Of course, there needs to be a Beef 'O' Brady's somewhat close to bowl watching headquarters, which it turns out, we now have. It was our plan to do this last year but the closest Beef 'O' Brady's was about 40 minutes away. But lo and behold, a new Beef's just opened a mere five miles from the house, so off we went.
What's a Beef 'O' Brady's? Your typical O'Charley's/TGIFriday's/Applebee's style place with more emphasis on sports viewing. Kind of like Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebee's had a baby and named it Beef 'O' Brady's.
Our waitress, Kim, was either new to the waitressing game or was really bad at it but this brand new Beef's must have needed staff. Kim was also a "toucher", tapping on everyone's arm. She was also slurring her speech pretty badly, giving us the idea she might have had a few.
Kim brought us our menus and did ask for our drink order right away, the boy getting a Coke and me a draft beer. When I asked Kim what beers were on tap, she said "A lot," and then touched my arm again. She mentioned an IPA (explaining what IPA meant in her slurred speech) but didn't know what IPA was on tap. It turned out to be Henry Weinhard, which was fine.
We decided to go with Beef's Cheesy Bacon Pub Chips as an appetizer because the boy and I are always health conscious. The picture below is what the menu indicates the item will look like.
This is what ours looked like.
I guess it was a pretty close facsimile. A fairly dense chip with a smattering of bacon and cheese, with ranch and sour cream on the side. This could have used some green onions scattered on top for color contrast and a bit of zip. Pretty dull item.
For entrees, I took the the wings basket as Beef's menu claimed they were "award winning" while the boy went for the Buffalo chicken sandwich. The only award I could imagine the wings winning would be for being pretty bland despite claiming to use Chef Paul Prudhomme's spice blend. I also ordered "hot" and these definitely were not. No pictures of the wings because my fingers were messy and I didn't want to get grease on my phone. And they weren't worth the effort anyhow. Also, no offering of blue cheese instead of the bland ranch dressing on the side. Mistake.
The boy said his sandwich was "okay" but was dry and needed more sauce. Both meals came with fries which were fairly limp. Beef's should swap out their pub chips in place of fries or at least make it an option.
One thing the boy liked was the Coca Cola Freestyle machine that gives thousands of drink choices.
Kim didn't mention the machine when he ordered his drink originally. We found it pictured in the gate fold of the menu. They also didn't have it out for diners to use, for portion control reasons I'd imagine, so Kim offered to take the boy back to the machine so he could mix up a concoction. The boy came back with something red and said Kim kept touching his arm. The should definitely put the machine out so people can make their drinks. Five Guys does it and they manage to stay in business.
I wanted a second beer and had to flag down Kim who was flitting around the place although she didn't seem to be waiting on too many tables. I also had to hand Kim our appetizer dishes to take away and a manager stopped by to take our entree dishes but didn't bother to ask how our meal was. I also had to flag down Kim to get our bill. I don't foresee a long future at Beef's for Kim.
Of course, the main reason for going was to watch the game. Not difficult. Every big flat screen in the place had the bowl game on as you'd expect. No shortage of TV's in the place either.
Ball State taking on Central Florida in a snoozer. The Knights and running back Latavius Murray ran right over the Cardinals piling up a 28-7 halftime score. (We were home from Beef's by half.) The game was over when Ball State opted to kick a field goal to make the score 28-10 in the third quarter. I guess Ball State's coach thought his defense would eventually show up, which it did not. Gutless call. I never understand coaches who do this when their team is getting whipped.
A lousy game that ended 38-10, so yeah, that field goal really helped. Ball State averaged 35 points per game this season so a big disappointment for the faithful in Muncie. Second bowl win for UCF.
Game notes:
-UCF's quarterback is Blake Bortles, which is fun to say and the ESPN crew said it a lot. He played well (22-32, 271 yards, three TD's) and for some reason, every time they said his name I kept thinking of basketball player Al Attles.
-ESPN decided a three man booth was necessary for this game and had Heisman winners Andre Ware and Desmond Howard analyzing. Sometime less is more.
-Bowl game swag for the players: Jawbone Jambox, Oakley Dispatch II sunglasses, Oakley backpack, Schutt mini helmet. Mini helmet! (A Jawbone Jambox is a wireless, blue tooth speaker system, by the way).
-The game is played at Tropicana Filed in St. Petersburg. The artificial turf is a patchwork to cover the baseball diamond and also looks horrible on TV. It looks like huge portions of the field are wet, maybe from Tropicana juice seeping up through the floor. It's Florida, play the game outdoors.
-This game has been tarnished by pregame player competition controversy in the past (the great dance off fight of 2010) but not this year.
Yeah, shirtless linemen hula hooping. They also had a belly flop contest and best legs competition among the coaches. I can only imagine what the searing white legs of UCF's head coach George O'Leary look like.
-I have no idea why Beef 'O' Brady's feels the need for two apostrophes around their O.
-One last Beef's note. A large group was about three tables away from us with four small children. As a parent of three, you should really avoid taking kids to a sports bar environment after 7:30pm on a Friday night. With kids under a certain age, speed in food delivery is a major factor in eating out. Beef's wasn't moving all that fast with a new crew on the floor to begin with and the menu really didn't scream 2-year old either. The kids were squirming, squawking and more or less ruining everyone's bowl game good time.
I chose Ball State in this game with a low confidence score, my record moves to 3-1. So much for a perfect BowlQuest. Thanks a lot Ball State.
Today, the New Orleans bowl followed by the Maaco Bowl Las Vegas. Boy #2 will pay for his dinner by watching some of the first game while Mrs. Keith and I drive to Pittsburgh for the Bengals/Steelers game tomorrow.
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