Smoking or Non-Smoking?

Smoking or non-smoking? It’s odd question for me to be hearing after the year-plus of smoking bans up in MN. But I’m not in MN right now, I’m on VA. Christiansburg to be a bit more specific, and sitting at a table in O’Charley’s to be exact, waiting for my dinner as I write parts of this. I’m down here on business for the second time in a couple months.

That’s the reason for the picture actually. We’re building a Ben & Jerry’s down here and I’m here to try and get things wrapped up. The two smaller cows on the mural are my contribution to that. The larger cow is “Woody”, a Ben & Jerry’s Trademark by the way.

Back to dinner though… the food at O’Charley’s was really good. Started out with a cheesy-potato soup. It was real similar to many beer cheese soups you’ll find around MN and WI, but with potatoes. Thinking bout it later, the soup would have been… better, without the potatoes. It was original, they cut the potatoes with a french-fry cutter. But they really didn’t add anything to the soup, and were actually kind of… limp. It was like they made the cheese soup, cut the potatoes and boiled them and stuck them in the soup as an after thought.

The dinner rolls though… yum. Light, airy, very soft, with a hint of buttery sweetness. I am going to have to eat here again before I leave town just for these rolls. I ended up ordering the prime rib. All they had left were medium, I usually prefer medium-rare, but when this came out it was looking good. Well marbled, and yea.. it tasted great. Steak knives at restaurants are bugging me though. There’s all these cheapy serrated knives that tear more than cut. With sirloin and really lean cuts that’s… ok. Still hate the tearring, but they work. But get to a cut like ribeye (or prime rib) or other cuts with any sort of marbling, you are going to have gristle to cut… and these knives just don’t cut it. (yea, it’s a pun)

Side dish was a brocolli-rice dish. Not bad, lil bland. Should have gone for straight brocolli. Ended up eating only bout half the prime rib. Taking the rest for lunch or something later. This was a nice place, they have one in WI, and one near Des Moines. Should tell our guys working there this week on the Ryan’s they should check the place out one night. Hmmm… maybe we should talk to them bout our Lakeville development.

Well, it’s actually the next day that I’m getting this posted now… Sunday. It’s been drizzly and rainy here the last few days. It is looking almost decent here today, some blue sky poking through the clouds. I may get to do a bit of sight-seeing today after all. Looks for pics if I do!