Okay, maybe it was closer to lunch time, but we ordered breakfast none the less.
My wife has been eager to try out this place that opened up at Westpointe on Highway 151 just north of Loop 410 called The Egg & I. Let me tell you right up front, I resisted because I just don't like the name. It just sounds like a goofy name for a restaurant. Perhaps a book, a blog site, or a childrens song, but I just don't see a sign for a place that says "The Egg & I" and suddenly think lunch. But I could be wrong.
Business was brisk - in fact we had to wait close to 20 minutes to be seated, which I did not care for one bit. But you gotta figure that if so many people are willing to wait, it must be worth it, right?
If you are going to have to wait anyway, the folks at E&I smartly placed a coffee bar in the front area so you can get a cup of their excellent coffee, free of charge. What a great idea. Since it was close to noon, my wife was pretty much coffeed out, so the free little cup was just enough for her. I wonder if Chili's would consider dispensing free Dixie cups of beer while you wait for your table?
Once seated, we already knew what we wanted to order (we had about 20 minutes to figure it out) so when the waitress came to get our drink order, we gave her the full meal request. A few things you should know. First, on weekdays, they offer free wireless Wi Fi. Second, they have outdoor seating if you'd care to be roasted in the sun, and third, bring a paper, a book, or perhaps a board game to play, because the wait for our meal was forever.
Honestly. In terms of crowds, Jim's and IHOP handle this amount of people routinely, yet the wait for food doesn't seem to take nearly as long. My wife attributed this to the fact that E&I is more of an upscale, Magnolia Pancake Haus sort of set up. So I think what that equates to is, you won't appreciate your vittles if they come too fast. I reckin'.
My wife ordered up the "Waffle Eggspress", a golden Belgian waffle, two eggs and two strips of bacon. This was pretty good. The bacon was especially tasty (yea, I tried some). My wife would have liked the waffle to be cooked just a tad longer - a little more golden brown if you will, but it was also very good.
I thought the Wisconsin Scramble sounded good. It is three eggs scrambled with a quartet of cheeses: Swiss, Monterey jack, cheddar and cream cheese, then topped with green onions. The eggs come with ranch potatoes, toast and sausage. A few notes: First, the scramble was very good. Who would have thought of cream cheese in your eggs? Good stuff. The potatoes had some sort of ranch taste. I think I would have been happier with the "regular" taste. The sausage was excellent just like the bacon. The toast may have been buttered back in the kitchen, but they don't serve any additional butter with it. Enjoy the Smuckers. To do it again, I think I would have opted for biscuits.
Overall, the food was all good and in spite of the name, they also serve lunch. The Reuben caught my eye, so I'm sure we'll be going back for another try. If you are just interested in getting a quick breakfast, I'm not seeing this as the place to go. But if you've got an hour or so to hang out and wait for your food, be sure to give it a shot.
Years ago, I recall Bennigan's as being a leader in the Bar & Grill style chain restaurant, and you could always count on them as a good place to grab some food and a beer - in the same type of format as Chili's, Applebee's and TGI Friday's. I guess about two years ago or so, my wife had a series of bad experiences at the Bennigan's on Cinema Ridge near Ingram Park Mall, and aside from calling the manager as we drove to a competitor, to explain why he lost us as customers, we really had no need to ever call or set foot in the place again. Until this afternoon.
I recently purchased one of those fund raiser Entertainment coupon books and figured, if anyone can get $20.00 worth of use in restaurant coupons, we could. So, Bennigan's got their long awaited, much anticipated, second chance from us and, I'm here to tell you, it wasn't bad at all.
If you are familiar with this area, you know that right next door to the Bennigan's is Texas Road House. TRH is packed from the minute it opens until it closes, everyday, without exception. Benningan's on the other hand, was seriously empty. Fine by me.
My wife and I both ordered the Guinness Glazed Bacon Cheeseburger. They do serve up some huge burgers, but I have to be honest, I am usually leary of these specialty types of things. For eaxample, I think Applebee's has just totally gone overboard with all the wierd sauces and stuff they put on thier entire menu. At some poiint in time, you just want a burger with a little salt & pepper and some cheese, not all the extra syrup and such.
So, we were both surprized when we got these bad boys and bit into them. I have long suspected that the burgers are simply microwaved or something, not actually grilled in the kitchen. Who knows? But however they were made, it turned out to be a pretty descent burger. My wife even started doing her little happy dance in the seat - thankfully no witnesses.
Other than it was good, the only remarkable thing about it was the Guinness Glaze. Good stuff on the burger, and especially good when used as dip for the fries.
The other really important point - and this may have had to do with the fact that aside for one or two folks in the bar, we were the only people in the restaraunt and we had awesome service. Not only did our server attend to our needs, several other people, presumably other servers or floor managers came by to ask how we were doing. Funny, had they done this a few years ago, they would have seen us back sooner.
You are officially free to end your own boycott and give Bennigan's a try.
Let's be clear; I am a Chili's person. I have said it before and I continue to believe that for a reasonable price, you can go to most Chili's restaurants, get some decent food, and it will be consistent with your previous several visits, regardless of location.
But in the past six or eight months, I have noticed an extremely consistent trend in crazy service in the bar section of the 1604 and Culebra Chili's, and I simply can't let it go beyond this evening; Chili's, you people need to know that directly across 1604, all that dust and construction and loads of new traffic are several new competitors that are just waiting to get started on earning my business.
But let me just fill you in on our experience tonight. First, it isn't so much our waiter. We have had this kid before and he is a good, friendly waiter. The problem is with the rest of the people milling about as if shift change is like some sort of two-hour overlap process where nobody does any actual work.
When we walked in around 4:30PM, the place was empty. The hostess immediately went to seat us in the regular dining section but my wife asked her if we had to sit in the bar to qualify for Happy Hour specials. (Don't even get me started on Happy Hour!) The hostess turned us around and sat us at a booth in the bar area and aside from the fact that there were only a few people in the area, we immediately noticed that there was no bartender.
This was not a problem because our intent was to eat, but it was a sign of something bad. An experience we had on previous seating's in this same area. By the way, am I the only person who finds it a tad bit unhealthy that they toss the receipt for the drinks in the tops of the drinks? In other words, say you are sitting in the regular area but you order a beer. Your server goes to the bar, orders up your beer then walks away to take some other customer their drinks. When the bartender (assuming they are there) fills your beer to about two inches below the top of the tall glass, thus serving you the same amount as if your ordered a regular size, he or she then takes the receipt and tosses into the top of the glass so your server will know which table to take it to. I trust the ink is edible.
So anyway, our server comes by and says he'll be right with us then leaves for about 10 minutes. I notice that two guys, apparently contractors of some sort, are seated at the bar near our table. Both these guys are working the cell phones, but are kind enough to leave the restaurant each time the phone rings.
The result is, for the majority of the time we were there, these two guys would take quick chugs of beer, then be outside for 5 to ten minutes at a stretch.
I trust they were coordinating the building of a new restaurant in Alamo Ranch while waiting for refills of beer.
I keep noticing the staff just hanging around, maybe having a meeting of some sort, and even though they are technically standing in the "employees only" area, they are in clear view of the customers. I could just tell that this was not going to be a quick dinner.
I ordinarily limit my Chili's consumption of beverages to either unsweetened iced tea or a single tall Miller Lite. Because of the unreasonably slow service, I was forced to order a second tall Miller Lite. This would have been fine had I not been waiting for an extra long time. 
And here is the real problem. If you sit in the bar area, you see everything that is going on in the bar, you know that you could simply get up, serve yourself a tall water, a fresh lemonade, or in this case, a Miller Lite, and it would happen in a reasonable time. If it was a case of a bartender constantly making drinks, mixing Margaritas or doing all sorts of Tom Cruise Cocktail tricks, you could sit back and wait your turn. But there was no one at the bar, yet three feet away, multiple Chili's uniformed servers chit-chatting and milling about like they were waiting for the results of a horse race.... and then my burger came. 
I went with the Jalapeno Smokehouse Big Mouth Bacon Burger. When cooked right, this puppy is seriously YUM! But if we mistake "medium-well" for "stick it in the microwave until it is overdone, then leave it on the counter until it is only slightly warm", it isn't that great.
My wife ordered some mushroom burger and asked for bacon on it, but was then upset that her bacon wasn't the same real thick good bacon that came on my Big Mouth Bacon Burger. Bacon discrimination: Call LULAC. Oh, I checked my receipt later. We didn't even get Happy Hour prices on the drinks we ordered. WTH?
Yes, Alamo Ranch is open. We Culebra folk' now have our own version of Bandera Pointe - no, better yet, The Rim! So let us count the competitors ready to take my money:
- Logan's Raodhouse: I used to go to the one up on I-10 until Texas Roadhouse opened at Ingram and 410. This Logan's will be closer.
- Mama Margie's: We enjoy the one on I-10, but this one is, say it with me.... Closer!
- Ruby Tuesday: Fairly new around here but I've enjoyed them in airports and this is going to be a shocker, they are pretty much like Chili's.
- Red Robin: How many times have I yammered on about Red Robin? And now I won't have to drive to The Rim. Hell, I'll pull into Home Depot (or the new Lowe's if they don't get their act together) and then pop in for one of those huge stacks of onion rings, and a burger with an egg on top.
Be warned Chili's at 1604 and Culebra, your competitors are calling and I'm not in the mood for crappy service.
Not long after our visit to Bobby J's over in Helotes, and still sensitive to our split decision, my wife and I opted to try another burger place and see if we could agree on the taste, quality and above all, appearance of the food. We were tempted by a coupon that had been stuck to our refrigerator for at least a week or two, and finally decided to try the Cheesy Jane's over on Bandera at 1604. I should tell you that we ate at and enjoyed the one up by Stone Oak a few years ago, but just never found the need to go again.
For me, the atmosphere of the place is pretty wide open and warehouse like. A series of tables and booths, you have the old diner style grill area in the back and just a few decorations. I think they are going for the Happy Days burger joint without the associated girls on skates and regular appearances by Arthur Fonzarelli.
I confess, I'm more of a Chili's or Clear Springs, and yes, even Bobby J's atmosphere sorta guy simply because I like looking at the things on the walls. Cheesy Jane's does have a train track hanging from the ceiling that goes around in circles with advertisements on it.
But we came in for a burger, not entertainment! The menu does show a Chili Burger, but my wife opted instead to try a regular half-pound burger with cheddar cheese, and all the regular fixin's minus onions. She then added bacon and some guacamole. When our plates arrived, I suddenly had burger-envy.
I opted to try something called the Pecos Burger. It is a half-pound of excellent meat, cheddar cheese, BBQ sauce and covered with something called splinters, which are fried onions and jalapeños. It came with a side of ranch, so I poured that on for good measure!
We both enjoyed the buns (slighty toasted) and the great tastes of the burgers. The little jalapeños on my Pecos Burger were not hot at all, but simply added a different taste, so if you are afraid of hot stuff, worry not. Our server kept my iced tea filled and we especially enjoyed that the manager or head cook or whoever he was, brought the meals out to each diner just to make sure everything was alright. Great service and pretty quick.
Our only disappointment was with the onion rings. We got the regular order (enough for two people, easily), and they were the perfect texture. Not over cooked and not too crisp. I'm an onion ring snob I suppose, and if I recall from our first trip to the Cheesy Jane's in Stone Oak, the onion rings did not have the same unique taste these did. In spite of their good appearance and texture, the breading had some sort of awkward aftertaste to them. At first, I thought it was the taste of a corn tortilla. Surely, that wasn't what they were going for. In the end, we decided they simply need to change the oil. It wasn't enough to ruin our visit, so when you go, feel free to order them and let me know if you get the same corny taste we got.
Apparently, if you order a full one-pound burger and finish it, they take your picture and post it on the wall with your comments on the card. Before leaving, we stood there and read a lot of them - pretty funny stuff. I'm thinking on a day when I'm really hungry, I might just put on the ol' eatin' pants and give the one-pounder a try. 
But even if you aren't all that hungry, Cheesy Jane's has a burger right for you at a fair price, good service and something my wife and I can agree on. It is a Tasty Treat and get's my wife's Eeee-Yum seal of approval.
You know the drill - we use Chili's as our version of fast-food when we want to grab something quick but not necessarily take in the full fledged McPlayGround atmosphere of screaming youngsters throwing plastic balls at one another. Our Chili's isn't bad and they often provide quick service at a reasonable price.
So, I otherwise wouldn't even tell you about this but I did try a new burger they offer called the Smokehouse Bacon Triple-the-Cheese Bigmouth Burger. And with apologies to Jeff Kay, I took a picture of the menu so I could get a comparison of what they advertise on the menu and what it looks like when you get it.
My wife would have ordered one, but the menu suggested that the bacon was Jalapeño Applewood, and she likes Jalapeños even less than she likes Applewood, so she went with the regular bacon cheese burger.
So, here is the menu picture and I have to admit, it looks pretty darn appetizing. But I always just assume they airbrush these photos, so I was willing to just take a chance that if it wasn't good, I'd tell you about how crappy it was and surely, my input on the vast WWW would cause Chili's to go out of business.
This is what I got. Holy crap! Look at the size of that Jalapeño Applewood Bacon! I felt somewhat inadequate just sharing a booth with it! My wife blushed.
You can't possibly fit something that size in your mouth, so I cut it in half and here is a side view. They cooked it just right and I was pretty happy about that. I have to tell you that we routinely split a burger when we attend Chili's, but this thing was awesome. Knowing we weren't sharing, I devoured the thing and seriously, unless you are opposed to a little spice, I definitely recommend it.
As a bonus, they whipped up some Ranch dressing mixed with Jalapeños for the dipping of the fries (which I usually don't eat). I ate them.
Overall, good stuff. And hence, Chili's may stay in business.
Yesterday - Valentine's Day, I got off work and got home as quickly as possible so I could pick up my wife and zip out to someplace to eat. By 5PM, we were in the truck heading out of the neighborhood and I was on the phone to Texas Roadhouse to do the ol' call ahead deal. It isn't reservations, but they do put your name on the waiting list at the time you call, so for a long wait, you at least have a head start.
Apparently, everyone of you had the same idea! I call and the girl takes my name and then for the first time, reads me some long disclaimer about the circumstances of my call. She tells me that she is putting me on the waiting list, that it isn't a reservation, based on my expected arrival time I was only getting a ten minute head start in waiting and such. I mean, it sounded as though she was trying to talk me out of the whole thing. Finally, I interrupted her and asked, "Well just how long is the wait?"
"Oh" she says as if it was no big deal, "with your ten minutes off, about 80 minutes." Did I mention we call Chili's the ol' standby?
So we walked into Chili's, were seated immediately and I decided that I was going to have something different. I always get the chili and salad, everytime I go. But I figured, tonight, I was going for something different. For the first time ever, I ordered a steak from Chili's. 
But first, my wife ordered some kind of new version of onions. This isn't the onion blossom, and it isn't onion rings like you'd think of onion rings, these are sort of fried, then sauteed onions, almost like what you would put on a burger.
I'm almost embarrassed to say that we ate the whole order, because these things have extreme gas written all over them. Thankfully, the mashed potatoes we had with dinner seemed to counter any disturbing affects. Or effects, I never can remember.
So my wife gets her little steak - it is some sort of Honey Barbecued kind of deal. She likes her steak cooked medium well and is happy if it is closer to well than medium.
I got the steak (ordered medium, but got still kicking) and baby back ribs. Now before you get all grossed out at the picture, I didn't take a photo of half eaten food - but the waitress wanted me to cut into everything to be sure it was done enough before she would leave. Of course, my steak is still raw, but there is no way in hell I would send something back to the kitchen. That's just asking for a sweaty guy to do an around the world on my steak, and I'm not interested in what he's servin'!
Needless to say, for lunch today at work, I had a steak cooked in the microwave so as to get it to at least a medium, and it was mighty fine. My ribs were awesome! I swear I inhaled them, sucking the meat off the bones then wildly licking at my mustache and beard in some circular motion with my tongue to get the rib sauce off. I guess it was a scene; some creepy old guy walking by the table winked at me and gave me a thumbs up!
Anyway, that was dinner at Chili's. By the time we got up to leave, the crowd, most likely tired of waiting at Texas Roadhouse had made their collective way to Chili's because the line to get in was backing up outside. Ha!
Each year since forever, my wife and I make a trip to the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo on or around Valentines Day. I take off early from work, and usually, with one or both of our kids and a few tagalongs, we get their early enough in the day to avoid the crowds, walk around, eat some fried food, drink some draft beers, look at cows, pigs, horses, and people, and just enjoy the afternoon.
Then, by the time we are ready to leave, we have avoided the flood of people entering the grounds to attend the actual rodeo (bucking broncos, calf roping, fisticuffs) and concert that follows.
Of course, this year, my daughter couldn't join us because she and her husband are off in New Jersey dealing with the cold weather. My wife was none too pleased with this, but we have persevered and to make things lively, invited our neighbors Gus and Ruby to join us for the big walk around the stables.
These days, it seems kind of gross, what with people so health conscious and such, but for some reason, we always seem to have this hankering for that fried onion blossom. It sounds so good when you get there and you can just smell the trans-fats floating through the air. Now if you go to Chili's or probably the Outback (I wouldn't know since we stopped eating there years ago), when they serve up one of those fried onion blossoms, it comes with some sort of horse radish sauce or some crazy concoction that tastes spicy. We immediately fix that problem by ordering some honey mustard on the side. And usually, this is not a problem at the rodeo.
First thing we do as soon as we get in the rodeo is order up an onion. The booth you choose is a critical factor in how your onion experience goes. We chose wrong.
The blossom we got had clearly been cooked a few weeks ago (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little) and was not even close to warm. They did not have honey mustard or even the standard horse radishy stuff that we don't like anyway. What they gave us was Ranch dressing. It is the rodeo, after all. Hey, I love Ranch Dressing. But not on an onion. Especially a just this side of cold onion.
I went down to the next booth selling onions and sheepishly asked the nice lady there how much would she charge me for a cup of honey mustard, and she just gave me some without a thought. Situation averted.
When you walk around the rodeo grounds, you get to participate in sampling of foods, and they issue you a big plastic bag (this year, provided by Country station Y-100), and you fill it with all the crap they are giving away. We got lots of fruit cups, almonds, Grill Mates, some coupons, and not much else. Pretty disappointing actually. I only whine about it because in previous years, we have loaded up big time. But what the heck.
There are a group of cowboy characters who put on little shows and to be honest, they are quite entertaining. I often wonder what these people do when there isn't a rodeo for them to perform in. I mean, let's face it, this isn't the type of look that fits in at bank, even in Texas. Though you can surely get a job selling papers on the corner every weekend, and this attire would be perfectly appropriate.
We looked at this exhibit called "Birds of Prey". Holy crap. I kept thinking some of these things might make a tasty bar-b-q, but I have always been partial to yardbird.
The main focus for us is going inside the old Joe and Harry Freeman Coliseum which is located just next to the AT&T Center. For those readers not in San Antonio, The AT&T Center is where our beloved San Antonio Spurs play. During the rodeo (which requires that the basketball court be removed and the floor covered in dirt) the Spurs go on what is called the Rodeo Road Trip. More info than you will ever need if you are not a basketball fan or a Spurs fan.
Anyway, we go into Freeman Coliseum because it is filled with vendors selling things that would appeal to people who go to rodeos. Everything from boots to country-fied clothing to turquoise jewelry (yeesh), to paintings of cowboys and just all sorts of stuff that I never buy. But it is nice to walk around there and observe the fancy cowboy duds that people have put on for the big trip to the rodeo.
I'll try to put this delicately so as not to create consternation with my wife on Valentines day, but if you are a man, you should be aware that many of the ladies who come to rodeo dress to impress. I'll leave it at that.
After walking through aisle after aisle of vendors, surely you will want some guy to give you a personality test, right? I wonder why it is they need your phone number and e-mail address to do the test? Could there be some future Spam or a few phone calls coming your way just when you sit down to eat dinner? 
Can't make it 8 seconds? Why not climb aboard a huge plastic bull and get a photo made so you can tell all your friends you didn't just go to the rodeo - your were the rodeo!
But for those people really into it, you can raise a real cow, get him all fattened up, brush his hair real perty, then parade him around the gorunds like these kids do. San Antonio Stock Show is one of the biggest put on for school aged kids to compete in. And when they are done, the winners get purchased, slaughtered and served up as steak! Yum!
For my wife, one of the highlights is this big, huge, really tall horse named Thor who shows up every year. Thor is some sort of Flemish breed horse that stands 20 hands tall. To give you a frame of reference, the Budweiser Clydesdale's look like Small Horse, Big World characters compared to Thor. He really is beautiful. Oh, I took some pictures from another angle - strange how it was my wife who noticed that Thor seemed pleased to see her, but I wouldn't want to publish them for fear that a San Antonio city Council member might try to shut down the rodeo due to the prurient nature of things.
Anyway, you aren't allowed to ride Thor but my wife was able to jump on for a little entertainment, if only to experience what it could be like to be a real cowgirl.
I on the other hand prefer to stick with things a little more my speed. You know I could eat yard bird everyday of the week, but as healthy as it sounds, I tend to resemble the Pillsbury Doughboy!
My wife has been eager to try out this place that opened up at Westpointe on Highway 151 just north of Loop 410 called The Egg & I. Let me tell you right up front, I resisted because I just don't like the name. It just sounds like a goofy name for a restaurant. Perhaps a book, a blog site, or a childrens song, but I just don't see a sign for a place that says "The Egg & I" and suddenly think lunch. But I could be wrong.
Once seated, we already knew what we wanted to order (we had about 20 minutes to figure it out) so when the waitress came to get our drink order, we gave her the full meal request. A few things you should know. First, on weekdays, they offer free wireless Wi Fi. Second, they have outdoor seating if you'd care to be roasted in the sun, and third, bring a paper, a book, or perhaps a board game to play, because the wait for our meal was forever.
Honestly. In terms of crowds, Jim's and IHOP handle this amount of people routinely, yet the wait for food doesn't seem to take nearly as long. My wife attributed this to the fact that E&I is more of an upscale, Magnolia Pancake Haus sort of set up. So I think what that equates to is, you won't appreciate your vittles if they come too fast. I reckin'.
My wife ordered up the "Waffle Eggspress", a golden Belgian waffle, two eggs and two strips of bacon. This was pretty good. The bacon was especially tasty (yea, I tried some). My wife would have liked the waffle to be cooked just a tad longer - a little more golden brown if you will, but it was also very good.
I thought the Wisconsin Scramble sounded good. It is three eggs scrambled with a quartet of cheeses: Swiss, Monterey jack, cheddar and cream cheese, then topped with green onions. The eggs come with ranch potatoes, toast and sausage. A few notes: First, the scramble was very good. Who would have thought of cream cheese in your eggs? Good stuff. The potatoes had some sort of ranch taste. I think I would have been happier with the "regular" taste. The sausage was excellent just like the bacon. The toast may have been buttered back in the kitchen, but they don't serve any additional butter with it. Enjoy the Smuckers. To do it again, I think I would have opted for biscuits.
