For 17 years, Cowboy Star has served the type of apex meats that condemned emperors demand for their last meals. I’m more serf than sovereign, but its 35-day, bone-in, dry-aged ribeye still haunts my dreams (although I’d never turn down a melt-in-your-mouth cut of tender filet mignon). And don’t even get me started on the chocolate chip bread pudding. Real ones know, and if you don’t—well, fix yourself.
The iconic cowboy-chic steakhouse has landed on San Diego Magazine’s list for Best Steakhouse in 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019… you get the gist. The kicker is that it’s owned by a married local couple and their chef-partner—a rare indie bird in the big-dollar steakhouse ecosystem.
(L to R): Victor Jimenez, Andrea Thurston, Angie Weber, and Jon Weber
That legacy began when Jon and Angie Weber and chef/partner Victor Jimenez opened the butcher shop-meets-Western American restaurant in East Village in 2008. Not a great year to open—smack dab in the middle of a nationwide housing crisis, bank failures, widespread unemployment, and suddenly way fewer corporate expense accounts earmarked for Tomahawks and old fashioneds.
But they scraped and hung on, and it paid off. Cowboy Star went gangbusters, eventually opening a second location in Colorado Springs in 2015—a strategically glacial growth pace, explains Angie.
“We are slow movers,” she says. “We’ve been approached dozens of times about different properties in town, and we say no a lot.”
Finally, they said yes to not just a new location in San Diego, but an entirely fresh concept—She Rode West, slated to open summer 2026 in Bankers Hill in the planned Park Summit building at Fifth Avenue and Upas.
She Rode West isn’t another Cowboy Star, Jon explains. It’s a sister concept—a gritty yet graceful take on the idea of a Western heroine. It’s also the first project for the group as a quartet, adding longtime director of operations Andrea Thurston as a fourth partner. She’s been with the group for a decade and, along with Angie, kept percolating on the idea of the potential evolution of Cowboy Star.
“The name is super important,” says Jon, pointing to strong female characters in old westerns that inspire a story. “What did she leave back east? Was she running from something? What did she expect when she got out [there], and how far west did she go?”
That open-ended narrative of discovery and adventure is the jumping-off point for the buildout and aesthetic, which will be designed by Paul Basile of Basile Studio (he also handled the 2020 remodel of Cowboy Star East Village). Because She Rode West is part of a brand-new build in the Park Summit building, the 3,100-square-foot space with 20-foot floor-to-ceiling windows will feel brighter and airier than its older brother.
Being on the ground floor of a residential building means residents and neighbors can drop in daily for a drink and a bite. So rather than design a menu to emulate Cowboy Star’s special occasion feel, Jimenez says She Rode West’s menu will be more approachable and sharable, while still maintaining its level of service and execution.
Food and drink plans are still in very, very early stages, but guests can expect reimagined classics like cobb salads and beef carpaccio, plus some curated steak selections that nod (but don’t directly lasso) to Cowboy Star. She Rode West won’t be steak-driven, Jon assures. It’ll be a seasonal, all-day menu, with a beverage program that follows that same ethos of reinvention (like the Prairie Pomodoro savory martini; or Rye’d or Die, a twist on a rye Old Fashioned). Wine, beer, and other non-alcoholic options will round out the menu.
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Bringing something new into the world after nurturing something so beloved for so long can feel like a risky endeavor. But it’s time, says Angie. “We all love Cowboy Star so much… but, you know, it’s been 17 years,” she says. “I think a lot of the team is really thinking of [She Rode West] that way, like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna have a new little sister.’ It’s exciting.”
She Rode West opens in Park Summit at Fifth Avenue & Upas Street in Bankers Hill in mid to late summer 2026.
