<![CDATA[JORDAN MESSEROLE | SONGWRITER

<![CDATA[JORDAN MESSEROLE | SONGWRITER - Baked Bean Blog]]>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 13:31:12 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[Meat Street Sandwich Shop - Alexandria, MN]]>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:47:53 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/meat-street-sandwich-shop-alexandria-mnWe are still relatively new to the Alexandria area. We've crossed the threshold into a new year on the calendar, but we've only been here for four months. We're still discovering new things...or figuring out how these new things work. We live outside of town and for these first four months I've driven by Lake Country Meats on a near daily basis, but hadn't made the time to stop. There was always people there. I also noted, very early on, that there was a sandwich shop attached to the butcher. A deli with a top-notch supply chain. Interest: piqued. It's a busy time. Moving, then into the holidays. Time flies. Once, in these first few months, I tried to pop in, but they were only open Thursday through the weekend. This was a Tuesday. You live and you learn. A visit to this place got lost in the fray. Then, it's just the winter. I've adopted a style of winter survival that you might call "bear-like". Unless I have to leave the house, I am hunkered down. I don't have a lot of work. No special trips to the deli, that's for sure. Until an early January morning when my better half comes up with a hell of an idea.

"We should grab lunch at that sandwich place."

Brilliant. So, to the deli I go. The merits of an attached garage can't be diminished, in my opinion. Though, it does eliminate the one excuse I could make for not wanting to leave. On second thought, maybe it can be diminished. It was a nice enough day, anyway. Well, you're not here for the weather report. It's cold everywhere in January.

Just get to the deli already. Pulled pork sandwich, steak burrito, brisket mac & cheese...and baked beans.

Some leeway is required, and granted, when you're dealing with this sort of set up. This deli is attached to the butcher shop. Brick and mortar, sure. But, it's a newer thing and more akin to a pop-up than a restaurant. Sharing some similarities with a food truck. All the orders are to-go. It's not a proper sit down restaurant is what I'm getting at. But, they still managed to sell a healthy, hot portion of beans. This was served up in what I noted as a "large, styrofoam container". I had leftovers. Healthy serving. This was a single bean dish. I would suspect it was a canned bean base that they improved upon in their preparation. Though a single bean, they were cooked well. Tender without being mushy. They're called the "cowboy beans" and they did well to meet that expectation. There was white onion in this dish to help provide a subtle savory note to the dish. They improved upon the barbeque aspect by including, what appeared to be, bacon and brisket in the dish. This helped add savoriness & smokiness to the dish, and improve upon it's bite. All of these ingredients are cooked together in a very nice sauce. It's got well-reduced, thick consistency to it. It was also an incredibly well balanced combination of sweet and spicy. There was enough heat in the dish to keep it interesting, but the sweetness helped to prevent the beans from overpowering your pallet. You wanted to keep eating them, but for the size of the serving, I would have finished them.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 3
Flavor: 4
Mouthfeel: 4

Total Score: 11

For what it's worth:
Being just up the road from a killer deli and butcher shop: 5

]]><![CDATA[Smokin' Hereford BBQ - Storm Lake, IA]]>Wed, 12 Nov 2025 19:25:32 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/smokin-hereford-bbq-storm-lake-iaI'm originally from northwest Iowa. Born in Sac City. Grew up in Spirit Lake, Iowa. Then, after attempting college, and living in the twin cities for a spell, I moved back home. That's when I started playing out. Really only three spots would have me. Sportsmen's, the Spirit Lake VFW, and Okoboji Brewing Company. Only the brewery would have me back. Probably for the best. After a while of working mediocre jobs and playing when I could, I moved down to Cherokee for a woman. My wife. The best decision I ever made. After that, we moved to Des Moines. Being a full-time musician in the center of the state meant that I had a lot of shows to do, and plenty of traveling, but rarely was that taking me up to my old stomping grounds. As an original singer/songwriter I struggled to get shows in northwest Iowa. The land of the cover band. I could barely get booked when I lived there, but I wasn't prepared to write it off entirely. I started doing a short run of shows called NXNWIA (North By Northwest Iowa, of course) and I tapped my friend and colleague Casey Joe Collins to come along for the ride.

It's like all this guy ever talks about...tours and songwriting. What about the damn beans?

I kicked this run of northwest Iowa shows off with a performance at The Temple Theater of the Performing Arts in downtown Des Moines. A decidedly not north or west town in Iowa. But, when routing works out, you jump on it. It was a Tuesday night, and one of my performances, so ticket sales started slow. I had Brian Schwager on my side, playing lead guitar, so I knew it would be fun nontheless. Imagine my surprise when almost 30 more people showed up at the door, more than doubling the presale tickets. That was a great way to start a run of shows. That's the thing with this job. It's all highs and lows. Now, there have been ups and downs on this NXNWIA run. Not just this year, but over the course of three years we've been doing it. One constant, however, is that Casey Joe and I explore as much as we can and search for better food than fast food joints allow. This year, our third on the run, we ended up in Storm Lake, Iowa for a show at The Cobblestone Ballroom. A very cool, historic ballroom that was a pleasure to play. For all four people that were there. Before that, though, we wanted to eat and Casey Joe recommended we try Smokin' Hereford so I could get a bean blog in.

Back on track, thankfully.

I had to check my records to make sure I wasn't hitting a duplicate. I thought I might have posted this one considering the quantity of times I'd eaten at that restaurant. Friends, they have a promotion where, if you can drink five 64 oz "silos" of beer, tney'll give you a shirt. Now, I'm not afraid of a challenge and I'm a proud owner of one of those shirts. That's five times at least. I guess I hadn't gotten serious about the blog last I was there. But, I digress. We're back in town and we're ready to feast.

I think we made it...

Obviously I got a meal. Surprisingly I didn't get a silo. Obviously I ordered the Spicy Smoked Hereford Beans for my side. This was merely a side dish so it was served up in the customary small, white styrofoam cup. I didn't get a spoon. There was a fork wrapped in a napkin on the table. It worked, of course, but I felt a little underequipped for the job. This dish came out of the kitchen steaming hot, straight from the bean pot. Immediately, you could see that there was a strong presence of course ground black pepper in this dish. Something I'm looking for, to be honest. You could also see right away that this was a single bean dish. The might navy bean holding down an entire dish. It's the right move, but I love to see a kidney bean or something in the mix. Variety (of beans) is the spice of life, after all. The other down side to this single bean dish is that they were slightly over cooked. We were in there around 5:00, so you'd not expect anything to have been cooking for too long, but these had suffered such a fate. To save the dish from being too mushy, there was a generous addition of scrap meat(s) in the mix. Pulled pork for sure. Something chopped smaller, perhaps brisket. This addition did help resurrect the texture of the dish. All previously mentioned ingredients were stewed together in a most righteous sauce. It was thick enough to eat with the fork they provided. Before it hit your lips you could smell the black pepper and hints of smoke. The aroma, couple with the heat and the subtle sweetness of the sauce made it a near perfect thing. Balance is key with these different flavor profiles and Smokin' Hereford pulled it off pretty damn well.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 3
Flavor: 4
Mouthfeel: 3

Total Score: 10

For what it's worth:
Getting nearly 60 people out to a ticketed event on a Tuesday night: 5

]]><![CDATA[The Depot Smokehouse & Tavern - Alexandria, MN]]>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 19:23:56 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/the-depot-smokehouse-tavern-alexandria-mnWe had settled into the new house. We'd even had a large family gathering for Theo's third birthday party in the new house. Breaking it in in style. October brought my first run of shows as a central Minnesota regional songwriter. Booking shows in different states still has that sort of universal feeling. Generally, it's no response at all. If there is one, you usually have to haggle over the hourly rate that you're going to get paid. Often, that slows things down if it doesn't die off completely. Universal. I can work in a budget. Sort of my specialty. I've still got to make a living, ya know. Anyway, I have been lucky to find a couple of venues right here in town that are not only willing to host me, but seem pretty excited to do just that. Not so universal. When one of those rooms is an old train depot converted into a smokehouse and tavern...I get pretty excited about it. My first show in Alexandria as an official citizen of the town. I got loaded in with the help of a couple kind staff members. Load in and sound check went quick. So, to the bar I went. I grabbed a Minnesota craft brew and I ordered a bowl of baked beans. Yes. Just a plain bowl of baked beans. I sat at the bar, by myself, with my Castle Danger Cream Ale and a bowl of baked beans. I'm sure I was getting looks, hell I'd have a joke to make about some guy eating beans by himself at a bar, but I was too focused on the task at hand to notice. It's not my usual pre-show ritual, but...the more I think about it it...it's not far off.

Hold on. Hold on. You're not here for the in's and out's of the local music scene. No. It's beans.

Like I mentioned, I just ordered the beans and a beer. This order was served up in a large, ceramic bowl. The beans, not the beer. That came in a pint glass, pictured below. They were served up quickly and came out of the kitchen piping hot. This particular side dish was a single bear affair. The traditional navy bean. While not entirely mush, these beans did seem to be a touch over cooked for my liking. Mouthfeel suffered a second blow with the lack of any additional vegetables. I like to see some onions or peppers in there at the very least. The softness of the beans was coupled with scrap meat, I'm thinking it was brisket, in the dish. This extra meat helped improve the mouthfeel and make the dish a bit more substantial. The sauce that these beans were served in was next level. The name for this menu item is "Smokehouse Baked Beans" and that's the truth. The sauce was relatively thick. You could probably eat these with a fork, but I was provided a soup spoon to facilitate the scooping. The sauce was a perfect balance of sweet and tangy. Just like a good barbeque sauce would be. In addition to that balance, there was an additional heat in the sauce. Very strong notes of black pepper and cumin, giving this a smoky aroma and flavor. Now, I know that cumin doesn't lend heat to a dish, but it's got a certain spicy food connotation to it and I'm glad to see it in the sauce. I've got a large menu to explore at The Depot, but I don't know that I can stray from these beans as my side dish. Hell, it might make another entree in the near future.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 4
Flavor: 5
Mouthfeel: 3

Total Score: 12

For what it's worth:
Playing venues with Castle Danger Cream Ale on tap: 5

]]><![CDATA[A-Town Smokeshack BBQ & Catering (Food Truck)]]>Mon, 29 Sep 2025 18:19:14 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/a-town-smokeshack-bbq-catering-food-truckIt's been about the only thing I've talked about all summer. The move to Minnesota. On Tuesday, September 9th we closed on our house in Des Moines and headed north for our new home state. It's about a six and a half hour drive if you don't stop or run into traffic...driving through the twin cities. Wednesday, September 10th we got to do a walk through of our new house. It was the first time I had gotten to see it in person. It's a good thing.I loved it, as we closed on the house the following day. I woke up that day and headed back down to Iowa for shows. My wife, and a few members of her family, headed to our new house to unload the truck. Being away for work while moving in wasn't all bad! It was the first of three weekends that I'd have to leave home, drive about 7 hours or so, and spend multiple days in a row in low budget hotel rooms to play shows. This first weekend included a double header on that Saturday. First one was at Anita Fall Festival. There were all sorts of booths set up, and food trucks. I searched for a bottle of water and accidentally stumbled upon a margarita smoothie. Good fortune. I also found a BBQ food truck. Now, I only had a couple of minutes until showtime. Not enough time for a full meal. So, awkwardly, I ordered just a single side of baked beans and I shoveled them in as quickly as I could.

You were afraid I was going to get bogged down in my travel itinerary. We're to the beans now.

You have to make certain allowances when food is coming out of a truck. Especially if it comes from presentation. These beans were served up in a small, white, styrofoam cup. I had seen better presentation, but I had also seen worse. From brick and mortar restaurants. In the styrofoam cup was an ample serving of baked beans. FIlled to the brim. This offering was, however, only a single bean variety dish and it was slightly over cooked. To my liking, that is. To help increase mouthfeel the addition of other beans, vegetables, or meats are included. This is especially helpful in a single-bean-slightly-over-cooked dish. The kitchen preparing this dish had included scraps of brisket in the dish. While still incredibly tender meat, it did help create some differences in the bites. There were no vegetables, the best I can tell. Where the texture of the beans lacks, it is bolstered by a very tasty sauce. It was a thick sauce, likely because it had been simmering over heat for some time before being served. How, I'd assume, the beans themselves got as soft as they did. But, the flavor in this sauce was the highlight of the entire dish. It was a well balanced concotion. Equal parts sweet and smoky. It is the textbook flavor profile that you expect to find in baked beans.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 2
Flavor: 4
Mouthfeel: 3

Total Score: 9

For what it's worth,
Finding a small, quite piece of countryside to live with your family: 5

]]><![CDATA[Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub - Minneapolis, MN]]>Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:37:58 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/northbound-smokehouse-brewpub-minneapolis-mnI had been out for a four-shows-in-three-days kind of weekend. Bouncing between northern Iowa and Minnesota. With the impending move, I’m constantly looking for new rooms in our neighbor to the north. I think I found a harbor in northern Minneapolis at a spot called “Rail Werks Brewing Depot”; a killer brewpub that even had baked beans on their menu. That’s not where this review came from. I left myself a reason to go back. I had a great mix of venues, culminating in an hour set at The Central Gardens of North Iowa. It was my third time at this venue for their Picnics and Performances series. Each time I’ve had larger and larger crowds, so I was hopeful that I had a good one on my hands. I had played with Brian Schwager the week before and asked him about joining me in Clear Lake, which he agreed to. As a bonus, he was up in Minneapolis that Saturday night too, playing a show so he’d have his rig. We decided that I’d pick him up and we’d roll to Clear Lake together. Upon getting him at his hotel we decided to grab lunch at Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub.

Now, that was a pretty smooth bean transition.

This side dish was served up in the standard white, ceramic bowl. It did come with its own soup spoon and that was definitely something that I appreciated. Also came straight from the kitchen and was still hot when it hit the table. For my preference, I’d rather a baked bean dish has a couple different types of beans in it. Helps with the presentation and improves the mouthfeel of each bite. This dish was a single bean, but it was cooked perfectly. The beans were tender without being mushy. It was easy to see that the beans were cooked from their dry state. Nothing in this dish came out of a can. In addition to these perfectly cooked beans, they included chunks of bacon and diced onion in the dish. Each presenting their own flavor additions and both working to improve the mouthfeel of every bite. Now it’s time to talk sauce. This isn’t your traditional, heavy, brown baked bean sauce. There wasn’t a cloyingly-sweet-brown-sugar-bomb waiting in the first bite, there wasn’t even a hint of brown sugar in this sauce. The sauce was thinner than most baked bean sauces. Slightly tangy, as if the base of this was some sort of vinegar. Now, the very mention of vinegar is enough to turn people away. It is, after all, extremely tart. But, this sauce wasn’t that. It was a very well balanced sauce. They’re a brewpub so it could have included a reduced beer (though there was no indication of that on the menu) or a more measured addition of some sweetener to get that balance. The kind of flavor that kept taunting me to go back for more. Don’t get me wrong; those sweet, rich sauces are what drew me into baked beans in the first place. But, as I continue to scour the country it’s refreshing to be served a different flavor profile every once in a while.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 3
Flavor: 4
Mouthfeel: 5

Total Score: 12

For what it's worth,
An immensely talented lead guitar player to add color to my songs and the long drives: 5

]]><![CDATA[Smokin' Double D'S Catering AND Stuff (Food Truck) - Linn Grove, IA]]>Tue, 27 May 2025 00:50:59 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/smokin-double-ds-catering-and-stuff-food-truck-linn-grove-iaI had scheduled Memorial Day weekend such that I would get to spend a couple days up at the lakes with my family. Loaded the family up and got away for a bit. I had the pleasure of returning to two rooms that I had been neglectful of in recent history. The response from these rooms was proof I shouldn't have stayed away so long. Friday night was a packed house at Innspiration Winery outside of Linn Grove. It's their final season of operation and it was a huge crowd. Aside from the great wine, and music, they also had a BBQ food truck. I'm going to assume that the vast majority of the folks were there for the food. It was delicioius. More of that just below. We had folks out on the patio in the rain. Standing room only inside. It was a rowdier crowd, but there was a certain warmth in that celebration. They were kind enough to provide us with lodging, so my wife and son got to listen to the first half of my performance. There's a definite warmth in watching him respond to these songs.

Enough with the feel good. Let's talk beans.

Like I mentioned up there, they had a BBQ food truck on site. Ribs were great. Coleslaw was good. The baked beans were fantastic. These came in a small to medium sized plastic cup. Before I could even take a bite, people at my table were telling me how good they thought they were. You could tell just by looking at this dish that it was going to be something. The heart of this recipe is a single bean, the trustworthy navy bean. Though it was just the one type they were cooked down very well. Tender with some substance. What it lacked in bean variety it more than made up for with it's additions. They helped to fill the mouthfeel void I was looking for. There's nothing funny about that last sentence at all. In what is an all-too-common occurrence, it seems, meat is often left out of this side dish. It doesn't have to be the main focus, in fact it shouldn't be, but it does belong (in my opinion). The kitchen at Smokin' Double D's add's a spicy ground sausage to the mix. So much flavor on it's own. Really a nice addition. They also had some vegetables cooked down with the beans to lend to the mouthfeel. I know there was cooked onion in the dish, as it should be. It also appeared to have bell peppers in the mix. You might expect a dish that has beans, sausage, onions, and peppers would be relatively heavy. However, the ratio of sauce to food was perfect. That's not the only way that the sauce shined. There was a perfect balance of a sweet and heat in this sauce. Enough to let you know it's there, but not enough to stop you from eating. There was also a noticeable aroma and flavor of smoke with the dish and that rounded out this incredible side dish. But, Jordan, were there any downsides? The beans were cooked well, but there was only one type of bean, the navy bean. For my preference, I'd like to have seen some additional great northerns or what have you. Again, that's personal preference. That doesn't make it a bad dish by any means. So, no reader, there wasn't a downside at all. I can't overstate how refreshing a dish this was. There was serious effort put into making these beans.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 5
Flavor: 5
Mouthfeel: 5
(Perfect score!)

Total Score: 15

For what it's worth,
Taking your family on the road with you: 5

]]><![CDATA[Bad Brad's Bar-B-Q - Stillwater, OK]]>Fri, 06 Dec 2024 19:22:07 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/bad-brads-bar-b-q-stillwater-okIt's been seven days on the road. We've worked our way from Des Moines out through the Denver metro, into Utah, down to New Mexico, and quickly across the panhandle of Texas, and we're still moving. Casey Joe Collins and I aren't sick of each other yet. At least I'm not tired of him. We had seen Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, spent a night in a vintage camper in the New Mexico desert. In Santa Fe, he and I stood outside of Evangelo's. A live music joint and dive bar down on the plaza. In the shadow of Saint Francis' Cathedral, smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. Fighting the cold of the season for a few lackluster hits. A woman approached us and asked for money. The door guy silently shook his head in disapproval. She moved along to some other strangers down the street. We heard her ask someone else for some money and she was confronted with a well defined "Go home Rhonda!" To which she quickly retorted "You wish I had a home!" Funny in the moment, but not so much in hindsight. We do wish she had a home. It's not all roses when you get out into the world, but I think the exposure to all aspects of life is essential in helping define what you want yours to look like. Part of why I love being able to do this line of work.

This isn't a philosophy blog. You're hear to read about the important stuff. Beans.

We rolled into Stillwater and checked into our hotel room. An America's Best Value Inn on the highway. We've had a run of pretty modest lodgings on this tour, but upon opening the door to this room I was immediately put off. With little resistance, we were given a refund and we moved down the road to a much finer establishment. A Holiday Inn and Suites. We were living large. A newer hotel and it was clean. The lap of luxury. It's a good thing, too, as the next hotel in Arkansas had bed bugs waiting for us. This hotel had a bar and when our show in Stillwater was over, we went back to said bar with our notebooks and worked out a bunch of new material. Pretty good way to wind down a night.

But, Jordan, didn't you eat that day? Yes we did. There was barbecue...and beans.

I ordered a sampler platter that had ribs, brisket, coleslaw, and their beans. This particular side dish was served up in a generous portion. Slightly warm and in a styrofoam cup. Hungry yet? There wasn't a spoon available, but luckily the consistency of the sauce allowed them to be eaten with a fork. This wasn't a sloppy, soup like dish. The sauce itself was flavorful. It was pretty brown sugar forward, but the sweetness was tempered with a decent backbone of black pepper spice. That balance worked nicely in the dish, but it still lacked any sort of smokey flavor or aroma. Crucial to a baked bean dish at a barbecue restaurant. These can be given the plural name of baked beans, becuase there was several of them, but this particular dish only consisted of a single type of bean. Your typical Navy Bean. Unfortunatley, these beans were a little bit overcooked. The mouthfeel suffered some in that regard. This issue could have been resolved to some degree with the addition of another type of bean or the addition of meat or vegetables. There did appear to be some finely diced white onion in the dish, but it was the sort of onion you might find in a can of Bush's. With the ribs, brisket, and hot links being as great as they were, throwing some of those scraps into the baked bean dish would have greatly improved the overall flavor, appearance, and mouthfeel.

Below the usual picture is a behind-the-scenes video of the painstaking effort I take to come to these hard earned conclusions.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 2
Flavor: 3
Mouthfeel: 2

Total Score: 7

For what it's worth,
Driving around the country with a good friend: 5

]]><![CDATA[J’Dubs BBQ (Food Truck) - Webster City, IA]]>Tue, 01 Oct 2024 00:42:54 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/jdubs-bbq-food-truck-webster-city-iaIn what seemed like a long time coming, I finally got to be out on an extended road trip doing shows. I'm reluctant to call it a tour because we were never more than a few hours from home. It was certainly hard to be away from my wife and son for several nights in a row, but the great rooms we played and the company we kept help keep spirits high. It was the second go-round of a little program I've taken to calling North By Northwest Iowa (#NXNWIowa). I'm running it with my good friend Casey Joe Collins. Being a native of northwest Iowa I wasn't exposed to a lot of art. KUOO and whatever our high school art teacher Hank Hall could show us. When I started performing music, I didn't really travel outside of that area much and struggled to find rooms to perform in with my original music. The Iowa Great Lakes was rich, nearly spoiled, with cover bands and solo players reading chords and lyrics off of a music stand. Everything has it's place, but up there, it was all over the place. I was fortunate to find a few rooms that would host me, and it helped developed the building blocks of my career. I wanted to take an opportunity to travel to the better rooms in that part of the state and perform my original music. I'm especially happy to split the time with my good friend Casey Joe Collins. We run these shows like writers rounds, sitting up on stage together and swapping songs back and forth. Through years of being friends and traveling around the country (together and separately) we've built up a solid stage banter performance along with the songs. It's a bit more of a variety show, if you'd allow us to call it an actual show. On the third day of this run we woke up in Cherokee, Iowa and had to be in Ames before noon. We did an hour set in Ames, and then had to turn around and drive back up to Sioux Center, Iowa after that. Roughly 6 hours in the car without leaving the state, but they were two great shows. At the Goldfinch Room Reunion Festival in Ames they had a food truck, and I was able to score some baked beans before we had to hit the road again.

This whole website is me waxing poetic about this line of work. Can't we just talk beans?

J'Dubs BBQ was the food truck they had on site at this festival in Ames and I knew I couldn't leave town without getting some beans. Their menu was a la carte so you can mix and match whichever items you wanted. Fortuantely for you, they had a "smoked baked beans" menu item and I dove in. It was served up warm in a decent sized, white styrofoam cup. Full to the top. By appearance alone, I knew these were going to be above average baked beans. Like many dishes of this style, this was a single bean dish. The traditional navy bean, if I'm not mistaken. These beans were slightly over cooked and a bit mushy to the tooth. The beans were cooked in a textbook sauce. Not too runny, and not too thick. The sauce it self was a delicious mix of sweet, tangy, and spicy. Truly a mouthwatering sauce. To give you a bit of variety in the dish, the team at J'Dubs BBQ threw in some extras that really helped separate these from a lot of other side dishes. Did it have meat in it? Yes. Was it pork belly? Hell yes. Large, tender chunks of pork belly were mixed in and cooked down with these beans. They also included diced bell pepper. Extra color, additional vegetal flavor, and a third texture in the bite. This was a very good order of baked beans, and if you see this truck at any event in the state, make sure and order these beans. Tell them I sent you.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 5
Flavor: 4
Mouthfeel: 3

Total Score: 12

For what it's worth,
Finding your dream and pursuing it: 5

]]><![CDATA[Mainely Meat BBQ - Bar Harbor, Me]]>Sat, 31 Aug 2024 18:42:51 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/mainely-meat-bbq-bar-harbor-meFor the longest time I've wanted to go to Maine. I'm not sure what sparked the desire. I've not known anyone from there, or who had even visited. It just seemed like some far off, magical forest. Once I got there, it certainly showed that it was that. The weather was pristine. The first few days it was very foggy with highs in the low 70's, the last few days were sunshine and mid-to-high 70's temperatures. Given we've had such a hot August back in the midwest, this was quite the reprieve. We had beautiful coastal AirBnB about a half hour from Bar Harbor. It was so nice to havce a private escape from all the toursits in Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. There was a wharf in the rain, where we bought a whole, live lobster for about $15. Grilled it and had that with steamed mussels. Acadia National Park had beautiful views, and more topography than I had anticipated. We found The Thunder Hole and a huge, soft sand beach. That seemed like one of the more popular destinations. There was whale watching. A big boat. Through the Gulf of Maine and miles out into the ocean. We saw dolphins, seals, sharks, and finback whales. My wife saw me get seasick and throw up in a garbage can. That's what you want to read in a food blog, right? Along with all the sites and seafood, there was also great craft beer at Atlantic Brewing and Fogtown Brewing. We even took an evening ghost tour of Bar Harbor, where we finished it by stopping into the Thirsty Whale Tavern for a drink. We were finally able to see the real Bar Harbor. The folks that make this tourist destination go 'round. Not the folks with the mansions on the water, but the cooks, the bartenders, the ships crews, and a psychic. There will be a song coming from this, I assure you. The chorus is already done. So, we had seafood galore, took a ghost tour, went whale watching, hiked trails and summitted small mountains, sampled craft beer, and even got to each the on thing that Northeast is probably most famous for...

That's right Maine barbecue.

Situated just north of Bar Harbor on the Mt. Caramel Desert Island is the operating center for Atlantic Brewing Company. Their production facility and a taproom are here. They're also host to Mainely Meat BBQ. An unexpected treasure if you're looking for a break from lobster rolls and blueberry pancakes. I didn't know what to expect with Maine barbeque, naturally I got the smoked meat sampler so I could try a little bit of everything, and I had to include the baked beans on the side.

These beans were served up in their own dish. Something that I appreciate, but isn't done as often as you'd think. I am a big proponent of keeping your foods seperated on the plate, and despite some spillage, this was accomplished with it's own bowl. I always start out by digging through the sidedish with my spoon to try and determine how many, and what sort of bean (s), we're working with. Best I could tell, this side was made up of one type of beans, but those things have been cooked to perfection. They were soft enough to give under your teeth, but they weren't mushy either. My preference for the consistency of baked beans runs closer to a stew, and less like a soup. Unfortunately, for me, these beans were very saucy and you definitely needed a spoon to ladel up this thin sauce and the beans that were with it. However, the gravy these beans were cooked in was very tasty. It was mostly sweet, but had a nice punch of acid on the back end. The bit of tang was balanced nicely with the sweetness of the sauce. There were, what I assumed to be, pickled jalapenos in this dish, so there was a nice heat factor mixed in with the sweet and tangy sauce. The kitchen also included chunks of their smoked sausage in the beans and that addition gave you a stronger mouth feel and helped build in a little bit of the smokiness I'm looking for in a barbecue side dish. The jalapenos and sausage chunks also helped bolster up the final score of the apperance and mouthfeel of this dish. When you're serving a single bean dish you need these sorts of things to keep the bites exciting.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 4
Flavor: 3
Mouthfeel: 3

Total Score: 10

For what it's worth,
Vacationing with your best friend: 5

]]><![CDATA[True Smoke BBQ Truck - Lanesboro, MN]]>Wed, 03 Jul 2024 15:22:52 GMThttp://www.jordanmesserole.com/baked-bean-blog/true-smoke-bbq-truckI had been on a short weekend run. The first stop was Troubadour Wine Bar in Minneapolis. I hadn't played in Minneapolis in nearly fifteen years. The Chatterbox Pub, in that same city, was the first place I ever played publicly. It was an open mic set up. I played three songs with accompaniment from my friend and collaborator Matt Mulville. If you've been following along with the Scattershot singles online, you'll see he has been in my corner this whole time. I had songs that were just OK, and they were well received. Anyhow, I returned to Minneapolis and performed two sets to a larger crowd, and with better songs. I moved on the next morning to the small town of Lanesboro, Minnesota. I was set to lead a songwriting workshop regarding my approach to the process, as well as take part in a songwriter's round in the St. Mane theater with a group of songwriters who I hadn't met yet. It was a great day; full of celebrating creativity. Prior to the workshop, I had to drive around this small town trying to find a place to park. It's a small town, but a tourist destination. It took several passes, but while on the hunt, I clocked a brewery with a barbeque food truck parked out front. It was like a beacon calling me in. Once the workshop was over, I hastily made my way down the street to Sylvan Brewing.

That's where this bean journey began.

For me, expectations are a little lower for food coming out of a truck. To be in operation for a full day within the confines of a truck doesn't lend itself to providing the very highest quality food. I'm not shaming them. I think they're wonderful and will eat from them any time I have the chance. It's just not as efficient as a fully stocked commercial kitchen. But, I digress. I ordered their beef ribs with the neccesary side of baked beans. I also threw on an additional side of bacon corn. Sweet corn, off the cob, served with bacon, melted butter, brown sugar, and cajun seasoning. There wasn't anything wrong with that. But, again, this is a bean blog. The baked beans came served up in a styrofoam clamshell, the customary serving platter for a truck. It was a large, hot serving of beans so that was a pleasant surprise upon opening the container. You could see right away that this dish was comprised of atleast two different types of beans. Some form of the traditional navy bean and black beans. They were just passed having been cooked perfectly. A symptom, I suspect, of having been kept hot in a truck. They weren't overly mushy, but just a touch too soft to be perfect. The duo of beans were served in a sweet, and slightly tangy, sauce. The consistency of the sauce itself was great. Thick without being dense. Not soupy at all. The sauce in this side dish had a lot going for it, but it was lacking any notes of spice or smoke. The ribs were incredibly smoky and that scent lingered into the day. As this dish was all beans and no meat or vegetable additions, it certainly could have been bolstered by adding in some scraps of their well smoked meat.

Ratings (On a scale of 1-5)
Appearance: 2
Flavor: 3
Mouthfeel: 3

Total Score: 8

For what it's worth,
Songwriter's rounds in historic theaters: 5

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