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Edley's Bar-B-Que - Nashville, TN

We got a recommendation from our Hattie B's Uber driver that we needed to go check out Edley's Bar-B-Que if we wanted some amazing stuff. That was all the encouragement we needed. We convinced a handful of people to come with us.

The place wasn't full, which was what we were worried about, but it was after the dinner hour, so it had begun to clear out. When I get ribs, I always get a half slab - this time was no different. Half slab with collard green and some mac and cheese. Old school.

The place has a full bar, so you can get anything you want, so most of us ended up getting adventurous with the local brews.

The food came out pretty quickly, as much of it is already made and just has to be finished off. The ribs are dry rubbed and then finished with sauce before serving. The sauce was rich and hearty, but not vinegar-y. I loved it. Great smoke flavor, without being fake, and the amount was just right - not swimming in sauce. The meat was amazingly tender with almost no gristle at all.

The collard greens were really good. I'd just had some amazing collard greens recently, but these were good. No complaints. A little bit of spice and good flavor. I'd get these again.

The mac and cheese was good. Not the best in the world, not the worst. No gritty cheese or anything, so I liked it. It also didn't taste like cafeteria cheese, which means there was more than minimal effort put into them. I appreciate that above all else.

This place was fantastic. I think everyone was happy with their food and the beer people were even happier with the tap selection at the bar. This place has everything.

www.edleysbbq.com

Tahoe Mountain Brewing Company – Tahoe City, California

A-Wow, Stü, and I took a road trip to the mountains of California. It was lunch time and we all like drinking beer in picturesque locations. So we decided to hit up Tahoe Mountain Brewing Company. It’s a nice little brew pub overlooking Lake Tahoe, right on the main road that runs through the small town there.   They’ve got some upscale bar food and of course, a great beer selection (both brewed there and around the region). I got some beer battered cod tacos and a South Pacific Provisions farmhouse ale.
 
Right off, the beer was pretty delicious. It’s got some lychee flavors in it, but it isn’t sweet. Very interesting without being weird. I ended up getting a couple of these…  
The Cod tacos had great beer batter flavor on them. The cole slaw was a bit bland, but the chipotle aioli saved it. Great light snack before we headed back on the road.
 
…well, AFTER we put out feet in the waters of Lake Tahoe, of course… Great little brew pub that I’d hit again the next time I’m in town.

Minnesota State Fair 2014 - St. Paul, MN

People like it when I do a breakdown of what I ate at the Minnesota State Fair. (Well, my mother doesn't, since she thinks I'm going to die...)

And my sister PalmMapper and brother-in-law Uncle DumDum came over from Michigan to experience this State Fair for the second time. We did some serious damage to the food here. I'll do a quick write up, in case you're planning to go in the next few days.

Here's how it shakes out:

Deep Fried Breakfast Sandwich on a Stick (from the Sandwich Shop) - ham, eggs, sausage, cheese, in a pancake sandwich, and then deep-fried. Pretty delicious way to start your day at the Fair!!!

Chicken in the Waffle (from the Blue Barn) - fried chicken pieces covered in sausage gravy served in a waffle cone. Probably the best thing we ate at the Fair. Just beware of the malted milk ball at the bottom of the cone. It ruined everything. Ask for yours without the milk ball at the bottom.

Pig Collar Korean BBQ with Kimchee Pickles (from Famous Dave's) - Pretty boring meat unless you added some Devil's Spit spicy BBQ sauce. Not bad, just underwhelming.

Alligator on a Stick (from Bayou Bob's) - Alligator sausage on a  stick. It just tasted like a brat. If you want alligator, get the nuggets. They're sooo much better than this sausage.

Liftbridge Mini Donut Beer - I mean, you HAVE to try it, right? It was surprisingly good. The sugary rim helped, as well.

Pretzel Curds (from O'Gara's) - Quite awesome, in all honesty. Pretzel and almonds crushed up in the batter and deep fried. Great dipping sauce as well.

Deep Fried Buckeyes (from Spaghetti Eddie's) - deep fried balls of chocolate and peanut butter served with strawberry jelly. Suuuuuuuper rich. You'll need to split these between your entire family. But they are good.

Jello Salad Ice Cream (from the Hamline Church) (see mom? I went to church.) - Ice cream with cranberry and lime swirls with some marshmallow bits. Served with an extra izzy scoop on top. I got the pomegranate and didn't love it. Overall, not the greatest ice cream I've ever had.

S'More's Beer (from Giggles Campfire) - A coffee stout with a chocolate graham cracker rimmed cup. Not a terrible beer on its own. I liked the Mini Donut Beer much better.

Cheese Curds (from Mouth Trap) - Best cheese curds in the world. Every time.

1919 Root Beer (from the 1919 stand) - I love this root beer.

Teryaki Ostrich on a Stick (from China Town) - Ground ostrich meat on a stick. Served with teriyaki sauce and we grabbed some sri racha, as well. Pretty good, honestly.

Cheese Curds Round 2 (from Mouth Trap) - I told you they were the best curds in the world.

Hot Patty - Spicy Beef (from West Indies Soul Food) - Good and spicy, but not as good as they are in the Bahamas. It's ground up spicy beef in a pastry shell, like a caribbean empanada.

Beer Flight #1 (from the Ag Barn) - All four of these beers were super good. ALL of them.

Beer Gelato (from Mancini's) - It's like ice cream, but beer flavored. Good and refreshing, but I don't know that I need any more of it.

Sweet Martha's Cookies (from Sweet Martha's Cookies)(My sister had to get some) - They're just burnt cookie dough. Next.

Hot Dago on a Stick (from Luigi's Fries) - garlic sticks and meatballs covered in mozzarella cheese and baked. Served with peppers and marinara sauce. I shouldn't like this as much as I do. It's sooooo good.

Fire Dog (from Pickle Dog) - It's like a ham roll up, but with pastrami. A layer of cream cheese and a pickle inside, and then jalapeños inside. Super good and I'm going to start akin these for parties. Parties of ONE at my house.

Grainbelt Blu (from Schell's) - Blueberry flavored beer, but then they added some odd slushy foam on the top. Just get the beer. It is odd, but good. And purple.

Blue Cheese and Corn Fritz (from the Blue Barn) - Corn fritters with a tiny bit of cheese inside served with chimichurri sauce. Great sauce and great fritters, but I really wanted to taste the blue cheese. These were good, but filling at the end of the day.

Farm Handsandwich (from the Blue Barn) - Braised beef with french fries and covered in pimento cheese. Great meat flavor. I liked this, but not as much as the Chicken in the Waffle. We may have gotten a second order of the chicken....

Seriously, this was one of the best State Fairs ever. I'm so glad my sister and brother-in-law got to come from Michigan to hang out with me!

Great time. Now, it's time to die.

Z’s Smokin’ Bonez BBQ – Maple Grove, MN

HotGirlsBrother and I have a difficult time turning down BBQ and ribs of any sort. We heard Z’s Smokin’ Bonez opened up a while back and really tried hard to get there. It took us forever, but we finally made it (despite a last minute decision and then forgetting to call Low-Vee to come join us like the olden days when we did the Bar-B-Quest). We made the long trek out to Maple Grove to check it out.

THIS is a happy guy:

We were greeted by a young kid who was elbows deep in BBQ ribs. He could tell we hadn’t been here before and offered immediate assistance in ordering. Not pushy or anything, just really helpful. He ran through a couple of top sellers and we told him we wanted ribs. He explained that they basically sold everything by the pound (except for sandwiches), so we opted to split a half rack between the both of us.
When we got to the list of sides available, we were shocked. LOTS of things – a few standards and few really creative things. We went back and forth a few times with each other haggling on what we’d get, and we finally narrowed it down to four sides. Hahahahaha, yes, we narrowed it to four sides. Loaded baked beans, Bacon and Bleu Mac, Bacon Potato Salad, and House Cole Slaw. The kid was already chopping our ribs while HotGirlsBrother and I stood at the counter and argued. Then, we made the guy’s life hell by using a LivingSocial deal we got – the guy was really gracious about it and played it off like we didn’t just ruin his day. (We tipped really well to make sure his day wasn’t completely ruined!

They brought out the ribs and sides on cafeteria trays and we divided things up to make sure we got to try some of everything. The kid told us about the sauces they had and then sent us to the refrigerated case to pick out our own. We tried a little of every sauce they had there. And, it wasn’t just the side dishes that had some creativity to them! The sauces were magical and not like most I’ve seen in many BBQ joints. They, of course, had original and sweet & sassy, which is common, but then they had a Bacon BBQ, Peanut Butter BBQ, Mustard BBQ, Temper BBQ (and a sugar free version), Jalapeno BBQ, Wasabi BBQ, and a White BBQ (horseradish based). The guy is a mad scientist of BBQ sauces!

The Bacon Potato Salad was great. Lots of bits of bacon in it and rich creamy flavor that somehow wasn’t a heavy cream feel. I’m not saying it was light or anything, it was just significantly lighter than either of us expected. Fantastic.

The House Cole Slaw was good, even though we thought it would pale in comparison to the creamy ones we normally like. It was vinegar based, but not normal vinegar. Maybe apple cider or something more unique than that. Still sweet, but had the burn and tang of vinegar. I’d absolutely order this again.

The Loaded Baked Beans were so packed with other meats (rib meat, pulled pork, bacon) that you almost couldn’t tell if the beans were good. I think they were, but I was so focused on all the other meat, I couldn’t tell. These are almost a meal in themselves.

The Black and Bleu Mac was really quite good. There were little chunks of bleu cheese mixed in with the noodles and you could really taste the bleu flavor. I really liked this stuff. It’s some of the better mac and cheese I’ve had lately, in all honesty.

Finally, the ribs were so much better than we expected them to be. I say “expected”, but I mean “hoped”. And by that, I mean if they were bad, then we wouldn’t have to drive all the way back out to Maple Grove again. Sadly, these things were really delicious and now we have to drive all the way back out to Maple Grove again. Hahahah. Totally worth it, though. The bones slid right out of the meat. Just a little bit of fat to give the things flavor, and a little bit of cartilage to work through. But we cleaned these bones (or bonez) like wolves. Great dry rub on them and the smoke flavor is real, not from a bottle. We tried them with all of the available sauces and here are my choices for favorite sauces. I kept going back and forth between the peanut butter BBQ and the Jalapeno BBQ. The peanut butter was like a thick Thai peanut paste with a little kick and the jalapeno had great pepper flavor. Both of these were homeruns. The original was really good, as was the Sweet & Sassy. I’m not a mustard fan, but HotGirlsBrother really liked that one and the White BBQ. I thought the White BBQ sauce would be fantastic on a roast beef sandwich, so I’m keeping that in mind. The other sauces were fine, as well – I promise.

We left the place absolutely stuffed (so maybe four sides was overkill) and happy. The owner and the kids working there were really hospitable and helpful and talkative. Even though it is a haul from the Twin Cities proper, it’s worth a trip if you’re headed west on 94. I’m glad we finally made it out there. Now I need to check my calendar to find out when we can go again!!!

Top 5 things about Z’s Smokin’ Bonez BBQ
1. BBQ Ribs
2. Black and Bleu Mac
3. Loaded Baked Beans
4. House Cole Slaw
5. Crazy number of sauces!

Bottom 5 things
1. Not close to TC proper, but worth the drive
2. So many delicious things on the menu you’ll take forever to decide
3. Who am I kidding? There IS no bottom 5 list for this place!
4.
5.

www.zsmokinbonez.com

Groveland Tap (Poutine Crawl) – St. Paul, MN

A bunch of fun people I know do a Poutine Crawl in the Twin Cities. Not all in one night, but this was the next stop on the list. We’ve been to a bunch of places and everyone has different opinions, so there’s no reason to rank any of them. But this one had HIGH acclaim from Rocky. He raved about it and swears it’s the best in the Twin Cities. Of course, it was our goal to shoot Rocky down.

There’s a lot of good food items at the Groveland Tap. They’re part of a restaurant group that also does good food, so it just stands to reason they would also have good food. I forget that sometimes.

D.Rough and I decided to split an order of poutine and an order of Fish Tacos. We were sure that would have been enough.

The poutine comes out in a small cast iron skillet. The server warns you not to touch the metal because it’s hot. Yes, we touched it. Yes, it IS hot. The crinkle fries alarmed some of us at first, but our minds were quickly changed. The crinkles held the gravy. The delicious delicious dark brown beef gravy. Lots of gravy. I can’t explain why it is so good, but it truly is. The curds were also the right temperature for being melty, but not dissolving. You knew when you had a curd, and then you were thrilled with how well it went with the fries and gravy.

Alright, Rocky, if it isn’t the top in the Twin Cities, it’s at least in the top 3. Kudos to you on your poutine-ranking skills, my friend!

The fish tacos were also fantastic. Plenty of crispy battered and fried fish in them and the toppings were fresh. A great flavor complement to the poutine.

Then when late people showed up to join us and also get poutine, it was incredibly difficult for all of us not to order a second round of poutine. It was THAT good.

Go for the cheap drinks, stay for the poutine. This place went straight to the Top 3 list of poutines in the area in MY personal book.


Wrestlepalooza III – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I have some really fun friends who like to watch wrestling. Not the stuff you see on TV, but the amateur stuff where people try to kill themselves getting noticed by the people who do wrestle on TV. There is an outfit called F1rst Wrestling that puts on a serious wrestling-themed party at First Avenue. They bring in bands and burlesque dancers and the whole thing is sponsored by PBR. It’s incredibly fun.

D.Rough has been to ALL of the events, but this is only my second. I was super excited based on the events at the last one. And as a bonus, we got to hang with D.Rough’s cousin Nolan, which we need to do more of, apparently.

I can’t possibly get into all the details of what transpired, but I’ll give you some rough overviews and hope that is enough to convince you to go to this thing next time it’s in town. Don’t think of it as wrestling, where you point out how fake everything is. Think of it as a huge party where some guys beat up on each other and you get to yell wildly inappropriate things at people standing ten feet from you.

A plug on Facebook announced there would be a cat vs dog match (The Charismatic Canine: Yellow Dog versus The Crime Fighting Feline: Wildcat), which was absolutely awesome(ly hilarious). The dog had a puppy toy that the cat used to distract him. And the cat guy had the crowd chanting meow loudly and regularly. Classic stuff. Anywhere you sit or stand, you're going to be pretty close to the ring.

Pretty quickly, we realized there were really awesome places to stand right next to the ring. So, despite our fear of being sweated on, we moved in real tight-like.

Then, we got pushed aside as they brought out the ladders, folding chairs, garbage cans, and cookie sheets to hit each other with.

I got to stand right where the wrestlers come out after being introduced. I was mere feet from Sheik Ariya Daivari, who was boooooed loudly by the drunkenly racist crowd and cheered for by our friend Rocky.

We got to see the Minnesota RollerGirls Announcer John Maddening get kicked in the jimmy before being face slammed before our very eyes (yes, it’s fake, and yes, he DID actually get hurt).

Then, the Wildcat and Yellow Dog came back out to smack around the two kilted fellows by jumping off the speakers onto the floor and then flipping off the top ropes for the pin.


We also got to see Zero Gravity wrestle with the North Star Express, Playboy Pete Huge, 6% Body Fat Rob James, Horace the Psychopath, “The Anarchist” Arik Cannon, and a bunch of other people killing themselves for our entertainment.

Big thanks to the really fun burlesque dancers SweetPea and Queenie von Curves!

And an equally big thanks to Lipstick Homicide, a female fronted punk band from Iowa City, and Bloodnstuff from Minneapolis.

Seriously, that was some of the best fun I’ve had in a long time. I can’t wait until Wrestlepalooza IV!!!!!!

B-52 Burgers and Brew – Inver Grove Heights, MN

I had a free night, so I headed to a place I had meant to go to for some time – B-52. I really wasn’t sure what to expect, aside from a serious burger menu. The restaurant is located right next to a movie theater that I’ve attended frequently, so it isn’t usually far from my mind.

The inside was different than I expected. From the outside, it looks like an medium-scale place, like a more affordable Granite City or Pittsburgh Blue. But once inside, it is much more low-brow than that. It’s really dark inside with some dark wood, and almost… I hesitate to say… divey (but a comfortable divey). It’s 1000% a sports bar, however. In fact, you know how in Vegas, all the booths in a place face the band’s stage? B-52 is like that, but all the booths face a wall full of television screens. MANY screen. You can’t look anywhere in the place and not accidentally view some sort of sports. While I was there, I was fortunate enough to see the Lady Gophers, the state hockey tournament, Minnesota Wild, some baseball game from last season, and a half dozen other sports. If you aren’t into sports, then this is NOT your place – be forewarned. To their credit, it isn’t particularly loud or dirty or anything, just really dark and set up like no restaurant I’ve ever been to.

The menu has a lot of things happening. Lots of wraps, fried appetizers, flatbreads, bigger entrees, and of course burgers. Lots of burgers. Also, they have a mac and cheese of the week – which I was tempted to get, but felt I owed it to the place to give them a burger review. They also have a Friday night all you can eat fish fry that I REALLY wanted, but still went with the burger. Next time, I’m going fish fry. Additionally, I was a little bummed at their beer selection. It’s got “brew” in the title of the place, but they had a pretty white bread selection of the standards. Not much local and not much weird.

I needed about 90% of the burgers on the list, but finally decided on the B-52. It’s got roasted jalapenos, banana peppers, pepper jack cheese, chipotle mayo, and B-52 sauce. I saw they had “the Mother of All Burgers” on the menu, which is a pile of stuff with 2 pounds of burger between a giant bun, but I wasn’t in the mood to die this particular evening. I also decided on sweet potato fries, since I’m always a big fan.

There was some interesting entertainment aside from that on the TVs in the place, so I enjoyed myself listening to a relationship end, a bunch of d-bags talk smack about their girlfriends who were sitting next to them, and a particular couple trying to do karaoke to the sound of the music on the sound system in the restaurant. Sound like every night is an enjoyable time at B-52.

The food came out and despite the dark, it looked pretty good. The bun is branded with the signature B-52 logo – a classy touch that I enjoy. There were also a handful of pickle slices which were REALLY thick cut and tasty. I was also amazed at the amount of sweet potato fries that were included here. Almost the amount you give someone to prove they can’t finish them – almost. There were a ton.

The burger itself was pretty good. Not in the Top 5 in the world, but pretty darn good. The combination of ingredients was fantastic and the meat was flavorful without being greasy. The ratio of toppings to burger and bun was spot-on, as well. There was a good amount of spice, but not enough to make me sweat (again, I’m not originally from Minnesota, so I actually do have a developed spice tolerance). Great work on the burger.

The sweet potato fries were great. They had good seasoning to them and were not floppy, nor crispy. Perfectly cooked. The seasoned mayo/sour cream that came with to dip made everything that much better, also. It was difficult to not blow through the small-ish container they gave me, but next time, I will ask for two. There are a lot of fries, and I hate holding back on my fry coverage.

Overall, I had a pretty darn good meal here. The server made sure I was well taken care of and didn’t even mock me for coming in solo. Looking around, I wasn’t the only one. I’m looking forward to heading back to this place before or after a movie sometime. Maybe on a Friday night when they have the fish fry or when they have some awesome mac and cheese special. It’s worth the trip from the Downtown area, if that’s where you’re at. Lots of things to choose from. But again, be forewarned, this place is a sport bar on crack.

Top 5 things about B-52 Burgers and Brew
1. Sweet potato fries and dip (amount and flavor)
2. B-52 burger
3. Really good menu with a lot of options
4. Really friendly staff
5. If you like sports, I’ll give you the fifth slot on the Top 5

Bottom 5 things
1. If you don’t like sports, I’ll give you the number 1 spot on the Bottom 5
2. It’s realllly dark in there
3. visually distracting with all the televisions showing every sport in the known universe
4. The B-52 war-time imagery that the place is named for is very much lost on the walls due to the televisions
5. Lackluster beer menu, considering “brew” is in its name

www.b52burgersandbrew.com

Beer Dinner at the Pig & Fiddle – Minneapolis, MN

M.Giant asked me if I’d like to accompany him to a beer dinner, now that I drink beer. Obviously, any chance I get to hang with him is a bonus for me, so I agreed. I had heard good things about Pig & Fiddle, so I was really looking forward to it. There wasn’t any point at looking at the menu, since it was a special dinner made by the chef, but I looked anyway. The food on the menu looks really good to me, so I’m assuming I’ll be back.

While waiting for M.Giant, I grabbed a beer – Indeed Brewery’s Summer Shenanigans – thinking dinner would just be smaller sample portions. I was wrong about that.

The dinner was being hosted by Lagunitas Brewery from California. So there was a rep there discussing the brewery and the beer, and the chef from Pig & Fiddle came out and discussed the food she was serving us. She had lost her voice, so she had an interpreter, which was a pretty amusing phenomenon – but honestly, it worked out well.

I’ll give you a run-down of each course:

Amouse Bouche – Iowa Le Quercia Prosciutto and shell pea salad. Paired with Lagunitas Pils.
Nice piece of prosciutto (and I had just read about the new trend being Iowa prosciutto) with a splash of olive oil and lemon juice. The peas were a nice touch and I was good with this small amount of food. The Pils was also a different flavor than many pils’ I’ve had, but still very good accompaniment. I decided then and there to only drink half of the beers when I realized they were full portions.

1st Course: Red Curry Shellfish, steamed mussels, shrimp, and manila clams with spicy red curry broth. Paired with Lagunitas IPA.
I’m not much on mussels, but I saw how other people were eating this and joined in. They’re not my favorite thing, but I actually enjoyed these, especially in the curry broth. The broth had a nice slow-build heat and went well with the shrimp and clams, as well as the mussels. The IPA was pretty close to being too hoppy for me, but I was able to get through my pre-decided half glass.

Entrée: Pan-roasted pork tenderloin with plum salsa, baby bok choy, and potato puree. Paired with Lagunitas Fusion 15.
The pork tenderloin was really a fantastic dish and there was plenty of it – more than I expected for a multi-course meal. The plum salsa was a surprising treat and I enjoyed this entire plate. The beer was explained as a Minnesota-based home brewer that won a contest and was flown out to Lagunitas, where they replicated it in bulk and threw it into some kegs for distribution. That brewer, as it turns out, is my good friend TheDoctor. He brewed a seriously hoppy India Black Ale that suited the pork tenderloin nicely (it might even be better with a beef dish or steak, since it is so heavy).

Cheese course: Milton Creamery Prairie Rose with buckwheat honey and pickled blackberries on a grilled baguette. Paired with Lagunitas Lucky 13 (red ale).
A pretty straight forward plate presentation. The cheese was rich and nutty and went nicely with the uniquely pickled blackberries. The baguette added some crunch, but could have been buttered – just a personal preference. The Lucky 13 was served in a smaller glass since the ABV is getting up there close to 9% and overall it was pretty hoppy and bitter for my palate. I managed to get through my half glass.

Dessert: a Salted Pecan Tart with grapefruit caramel and shortbread crust. Paired with Undercover Shut-Down Ale.
The tart was surprising winner. I didn’t expect much out of it, but it honestly made my face happy at the end of this meal. Even M.Giant who is suspicious of weird foods was pleasantly surprised. Soft and moist and delicious (the tart, not M.Giant). The Undercover Shut-Down Ale was a result of a police raid and subsequent shutdown of the brewery. To commemorate the event, the brewer dedicated it to the investigators and turned up the ABV to 9.75%. Well played. It was REALLY bitter, this one. I guess they’re still angry about being shut down for a couple of weeks.

This was a really good event. The owner of the restaurant came over and chatted with us, as did the brewery rep, and the chef. I’m glad I decided to just drink half glasses of beer since some people looked like they might be sticking around drinking water for a while. Now that I know the chef can make some amazing food, I’m very interested in coming back to try some of the regular menu items here.

Great work, Pig & Fiddle!

Top 5 things about Pig & Fiddle
1. Pan roasted pork tenderloin
2. Salted pecan tart
3. Tons of beers on tap
4. Lagunitas Pils
5. Staff here are incredibly nice

Bottom 5 things
1. It was difficult to hear the explanations of everything with everyone talking. I would have loved to hear more about the food, but then again, I’m more of a food guy then a beer guy
2. Super hoppy and bitter beers, but people were raving about them, so don’t take my opinion
3. They didn’t mention TheDoctor’s name in the explanation of the contest winner for Fusion 15
4. The amount of beer people drank was pretty impressive, but I wished I had heard more people talking about designated drivers than I actually did
5. I wish I was able to order all the OTHER awesome things people have told me about the regular menu!

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