Savannah Grille's spring time boards

No real story here or article, just some food porn.  Two weeks ago my wife's family and mine were going on a road trip to Branson via Lake of the Ozarks.  So, we had one afternoon of driving and then dinner at the Savannah Grille.  I asked Chef Robert, on the phone earlier that day, if he had anything special and he told me that he had some fresh tomatoes and would make something special for us.  He also had finished breaking a pig down, earlier in the week and wanted to make a better meat plate.  So, we ordered and it came, these are the boards:








































Look at how delicious everything on this board looks. He gave us headcheese, some terrine, some fresh sausages as well as prosciutto.  Then covered the board in all of these random vegetables, which he pickled.  Each pickle was a completely different spice or flavoring agent to complement the meat items.

Then, the tomato plate come out:

The board has some toasted bread on it and then these perfectly red tomatoes and a drizzle of some balsamic vinegar and sauce and these were just extraordinary.  The bite of these tomatoes tasted like that first day of summer.  

Chef Robert always makes great use of the items that he can get, always looking for fresh and seasonal.  My advice to you, is to go there, order these boards and try one of their new burgers.

Worst restaurant in a while

There are good restaurants and bad restaurants.  The problem is that most of the time, the bad restaurants get by unnoticed.  Did you ever wonder how there can be so many bad restaurants on shows like Restaurant Impossible?  Last month, I went down to the Ozarks and while coming back from a day at Miner Mike's, my kids wanted something other than BBQ for lunch.  So, as we are nearing the intersection of 54, we came to a small strip mall with a nice looking place called Shell's Pasta Emporium.  We parked out front and went inside.

The first thing that could be noticed was the color.  The walls were painted this ugly dirty yellow color and there were stenciled phrases and sayings on the wall which had nothing to do with pasta or food.

"Laughter sparkles like sunshine." Really?  On one wall of the restaurant, there are at least 6 or 7 sayings which makes me think that someone just took every saying they could find in one of those inspirational books and re-wrote them on the wall.

The food is prepped behind a bar area and there is every possible kind of fake plant or flower in the area.  There are fake potted plants, fake flowers all over and even fake ivy stuck behind the bar, on the wall, near the ceiling.  You can also see the whole service area, where you can see two microwaves, a shelf where all of the soda syrup boxes are as well as the prepping area.  Note: I did not see any pasta machines, bowls or even flour, but we will get to that later.

 The place was very sparse and the only staff consisted of two people, presumably Shell and her son, a child less than 10 years old.  So, it was this child, who brought our table silverware, explained how the ordering went and then took our orders and delivered our drinks.  Shell, stayed behind the counter.  I should have looked around the restaurant first before ordering because there wasn't a single award on their pasta, they had one on 'best new pasta restaurant concept' and one for 'best traditional pizza', but none on the quality of their pasta. The way that you ordered, was by taking this slip of paper, filled with options on your meal, checking the boxes with your pencil, and then giving them to the child so he could give them to Shell.  So, one of the things we ordered was some pasta, since they are called "pasta emporium", I figured that I should try their pasta.

I marked the box for Bow Tie noodles, at $5.99 and then added a simple sauce of garlic and olive oil at no cost.  Then, I was really hungry and added some sliced, seasoned, spicy, baked chicken for an additional cost of $2.99.  So, we are looking at my meal alone, at costing $8.98; before taxes.  It doesn't sound like that much, for pasta, but what I received a few minutes later, was not worth more than $1.00.

This is what was delivered, to me about 5 minutes after I had ordered it.  I watched the woman behind the counter work, expecting to see a show of making fresh pasta.  I was expecting to see her mix flour and eggs together, make a dough, and start turning it through a pasta machine, rolling it thinner and thinner each time.  Then, finally taking that ribbon and slicing it into squares and bunching them at the center to create bows.  I wanted to see someone do this from scratch.  The problem is: at this place, even though it has the words "pasta emporium" in the name, they do not make their own pasta.  Now, I guess it was my fault, because while on their website (http://www.shellspastaemporium.net/) and menu, even though it says that they offer "Mouth watering Italian pastas" and they state that they offer "authentic homemade Italian food", they never actually state that the pastas are authentic or homemade.  So, I guess that is my fault for reading too much into this.

I would bet $100 that the pasta was from a box.  It had no taste of egg or flour, so I know it wasn't homemade.  It definitely wasn't authentic either.  We watched the woman make the chicken, which meant that we watched her take something from the freezer, place it on a dish and into the microwave for 2 minutes and then onto my pasta.  She delivered it to me like she was the proudest person ever for making some great pasta and chicken.  Really?  You thawed out pre-cooked and seasoned chicken and placed it over my store bought dried and boiled pasta and you call this a restaurant???

I thought this place was a joke, until you look at their Facebook page and it appears that this restaurant stays in business by cooking store bought and boxed pasta and then adding microwaved items to it, while charging a huge amount.  They even have a bunch of photos of them celebrating their grand opening.

I have tried to contact the restaurant and ask for clarification as to why they say they make homemade and authentic pasta and then it is neither homemade or authentic and I had no response.  Here is my thoughts:  If you want to eat there and help support a local restaurant owner with her restaurant, go ahead.  If you want to feel as though you get some sort of edible food for your money, I suggest finding something else to eat. Or you could also go to Paul's and get your own box of pasta and store bought frozen chicken.

Back to Savannah Grille

Here is the thing with the Ozarks: there are a lot of restaurants.  However, the number of okay restaurants far outnumber the amount of really good restaurants.  And the number of expensive and really good restaurants outnumber the amount of affordable and really good restaurants.  So, while there are some other great places like Baxter's or Bentley's, they just seem to be the quality of foodie-ness that my wife and I look for in cities. We have never been to the Blue Heron, so I cannot comment on that.  However, online reviews and sources suggest that it is quite expensive and the food and service are just okay.  Anyway, fate happened that on a recent Friday night, my wife and I were found with babysitting and through the stormy and cool evening, we happened upon some great late-night reservations at Savannah Grille.

I know you are probably wondering if a restaurant which had garnered great reviews from me, the first time, can do it again.  And you CAN wonder that, but don't doubt that possibility, for this second time for dinner, the food was perfect.

So, it is a rainy and cool Friday night and my wife and I are there at 8:00 for dinner.  This is what we started with:

My wife ordered the beef and vegetable soup.

So, the soup of the day, was this super rich beef stock and some great vegetables in there with chunks of beef.  It was so good that it made me go home and make some beef stock of my own.  I'd say the soup was an easy 4 out of 5 stars.

Because my entree' came with a soup or salad and my wife ordered a soup, I decided to order a salad.  The picture above is the salad and it came with perhaps the largest croutons I have ever seen.  Bonus.  Still simple salad is good and tasty: 3 out of 5 stars.

As an appetizer, we got the fried green tomatoes and this is what they looked like:

These were crunchy, tasty and tender.  Perfectly sweet and tart at the same time.  A small pepper and onion relish and the topping tasted of seasoned panko crumbs.  The chef did a great job remaking this classic dish of fried green tomatoes.  These were great and worth ordering.  An easy 4 out of 5.

Now, my wife ordered the tuna tartare and this is it:  

It was delivered to us on a board and as you can see, there is a lot going on.  I am not a seafood or fish person and I have to say that even if I wanted to try it, my wife enjoyed it so much that I couldn't get a chance to try it.  It was gone in seconds.  I am sure that my wife would agree that a 4 out of 5 stars for that one would be enough.

Now, what I think is perhaps the best thing I have eaten there yet, is the rabbit.  I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of rabbit.  Wherever I have eaten it, it has been still a bit gamy and not very tender, like eating rubber that tastes like a wet and dirty dog smells.  I've passed it up whenever I can and wherever I am.  But, I trust the chef here and thought I would give it a try.  Now, what chef Robert says, is that they took some rabbit, then cleaned every morsel of meat off of it and made a sausage with some of it, wrapped it up with the rest of it and then some bacon and finished it off.  This is it: cooked and plated.  Now, along with these perfectly cooked carrots and everything worked so well that it was new, interesting, innovative and delicious: which are all the requirements for an easy 5 out of 5 stars.

We never really get dessert when we go out and that is mostly because we fill up on the other food.  So, we ordered both of the dessert options: some home made ice creams and then some chocolate cake with some champagne foam.  The chocolate cake and foam came out and chef Robert came to explain and dish the foam on top of the cake and pieces.

I have actually never tasted so many different tastes on one plate.  There was the strawberries, the banana pieces which were singed with a flame and had the sugar on them like a creme' brulee or Bananas Foster. Then there is the rich and gooey chocolate cake.  Nice and small pieces of mint leaves.  Then some caramel drizzled around.  The white blobs, are the champagne foam, which quickly melted into the cake.  This was a very good dessert.  I'd give a 4 out of 5 stars.

The other dessert was 3 flavors of ice cream.  Chef Robert told us that he has two ice cream machines, which means that he can create a lot of flavors, every day and experiment and have fun.  So, this night, we had the flavors of Bananas Foster, Strawberry Plum and Green Peppercorn.

So, the Bananas Foster ice cream tastes just like the dish, except cold.  The Strawberry Plum was delicious and perfectly balanced so you could taste both flavors, even at the same time.  The last one, the Green Peppercorn, was the strange one.  It was good, but just strange.  We never thought of having green peppercorns as a sweet flavor enhancer; but it worked.

So, for second visit at Savannah Grille, it was a perfect and romantic evening.  I really do suggest this place for anyone going to the Ozarks.

Savannah Grille in the Ozarks

Hidden away, on Horseshoe Bend Parkway, on the way to the resorts in the Ozarks hills of Missouri, is a nice little restaurant named Savannah Grille.  While this nice cottage-looking restaurant look quaint on the outside it is the exact opposite on the inside, with Chef Robert Sills using modern techniques to perfect traditional food and dishes.  Chef Robert grew up in New York, then moved to South Carolina where he learned and gathered more culinary intelligence.  Finally moving to Missouri, he decided to partner up with the local farmers and the Farmer's Market, in the Ozarks, to create deliciously fresh, seasonal and sustainable dishes, that help show off the great and wonderful foods that can be found nearby.  Now, while not everything is found within a 10 mile radius or close to that, I think he said the eggs came from Tennessee, but everything did come from a farm and is fresh and doesn't use any GMO's or anything bad.

The restaurant is nice on the inside and has a wonderful view, from the side of a bluff, of the Lake of the Ozarks as well as some of the resorts.  The menu is incredible, everything is organic and the place is very friendly and great for kids.

So, here is what we had ordered:

First we had ordered the House Charcutrie Board, which was a board filled with house-made pickles and sausages.  It is huge and is well worth ordering for your party at your table while you wait for the main courses.  We ordered enough on here for 3 people and this was a large board filled with food.  Chef Robert told us that he had purchased a book on pickling and just started to play around with it, making almost anything into a pickle.  There were sweet pickles and sour pickles and the sausages and meats were just as tasty.  If you need a good board to calm your table down, get this.  I'd give the board a 4 out of 5.

Now, the next thing we had ordered was for me.  It isn't on the menu now, but that is because the menu changes daily, due to what is available and fresh.  I ordered a house made sausage, with greens and mashed potatoes.  Can you say "delicious"?  The sausage was tender and juicy and the mashed potatoes were creamy, buttery and full of flavor.  There was a bit of a micro green salad with a very rich and tasty gravy. This was the kind of dish that you could just sit there, relax, enjoy the view and eat.  I'd give this one a 4 out of 5 as well.

While these helped make the meal enjoyable, these were given to us, just like bread and butter is given to guests at other restaurants.  What is it, you may ask?  What these are, are sweet cornbread muffins, with chunks of andouille sausage in them.  With each bite you can taste the corn bread and a bite of spicy sausage or pork fat.  These are so awesome and even better with some of the herbed compound butter.  I'd give these things alone a 4 out of 5 stars.

Now, just when you think you can only get great dinner and lunch food here at the Savannah Grille, they also offer a brunch menu on Sunday.  The delicious menu has all types of great things, including this omelet filled with meat.

I was one of 6 adults and we had two children with us and none of us, had any issues or problems with any of the food we had ordered.  Usually BBQ is a must-have while we go to the Ozarks and now, we will have to stop in and check to see what else is new and fresh and delicious.

Savannah Grille
1622 Horseshoe Bend Pkwy
Lake Ozark, MO 65049
http://savannahgrillerestaurant.com/

Back to the Ozarks

I do spend a lot of time in the Ozarks and rightly so.  The Ozarks is filled with restaurants that claim fame to the best in "something".  So, besides going back to Fired Up! and checking out items from their new menu (which everything we tried was awesome, again), we tried what is supposed to be the best BBQ in town.
First though, here is some food porn pictures from Fired Up!.

Their new salads in a jar:

This was my pulled pork sandwich with a slice of cornbread, sweet potatoes with marshmallow and some red skin mashed potatoes and gravy.

Just pulled pork.

While not personally eating all of the other dishes, I can only tell you about what I had.  The pulled pork is awesome, in any way you get it.  My sandwich was perfectly sweet and tender.  The cornbread is their same sweet cornbread which is like crack, or another addictive drug.  The sweet potatoes were completely candied with large amounts of butter and brown sugar and then they had these melted marshmallows on top and the thing was like my own personal dessert. The mashed potatoes still had small pieces of the red skins from the potatoes in them and the country style white gravy was great as well.  A 3 and 1/2 stars for my meal.

Anyways, the place that is supposed to be the best in town, is called "Half Sauced".

Half Sauced has awards and large trophies for their brisket and their pork, from 2009 and so forth.  Anyone who was a grand champion deserves a testing of tasting.  First of all, we ordered the smoked buffalo wings.

Theses tasted like the most perfectly cooked hot wings, with a smoky-ness to them that reminds you that they were cooked in a smoker with tons of other meats.  These were good enough that I would order several plates of these for a party.  I'd give them an easy 3 out of 5 stars.

Now, after this dish, we were only expecting the best, but were sadly disappointed as the best never came out.  Instead, when I had ordered the brisket sandwich, we had received this:

The first piece I had picked up, that middle piece, was perfect.  The meat fell apart and the fat melted.  It was so delicious that if I was judging on that piece alone, I would have given a 4 out of 5 stars for tastiness. The problem was that the next piece I had picked up was tough, like biting through leather.  It didn't have as much fat and I couldn't finish the piece and went to another one.  Now, Half Sauced has several home-made sauces and just like other places, Fired Up! included, they claim to make their own.  We tried their hot sauce and when we asked about it, we found out that it was basically just store bought hot sauce mixed with store bought BBQ sauce.  That makes everything a bit disappointing.

The baked beans were beans cooked and served in BBQ sauce.  They were more of a bean chili than a sweet baked beans that you would be accustomed to, in the Mid West.

What you should avoid, when you go there, is this plate that mentions brisket and something called "burnt ends".

They describe these "burnt ends" as Chewy, smoky, bits of brisket drenched in barbecue sauce."  When you read that line, I bet you are expecting something a bit chewy, but still edible, pieces of meat.  I am one of those people who will eat the ends of things like pot roast or brisket, because it has a bit of the char, extra flavorings and so forth on it.  These little, hard as a rock pieces, were nothing like the description.  They were not "drenched in sauce" but bone dry.  They were also not chewy, but so hard and tough that they could not be bitten in two.  I'm not joking!  There were 4 adults at our table and each one tried to bite a piece of these bits and it was impossible.  I remembered that one of my acquaintances asked the server if they were supposed to be that tough and she shook her head "yes".  How tough were they?  I wouldn't give them to a dog.  They were like bricks or meat and they were merely on the plate to make it look full.  The brisket was all over the board, just like my plate.  Some were tender and melt in your mouth and some were leather.  You would think that a "grand champion" would have perfect food, all of the time, but maybe they were just off, this time.  I'd give the dish, a 1 out of 5 stars, meaning I would not order it again and it was not edible.  

PS:  The steak fries, on the menu, were frozen from a bag.  Unless I am just that incorrect, but they were still cold in the middle and looked like the ones I could have bought in the frozen food section of any grocery store.

Overall, if I had to compare the two, I would spend my money at Fired Up! and tell everyone to go there.  

Back to Fired UP! (BBQ Food Porn)

Last week, I had to run to the Ozarks for business and as such, only had one hour to eat lunch.  Where did I go?  Fired UP!  I haven't been to Fired Up in a few months and thought it was a good trip to see if anything had changed.  What was interesting, was that our server told us that there is a new, huge menu, coming out.  The new menu isn't just because it is summer time, but also because the restaurant is growing.  Good for them.

So, what should I get?  Fire Up is know for the smoker and BBQ, but if their other food was just as good?  "What if, their burgers were as good as their BBQ", I wondered.  Well, that is what I had ordered.  One of the guys I was with ordered the one pound of smoked sausage and that came out on a nice new plate.  No more plastic baskets here.

So, of course, this was delicious and we get it every time, or at least this time and last time.  If you like smoked sausage, a bit on the spicy side and cut on the bias for the best bite, then this is for you.  This is an easy 3 and 1/2 stars out of 5, so eat it up as it is Very good.

Now, what I had ordered next, just for me, I gave a 4 out of 5.  It is awesome, as in, go and try it at all costs.  I ordered a burger, I think it was called the Smokehouse Burger.  I then picked my usual sides of potatoes dripping in melted butter and cornbread.  The burger was a 1/4 pound burger, and was likely cooked and then placed in a smoker, because it did have a smoke ring around it.

This burger is freakin' delicious.  You want to see what makes it so good?

When you take the top bun off, you see this.  What is this?  That is chopped, smoked, bacon.  The burger, besides being perfectly seasoned and cooked perfectly, and smokey, has bacon all over the top of it.  How could you not want this?  Is your mouth watering yet?  Every bite was smack fun of smokey flavor, and then bacon goodness and then that perfectly salty burger.  Not overly salty, but enough salt that makes you realize that it is tasty beef, like how a good steak has a good amount of salt or how a good loaf of bread has some tasty sea salt on top.  The bacon was smokey, just that slight bit of crunch needed and then tender, not quite crispy or crunchy but almost.  The burger was heavenly.

So, make sure you go there, before they get too busy:

You can see them on Facebook, here: https://www.facebook.com/FUTAPHOUSE/info

More from the Ozarks...

I went to the Ozarks, last weekend from Friday-Monday and while there, I ate at a different restaurant for lunch and dinner each day, except for Friday where I ate on the road and Monday when we left before dinner.  But, with too many good places and too much to review and place into individually concise and simple articles, I have a bunch listed here.

Dog Days Bar & Grill is a nice place.  It has ports so people can pull their boats up and get served.  We took my kids there and the place is very kid friendly.  The food is simple bar food, in first appearance but I was told that the same owners of this bar, also own a Cajun style restaurant so there are some things on the menu here that sound like Cajun inspired.  I ordered their basic burger with a side of black beans and rice.  The burger was juicy and cooked as ordered.  The beans and rice were flavorful, albeit I had a few grains of uncooked rice.  I'd give this place a 3 out of 5.

Kay's is an all you can eat, home cooking restaurant.  It is very "traditional" in that not only does it have good food, but it also has a small selection of wares which you can purchase in the front of the restaurant.  The way that they do the all-you-can-eat way, is to make it so that all of the food is by order.  For instance, I wanted to start with some eggs and some biscuits and gravy.  Instead of going to a food line and plating this myself, I order it and a waitress comes out and delivers this to my person.  So, this seems to be a great idea because you can have all of the food you want, but the restaurant doesn't have to deal with food loss by having food sitting out on a hot line all day long.

The biscuits were light and fluffy and buttery.  The gravy was heavy and peppery.  The eggs were tasty and in this plate, I was happy.  I ate everything so I could move forwards to the next plate.  Off of the menu, besides the plate above you, I also tried the pancakes and bacon and sausage and grits and everything was delicious.  This would be like having an all you can eat meal at one of the last remaining IHOP's.  I would give Kay's a 4 out of 5.

El Jimador, is awesome.  In St. Louis, there is a fair amount of Authentic Mexican restaurants which have the innate ability to cause GI issues or just taste really bad.  Real Mexican food isn't smothered in cheese, canned salsa or bad salty chips.  Real Mexican food cannot be hidden or should not be hidden with your choice of a dozen Margaritas.  El Jimador looks like a stereotypical Mexican restaurant on the inside, with roofing tiles over the booths to make it look like you are outside.  Yeah, it looks lame, but when the food comes, it is awesome.  I ordered something that was called "Tacos al Pastor" (I think, I can't find it on the menu now when I look online.)  It was awesome:

These tacos were filled with super tender pork and grilled pineapple.  I know, it sounds a bit Hawaiian, but this was great.  That dip/salsa, was made from Chipotle chilies and was so flavorful and not spicy.  Everything tasted good.  I went here with 4 other adults and two kids and I tried every one's food.  I didn't have an issue with any of them.  My in-laws ordered the soup: Caldo de Pollo, which is an awesome soup with chicken and rice.  They were told, the first time they went there, that no one ever orders the soup, which is quite sad because the soup was so good.  The only disappointing thing at the restaurant, was the bathroom.  I have seen cleaner bathrooms, on a hillside, in Southern Lebanon, than I did at this restaurant.  Still though, I'd give the food a 4 out of 5.

The final place that I have here, is called JJ Twigs.  This restaurant is huge and you can see it from any angle off of US 54.  It has a large sign on it saying that it is a great place for Pizza, but I am sorry to say that if their pizza is the best in the Ozarks, then I think all of the other pizza places should be razed.  I'm sorry, but this place is bad.  This restaurant is set-up like a rectangle, with a bar sectioned off on the two shorter ends.  It is decorated like a log cabin on the inside and there is a large fire place in the central seating area.  There is a very large amount of stuffed animals all throughout including a jackalope and a wooly salmon.  What is sad here is what is listed on the menu is not the same as what you get.  I want to be clear on three things, which myself and my group ordered.  First of all, I ordered the 16 layer lasagna.  Now, while this sounds like a huge item to plated and shown off, what I had received was this:

Now, I hate to be a stickler, but after I removed those two slices of bread, I counted and there was only 12 layers, not 16.  This wouldn't be a big deal by anyone else, but for those who see that being told that they have a piece  of lasagna that has 16 layers, is a huge selling point, then finding out that it doesn't ruins the joy behind it.  What did it taste like?  Not very good.  It was pretty bland, like the sauce had two flavors: tomato sauce and oregano.

My son ordered the pizza, since this is a famous pizza place.  This is what was delivered to us:

If you notice the cardboard, then you are with me on this.  No restaurant, anywhere, serves pizza in-house, on cardboard: especially white cardboard in the same and measurements of the pizza.  Now, I can't say whether the pizza was frozen and store bought and then heated badly or if this was made in house, prepped and placed on this cardboard and then not cooked thoroughly.  The pizza had a soggy crust towards the center and the sauce was the same flavorless sauce that was on my lasagna.  I would guess that if people think the pizza is awesome, they are most likely drinking as well and are too drunk to realized how bad the pizza actually is.

The last thing I wish to point out is when a salad says that it has "field greens", that does not mean "iceburg lettuce."  I just want to throw that out there.  Whichever the case, this JJ Twigs should not be confused with the one in St. Louis:  http://www.jjtwigsstl.com/beginnings.htm  .  I know that the pictures of the food look great at this website, but it could be the same restaurant but not the same food.  I'm sorry but if this restaurant is owned by the same people as the ones in St. Louis, which it is, I don't want to even waste my money at the St. Louis locations after a disaster like this one.  JJ Twigs, maybe gets a 1 out of 5.

So, besides the great BBQ spot, Fired UP!, this is what we did and what we thought.  If you don't believe me on any of these places, see for yourself.

Fired Up for BBQ

This past weekend, I had a relaxing vacation in the Ozarks.  I went with my family and my in-laws to work on their condo and enjoy some of the great food in the Ozarks.  When I was in High School, 3 of my friends and I went on a road trip, each summer for 3 years, down to the Ozarks where we spent a few days relaxing and taking in the sights.  I do not remember that much, in ways of good food.  It is amazing how so much can change in 15 years!  (Yeah, I admit, that is a long time, but I didn't even recognize the place.)

Fired up is a BBQ joint which also has a bar section, an arcade and a dance floor.  While it may seem like any other BBQ destination, the wonderful views out of the large windows near your dining table, fool you into thinking that you are on some mountain paradise.  While the view may sound like a gimmick, to draw you in, the food is anything but fake and you should come in for it directly. Using locally grown ingredients and even potatoes grown in their own garden, Fired Up is a new place which has grabbed the "sustainable" feel for using local and farm to table ideals, whether they tried to or not.

The restaurant is simple, clean, quiet, and has no obnoxious music playing on loud speakers.  Of course with anything, the food is the real reason why I was there.  Fired Up makes their own sauces.  They had an "Original Sauce" which was like your basic St. Louis style sauce with a bit more of a mustard flavor, a "Bourbon Sauce" which had that tang and sweetness of Bourbon, a "Hot & Spicy" which was almost too hot for me to handle and finally a "Citrus Chipolte" which gave both a smokey chili flavor and a lemon citrus flavor.  I know that some of the infamous BBQ restaurants in St. Louis have their own sauce, but none of them have created four of their own.

So, I thought that if I was looking for a taste of everything, I would choose a 3 meat selection.  My plate, came with BBQ pulled pork, which melted in my mouth, some smokey turkey breast, which reminded me of a mix of Thanksgiving and a BBQ pit and finally I had a few thick slices of beef brisket.  As I just said, I took a bite of the turkey first and it was juicy and tender and smokey.  The beef was cut thick, but was so tender that it fell apart in my mouth.  And the pulled pork, literally melted in mouth.  It was so juicy and so flavorful that my 4 and 5 year old children were gobbling it up.  This plate is an easy 4 out of 5 for me.

We ordered a plate of the "Pulled Pork Sliders" off of the appetizer menu, and we expected two sliders.  What we had delivered to us was a plate of 6 (six) sliders on some sweet buns.  The same pulled pork, the exact same super juicy and tender pork which I had, was on these sliders.  My kids, my 4 and 5 year old boys, loved these sliders.  A good way of checking to see if the meat is tender or not, is to give it to a child and my 5 year old had 1 and 1/2 of these sliders.  This was also a 4 and 1/2 out of 5 for me.

Couple this with the large basket of a whole rack of ribs, which were so tender and juicy that it was impossible not to love them, you would start to get a full stomach.  When my father-in-law, reached for a rib to taste it, he pulled the bone up as the meat fell off.  It wasn't a bad thing, but a great thing.  The meat was juicy, flavorful, smokey and of course tender.  The ribs were about as tender as the super tender pulled pork. I'd give the ribs about a 4 and 1/2 out of 5 for the pure fact that they were so good that if I wouldn't feel bad about it, I would have tried to wrestle my father-in-law for portion of the ribs.

While some places in St. Louis get you on the good food, Fired Up also gets you on the great taste of their sides. We tried the "baby bakers" and they were tiny home grown potatoes, baked to perfection (not too mushy and not too hard), sprinkled with kosher salt and sitting in a cup of melted butter.  The image of melted butter in the bottom of the cup is a winner.  The potato salad is a red potato salad with a creamy sauce and a dill seasoning; tasty. The cole slaw is a great and simple creamy slaw.  Not too much pepper and not too rich and even a tad sweet.  The baked beans were very sweet, almost a dessert, with the taste of brown sugar and big chunks of that famous pulled pork in it.  This was a great cup of beans.  The big thing at Fired Up, which we all noticed, was the cornbread.  The cornbread was a sweet, moist and delicious cake.  It was very tasty that people at my table with me whom normally do not eat cornbread, were eating it.  I wish they sold the cornbread in hotel sheet pan sizes. Also, as a fan of cornbread, let me further explain that this isn't like other BBQ places and their cornbread.  With other places, every bite of cornbread has to be accompanied by a drink or a sip of a drink, because theirs are too dry.  Fire Up, has very moist cornbread in which no drink is necessary.  The sides were good enough that I'd give them all a 4 out of 5.

I want to stress and point out a couple of things:  First of all, if you like any of their sauces, they will sell a portion size to you.  What they sold to us was a large 32oz cup, for about $4!  That is a huge amount of BBQ sauce for a little price.  Secondly, I don't want you to look at my ratings and think "he only gave them a 4 out of 5!  Let's go somewhere else!"  The fact is, if you don't know it, I don't give a dish or anything a 5 out of 5, unless it blows me away in some new cooking method or something I've never seen or tasted before.  This doesn't mean that the food isn't good, in fact it means that the food was near perfect and I highly recommend it.  Thirdly, the only reason I stopped by on this time was because my in-laws had already been there and had a great time.  This means that on two separate occasions, the food and service was fantastic.          

Are there other BBQ places in the Ozarks?  Definitely.  But, I seriously doubt or even dare them to be as good as Fired Up.  Frankly, I would dare say that Fired Up has better BBQ than some of the famous St. Louis locations like Phil's or even Pappy's.  If you go to the Ozarks and don't go for BBQ at Fired Up, un-friend me on Facebook.  I can't be friends with anyone who doesn't appreciate good taste. 

My problem with No Reservations: Ozarks.

On Monday the 28th, the aired an episode of No Reservations that I was dreading.  When Anthony was in the Fox, he was asked if he was coming to St. Louis.  His response was that he was coming to the Ozarks.  Now, as a St. Louis native, that would be like me saying that I am coming to New York and then skipping New York City and instead going to Mooers, which is a small town of less than 4,000 people.  Missouri is filled with large cities and most people from either coast do tend to forget that there is a world of culture between those two coasts.  St. Louis, is so much in the middle of everything that it was even considered to be the nation's capital.

Now, the Ozark area is home to what most of the world consider back-wood, backward, redneck or hillbilly.  These people do exactly what is often thought of them: they drink, enjoy shooting their guns, like to go hunting and will eat things that most people would think as inedible.  The episode started off with Tony learning how to dress a squirrel.  Those little things don't look like they have much meat on them but he learns how to peel the fur off, chop the head and tail off and have it ready for cooking.

He then went fishing with one of his favorite authors, at night, and his favorite author slipped and dislocated his shoulder.  Well, he was out of the show after that.  There then was some duck hunting, raccoon hunting and then cooking everything.  You had duck hunters who never tasted duck cooked properly which made it seem like the producers found the only duck hunters who didn't really like duck.  Combine that with Bourdain going to a restaurant and eating chili on spaghetti and thinking it so strange.

As I said, earlier, covering a state by not going to any of the larger cities when he has already been to other large cities like New York, Boston, and even Chicago, makes me feel like he really does hate Missouri.  What is sad is that there are people out there who think this way.