Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers Grand Opening - Store #94

Last Thursday, on Veteran's Day, I had the privilege of attending the grand opening ceremonies for the 94th Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers restaurant.  The event occurred at 8899 Florida Blvd., marking the 18th Raising Cane's in the Greater Baton Rouge area.  The kickoff event for the restaurant included a Veteran's Day tribute complete with the LSU Pershing Rifles, multiple Cane's crew member Veterans, and country music recording artist David St. Romain, a Veteran himself, singing the National Anthem.

Also in attendance were Raising Cane's Founder, CEO, Fry Cook, and Cashier Todd Graves, Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden, the Broadmoor High School cheerleaders, and the best fast-food mascot around, Raising Cane II!  Raising Cane's also presented a $1,000 check to the American Cancer Society and donated 15% of all proceeds from the day to the American Legion.  I teamed up with TOMMYStv to capture the ribbon cutting and grand opening on video.  Enjoy, and eat some chicken fingers!

Oh, and one more thing.  My friends at Raising Cane's left me with this gift basket to give away to a lucky reader of Bite and Booze!  Just post a comment below telling me how you order at Cane's.  For example, I go for the #1 Box Combo no slaw extra toast, as seen in the above video.  Also, make sure I know how to get in touch with you.  One winner will be chosen at random.  You have until the end of November to enter so I can get this puppy to somebody's home for the Holidays.  What is your One Love?

Cajun Tales... Tall Tales After Dunk Hunting

After a successful duck hunt in South Louisiana, our group realized that we had worked up quite a hunger.  Brent, Brandon, Billy, P, and I took a ride to Cajun Tales Seafood Restaurant in Welsh, Louisiana to fill our empty stomachs with some comfort food.  P seemed to know everyone in the place, and the waitress brought him a tea that was half sweet and half unsweetened mixed together without even having to ask for him.  That was nice.   

Cajun Tales Seafood Restaurant in Welsh, La

I decided that my hunger warrented plenty of grub, and wanting to try an assortment of local fare, I ordered the fried seafood platter which also came with gumbo and salad.  The seafood gumbo had a rich and earthy roux that worked very well with the accompanying shrimp and oysters.  What a great way to start out any meal!  The green salad with honey mustard dressing was about as standard as it gets.  Chopped iceberg lettuce, check.  Honey mustard, check.  Call it a salad, check.  Moving on...

A Bowl of Seafood Gumbo and a Honey Mustard Salad

After I got the formality of the roughage scarfed down, the time came to turn my attention to the fried seafood platter that lurked in the shadows of the table.  The fried catfish, stuffed shrimp, fried oysters, hushpuppies, crab fingers, and sweet potato fries all stared back at me as though they knew their disposal would come in the form of my digestive system.  Oh yes, it was devouring time!

Fried Seafood Platter

All of the food on the plate was wondeful under the cirumstances.  I had an extreme hunger, and everything was certainly very edible.  However, the fried seafood did not blow me away.  I think they could use an upgrade to their badder and a change of cooking oil.  Likewise, the sweet potato fries were nothing that I'd die to go back for.  Of the meal, I thought that the fried catfish was probably the best item.  I still ate all I could and at the end of the meal left full and satisfied.  I suppose that is what really counts!

Things To Do
Lake Charles

Lunch with Amanda at T-Bone Tom's in Kemah

After the New Year started at Jay's Bay, I met up with Amanda on my way out of Houston to have lunch before returning to Louisiana and the typical daily grind.  Having recently bought a house near the Space Center, Amanda lives a short drive away from Kemah where we decided to go for a sampling of Texas barbeque at T-Bone Tom's. 

T-Bone Tom's in Kemah, Texas

T-Bone Tom's is a gastronomic establishment with stereotypical Texan charm.  There is a giant cow on the sign out front (seen above) and a patio outside for live music and dancing.  Inside the restaurant sat clusters of tables with chairs that had advertisements on the back, but somehow not in a way that screamed commercial sellout, but rather a bit of marketing genius!  Amanda and I had a seat at the bar, I ordered a tall glass of Texas sweet tea, and we glanced over the menu while catching up on life.

Smoked Sausage Plate with House-Made BBQ Sauce

We began with smoked sausage plate that came with bowl of T-Bone Tom's tangy home made barbeque sauce.  The sausage had a rich smoke flavor that tremendously complimented the sauce at the end of a toothpick spear. 

The sausage worked up an appetite for more barbeque so I ordered the three meat plate to get a trial run at the best of their smoked meats.  The plate contained brisket and spare ribs smothered in sauce and jalapeño pulled pork on the side of the other two.  I also added some baked beans and potato salad for good measure and T-Bones threw in a Texas-thick slice of white bread for squeegeeing the remaining sauce off the plate.

Three Meat Plate - Brisket, Ribs, and Jalapeño Pulled Pork, Beans, and Potato Salad

The beans had a good texture and were not turned to mush consistency like some baked beans are, which I liked.  The potato salad tasted fine but didn't blow me away.  The brisket pulled apart and melted in my mouth just like it was supposed to.  The texture was right on, but the flavor didn't do anything special for me and seemed like it wasn't smoked long enough... certainly not bad, but not the greatest ever either.  The jalapeño pulled pork intrigued me and lived up to the modest expectations.  The pork itself was moist and tender and pulled perfectly into stringy bite sized pieces.  The jalapeño flavor added quite a kick to the pork and at times I found it a little excessive and overpowering.  The actual pickled jalapeños tasted fine, but I wanted jalapeño pork, not porky jalapeños.  The highlight of the meal, other than Amanda's company, was by far the ribs.  The sweet sauce attempted to cover up the flavor of the pork but the zing of the rib shined through as it pulled off the bone and left my taste buds with the smack that they so desperately craved.  Man, I love a good rib.

Things To Do

Houston

A True Travesty: Mugshots Grill and Bar, Tuscaloosa, AL

On a scale of 1 to 10, Mugshots blew.  Tuscaloosa sunk to a new low.  Here is the thing: there is only so much hype, creativity, and atmosphere that can cover up lousy food.  Once you get over the hype, realize that it really isn't that creative, and the atmosphere is proven to be artificial, you can really tell what the food is worth.  In Mugshot's case, the truth hurts.

Eusebio and I had to drive through Tuscaloosa, AL on our way home from Talladega and thought it may be a good idea to stop for dinner at a highly rated Crimson Tide joint.  Mugshots Grill and Bar is right off of the University of Alabama campus and promoted their intesteresting array of specialty burgers with different combinations such as "Trevor's 1000 Island Burger" and "Stu's Magic Mushroom Burger."  They say "These burgers are said to be the best around - a full half pound of choice ground round, grilled medium-well..."  What kind of self-respecting burger joint cooks all of their burgers medium well?  I figured out the answer: the kind that uses frozen patties, a.k.a. Bubba Burgers, and tries to pass them off as something close to gourmet.

To make matters worse, we also ordered an interesting appetizer that didn't really tickle our taste buds.  Fried rib tips sounds pretty good.  I like ribs, and I like most things fried, so I thought it would be hard to go wrong.  Well, I missed the call on that one!

Fried Rib Tips at Mugshots Grill and Bar, Tuscaloosa, AL

The rib tips were over battered to the point where the actual rib did not stand out.  It was like eating battered batter with a hint of rib meat.  They had potential, but were not well executed.  However, the biggest sin of it all is that they clearly battered the rib tips in the same batch of batter as the fried pickles.  Mixed into our basket of fried pork was a stray fried pickle which almost made me throw up a little in my mouth when I accidently inserted it into my pie hole and chewed.  There was clearly pickle juice mixed into the batter as well because each rib tip had a slight hint of pickle taste... and if you know me, you know how much I hate pickles.  They are my arch rival.  I hate pickles like I hate Nick Satan... I mean Saban.  Around the bowl and down the hole, roll tide roll! 

McDonald Burger at Mugshots

Before I knew any better, I placed an order for the McDonald Burger which the menu claims is by far the best burger that they offer.  Apparently the best they offer is previously frozen, over cooked crap.  It was later confirmed by watching a member of the kitchen staff walk out of the freezer with a box of Bubba Burgers that Mugshots really is that bad.  While I'm not trying to knock Bubba Burgers since they are a good choice when in the market for a mass produced, sizeable, uniform, frozen buger patty, I am willing to say that any restaurant that uses the product should be shut down or just simply be called fast food.  I don't understand how a restaurant that prides itself on burgers can continuously use frozen patties and pass it off and something good in the community.  The eaters of Tuscaloosa that actually like this place are worse than people in Baton Rouge that actually think Walk On's has good food, but that is a story for another day. 

The burger contained a dried out beef disc with ranch and barbeque sauce, bacon, lettuce, tomoto, and red onion.  The taste of the bun and condiments actually made the burger edible, but certainly not anything to rave about.  The highlights of the night were easily the sweet tea and the beer battered fries which I think I can actually say were pretty good!

Make sure you read Eusebio's review for his take on Anthony's Peanut Butter Burger and Mugshots as a whole.  Needless to say, he won't be going back either.