The Quest for a Great Steak Sandwich, and Some BBQ, Too!

Kyler had asked me a while back to let him know if I ever found a good steak sandwich anywhere, and, like the Union Army at Bull Run, what I thought would be a quick and easy quest turned out to be a rather long and nightmarish one.  Seems like when I was younger every little burger bistro and beer joint in town had its own version of the Great Steak Sandwich, but today many either don't offer one or don't provide the appetizing entrees-on-bread that I remember (but back then, everything looked better under the coal-oil light).  So I was pleasantly surprised when Steve the chef at the Old Meridian Pub offered a Wednesday special Prime Rib Sandwich that wasn't normally on the menu.  It was on a kaiser roll, and the slab of well-browned prime rib extended two inches out from the bun all the way around.  It was flat delicious!  Now, I dunno if a Prime Rib Sandwich objectively counts as a Steak Sandwich or not, but I'm counting it.  I swear the OMP folks aren't paying me to say good things about them!  I just love that place, is all.  

After the OMP we stopped in at Robby's Pub at Southport & Bluff, and they had a special on hamburger sliders at 75 cents each(!)  I was stuffed already but couldn't resist, especially after the Little Woman (perhaps envisioning an early life insurance pay-off) encouraged me to have TWO of 'em.  The buns were classic White Castle-sized, but the little burger patties were at least a half-inch thick, seasoned to perfection, and covered with sauteed onions.  My lady almost lost a fingertip trying to snitch a bite of one of 'em before I realized what she was doing.  Ya gotta warn me, dear!  Between the two of us (how could I not share?) they disappeared in seconds.

Finally, we drove the new truck south on State Road 37 to SR 144 and had a couple of brews at Whiskey River BBQ, a rustic little place just behind the Dairy Queen that was so famous for its biscuits & gravy before it closed.  The bar part is pretty small compared to the great big family dining area, but it was full of people that were mostly locals who knew each other. Everyone was very friendly, though, and the beer & drink prices were decent if not quite the deal that OMP has.  I was too stuffed to eat another bite; even a rare truffle morsel would have made me explode like the guy in Monty Python's Meaning of Life, but the guy next to me ordered the (HUZZAH!) Steak Sandwich.  It was smaller than OMP's but looked like a great little piece of meat covered with sauteed onions AND mushrooms.  The guy said it was the best he'd had in a long time, and from the aroma I believed him. We did have what WRB calls Nachos but which one of the patrons more correctly called a tostada (and I din't explode? Hmmmm......).  It was two crunchy tortillas (about taco-size) covered with jack cheese and barbecued pork with a little BBQ sauce mixed in.  The taste was not Mexican but it was reeeeallly good.  We loved our time there, and when we got ready to leave we purchased a pound of pulled-pork BBQ, which was the most finely shredded  I've seen.  It and the sauce (a sweet molasses-type, sort of North Carolina style) were very good but maybe not the best I've ever had, but of course I had not trouble eatin' it!  Oink, y'all.