Thursday, March 19, 2015

24th Street Tavern, March 18, 2015

At our Uppity Book Women gathering last weekend, Brenda told us that she and her husband, Kenny, wanted to take us out for burgers at the 24th Street Tavern in Oxford. It's right next to Casa Real, where we ate last Thursday, but for some reason, we had never really noticed it. We met them last night. The menu is pretty extensive, with some really tasty-looking items. However, I was eager to try their burgers, as Brenda had praised them highly. They had a huge array of possibilities to go with the burgers---chips, fries, seasoned fries, tater tots, sweet potato fries---and a good variety of burgers, as well. Brenda & Kenny built their own burgers, with sweet potato fries for her and chips for him. Jeannene got the mushroom swiss burger with regular fries and I chose the black & bleu burger with tater tots. I will seldom choose anything else, if offered those. They were fried, instead of baked as I like them best, but these weren't greasy like they sometimes are. The burger was, in fact, stellar. 1/2 lb. of good quality beef, seasoned with just the right amount of blackened seasoning, and a goodly amount of bleu cheese. Neither was overdone, muting the flavor of the burger or killing my taste buds. Nor were they insipidly applied, so that I had to think hard about whether I tasted it or not. A great balance.

Brenda and I couldn't resist the fried Oreos with vanilla ice cream for dessert, but we had to take them home. We were already taking part of our dinner home, as it was. Once we got home, Jeannene was ready for dessert. I had ordered the Oreos because my friend, Jocelyn's, fiancé had made her an Oreo pie and on the way to the restaurant, I said to myself, "Okay, if they have an Oreo dessert, I'm ordering it." I am so suggestible. Luckily, Jeannene loved the Oreos and I didn't have the temptation of eating all of them myself!

The atmosphere was typical sports bar, with screens everywhere and cute, sweet waitresses in ball caps. I enjoyed being by the huge front windows so I could watch something other than the screens. Of course, there were also my companions' faces (and my wife's beautiful green eyes) to watch as we chatted away. Such good company! Normally, I hate sitting at high-top tables, but that's what was available and, thankfully, they have well-designed high-top chairs with a place for us short-legged people to put our feet and a big enough seat that I didn't feel at all precarious or uncomfortable. We'll definitely go back and explore more of the menu. Next time, I will order the veggies and dip as an appetizer. It seems unusual to find such a thing on a sports bar menu!

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