Rib Crib (OK)

I recently traveled to OK (one of the 5 states where I have lived my fabulous life) to welcome my Very First Nephew to the world. This week's posts are all about the yumminess I got to eat while there. Hey, a girl's gotta eat, even if it's around the very demanding schedule of a baby in no particular rush to get here!

Rib Crib is a chain that actually started in Tulsa, I believe in the 90s, and yet I had never been there until I went with my friend Holly. I squeezed in a quick visit with her in Edmond (a suburb of Oklahoma City) the week my new nephew arrived!

I started with their spiked cherry limeade which, to my surprise, is blue. It has Blue Curaçao in it. Why not? It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was sweet, delicious, and went down way too quickly.

Holly says she doesn't normally have a "usual" dish at most places, but at Rib Crib she does: the chicken nachos. They're actually an appetizer, but they're big enough for person has an entrée. These have a smattering of banana peppers on top, and I am a sucker for banana peppers. So yeah, I had two bites of this. If I were a regular at Rib Crib, this would be my usual, too.

This menu is huge, and it took me a good 10 minutes to mull over my dizzying options. I ended up getting the club sandwich: smoked chicken and pulled pork on three slices of bread. This sammich was huge, and I ended up taking out some of the bread just to make it easier to actually eat.

The pulled pork was delicious but the smoked chicken was by far my favorite part of that sandwich.

I'm not really a fries person, either, but their seasoned fries were delightfully crispy & flavorful and I ate way more than I planned on eating, so that's three thumbs up for them!




The service was excellent, the food was delicious, and the prices are affordable. Get some chicken nachos and thank me later!

Seriously-- chicken nachos, y'all.
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Rib Crib
2601 S Broadway
Edmond, OK 73013
(405) 513-5883

Fletcher's Brooklyn BBQ

My friend Carlota invited me for a night of good food in Brooklyn, and we met up at Fletcher's Brooklyn BBQ, a 2-minute walk from several trains in the Gowanus neighborhood. I've been disappointed in a LOT of BBQ spots that seem very popular in NYC, but Carlota assured me THIS one was worth the trip.

Fletcher's has an open kitchen plan, it smells like a woodsy, smoky, wonderful heaven, and the staff was surprisingly friendly when I walked in the door. They welcomed me and invited me to order a drink and have a seat at the bar (don't mind if I do! ) I was excited to see Long Island Wines on the menu, so I ordered a glass of Wolffer Estate Merlot ($9), which came in a small mason jar. Wolffer makes an excellent Merlot, I think! (Carlota had one of the Shinn Estate Vineyards' unoaked Chardonnays)

They also gave me some complimentary oyster crackers (the biggest ones I've ever seen) that were generously, spicily seasoned. These babies are SPICY...but tasty! I could only eat a few of them, but I thought the spicy smokiness was just lovely with the Merlot.

You order your meats & sides at the counter, and they serve them up on a tray. We didn't even bother with plates-- we just dove right into the goodness!

Carlota ordered the pork sandwich-- the pork on its own was smoky, juicy, and delicious on a soft roll. I think she added sauce later but it was great either way. Her side of cole slaw was just okay to me, but we know slaw isn't one of my 'things.'

We also had some of their cheesy, saucy macaroni and cheese. This was nice, smooth, almost bechamel-like. A small was enough for both of us, and I'd say, yeah, it was pretty good!

My dish, however, stole the show. It was the char-siu pork steak ($28/lb, my serving was 3 slices, around 1/4 lb), which had a marinade of hoisin sauce, ginger, honey and more. Wow. This was not just gorgeous (look at that pretty smoke ring around the meat!), but it was gorgeously flavored, tender, not dry at all. It comes with a special dipping sauce that was finger-licking-good, too. I could have eaten a lot more than three pieces!

Fletcher's isn't Cheap Eats territory (it was $26 pp for one glass of wine & our food), but I found it quite delicious, and the friendly service definitely puts it higher up on my list, too. Almost every worker chimed in about the delicious offerings and seemed genuinely passionate and interested in what they do there. Thanks to the gigantic red smoker (brought in from Texas, pictured below), the whole place smells wonderfully of burning wood and tangy flavors. You go home pleasantly sated (though not stuffed) and smelling great, too!

Fletcher's Brooklyn BBQ

433 3rd Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11215‎

(347) 763-2680

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Famous Dave's BBQ

While stranded in the city during one of our many snowstorms, some coworkers and I wandered a few steps from the office to get an actual away-from-the-desk dinner. I hadn't realized there was a Dave's Famous BBQ in Times Square. ABF & I go once a year or so to the Long Island location. Their smoked salmon dip is beyond craveable, so I thought that might be worth a trip to this one.

First thing I noticed on the menu: they don't HAVE the smoked salmon dip at this location. BLAST!

We'd all worked long days and were pretty tired after sleeping on rock-hard hotel mattresses, so two of us started with their Happy Hour specials: draft beers for 3 dollars. Yes, THREE dollars. We each got a Blue Moon (one of the few beers I really enjoy).

I ordered the Devil's Spit (what a name) burger because it claimed to have quite a kick. It had the Devil's Spit BBQ sauce, pepper-Jack cheese, jalapeno bacon and "Hell-Fire" pickles. However, the burger was not really spicy, and the pickles were sweet--feh. I removed the pickles and ate most of the burger, but didn't think it was noteworthy by any stretch.

Speaking of Devil's Spit, that's just one of the names of their house BBQ sauces, and one of my favorites. But my all-time favorite? The Rich N Sassy!

Yeah, that's a keeper.

Patty ordered the pulled chicken sandwich, and she liked it, but wasn't over the moon for it. It sure did look super cheesy and tasty to me.

Our friend Melanie (of Epi-Curious) ordered the salad with crispy chicken. It was a huge, fresh serving, with a tiny corn muffin on the side. She seemed to really enjoy it, and they got her specific order (dressing on the side, no this, no that) just the way she wanted it, including extra tomatoes (even though the server accidentally wrote down NO tomatoes!), so that's good.

Our server was great and attentive, the food came quickly, and it was fine. It wasn't outrageously priced either, which is rare for that area. I still prefer the Westbury (Long Island) location, but if you're desperate for a meal and in that normally overpriced area, stop in for a bite, especially during Happy Hour!

Famous Dave's BBQ
171 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
(212) 764-1899

Johnny Utah's

Last week was our friend Melanie's birthday, so we gals got together on Friday night for some fun and, hey, why not? some bull-riding. We hit up Johnny Utah's, a kinda-cowboy joint nestled in the middle of Midtown.. I only knew of this place (despite working in Midtown many years over my time in NYC) because my friend Beth L had her birthday here two summers ago. I even rode the bull at her birthday party, but it didn't happen this time (too much food!)

First things first. While Mel chatted away with one of our colleagues, Patty & I took it upon ourselves to order a pitcher of margaritas (a happy hour special). I definitely felt like the first round was strong, even if there was a little too much orange juice in this version for me. Rounds 2 and 3 (calm yourself, we were a big group) were muuuuch weaker, and we were definitely disappointed at how watered-down these were.

The food, however, did not disappoint. We started with the Rattlesnake Nachos. There is no actual rattlesnake in the nachos, so I'm guessing the shredded ribbons of Romaine lettuce are meant to evoke reptilian images? I suppose the sour cream drizzle had a side-winder look to them. Whatever the reason behind the name, these were delicious and we ate them up right quick. Crispy, thin chips weighed down with beans, chili, lots o'jalapenos, and cheese. My only complaint is that they are described as being covered in four cheeses, but most of my pieces were cheeseless. Tasty, but cheeseless!

Birthday gal Mel got the burrito, which was super grande. They call it a 'wet' burrito, because it's smothered in sauce, but I gotta say, that's not a very appetizing word for me when it comes to food. sheesh. Mel says this was pretty good--not the best burrito she's ever had, but it was good! It was also a huge serving of food--I don't think she even finished it.

I darn near finished my whole entrée, though! I got the BBQ chicken, which came with sweet potato fries and blackened green beans. The chicken was downright succulent (and I use that word when I REALLY mean it) and well-seasoned, the sauce was tangy and not-too-sweet, but the green beans, they stole the show. Holy veggies, Batman, were these green beans good (even if you can't really see them in the food photo). They were salty, garlicky, and addictive. If I had not filled up that space with margaritas already, I would have cleaned my plate. Fortunately one of my coworkers was a fan, too, so she helped me finish them off at the end. The fries came with a spicy dipping sauce that was delicious on everything. Be warned--there is some kick to this dish--it's not for the faint of tastebuds.

The service was a little weird--we told our first server that we were celebrating a birthday, but about 20 minutes later we got a new server, and I guess she didn't get the memo. We saw, after we'd left our seat, that they put sparklies on a piece of cake or something if it's a bday, but our dear Mel got no fanfare. :( Also, we were seated quickly but told we could only have the table for 2 hours, as it was reserved after that. We agreed gladly, as we were starving, but then we felt a little stalked when the hostess came up and gave us a 1-hour warning (the late arrivers to our party were told to hurry up and order food as we ONLY had just over an hour left. How long does it take to bring out food?? In this case, 10 minutes.) We also got a 30 minute, 15 minute, and a few more nudges. We were actually waiting a good 15 minutes for the server to come take our cards, so when the hostess swooped in one more time, I was quick to point out that we were more than happy to vacate, but we had this little issue of paying for our food. She took the cards and told us we could go wait in the (packed) bar area and she'd come find us. I opted to wait at the table so I could be sure to get my credit card returned. With all the delays, I was sure there would be an antsy group waiting to sit down in our spots. However, we stayed for another 45 minutes to an hour (to watch some friends ride the bull--yee haw!), and our seats remained empty. Feh. Just annoying.

Long story short: good food, so-so drinks, super fun bull-riding! It's worth a pop in at least once! And while she didn't get a cake with sparklers, I hope Mel still had a rootin-tootin' good time! Happy Birthday, Mel!

BrrrrrrrrrrrBQ!

GOOD BBQ is a tall order here in NYC. Having lived in TX and traveled to TN, I have sampled some succulent fare in my time. Here in NY, ever chasing the elusive/delicious BBQ, I have had my share of stinkers. I enjoy a good brisket, but my dish of choice is pulled pork. It's what I'm mostly likely to order at each restaurant and compare to previous samplings. I was discussing this with my friend MK, a BBQ aficionado. She had just returned from South Carolina, where she and her boyfriend had eaten both praiseworthy and paltry offerings.

While discussing this with MK, the craving hit us, and I remembered Daisy May's BBQ--located at 46th street and 11th Avenue-- has a renowned cart somewhere in midtown. We (having finished most of our work for the day anyway, mind you) quickly set about googling, and almost simultaneously found the answer: IT WAS ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM US. Does God really intervene when it comes to something as simple as a hankering for a hunk of pork? It sure seemed like it today.

We bundled up and dashed outside, braving the brisk, icy wind for some quick and affordable street meat. We both ordered the pulled pork ($8 for the generous portion of meat, roll & cole slaw), and opted to split a mason jar of their mint sweet tea! MINT!!!

Once inside, we excitedly unpacked our goodies and began to assemble the deliciousness. The meat had a smoky, mustardy smell (I love mustard-based sauces). It had a distinct flavor I couldn't quite place, but MK nailed it as cloves. We could also taste molasses and/or brown sugar and cumin. Mmm...cumin. Smells like body odor, tastes like heaven. Go figure. The pork was tender, probably hickory-smoked, and delicious, though we both agreed there was a bit too much sauce. I like a light drizzling of sauce atop my pulled pork-this serving was almost swimming in it. We surmised it's probably to keep it from drying out since everything is packed up in a mobile cart, far away from the "Mother ship," as the cart's signage refers to the restaurant. The roll did an excellent job of absorbing a lot of the excess sauce, and there is clearly enough meat in here if you want to eat half now and half later (I opted for all of it at once. Yayyyy, PMS week!)

The mint sweet tea costs 4 dollars, which initially had me saying hell to the no. Then I saw that it came in a Mason jar, and I offered to split it with Mel. It's DEFINITELY a two-portion serving. The sweet tea was sweet, but in the most wonderful of ways. Sometimes sweet tea can be SO sweet that it makes your teeth hurt. This tea was a perfect balance: strong tea flavor with just enough sweetness to make you smile. The mint wasn't as strong as I expected, but that was just fine. Mel let me have the glass that had the fresh mint sprig. She's a good friend. ;) I was actually sad when I took my last few sips of this tea.

A good friend is also someone who takes cheesy photos of you (read: me) without judging you (again: me). Just one of her many wonderful qualities.

So this sandwich might not be the world's best BBQ, but on a day when some tasty, tender pulled pork is all I wanted, this definitely came close enough. And that sweet tea will have me coming back again, especially once it starts warming up outside!