FOOD/NEWS LEILA R AM ELLA- R ADER
REVIEWS/FOOD On one plate then the other ... BW sends two critics to one restaurant.
KAY AND TRACI’S 127 CLUB
LAU RIE PEARMAN
As I pulled into a parking space in front of Kay and Traci’s 127 Last week I, accomplished two tasks: I met my friend’s new boyfriend, Club, Ma and I leaned forward and surveyed the scene through the and facilitated the IT Guy’s and my mother’s joint quest for the perfect windshield. prime rib. They were two separate tasks, but I completed them both “Looks like a real bar, bar,” I winced. Ma doesn’t really drink and quite successfully at Kay and Traci’s 127 Club in Meridian. she definitely doesn’t smoke. Nor does she much care to eat in the presAs is probably often the case, Monday night at 7 p.m. was quiet ence of smoke. time at the 127. Sharing the several-thousand-square-foot, wood“Here’s the plan,” I said. “Let’s walk in and check it out. I can paneled space with a handful of drinkers, a couple of pool players always come back for a solo lunch later this week.” and no other diners (not counting staffers), we flopped into low chairs In we went. A quick count had the smokers outnumbering the eatand grinned at the ashtray on our table. We lit up and talk-shouted ers by everyone to none, and I offered to take Ma down the street for over the too-loud jukebox until the deluxe sampler appetizer ($9.50) pizza instead. She declined, and we made our way up to the bar, where arrived and we were stunned silent. A large round metal pizza pan Ma was promptly was nearly covered carded. She was ofin a tower of tortilla ficially won over. We chips slathered in ordered a beer and nacho “cheese” sauce an iced tea and stood (anything that color at the bar counter has no right to call with little laminated itself a dairy product) menus in hand. After ringed by piles of laboring over the battered and deepright combination, fried fingersteaks, we ordered a feast. chicken wings, jalapBy the time I’d eno poppers, shrimp wandered the dance and mozzarella floor, peeked in on cheese sticks. By this the back gaming time, I already liked area with a handful the new boyfriend, of pool tables and but I fell hard for pulled up a table him when his smile in the main seating broadened and he area, the food began generously filled his to arrive. First was a plate with fried finside salad of rust-free gerfoods (just as my iceberg, grated carfriend and I had). rots and cheddar, and Full but comlarge chunks of fresh mitted, we tackled tomato. Big enough a fingersteak dinner KAY AND TRACI’S to eat as a meal and made with fresh specimens of garwith a mess of golden-brown onion rings ($9), a one-third 127 CLUB 1289 E. Idaho St., Meridian den variety garden salad, it was a sign. Sure, we weren’t pound cheeseburger with salad ($6) and a chicken Swiss 208-884-0122 going to have a gourmet meal, but that didn’t mean Kay burger sided by tens of Tater Tots ($7). In the smoky haze, Open Mon.-Fri., and Traci were going to ignore quality control. jukebox country music at top volume, we expected the 4 p.m.-2 a.m.; Food paraded out of the kitchen quickly, carried by 127’s food to be mediocre at best. But we loved that the Sat., 5 p.m.-2 a.m. closed Sun. either the bartender or the cook, who’d informed us items that should be tender were just that, and that the there was no cocktail waitress but still took great care of crispy items crunched. The food was actually damn good. us tableside. At first, we moved along at a pretty good On Friday with the IT Guy and my mother in tow, we clip, putting down six butterflied finger-length fried shrimp ($7) and arrived to a chorus of conversations as loud as the louder-than-Monday a $2 beef taco so loaded with lettuce and tomato we had to knife and music on the juke. Kay herself stopped by, and with an arm sweetly fork it. As we were staring down a cheeseburger with fries ($6) and a draped across my mother’s shoulder, suggested if we had indeed come basket of fingersteaks with tots ($7.25), our eyes started to catch up for prime rib, we should order soon: It goes fast and even a matter of to the size of our stomachs. For the record, when Kay and Traci say minutes can make the difference between a mouthful of beef or a tear in cheeseburger, they mean the cheese part. Pepperless pepperjack cheese your beer. We screamed out two orders of the 10-ounce prime rib dinner oozed out from between every bit of soft cornmeal dusted bun. Like the with baked potato and salad ($14.75) for Mom and the IT Guy, and the salad, burger vegetables were crisp and good looking (extra points for a shrimp dinner with tots and salad ($9) for me. nice fat slice of tom). Ma, who has lived in Idaho more than a decade, Good lord. Each fleshy, pink and brown slice of beef was coated with tried her first fingersteak—one of the pre-made variety, which are pretty a crusty salty, peppery rub and accompanied by small metal ramekins inconsistent in meat-to-gristle ratio from piece to piece. She’d gnaw on of butter, au jus, sour cream and horseradish with which to coat and all gristle in one before discarding it in search of a meaty piece. dip the meat and potato. I expected my picky mother and the pickier IT We lingered, stuffed, over half-empty plates for a long time in that Guy to shrug their shoulders and start planning for the next prime rib smoky bar, picking at Tater Tots and fries. location. To my surprise, when they came up for air, it was to confirm Eventually we boxed up the leftovers, but we did so reluctantly and that their quest may have come to a close. only after a pod of smokers camped out too close for comfort. While I love it when I can cross things off my to-do list. I have a new friend the 127 isn’t exactly destination dinner for a homemade meal, we had a ... check. I assisted in giving the IT Guy and my mother something to great time hanging out. And my guess is that hanging out a little longer smile about ... check. And I found a place that serves a tower of nachos than expected is exactly how most people find their way to food at Kay (and fried goods) on a pizza pan ... check. and Traci’s. —Rachael Daigle’s mom gets carded buying lottery tickets. —Amy Atkins has a to-do list to keep track of her to-do list.
A take-home menu of meaty goodness.
BUFFALO A GO-GO Back in the day, if you had a carnivorous hankerin’, you headed to the neighborhood butcher rather than toward the shrinkwrapped, processed options of the local supermarket. Cottonwood Grille is bringing back a little of that old tradition by offering some of the same meat and fish served in the restaurant for sale for would-be cooks to prepare at home. Chef/owner Peter Blatz and his wife, Hilary, saw the fresh market as a way to expand the business without stretching things too far. “It’s in response to the fact that everybody is feeling the same pinch economically,” Blatz said. “They can’t go out and dine as much, but they haven’t stopped eating good food.” Cottonwood is offering pre-cut portions of some of its most popular game meats, including locally raised elk, buffalo, venison and lamb, as well as a selection of exotic fish and seafood from around the world, depending on what’s fresh. Take-out portions cost between $6 and $13 each, and a new blackboard just inside the main door of the restaurant lists the daily offerings. Patrons always have the option of calling ahead to have their chosen chunks of meat ready, but walk-in meatbuyers are always welcome, Blatz said. Blatz has included some helpful recipes on Cottonwood’s Web site, cottonwoodgrille.com, but said gourmet preparation isn’t necessary. “It’s not something you want to do a whole lot of crazy stuff to,” he said. Cottonwood Grille, 913 W. River St., 208-333-9800, cottonwoodgrille.com. —Deanna Darr
NEW TO THE BW CARD OK, you’ve been waiting a full seven days for this news. Last week, Boise Weekly welcomed a very exciting new addition to the BW Card: The Basque Market. Yeah, that diggable spicy tuna sand, it’s now 40 percent off. And Tuesday tapas? Yep, those and the vino tinto, too. But be forewarned, you cannot use the card for catering or grocery items. Basque Market, 608 W. Grove St., 208433-1208, thebasquemarket.com. —Rachael Daigle
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