Mainely Meat BBQ - Bar Harbor, Me8/31/2024 For 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 
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True Smoke BBQ Truck - Lanesboro, MN7/3/2024 I 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  Smokin’ Monkee BBQ - Waukon, IA8/22/2023 The end of August was quite a whirlwind trip up to the Northwoods of Minnesota, over to the UP of Michigan, then down to the driftless region in Wisconsin for a show before returning back to Iowa. All of that in 4 days. During that time, I met with my longtime friend and musical collaborator Matt Mulville. We worked on two singles that I will be releasing onto streaming platforms as soon as they are ready. This whole experience was pretty transformative. That's not just all the legal weed talking. Matt brought a feeling and approach to these songs that are unlike anything I've ever heard. Once these new singles are released, and the upcoming double record is completed (much more on that in the near future), I will move forward with chasing this sound on a record we'll call "Scattershot". That's putting the cart well before the horse. I have a tendency to move onto a new project before the current one is finished, or even started really. I hope you'll listen to these new singles once they're available, because they are very cool and unique to what I've been doing for the last decade and a half. There was some evidence of this sound in my 2013 EP "Darling of the Western Sky", and that's because Matt played guitar and bass for that selection of songs as well. This is all cyclical. You can hear me wax poetic about music any time. You want the beans. While I was up on the UP I learned of a barbecue joint called UP-n-Smoke. I was excited to get in there and try their offerings. However, I followed the map to the address of the business and was greeted by an empty lot. I spent the next couple days trying to find a barbecue restaurant that I could review. No luck. The Sunday of this little northern run had me in Elkader, Iowa for their Fine Arts Festival. That was a fine way to end a series of shows. I also stumbled upon a food truck at the festival called Smokin' Monkee and was delighted to see baked beans advertised on their sandwich board in front of the truck. I ordered the beans along with the brisket nachos. As you can see below, the nachos were on par with gas station food, but they did have plenty of delicious, shredded brisket on top. Now, "on par with gas station food" doesn't sound like a promising review for nachos, but I assure you, it's one of my favorite things to eat. Burying the lead here. The beans were served up in the clamshell box you can see below, as a side to the nachos. They were at a modest price, and I believe that is reflective of the quantity and quality of these beans. It was a single bean variety dish, and I'd be stunned if these didn't come from a generic, institutional sized can of beans. They were hot. They were mushy and over cooked. The sauce had a familiar, sweet flavor with slightly tangy note. There was no heat or smoke presence in the dish whatsoever. To break up the consistency of the dish, the folks in this food truck did add in some scrap meats from their smokehouse and that helped keep the dish somewhat interesting. There were no vegetables added to the dish, from what I could tell. This particular side dish was a bit lacking in all areas. An afterthought for a menu that was designed around, and hidden behind, the strength of their smoked brisket. Ratings (On a scale of 1-5) Appearance: 2 Flavor: 2 Mouthfeel: 1 Total Score: 5 For what it's worth, Making music with your friend: 5  Megan, Theo, and I lucked upon a cloudy, cool Sunday afternoon that had no obligations. A perfect kind of day. We have this Osprey backpack. The kind you can tote around a small child in. We had been wanting to try it out and Megan had yet to visit Ledges State Park. Truthfully, I had only been there once before, several years ago. I was playing music for a morel mushroom hunters club. I was in and out that day, so I didn’t take the time to enjoy it. It’s a beautiful park with a nice trail system. Due to water flowing over sections of the loop road a portion of it was closed off. After walking along the upper edge of the valley and eventually descending to it’s floor, we walked the road back up to the trial head. We had a great view of what the park had to offer, and Theo seemed to love his time spent in the backpack. You’re not here to get trail recommendations from someone like me. You want the food, damnit. When we finished our hike, and before a rain storm settled in, we headed back towards home. The fastest route took us right past this awesome barbecue joint out in the country. Their tap list had some great local beers and their menu was stacked. I recommend the Texas Tavern. A loose meat sandwich made of ground smoked meats. Unreal. It was served, of course, with their Campground Beans. This side dish, like the rest of their offerings, left little to complain about. If there was one thing I’d change, it would be the quantity. It was your standard, and let me be clear, adequate side serving, but I would have loved more. This was a single bean dish and those beans were cooked to near perfection. Soft without being mushy. You knew you were eating beans, but it wasn’t labor intensive. Thank god. The Campground Beans were stewed in a delicious sauce that had a solid sweet flavor without being cloying. It was balanced with a great smoke presence and a mild black pepper heat on the back end. Did I say nearly perfect? To compliment the beans and provide a bit of diversity on the pallet this dish was loaded with scrap smoked meats from the pit. I know there was pulled pork and brisket in there at the very least. It is one of the meatier baked bean dishes I’ve ever tried and I loved that. While the meat was a good contrast to the beans, I would have loved to have had some vegetables in the mix too. That’s a personal preference, but this is my blog after all. Some cooked onion or bell pepper would have really been the metaphorical cherry on top. Ratings (On a scale of 1-5) Appearance: 4 Flavor: 5 Mouthfeel: 4 Total Score: 13 For what it's worth, A slow Sunday with family: 5  Late March. Northern California. My mother-in-law flew to town and watched our son, as my wife and I spent our first large chunk of time away from him. It was emotional, of course, but he was in great hands. Our vacation got off to a wonderful start. We were delayed by about five hours. How can airline travel be the most efficient and least efficient process at the same time? We connected in Denver then flew on to Sacramento. From there, it was another two hour drive out to our first destination. 13 hours of travel time, but it led to some of the most fun I've ever had. We spent time on the coast eating seafood, walking beaches, and watching beached sea lions. We eventually moved inward and spent some time in Napa and the Napa Valley. We ate and drank our way through northern California. It was a high time. You're not here to read about how I unwind. You want the beans, damnit. One day of the trip included my wife and I having a two part lunch. One being from a taco truck in the parking lot of California's Old Glory geyser. Not as majestic, but still very fun to watch. The truck was cranking out some of the best Mexican food I have ever had. We ate there twice. You're still not talking about beans, Messerole. Here we go. Part two of our lunch that day included a stop at Buster's Southern Barbeque in Calistoga, California. This place was super unqiue with indoor and outdoor seating and you could watch their pit master cook over an open fire right outside in front of everybody. It was nearly fast food, too. You ordered what you wanted at a window, and they piled it on and met you at the next window with your order. In and out in minutes. We grabbed a hot link plate with a side of potato salad. And beans? Yes, and beans. These baked beans were served up loose on the plate. There's something fun about that slapdash approach to serving them. However, I'm not one that loves to have their foods touching. That's my problem, not yours. This dish appeared to be a single bean variety and that single bean was cooked down pretty well. Tender, but not overly soft. These beans were served up in a mostly sweet, thick sauce. Unfortuantely, with all that great meat they were smoking, none of it made it's way into the side dish. Nor did any vegetables, or fruit for that matter. I don't want to say they came from a can, but this side was very underwhelming for such a neat restaurant. Just a single bean in a thick sauce. A one trick pony, if you will. Ratings (On a scale of 1-5) Appearance: 2 Flavor: 2 Mouthfeel: 3 Total Score: 7 For what it's worth, Keef Original Cola: 5  Exile Brewing Co. - Des Moines, IA4/1/2023 The weather is so infrequent in the Midwest during these transitional seasonal periods. In late February, my family found a mild Sunday afternoon to go for a walk and have dinner. We have a pass to the Blank Park Zoo so we decided to load our son into a stroller and take him through the zoo. There is something wild about starting at a pair of lions who are walking through snow covered ground. The zoo was a delight and we decided to stop somewhere for a drink and a meal. We decided on Exile Brewing Company. They have a nice kitchen, and though their tap selection isn't as numerous as other local breweries, each of their styles is perfectly crafted. The weather, lions, and beer. What you'd expect from a baked bean blog. Onward. I ordered a delicious Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich and had it sided with their Tico Time baked beans. Using their beer in a side dish is a delightful combining of both their brewery and kitchen. I paired this meal with a Fernando's Revenge, which is their barrel aged version of their nut brown ale. Wonderful. These beans were delivered in a small ceramic dish, which is very common place. I would have loved it to be a larger dish, as these were pretty great beans. From what I could tell, this was a single bean dish. Though, those beans were cooked to a great consistency. These well cooked beans were served up in a thick sauce that would have allowed you to eat them with a fork. The sauce had a mild sweetness that was balanced well with a tempered heat in the dish. To create some diversity in each bite, the kitchen has included bell peppers, onion, and bacon in this dish. Each of the vegetables are cooked down well enough that you notice their presence but aren't labored with the crunch of an undercooked vegetable. Ratings (On a scale of 1-5) Appearance: 3 Flavor: 4 Mouthfeel: 4 Total Score: 11 For what it's worth, Taking your child to the zoo: 5  Flying Mango - Des Moines, IA2/20/2023 Time spent on the road has been minimal during the late winter months. Add in the newborn boy and that keeps me, happily, at home a little more often. You may or may not know that I spend my weekdays at home as a stay-at-home dad. You also may not care. My wife has recently made the adjustment of going back to work after her maternity leave expired. There are highs and lows with that new separation. As a result, we try to celebrate every milestone and victory during this period. No matter how big or small. After a particularly difficult Wednesday for all three of us, we decided to go out to eat as a family. To enjoy the time and eliminate the extra work of making and cleaning up dinner. That's not so special. It's why everyone goes out to eat. We chose one of our favorite restaurants in the city. Flying Mango is out of this world good and it sounded like the place to shake off our difficult day. Besides, Theo has been on this earth for 4 months and he still hadn't been there. I felt like we were doing him a disservice. I knew their ribs were out of this world and, for shame, I hadn't tried the cowboy beans. That's what this is all about. The beans. I'll give you a summation of the dish before it's specifics. These things are phenomenal. As far as I could tell there were at least 4 types of beans in this offering. How ever many there were, they were all cooked to a perfect consistency. Enough texture to make the side dish substantial. There were a handful of different vegetables and peppers to rival the beans of the dish. Hunks of perfectly cooked tomato, tender celery, jalapeno, and fresh garlic. These additional ingredients worked well to give the eater a variety of textures in the dish. All of these ingredients were stewed in a delicious sauce. It was sweet, spicy, and possessed a great smoky quality. Outside of the sauce being delicious, there was a perfect amount of it and it was perfectly thickened. These beans were stew-like without being soupy. I couldn't imagine there being a better way to prepare an order of baked beans. There menu is not large, but everything on it is done very well. Despite all of the incredible options, you have to make room for an order of these "cowboy beans". Mike and his team make great food and provide great service. Get in the door, if you can, and get these things. Ratings (On a scale of 1-5) Appearance: 5 Flavor: 5 Mouthfeel: 5 (Perfect score!) Total Score: 15 For what it's worth, Being a dad: 5  In early June of 2022 I took off on my Appalachia and Back Tour. I was invited to come perform in a great little club in Sparta, North Carolina and that was the impetus for the whole trip. Upon leaving the first morning, with little time to spare, I received a call from the rental car company that they did not have a car for me, but might by 10:00 am. I had a six hour drive and a time change to contend with. I could not wait until 10:00 am to leave. Which I told the staff member in less than kind terms. I hadn't wanted to put these nearly 3,000 miles on my personal vehicle, but was left with no choice. I loaded everything into my old Ford Escape and everything went smoothly. I was touring through portions of the country that I had never visited before, let alone played in. Fortunately, the receptions were warm, where it was received. There are always highs and lows when you spend that much time on the road. Especially by yourself. Especially if you have to leave behind a wife that is nearly six months pregnant. However, the highs surely outweighed the lows and the tour was a great time. I am optimistic to get back out to that part of the country for more performances and more sightseeing. The New River Gorge Bridge and it's associated National Park were a beautiful site to a flatlander like me. The hills and mountains of West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina made for an incredible backdrop. I also hit some less natural sites. My first stop in West Virginia ended up being an unscheduled stop at The Moth Man Museum. A quirky little spot that had some great history and an interesting story, if you're one to believe it. The Moth Man legend in this area is predicated upon being seen perched atop a bridge moments before it collapsed into the river and folks lost their lives. An unwelcome story after you drove over two similar suspension bridges to get to the museum. I'm not sure I've been converted, but I do know that valley had more turkey vultures than I had ever seen. The other strange spot I had been planning to visit was The Mystery Hole. An out of the way attraction that will disorient you beyond belief. Black lights. Uneven floors. The defiance of gravity. A mystery indeed. I should have made a better attempt at getting more baked beans in on this trip. For the sake of the blog. But, the areas I went through had so many regionally famous dishes, that I felt obligated to try those too. You don't care about a Kentucky Hot Brown (though you should), you're here for beans. I was excited about getting into a different part of the country to see how they handle their barbecue and their baked beans. I will say, that if this place is an accurate depiction of how West Virginia does barbecue, they need to go back to the drawing board. This isn't a rack of ribs blog, but that was my main course to go along with the beans. It feels worth noting that these were probably the worst ribs I've ever had. In a restaurant or done by a home cook. The back skin was completely in tact, making the bones hard to separate. They were also drenched in a "barbecue" sauce that tasted more like pizza sauce than anything else. But, the side dish is what we're rating, so let's get to it. These beans were served up in a small, ceramic cup. A very small offering and they were luke warm at best. This was a single bean offering and those beans were swimming in sauce. I'd have been more apt to call this a soup than a side dish. The sauce was cloyingly sweet. Aside from being lukewarm, there was also no heat when it came to spices or seasonings for this side dish. The beans also lacked any sort of smoke flavor or aroma, which I'd expect at a barbecue restaurant. In terms of consistency, these beans were completely over cooked. There were no veggies or meat added to this dish to break up the sweet, mushy dish they call "House Baked Beans". It is unfortunate that this was my one stop for beans, because these were definitely a generic, industrial sized can of beans poured into a holding pan and served up to unsuspecting visitors. I can picture the cans now. A gallon in size. With a plain, white label that just says "BEANS" in black, block lettering. Ratings (On a scale of 1-5) Appearance: 1 Flavor: 1 Mouthfeel: 1 Total Score: 3 For what it's worth, Laconia Brewing Company in Sparta, North Carolina: 5  SKINNY'S BARBEQUE - MUSCATINE, IA4/28/2022 I've found myself in the middle of a six day run. It started off with some excitement. I arrived to the first venue and asked about live music for the evening and the person I had inquired with let me know they weren't having any live music that night. An answer that caught me off guard, being I was scheduled to work that room that night. In the last show of the run, I was given an introduction after my set break. In an attempt to help shift focus back on me for this listening room experience, one of the employees nearly demanded that everyone stop talking and listen, stating that they work hard to bring in great artists that deserve to be listened to. Great artists and not just, in his words, "Joe Schmoe and the Dick Suckers" before promptly walking away from the microphone and leaving me in the wake of this...most aggressive introduction. To cut the tension in the room, I reintroduced myself into the microphone at the beginning of the second set. A reintroduction as, you guessed it, Joe Schmoe of Joe Schmoe and the Dick Suckers. Fortunately, that got a laugh and allowed everyone to relax a little. Six shows in just as many days, bookended by two very memorable experiences. I believe that to be the longest streak of shows I've had. When Casey Joe Collins and I did the "Western Dust" tour in May of 2021 we played eight shows in nine days with the day off being after the fourth show. This personal best won't last much longer. In June I've got a tour out to North Carolina and back which will provide me with nine shows in a row, and a total of twelve shows in thirteen days. This job looks fun, but it's not for the faint of heart. But, I digress. I'm working towards the tail end of a longer run of shows. I've been able to drop in at home from time to time, but there's been a fair amount of time spent in hotels and killing time in coffee shops. With scattered focus, I'm continuing to write each of the five novels I've got in the works. I hope they become novels, anyhow. I started writing a trio of western novels ten years ago, none of them are anywhere near completion, but I feel an obligation to write them as my home office is filled with my grandfather's collection of Louis L'Amour novels and novellas. I'm also working on a crime drama, tentatively titled "Devil's Den" which also has some elements of horror. Lastly, is "Cross Family Colors". Another crime-driven-family-drama that I am wildly excited about and can't wait to share it once it's completed. I just have seven chapters left. Then rewriting, proof reading, edits, proof reading again. It's going to be a while. Coupling that with writing songs as often as I can, I am happy that coffee shops across the country allow for such freeloading. In my defense, I do get an oat milk & honey latte and some sort of baked good at each one I visit. Though that's more of a fuel and less of an impulse buy. This transaction of a few dollars worth of much needed caffeine and sugar for hours of WiFi and seat occupation doesn't seem to end in anyone's favor but my own. There was a Caribou Coffee in Rochester, Minnesota. On the same day, and just a few hours later, it was Jitter's in Mason City, Iowa. A couple of days later, I'm at The Coffee Belt in Muscatine, Iowa. However, these aren't the beans you're here to read about. I didn't realize until now how bean-centric my life has become... Skinny's Barbeque is a great little joint. It's inside of the Pearl Plaza in downtown Muscatine and it's operated much like the traditional barbeque joints of the south. You place your order and it's plated as you stand in line. You pay. You get your tray. Fill your own drink. Get your own sauce. Find your own seat. It's a small prep kitchen and a smaller staff, but the three people working that small kitchen have barbeque figured out. The brisket nachos were delicious, as seen in the picture below, but again, we're talking about the beans. To start, this was a serving size I can get behind. No small Styrofoam cup. Not a dollop on the corner of your plate. This dish was served up hot in a cardboard boat filled to the brim. The "Pit Beans" were made up of at least three different types of beans and all of them were cooked to a perfect consistency. They were cooked in a sweet sauce that had a slight tang on the back end and hint of smokiness. This bean recipe had plenty of sauce to keep the dish from being dry, but not so much that they became sloppy or soup-like. You could eat these things with a fork and not spill. If there was a downside to these beans, it would be this. While the beans were cooked down well, there was no additional meat or vegetables to be found in this side dish. With all of those beans cooked to tender, the complexity of the dish was...uncomplex. Having the chew of some hunks of pork or brisket would have gone a long way to making this dish more dynamic. The addition of cooked bell peppers or onions would have also helped in this regard. That isn't to say these ingredients weren't in the "Pit Beans", I just didn't find any in my serving. Ratings (On a scale of 1-5) Appearance: 4 Flavor: 4 Mouthfeel: 3 Total Score: 11 For what it's worth, Cheese Delight from Awe'z Sandwich Shop in Mason City: 5  Kansas City has been a spot I've longed to play for some time. My current circumstances allow for a simple trip. I-35 South for 2 hours 45 minutes and there you are. The first 45 minutes of my trip were driven through a torrential downpour that had the interstate slowed down to about 45 miles an hour. The windshield wipers couldn't keep up. Fortunately, there were enough "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" podcasts to keep me occupied for the near 6 hour drive. To be frank (Reynolds), there was something in the neighborhood of 25 emails sent to venues throughout the city. Two responded. Two were booked. It's...not a great percentage when you look at the overall numbers, but a booked show is a booked show. That's the job I've signed up for, and now I'm fortunate to find myself in Kansas City. Making friends and playing songs. Cinder Block Brewing was a packed house. I think that was due to the ambience in the taproom and the great beer they had on tap. Being honest, as I always try to be, it was almost too busy for me to have an impact. I was nervous to play in the larger Kansas City market, but it turns out they'll ignore you down there just like they sometimes do around here in these smaller markets. Talking honestly. Now, I hadn't realized until the weekend was over that it happened to be the weekend of the Iowa State Girl's Basketball Tournament. Famous in my home state for cultivating some of the worst weather we see during the year. Saturday brought higher than average temperatures, thunderstorms, hail, and, most unfortunately, a deadly tornado. It looks like Iowans are responding to that tragedy, the way Iowans always do. I arrived home after midnight and didn't know anything about what occurred until I woke up Sunday morning. To below freezing temperatures and pancakes, thanks to my wife. That cold weather gave way to snow on Sunday evening and over night. Snow that is melting away quickly on this warmer, sun-filled, Monday. Weather as unpredictable as can be. What was predictable? Great BBQ in Kansas City. The North Kansas City neighborhood that I played in also had four BBQ restaurants within a couple of miles from one another. I picked Hawg Jaw Que & Brew based largely on their name. But I was also drawn in by these loaded, pulled pork french fries. Pictured below with the beans. Of course I got a side order of beans. This side dish was served in a small white styrofoam cup. The industry standard. They were also served up steaming hot. Not always the industry standard, but it should be. It is a warm side dish, after all. These beans made contact with multiple senses. You could feel the warmth. You could smell the tangy sauce. You could see the single bean profile of the dish. One type of bean, but they were cooked to near perfection. With a side dish that likely sits in a warm pan or pot throughout the day, you run the risk of the ingredients breaking down and losing consistency. That did not occur here. There didn't appear to be any vegetables in this offering, but there were small pieces of smoked meat mixed in. They were too small and infrequent to determine if they were pork of beef. I would posit the assumption it was pork. I would have preferred to see a second type of bean or a meat or vegetable to give the bites some variety. Overall, though, the beans had a good consistency. There were stew-like. Enough sauce, but not too much to make it runny. These could have been eaten with a fork. The sauce itself was a great mixture of sweet and tangy flavors and there was a mild heat backbone to the dish. It worked great in concert with the other flavors. Ratings (On a scale of 1-5) Appearance: 3 Flavor: 4 Mouthfeel: 3 Total Score: 10 For what it's worth, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: 5  Recipes? Recommendations?Fill out the form below to let me know! Archives
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