Jess & Jim's Steakhouse bull

Jess & Jim's Steakhouse, in Martin City, Kansas City, Missouri, has been topped by a giant bovine for decades. What to call it is unsettled: the Martin City Community Improvement District calls it a steer, Kansas City Magazine and the Martin City Telegraph call it a cow, and Tasting Table, in January 2026, calls it a giant bull crowning the restaurant's brick building.

The restaurant itself dates to April 1938, according to the Martin City Telegraph, and the Martin City district calls it a family-owned steakhouse in a landmark building. The animal came later, and the accounts differ on when. Kansas City Magazine says that since 1981 a large cow has decorated the top of the restaurant. The Telegraph, in a 2018 anniversary piece, recounts that in the late 1980s the owner and his father were called into court after buying an old Sirloin Stockade bull, fixing it up and installing it on the roof. As the Telegraph tells it, the judge asked, "You mean to tell me that someone is complaining because you're a steakhouse and you have a cow on the roof?" and dismissed the case.