This is a chain that is in the Southeast and Midwestern parts of the country. It specializes in...........Buffalo. Hmnn - yummy? I might point out here that they call the menu product Bison. I call that a fancy word for Buffalo. If there is a difference, someone may educate me. :)
Hubby and I had seen them popping up in spots but had never gone as we didn't particularly have a yen to eat a "sort of cow". But the other night we were in a brazen, daring sort of mood, and also incredibly tired of the same old thing.
We wander off our bar stools at the restaurant we had started to eat at, but noticing no one was eating there, and deciding that was a bad sign, headed down the street to Ted's.
We walk in and it's "homey". Homey in the way your Aunt Flora always had those horrid oil paintings up that you buy at the flea markets on Saturday mornings. This place is dark paneled wood, filled with those oil paintings. But it's nice in a way. Big private booths, small tables in the middle.
We sat at the bar for a few minutes and was rather taken aback to notice the bartender was opening the Bartenders Bible every few minutes to either figure out a drink, or at one point to learn how to pronounce "Shiraz". No matter, most people there were beer or sweet tea drinkers anyway.
We are seated in a lovely private booth and a bowl of "almost pickles" was set down in front of us. I stared at them curiously until the waitress explained to me that they were cucumbers that had been almost pickled but pulled from the vats before completely picklin. They were sour cucumbers.
They were divine!
While noshing on those little treats I tried a glass of the house Merlot - Big Sky. Nice and dry, bit more on the Cabernet side of life, but only one glass gave me a horrid headache.
We checked the menu and they had the usual offerings. Steaks, big and small, meatloaf, burgers and a large chicken selection.
They also had a dish I love, "Beer Can Chicken". This is a Southern technique where you drink 1/2 the beer (I'm assuming perhaps that the chefs are not in the back getting sloshed, but who knows...) leaving 1/2 in the can, fill it with spices the rest of the way and shove it up the chicken a#!*@, cooking it in this manner so that all the flavor is soaked in. You do take the can out of the chicken's a#($& before serving!
All steaks could be the regular kind, or for a bit more moula, it could be Bison. We both ordered Bison burgers, hubby's with jalepenos and such and mine with the Philly version of mushrooms, onions, whatnots. Hubby was dull and had fries. I had a sweet potato with butter, sugar and cinnamon on it.
The burgers were really good! They seemed to be leaner than regular burgers. Big fat portions too. All I can say is that the sweet potato was a wonderous creation of mouth watering yumminess!
We passed on dessert since we were full to the gills with Bison, so I can't comment there. But one of their "homemade" desserts were sugar cookies the size of plates. Root beer floats were also available.
So, I would say if you pass a Ted's, pull of a chair, eat some almost pickles and try some Bison. It's not bad!
Next week's review: Folks and Golden Corral!