Bad Brad's Bar-B-Q - Stillwater, OK

It'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.
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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