Who's that at the door? A horse.

Within 60 min of showing up in Bisbee, Arizona my friends and I are in a bar. Within 20 min of being in said bar, a horse shows up. Pass the beer.

This is Hot Licks Saloon in Old Bisbee and the horse didn't stay long. I ordered Dave's Electric Beer because I thought it was local. Turns out it comes from Tempe, but the owner is from Bisbee? The details are kind of foggy but the beer was delicious.


Adjacent to the saloon is EAT Barbecue, a bbq stand that offered ribs, chicken legs, and pulled pork sandwiches. We got a goat cheese plate as an appetizer, sooo delicious. I ordered the pork sandwich with a side of corn and was very happy with it. Until I sampled one of the ribs. I soon wished I has ordered that instead! The sauce had this amazing black pepper kick to it and the meat was very tender. Oh well, next time.

I continued to eat well the rest of the trip. I got to the hotel room and the first thing I see are homemade cookies sitting by my bed. (This was at the Copper Queen Hotel, they also have fresh baked cookies in the lobby.) And today I started the morning with a hot chocolate from Bisbee Coffee Company. That whip cream on top is freshly whipped, not from a can, folks. Yummy.

I also visited a brewery and a breakfast place while in Bisbee, I'll tell you about them tomorrow!

Delightful Weekend

I ate a lot of great food this weekend. My weekend started with a trip to Beeline, a cute little restaurant on 4th Ave. I like Beeline for a lot of reasons, mostly being they have a rotating pie case stock full of mouthwatering desserts. (This is the same reason I love the Cup Cafe in Hotel Congress.) I think that pie cases needs to become trendy again. It tempts people who normally would shy away from desserts, and it also encourages a greater variety of sweets. (I hate places that offer a single dessert, like sorbet. Give me a break.) ANYWAY, back to Beeline.

I enjoy Beeline because they actually have decent beers on tap, and a lot of them. Kevin usually gets the milk stout, while I settle down with my Velvet Merkin. Beeline has a wide variety of meals as well, everything from fish tacos to vodka pastas.

I ordered the Black Bean Burger, soooo good. I'm at the point where I almost prefer black bean burgers to beef. (I know, sacrilege!) This burger had pepperjack melted over it and a southwest sauce, the bun was nicely toasted. It comes with homemade potato chips (which I like to dip in ketchup.)

My favorite dessert from Beeline is their salted caramel tart. It's not just the caramel itself that's salted, that is actually kosher salt sprinkled on top- not sugar. UNBELIEVABLE. The dark chocolate on top really compliments the other ingredients. Fun for the tastebuds. Yes.

On Saturday, my friend Rikki hosted a Pride & Prejudice marathon and I made one of my cheeseballs. (Cheeseballs are my new obsession, there will a blog entry forthcoming.) This one was "pink grapefruit" flavored and covered in sugar crystals. It was sweet, tart, and I will definitely make it again!

On Sunday, a friend and I split a bottle of wine, SKN Cabernet. This is the first time I've tried SKN (Screw Kappa Nappa) and I liked it. I don't know much about wine though, unless it's really rank I usually enjoy it.

I finished up the weekend with a fun impromptu barbeque, where I tasted a Saturn peach for the first time. Also, roasted veggies, fruit salad, and a perfectly delectable burger.

BBQ Season Has Begun

I went to my first BBQ of the year, hopefully the first of many this season. The weather wasn't too hot, and lots of good friends provided lots of terrific food. Pictured on the grill: bratwurst, sausage, corn on the cob, and I threw on some chile lime chicken burgers from Trader Joe's. Mandy also made carne asada, VERY delicious!

I made cocktail wieners with a special sweet/spicy sauce. The sauce is supposed to be for a meatball recipe but I felt like cocktail wienies were more fitting for a bbq. The recipe is really easy:

8oz can of Jellied Cranberry Sauce

3/4 cup Chilli Sauce

1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar

1 & 1/2 teaspoon Lemon Juice

The sauce is supposed to stew in a crockpot for several hours but I just let it simmer on the stovetop and added the wieners once all the ingredients had blended together.

Here are some of my other favorites from the bbq: James' peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies (he also made potato salad and carrot salad)

big juicy cherries (my favorite fruit)

And of course there were many wonderful drinks, Ian made Mojitos:

Daddy Bruce's

The first I heard of Daddy Bruce's was when my friend drove me by it and said, "That place is never open, but it's supposed to be REALLY good." The sign said BBQ and I was sold. I was only in Boulder a couple of days, and I ate A LOT of great food while there, but Daddy Bruce's continued to loom over me.

Finally, my last day, literally my last hour, my friend Bridget and I cruised down Arapahoe Ave and saw the open sign. We had just gorged on asian food but stopped nonetheless. I thought, "hey, I'll just get it to go and eat later." It's not that simple at Daddy Bruce's.

It sounds a little cliche to say that dining is just as much about the experience as the food, but it really applies here. When you walk into the trailer, Bruce Randolph Jr. (aka Daddy Bruce II) greats you from behind the counter, takes your order, and tells you to make yourself at home. He's in no hurry, and you shouldn't be either.

I've always enjoyed watching skilled hands make a meal. The older the person, the more fascinating to me. Their moves are so memorized, so confident; no hesitation or stumbling around for ingredients. And during all of this, he's telling us his life story. He talked about his barbershop in Denver, and told me the same hands that were making my food cut the hair of MLK. He wasn't boastful, he just had a lot of pride. There was an article about him taped to the wall, the article was from an overseas newspaper and he was quite proud of this.

Daddy Bruce placed my food in front of me, and despite my full stomach, I dug in. The meat was tender and smoky, the sauce was sweet and vinegary. He provided a stack of white bread to soak up the leftovers and it came in good use. While I ate he tried to teach Bridget how to play the piano, only giving up once another customer came in. We said our farewells and I took one last picture of him. He insisted on making it a profile shot, perhaps an homage to the greek gods of brisket.