her husband present an authentic Texas experience through their award-winning steakhouse<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Perini Ranch Steakhouse<\/span> has seven incoming phone lines. According to Lisa Perini, calls run the gamut from \u201cI want a dinner reservation\u201d and \u201cI need to order a tenderloin\u201d to \u201cThe cows are out\u201d and \u201cThere\u2019s a water leak.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll the glamorous things that can happen every day,\u201d Perini laughs.<\/span><\/p>\n She runs the restaurant and lodging business alongside her husband, Tom Perini, who founded the steakhouse in 1983 in rural Buffalo Gap, Texas. The ranch is close to 640 acres \u2014 \u201cvery small in Texas standards,\u201d Perini says \u2014 and boasts the steakhouse, the guest quarters, about 60 employees, ranging from dish washers to an onsite CPA, and about 50 longhorns, which Perini and her husband raise for fun: \u201cOne\u2019s named Tiger. Imagine that!\u201d<\/p>\n In 2014, Perini Ranch Steakhouse was named an America\u2019s Classics winner by the prestigious James Beard Foundation, recognizing the establishment as representative of its surrounding culture and community. The steakhouse takes much of its inspiration from the chuck wagons of the late 1800s, which would serve breakfast and supper to hungry cowboys on their drive north.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe call it real Texas food,\u201d Perini says. The menu features signature Texas dishes like green chile hominy, quail and, of course, steak. \u201cBeef is always on the center of our plate,\u201d she continues. \u201cWe believe in the beef industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Perinis\u2019 passion for beef is evidenced by their careful sourcing of Certified Angus Beef and Certified Angus Beef Prime from small farms and ranches across the United States, as well as their trips abroad with the U.S. Meat Export Federation to countries like Russia, Japan and Poland, where they promote the exportation of U.S. beef and educate chefs on how to best prepare it.<\/span><\/p>\n No stranger to cattle, Perini grew up on a dairy farm in Cordova, South Carolina. \u201cMy father went to Clemson, and my uncle went to Clemson,\u201d Perini says. \u201cMy only job was to get accepted to Clemson.\u201d She graduated with a degree in administrative management in 1984 and soon after moved to Dallas, where she met her husband and eventually joined him on the ranch.<\/span><\/p>\n Perini says one of her favorite aspects of the ranch is its rural location, something she and her husband weren\u2019t willing to give up when they had the opportunity to franchise: \u201cWe love that there\u2019s one Perini Ranch, and it\u2019s such a unique experience. So much of what it is is because of where it is. You have to work to get here. We just don\u2019t think that replicates.\u201d<\/p>\n Between running the steakhouse and the guest quarters, catering, processing mail orders and caring for the longhorns, those seven phone lines stay busy. But Perini wouldn\u2019t change it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have many, many ideas on the horizon. We need more time in every day to get it all done,\u201d she says. \u201cThey become very long days, but I don\u2019t know how they go by so fast!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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