As much as my wife probably doesn't miss me taking pictures of our food every time we go out to eat, I really miss writing reviews for Tasteem. It is one of the aspects of Steem that I actually miss. I am sure @bingbabe wishes @slobberchops was just taking pictures of food instead of running off into abandoned structures for his #urbex posts as well :)
Call it nostalgia, but I decided to do a review of a recent place my wife and I visited. On top of that, the food was really great, so it isn't too hard to talk about this place.
Several years ago my brother in law used to work for a fireworks factory. One day he was moving a dud shell that someone had left an e-match in. It exploded in his hands but not before he was able to position his body between the shell and the other shells in the storage area.
He suffered significant injuries, but he was able to keep the whole building from going up. Today you wouldn't know he had this accident unless you looked really closely at his hand or his stomach. Being newly married and having a step-daughter it wasn't long before he was looking for a career change.
He was childhood friends with a guy that was relatively high in the Aflac company for our state. He quickly began selling insurance with several levels of people between him and his friend.
Long-story-short, his direct boss and his bosses wife are the ones who opened Mode's Tavern.
Mode's is located in an area of Bay City, MI where many bars exist. In fact if you live anywhere close to Bay City, you have no doubt heard about the Midland Street District. There are literally bars next to bars next to bars in some blocks.
Since I have been living in the Bay City area, Mode's is the fourth bar/restaurant to occupy this space.
It appears they are doing great and I think a lot of that can be attributed to their business model and the quality of their food. They are only open certain days and they only focus on "Happy Hour", so after nine or so they shut down allowing patrons to visit some of the other establishments.
This shortened operating window allows them to really focus on the quality of the food. They have a great chef that likes to do specials weekly and pushes the boundaries of what the typical bar-fare is in our area.
My wife decided to get the Margarita flatbread and she said it was very good. I was too busy eating my own food to bother having a bite of hers.
For the appetizers we got the deep fried pickles (one of the few fried items on their menu) and the Devilish Eggs. I haven't had deviled eggs since I was a kid and these were actually really good.
One of the specials that night was Nashville Hot Chicken. Having been to Nashville and eating the real deal I was excited to try out their take on it. As you can see, instead of the traditional piece of white bread the chef opted for a pita. It worked well with the dish. Many places use vinegar based sauces (like Frank's) and try to make dishes that they label "Nashville Hot".
Real Nashville Hot relies heavily on cayenne and there is pretty much zero vinegar besides the obligatory pickles that come with it. It is a much drier heat that creeps up on you and I feel lasts much longer. It still allows for great flavor but kicks your butt in a very pleasing way when done right.
I have to say, this was done very well. My brother in law and I both got it and each of us was sweating by the time we were done. Neither of us had anything left on our plates when we were finished.
My stomach hated me for the next two days, but I would get this dish again in a heartbeat if I saw it was the special on the menu.
Due to our connection with the owner, we also got a complimentary plate of Elote which was also fantastic. They deep fried the corn and I actually think they could have skipped that step and it would have been just as good. The mixture of flavors was just fantastic.
For an appetizer, three drinks and two main dishes, I don't think $45 is anything to complain about. It looks like we got a bit of a discount probably because of our connection to the owner. It is probably a good thing we don't live in Bay City anymore because I would potentially spend way too much time at this place.
My only complaint is the fact that they use a QR code for their menu. You scan the code and it takes you to a website with their food menu. The drawback of this is the cell reception in the building is horrible. Only one of us was actually able to pull up the menu so we had to pass that one persons phone around to the other six people at the table.
I consider that pretty minor given how great the food, service, and drinks were.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
Living the good life!
Wow those are super sumptuous meals to dig in! 😋
That isn't too much to spend for a good living 😅
Read from LN
Love the review.A place i'd love to visit and have a few beer ,have a bite to eat.How many can you seat at this bar? Yeah I wouldn't like it much if you don't have a phone or bad cell service .It needs and upgrade in telecommunications.From the pic you took it over all looks like a good place .I don't care for the down time.The window is too small for rush hour.That's my 5 cents.
I think the bar can seat 15 to 20 people. Maybe less. They have a large outdoor area now that they have been improving. It seems to have become a really popular place to hangout.
Wow, that food looks amazing!!
It really was!
Great food😍👍
Thank you!
Welcome my dear friend 😊
I keep saying a new @tasteem needs to be born but it's not happening. I still have some old food reviews which I may post anyway.
That Margarita flatbread looks awesome and loaded with taste!
You think it could be done with just a community or do you think it would need to have all the front end development that went into the other one?
It would likely need a load of work and with token sagging right now, I guess nobody can be bothered.
True. I don't even know for sure how to create your own token. It used to be pretty cost prohibitive, I don't know if that is still the case.
The place looks very cozy and the food is delicious.
It is very small. They have a big outdoor seating area where they do dueling pianos and stuff like that.
I miss tastem too. Not so much for my reviews but yours and others! I hardly ever get a bingebabe update in the Urbex sessions :)
That looks really good. Both plates. I'm pretty sure I'd choose the flatbread!
Thanks for a great review! I really appreciate it.
Yeah, I wish I would have tried the flatbread as well. They have a philly cheese steak one that looked pretty amazing as well.