More Memphis: More Eats

West Memphis, AR - Events of Wednesday, July 4 to Friday, July 6, 2012

On July 4th, instead slaving over a hot grill all day, we decided to let Texas Roadhouse grill our steaks for us. Texas Roadhouse has 10 early bird specials before 6:00 PM Monday through Thursday for $7.99 that include a 6 oz. sirloin steak and two sides. There are a couple of Texas Roadhouse locations around Memphis, and the closest one was about 25 minutes away in Southaven, MS. We headed there the afternoon of the 4th for lupper.

Texas Roadhouse

Texas Roadhouse has barrels of peanuts to munch on while you're waiting for your table. Since it was mid afternoon, we didn't have to wait, but they also have buckets of peanuts on the tables.

We started off with peanuts

We both had salads for one of our two sides. Their blue cheese dressing is delish! Margery had a baked potato for her other side, and Paul had mashed potatoes and gravy.

Paul digs in

As always, the steaks were tender, juicy and full of flavor. The 6 oz. steak isn't huge, but we got plenty to eat with a few peanuts at the start, rolls and cinnamon butter, and two sides.

Later in the evening, we went outside to look for fireworks. Looking up the river, we could see fireworks from at least three different locations, but they were all pretty far away, including the ones at the Memphis riverfront which we were hoping would have been closer. It's just as well because the mosquitoes are pretty ferocious after dark. We went back inside and just watched fireworks on TV from Washington, D.C. and from Boston.

A few days later after a sightseeing outing (we'll tell you about the sightseeing in an upcoming post), our timing was just right to stop for lupper at another barbecue joint. We had gone to Tom's Bar-B-Q when we visited Memphis back in 2008. Although we wrote that we liked Tom's Bar-B-Q, we couldn't remember it that well. Tom's was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, so after going online and watching the segment of Triple D about Tom's again, we decided to revisit Tom's Bar-B-Q.

Tom's Bar-B-Q

The first time we were at Tom's we had chopped pork sandwiches, but Tom's specialty is rib tips. They are the strips of meat and bone from the very tips of the ribs. They were featured on Triple D, and they looked so good that's what we both decided to have. A dinner plate is $9.99 and includes two sides and a drink. Margery had slaw and onion rings for her sides while Paul had slaw and potato salad.

Barbecue rib tips, slaw and potato salad

The original owner of Tom's was Greek, and all the meats first get a dry rub that include Greek spices as a base, then they add the more traditional dry rub spices like paprika and cumin. After marinating the meat with the rub in the cooler, the meat is smoked.

Although the sauce was good, we thought they put too much of it on our chopped pork sandwiches when we were at Tom's back in 2008. This time, they asked if we wanted them to put on the sauce for us or if we wanted to put it on ourselves. Naturally, we said we would put it on ourselves. We're glad we did because Paul liked the dry rub so much he used very little sauce. Unfortunately, the meat itself was a little dry and not too tender, but the flavor was excellent.

They also gave us a sampler plate (visible in the upper left of the photo above) with some of their chopped pork and several slivers of their barbecued bologna. Yes, they barbecue bologna. They cut ½-inch thick slices of bologna, cover both sides with dry rub, then put a dollop of barbecue sauce between the slices before stacking them to marinate. The chopped pork was not as moist as what we had at the Bar B Q Shop the week before, but the bologna was excellent. 

Back at the motor home that evening, we had some very unusual weather. Paul looked out the window as he frequently does to see if there are any boats going up or down the river, and he saw a big cloud coming down the river heading right for us. We weren't sure if it was fog, rain or something else.

Suddenly, the wind kicked up to about 30 mph, and we realized what was coming down the river was a dust cloud. We had never seen a dust cloud over water before. There hasn't been much rain in the northeast, and the river level is down. There are wide areas of silt-covered river bank that are exposed, and that is where the dust was coming from.

Barges going by as a dust cloud comes down the river behind them

The wind kept up at over 30 mph for at least half an hour (the maximum gust we recorded with our weather station was 38 mph), and the old motor home was rockin' 'n' rollin'. Fortunately, when the wind finally died down we saw no damage except that all the riverfront benches had blown over.

We still have that sightseeing outing to tell you about, so stay tuned.

Comments

[Gary]

Mary and I just watched that very episode! Great post, thanks for sharing the info. We were just planning on making a Memphis run in September.

We are headed to Gulf Shores Alabama for an airplane fly-in and we thought about taking a few days in memphis before checking in at Gulf Shores.

We watch Diners, Drive In's and Dives and would like to start checking a few establisments off the list as we visit different locations.

[Darrell]

The first time I'd had dry rub was in Memphis (Blues City Cafe). I actually prefer the dry rub over the wet, but it can leave the meat a little dry. Sounds like you guys are enjoying the Memphis area. Looking forward to "the outing" story.

[Marsha]

Oh YUMMMMMY!Texas Roadhouse. We have a gift card to there. As soon as we slow down that will be one of the first things we do...EAT THERE!
I love rib tips, especially if they are a bit burnt. One of the food shows had the best sandwiches in the US. One of the big winners was a place that sold burnt rib tip sandwiches. Boy did they look great!

[Jeff & Barbie]

Good lookin' eats, We love Texas Roadhouse food. So where you headed next?

[Janice]

We always consider TX Roadhouse a safe bet. . .I find it amazing how widespread the coverage area has become in only a few years time. . .

I also find it amazing that last year we rerouted our travels because Ole MISS was in flood stage. . .and this year everything's in drought stage. . .what a difference a year makes. . .

Janice
ReadyToGoFullTimeRVing.blogspot.com