So, when is spring break? Next week? That is crazy. While I have recently become so chubby that I sat on my roommate’s iPhone and it turned into an iPad, I trust that all of you are well along on your spring break panic diets. Just wait for cheat day! You can do it! Or you can just treat every day like it is cheat day. Your choice.
Believe it or not, I have also started a workout regimen, but it’s mainly because I can’t figure out how to delete the health and fitness app that was preinstalled on my phone. The best part about the app is that it has nothing to do with food intake, only exercise amount.
So this week, when my paycheck came, I went to D. Rowe’s Restaurant and Bar. This is one of the few places you will have to leave downtown for.
D. Rowe’s is on the corner of Nifong and Forum and is famous for its smoked meats. The motto of D. Rowe’s is to be fun, friendly and the exact opposite of uppity. No hoity-toities allowed: This isn’t the first class car of some 1920s train or the executive dining room of NBC. Regardless, D. Rowe’s is great for people who like a laid-back atmosphere and large portions of food. Now, where could we find anyone like that in a college town?
What was great when I first entered was that half of the restaurant is self-seating and doesn’t require a wait. Cutting down wait time from 20 minutes to zero was great because I was in a rush on Thursday when I went to eat with a few friends. Our waitress was friendly, courteous and quick to refill drinks. Both the bar side and the dining side had quite a few tables with ample televisions on the walls. There was plenty to watch with hockey and college basketball in full swing. The TVs were so great that we didn’t have to talk as much.
Now, I love smoked foods. When I moved in with my brother, I found out that he had gone dumpster diving and found a gas smoker. Since then, he has fixed it and cleaned it, and we try to smoke meat at least once a month. When I can’t convince him to drop the money on expensive cuts of beef, or when I am tired of smoked trout (because enough is enough, man!), it means I have to go out and find a barbeque place.
At D. Rowe’s I had the smoked turkey wrap with waffle fries. The turkey was excellent and, to use a word 20 percent of the world hates, moist. The wrap was filling and the waffle fries paired excellently because, well, they were waffle fries.
My friends both ordered brisket sandwiches, which they thought were kind of dry. The difference between their sandwiches and most sandwiches you would see is that the brisket was cut in huge, half-inch or larger chunks. I am not an expert, but I think that the thicker you keep the brisket, the longer you have to cook it, and the dryer it will be. I was a fan, but they gave me the same reaction as when we saw Disney’s “Frozen” for the first time: “Eh, I’d give it a seven out of ten.”
For a place that says that if you are the type of person to worry what fork to use, then you should try somewhere else, I was a huge fan — both a fan of the sarcasm and the restaurant as a whole. The food was good, the service was fast and the wait was nonexistent. I would say it’s a great place to take a family after graduation, a date on any day of the week or just as a place to watch March Madness and eat some barbecue.