Beyoncé Sneakily Nods to a Texas Restaurant Through ‘Cowboy Carter’ Launch
Beyoncé is everywhere, and rightly so: her new album Cowboy Carter is out now. Because the “16 Carriages” singer is wholly tied with Texas — she was born and raised in Houston and the record is all about embracing Black cowboy culture — there’s a sneaky reference to a Texas restaurant as part of the album launch.
“the whole team was thrilled and surprised when she included the images on the website in conjunction with the launch of Cowboy Carter as we didn’t know she would include them.”
Ahead of Cowboy Carter’s release, Beyoncé posted a fun Instagram video where she’s decked out and posing in a denim outfit, white cowboy hat, and American flag bandana. Interspersed through the reel is an image of her sipping what appears to be a whiskey and a blurry image of a sake bottle (Yuki No Bosha’s junmai ginjo, to be specific). These images were taken at the Los Angeles location of Austin-based Japanese restaurant Uchi, according to a rep for the business, sometime in March.
A few days later, when Cowboy Carter was officially out, Beyoncé’s scroll-down website featured a mixture of professional and candid photos. Some of the additional images came from that Uchi-in-LA meal, including the iconic fried milk dessert (which has undergone several iterations through the years), the warm banana cake with white coffee-Kahlua ice cream, and what appears to be an also-blurry image of the coconut tapioca with pickled blueberries.
The Uchi rep tells Eater that “the whole team was thrilled and surprised when she included the images on the website in conjunction with the launch of Cowboy Carter as we didn’t know she would include them.” The restaurant reshared the images on its Instagram account, noting that they’re “glad Queen Bey approves” of the iconic fried milk dessert.
It’s an interesting choice for Beyoncé to hit up the Los Angeles location of Uchi rather than a Texas location (yes, there is one in Houston). But then again, she does live out in California, where it’s probably easier for a celebrity of her stature to dine privately and comfortably. Still, at least this is her way of subtly acknowledging Texas restaurants in her own way, even if it’s out in California.
