Today I was taken out to lunch by a friend of mine, Mike. We went to a local greasy spoon called "The Other One". This place is tucked away in a shopping center near the GIANT PUBLIC POOL that resides in Oak Ridge (seriously, this thing is enormous). It is known for its burgers and sandwiches, but also for the "Food Challenges" it has, which I'll get to in a bit.
The menu is "lots of burgers of various sizes and toppings, lots of different sandwiches, some sides, and hot wings." You know, bar food. They have a wide variety of foods to accommodate a wide range of tastes, and I believe everyone who eats there can find something they can nosh on. Examples: The Summit - 1/2lb burger with Pimento cheese, The Tofu Reuben - Exactly what it says on the tin, and the Tank - 2 1/3rd lb patties with cheese and bacon. In addition, they have three menu items of questionable judgement: The Fatman, the Colossus, and the Hotter than Hale hot wings.
The Fatman is 4 1/2lb patties, stacked Big Mac style, with a lot of toppings and a side of fries. If you finish it in 11 minutes, you get it for free, otherwise you get your picture on the Wall of Shame. For the "I want the experience but not the full thing" you can order the little guy, which is exactly the same except it uses 2oz patties instead of 1/2 lb ones.
The Colossus is a 5 lb. burger, smothered in toppings and comes with 6 servings of fries. It costs $70 ($75 with cheese), and is designed for a party of 6 or more people to share and enjoy. I believe it is for parties, and may require a "call ahead" order, I'm not sure. There is no challenge associated with this one that I am aware of.
The Hotter Than Hale hot wings are the spicest wings in the joint, and if you can eat 10 of them in a row, without drinking, and with licking your fingers clean and sitting for five minutes, you win a free combo meal. As an alternative, you can have one wing as a side item for a $1. You can now see where this is going.
For my meal, I elected to have the Brooks Bomber, which is a 1/3rd lb cheeseburger topped with a small variety of cold cuts like salami and other things you'd find on a Subway Cold Cut Combo. I had a side of curly fries, which I were told were "crisp", and a diet soda as a drink. Mike had a Gyro, fries, and an extra tub of tzatziki sauce. I also decided to get a "tester" Hotter than Hale hot wing.
The wing arrived first. Having heard tales of its insanity, I elected to let it sit while I waited for the rest of my food. The scent of the wing was very strong, and I could feel the spice in my nostrils. This would be no ordinary hot wing. The burger soon arrived and it was actually really damn good. The patty was well cooked, the toppings complimented the burger, and all in all it was a delicious, if greasy, dish. The curly fries were fine. They were not "crispy", but were about what you would expect from curly fries, so I'm not sure what was up with the "crispy" description. I elected to preserve the majority of the fries to help mitigate the horrible spiciness of the hot wing, which waited for me to be suckered into its trap.
Because he's an asshole, Mike decided he simply MUST record the whole experience on his phone. Yeah, it's probably going to be on YouTube soon. Hooray? Whatever. I introduced myself, picked up the hot wing, and took a bite. All I could really taste was vinegar, which was clearly the base of the sauce. I chewed a bit, and then the burn started to kick in. Deciding that speed was of the essence, I wolfed down the rest of the wing, which still didn't taste like anything except Hot and Vinegar, and licked my fingers clean of the sauce. That's when my eyes started to water really bad, and I began sucking down my soda at an increased rate. Was it spicy? Fuck yeah it was spicy. It was so spicy that soon even the flavor of vinegar was banished and all I could taste was burning. Soda helped but a little. I tried eating some fries, but they didn't do much to mitigate the problem. On a whim, I dunked one into the tzatziki sauce. That did the trick, sort of. The burning was fierce, and I drank a lot of soda and ate almost all of Mike's leftover tzatziki sauce in trying to put out the flames, while my eyes watered and my nose, sinuses WIDE OPEN, ran a bit. Mike tells me I also turned red.
The Other One is a damn fine greasy spoon with a fun atmosphere and some "gimmicky" foods. I will totally eat there again, though I certainly won't have any of their Hotter than Hale hot wings again. It gets 3 smiley faces on a scale of 5 frowny faces to 5 smiley faces, and I'd bring friends there if they visit, and I can find the place.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
Kotas Reviews Smokey Mountain Brewery
Last night before seeing 'Prometheus' (see previous rant), we ate at a local place I'd always wanted to try but never got a chance to called Smokey Mountain Brewery. Their claim to fame is that they are the main source for all the local craft beer sold by the Copper Celler, and Calhouns. All these local chains are owned by the same people anyway, but I'd never tried this particular outlet before.
The atmosphere is..."well, we have all this space, we might as well serve food to go along with our beer". There isn't much aesthetic, though they've clearly tried to "sports bar" it up with TVs at a lot of the tables and big TVs mounted up on the walls. Sadly, it doesn't quite work, but it's probably "good enough". The staff was pleasant and helpful and all around nice.
The menu is mostly bar food, with steaks, ribs, pizza, and some other pasta dishes for flavor. They make a passing stab at a Vegetarian menu but it falls pretty flat in my opinion. The pizza menu is "pizza/calzone". The sandwiches are standard fair, with a couple of "show burgers" like the Ranch Burger (with ranch dressing). Healthy this place ain't. This place is pretty much known for the beer, so I looked over that menu too.
They had about 10 beers available, divided into three categories: Normal, Premium, and Seasonal. They had different names, but that's what they were, and they were priced accordingly. All the basic varieties of beer were present (pilsner, "light", red ale, porter, brown ale, etc) and they came in Pints or Supermugs at decent prices. To go with my meal I got a "supermug" of their Cherokee Red Ale for $6. First, the mug of beer. It was ridiculously huge, holding at least a liter of booze and it was full to the brim. The beer itself was crisp and not too heavy, with a good "beer" flavor. I enjoyed it very much. The neatest thing is that you can get beer to take home, from bottles up to through kegs, if you so wish. My personal favorite sizes were the 64oz Growler and the 5 Liter mini-keg.
Because I was curious I ordered the Pretzels with Beer Cheese appetizer, which was more expensive than I realized, but hey, what the hell. The pretzels were the big soft kind you'd buy at a hot dog stand, and the beer cheese was excellent, as was the honey mustard it came with. I even saved the honey mustard to go with the fries that came with my Chicken Philly Sandwich. The Chicken Philly was decent, but nothing spectacular. Charlotte ordered a personal Calzone, which was big enough that we could have split it and been happy with that and the appetizer. One of my friends ordered the Reuben, which was actually pretty dang tasty. The fries were good, but not super great. Overall, the food was solid.
All in all, it's a good place to knock back a few local brews while munching on some decent bar food. I give it 3 smiley faces on a scale of 5 frowny faces to 5 smiley faces, and I would recommend that if you are in the area and like beer to try it out. Knock off a smiley face if you aren't a fan of beer.
The atmosphere is..."well, we have all this space, we might as well serve food to go along with our beer". There isn't much aesthetic, though they've clearly tried to "sports bar" it up with TVs at a lot of the tables and big TVs mounted up on the walls. Sadly, it doesn't quite work, but it's probably "good enough". The staff was pleasant and helpful and all around nice.
The menu is mostly bar food, with steaks, ribs, pizza, and some other pasta dishes for flavor. They make a passing stab at a Vegetarian menu but it falls pretty flat in my opinion. The pizza menu is "pizza/calzone". The sandwiches are standard fair, with a couple of "show burgers" like the Ranch Burger (with ranch dressing). Healthy this place ain't. This place is pretty much known for the beer, so I looked over that menu too.
They had about 10 beers available, divided into three categories: Normal, Premium, and Seasonal. They had different names, but that's what they were, and they were priced accordingly. All the basic varieties of beer were present (pilsner, "light", red ale, porter, brown ale, etc) and they came in Pints or Supermugs at decent prices. To go with my meal I got a "supermug" of their Cherokee Red Ale for $6. First, the mug of beer. It was ridiculously huge, holding at least a liter of booze and it was full to the brim. The beer itself was crisp and not too heavy, with a good "beer" flavor. I enjoyed it very much. The neatest thing is that you can get beer to take home, from bottles up to through kegs, if you so wish. My personal favorite sizes were the 64oz Growler and the 5 Liter mini-keg.
Because I was curious I ordered the Pretzels with Beer Cheese appetizer, which was more expensive than I realized, but hey, what the hell. The pretzels were the big soft kind you'd buy at a hot dog stand, and the beer cheese was excellent, as was the honey mustard it came with. I even saved the honey mustard to go with the fries that came with my Chicken Philly Sandwich. The Chicken Philly was decent, but nothing spectacular. Charlotte ordered a personal Calzone, which was big enough that we could have split it and been happy with that and the appetizer. One of my friends ordered the Reuben, which was actually pretty dang tasty. The fries were good, but not super great. Overall, the food was solid.
All in all, it's a good place to knock back a few local brews while munching on some decent bar food. I give it 3 smiley faces on a scale of 5 frowny faces to 5 smiley faces, and I would recommend that if you are in the area and like beer to try it out. Knock off a smiley face if you aren't a fan of beer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)