Thursday, September 11, 2008
A steak in the heart
| Everyone knows how much I enjoy meat. Bacon is King, but steak runs a close second. I think that whoever decided to wrap steak in bacon should be given a Nobel Prize. Whoever finally manages to cross breed a pig and a cow if really gonna have something special (and delicious). Many years ago, I had a weekly appointment with the Applebee's in Macon. Monday night was steak night so you got your first drink for free when you ordered a steak. Ahh, how I loved The Bee. But personal problems forced me to abandon The Bee, Steaknight, and the free drink. I had to turn elsewhere for my steak fix. One of the big selling points to The Bee was the fact it was very close to home. I could stop by on the way home from work. Convenience is a wonderful thing. But when I abandoned The Bees I discovered a whole new world of convenience: steak delivery. Macon has a Steak-Out steak delivery place. It wasn't terribly expensive, and the convenience of having a char broiled steak delivered to your house more than made up for the cost. No need to light the grill or wait for the coals. They even made some of the best grilled mushrooms ever. My meal of choice was the "mixed grill." That's a small order of sirloin tips plus a grilled boneless chicken breast. You always get a salad and baked potato, plus a delicious roll. Throw in the grilled mushrooms and it's a great meal. AND they bring it to you! So last week for whatever reason, Tasha and I got to talking about steak. And suddenly the craving hit me. Actually I always have a steak craving, it's just some days it is harder to ignore than other days. At the time it was after 11 o'clock, so Steak out was closed. We sat and talked about how great the food was. I went to bed dreaming on steak and mushrooms. The entire next day was just a prelude to Steak Out for supper. I had even brought up the menu and was mentally making my order. Once I got home we grabbed the phone book to find the number. Usually I have 3 or 4 Steak-Out menus lying around, but someone (Tasha) cleaned up and I now have zero menus. We found the number and she called. My hands were shaking in anticipation too much to hit the tiny buttons on the phone. She dialed the number. She listened, she waited. She looked confused. She hung up. She dialed again. She waited some more. She looked upset. She hung up. After I got up on the floor, I ran to the computer to verify the number from the phone book. After all I had never used the phone book to call Steak out, I used one of the 3 or 4 menus I kept strategically placed around the living room. Sure enough the number matched. I grabbed the phone and dialed. "This number is no longer in service." There must be a problem, I thought. This simply doesn't happen. Tasha swears she saw a Steak Out delivery car the previous weekend. I vowed to get to the bottom of things the next morning. I don't even remember what I had for dinner that night. I may have gone to bed hungry. My stomach has apparently come down with a bout of amnesia. I got up early the next morning. (Actually I get up early every morning.) I drove by Steak Out. Sure enough there it was, big sign and awning and everything. There were the big red delivery bags inside and a car out front. The lights were out, but at 8am, that's to be expected. I came home and fired off an email: Sent: Sat 9/6/2008 8:21 AMI tried to go about my business the rest of the day, but I couldn't help but think of steak, delicious steak, and how I had been robbed of it at the last moment. Luckily, it didn't take them long to reply. Or, you might say, to quickly delivery it to my door. Sent: Sat 9/6/2008 10:09 AMIt's true. It's all true. A quick check of their website this morning show that they have removed the Wilmington store from their list. I am in shock. I'm fairly certain the store in Macon won't deliver all the way over to Wilmington. Steak-shock. Sure we have the new Ruth's Chris downtown across the street from where I work. (For the record, the picture on the Ruth's Chris site is NOT the location on North Water St in Wilmington.) Ruth's Chris is sort of the opposite of Steak-Out. Ruth's is expensive, you have to go there, they do valet parking, and you have to dress up. Steak out is inexpensive, they come to you, they have to worry about parking, and you only have to put on clothes to answer the door. (Thought I do recommend wearing clothes while eating the grilled mushrooms. They're juicy and hot.) So now I am on a steak-hunt. I am worried I may have to break down and return to The Bee. At least this is a different location, but really, aren't ALL Applebee's the same? And Chili's, TGI Friday's, Ruby Tuesdays (despite their recent reinvention) and all of those other "quick casual" places?  |
