I have said it before and I will say it again, in a city filled with great steak places Joe’s stands out. One of my favorites places, maybe my favorite.

I arrived at 7:00 to find the bar packed. The one knock on Joe’s has always been the bar but it is even worse than I remember. Forget not being good, it is barely serviceable. They should convert that upstairs dining area above the current bar into another bar but I digress. As soon as Hans showed up a couple minutes after 7:00 I audibled across the street to Eddie V’s for happy hour. This was the right call and provided a great bar for happy hour, I should have thought of it earlier. Glick and Crenshaw joined us for happy hour, a couple of glasses of our respected poisons and we were off and running. Jevon joined the group as we walked over to Joe’s and the word was that Scotty was on his way and would arrive soon to begin the dining festivities.

The group hung outside the restaurant while I went inside to inform the host that we would all be there and ready to be seated momentarily. Outside the boys observed a short, weathered fellow wearing a white hat waddle down the street…it was Alice Cooper. Seems appropriate since it is summer and schools out. Apparently he had just been in Milwaukee or “Mill-e-wah-que” which is Algonquin for the good land.

As always Joe’s was packed with patrons. We were seated at a 6 person round table which always seems more feng shui for steak night than its rectangular cousin. Our waitress, whose name escapes me was attentive but not over baring and enthusiastically embraced our tradition of reverse credit card roulette even if it took her a minute to understand it. Since I’m not a wine drinker I pitched the wine duties to Crenshaw like Tommy Frazier to Ahman Green at Nebraska circa 1995.

For years Crenshaw has touted Joe’s fried chicken as divine, the best he has ever had. Since stone crabs were out of season it was the perfect time to get the fried chicken as an appetizer, continuing the recent trend of getting an entree as an appetizer for the group to share. The fried chicken is indeed excellent-light, moist, and just the right amount of batter. While some in the group touted shacks in Alabama or their wife’s fried chicken as the best ever; Joe’s chicken was still excellent and I’m sure it would get the seal of approval by Colonel Sanders himself. Not to be forgotten was the shrimp de jonghe which was also tremendous.

Bone in ribeye for me, in a word-perfect. Perfect seasoning, perfect temperature, and perfect taste. Best steak in the city. Sides included mac & cheese, Jennie’s mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, and roasted sweet corn. Sides were solid but not on the same level as the steak with the corn being the highlight for me.

Somewhere along the line of Steak Night history key lime pie and carrot cake became the defacto go to default desserts. Generally speaking both of these choices are inferior to many other dessert options. I’m not sure how it happened but key lime pie and carrot cake should not be required ordering or the default dessert of choice for the group. Old habits die hard so we had the key lime pie, a raspberry pie and a peanut butter pie. The peanut butter pie with chocolate crust was a decadent delight and far and away the best dessert.

Dinner conversation included: Kevin Love’s stats if we goes to the Cavs (I say 20/10, Glick says no) Hans Bachelor party/wedding, games for the Bears tailgate (Dolphins or Vikings), the recent crazy vs hot girl tutorial, college football playoffs, Don Cole’s inability to respond to dinner invites and doing a pick em pool again for a free meal.

Inspired by the clip of a drunk and/or high redneck getting arrested and then giving a Roll Tide to the arresting officer as he was cuffed and taken away the group now has a new phrase. Roll Tide is now the all-encompassing, official answer or sign off to every conversation….Roll Tide.

We capped the evening off with drinks at Sienna Tavern. Jevon won at credit card roulette. Another steak night in the books. Good times all around. Roll Tide.

Cheers,
TDI

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