#79 - Polo Grill, Tulsa, OK

One of our club seat holders had been trying for about 2 years to get me to come to Tulsa for dinner.  No, nothing like that.  It was to join him and his wife, along with the Merrifields, who owns Polo Grill.  I always planned to, but life just got in the way.  About 6 weeks ago we finally made it happen.  Vance and his wife were hosting a dinner for race car driver JJ Yeley and his team prior to the start of the Chili Bowl.

I had never heard of the Chili Bowl before, but apparently it's a huge deal in Tulsa.  It's a big annual event that started in 1987, and features midget cars.  I have to admit I've never been into any kind of car racing.  I never quite understood why people drive around and around in circles for hundreds of laps, at speeds of hundreds of miles an hour.  I don't like watching golf on TV...I would rather watch paint dry.  And racing is in that category too.  But I am a professional at driving the golf cart during golf outings, so if I went to a race I might actually enjoy it.  Maybe I'll go one day and check it out.  If I do it will probably be the Indy 500, because it reminds me a lot of Preakness...and I love Preakness.

Polo Grill is located in Utica Square, an upscale shopping area in a very upscale part of Tulsa.  I love driving around there, looking at all of the beautiful homes.  I was more than a little frustrated though, because I drove around in circles looking for Polo Grill.  And finally figured out that it was the one place that didn't have a sign out front, and of course it was tucked into a corner towards the back.  As Vance said, you know it's a really good restaurant when it doesn't even need its name out front.  Turns out they do have a sign, but it's really small, and unless you know where it is you're never going to find it.

It looks pretty small when you walk inside, partly because it's got that kind of dark mood lighting, the ceilings aren't super high, and the main dining area is pretty compact and also includes a large bar almost as soon as you walk in.  I'm kind of skipping to the end here, but after dinner I got a tour of the entire restaurant, which is much larger than I ever would have thought.  There are 7 beautiful private dining spaces.  I think my favorite space is the Napa Tasting Room.  It only seats 8, but I absolutely love the table, and it's the perfect space for a very small gathering.  I need a table like that in my dining room.  But then I would need a bigger dining room.

Our party was in the Wine Cellar, which is the largest private room and seats up to 60.  I love the wall of wine at the end of the room.

I felt a little out of place at first, considering I only knew Vance and Lori, and had no clue what to talk about with the race crowd.  But once I got a glass of wine in my hand, I was okay.  I'm not sure exactly what kind of wine it was, but it was very good.

Our first course was house made chili

The chili was delicious.  It had a definite kick, but not too overpowering.  I really liked that there was just a little bit of cheese.  It can be easy to go overboard with it, and then the cheese just totally takes over the flavor of the dish.  The sour cream helped cool it down, and the chips added a nice crunch and texture to the dish.

Second course was romaine salad

I don't think I've ever had a salad like this, with whole lettuce leaves instead of it being shredded or chopped.  But I really liked that presentation.  The lemon thyme vinaigrette dressing was light, which perfectly complimented the bleu cheese.  And I'm a huge fan of bleu cheese.

Next came Palacios Texas redfish, with a parsnip puree and wild rice

The fish was so good.  It was light, and a perfect size for a meal with several courses.  I thought it was a very interesting presentation for the skin to be left on the fish.  But I'm guessing they did that to sear the fish, and to help keep moisture in.  The wild rice was good, but your basic wild rice.  The parsnip puree was excellent.  I had never tried parsnips so I wasn't sure what to expect...kind of a carrot flavor, but sweeter.  I really enjoyed it, especially with the fish. 

Next came blackened medallions, with whipped  Yukon potatoes and asparagus

The medallions were a little overcooked for my liking, but still had excellent flavor.  They were crusted in what tasted almost like a coffee-type crust.   The asparagus spears were huge and cooked perfectly.  Yukon gold is probably my favorite type of potato, and the au jus from the steak lent a wonderful flavor to them.  I wish this course had the parsnip puree with it too, because I think that flavor would have gone really well with the medallions.

The final course was chocolate mousse

The mousse was fantastic!  I can't remember exactly what that foamy stuff on top was, and I remember that we were all surprised when the server told us what it was, but it literally melted in my mouth.  So good. 

I was originally hesitant to drive all the way to Tulsa that night, because I hadn't felt well earlier in the day, and it was a weekday.  But I'm so glad I did, because I had a wonderful time.  Each course was just enough food to be able to savor the flavor, but not too much that you felt stuffed by the end.  Each dish had its own very unique flavor, but all of the flavors worked very well together.  The wine was delicious, and paired well with the meal.  I truly enjoyed spending time with Vance and Lori away from Stillwater and gameday, and we spent another 30 minutes together after the rest of the group left.

Will I go back?  Definitely!  I'd like to go back for a regular meal with a small group and dine in the tasting room.  I really like that room. 

#78 - Thai Chili, Southlake, TX

My parents and I stayed for an extra night after the bowl game.  There was no reason to rush back, plus I wanted to do some shopping at Grapevine Mills, which was about a mile from the team hotel.  I love that mall, but I hate that even though it's technically an outlet, mos tof the stores don't really have "outlet prices".  I find that it's kind of that way in all outlets these days.  When we first got to the mall I was on a shopping mission, ready to buy out everything.  But a couple hours in I was tired and annoyed because I hardly found anything I wanted.  For the rest of the afternoon I hung out with Bob, Joni and a few other friends, watching basketball and relaxing.  And then eventually it was time for dinner. 

Southlake Town Square is about 10 minutes from the team hotel.  It's spread out over a pretty big area, and has pretty much everything you need...lots of shopping and restaurants, as well as a huge Central Market.  I've already done a post about Campania Pizza which is in the same Town Square. 

My parents and I love Thai food, so I was really happy to find Thai Chili on the list of restaurants .  We got there after 8pm so the area was kind of dead, but there were still 3 other tables of guests in the restaurant.  It's not very big, maybe 20 total tables.  There's a full bar to the left as you walk in, and an outdoor patio with about 10 more tables as well.

We were super hungry, so decided to start with the veggie basil rolls
Mixed Vegetables, basil & rice noodle wrapped with rice paper served with our special sauce
The rolls were cold, which I wasn't really expecting.  And the open presentation was very interesting, but I liked the idea so you could see exactly what you were biting into.  But they were crisp, light, refreshing and delicious.  I mixed up the sauce, and then realized that the red stuff on the right would probably be super hot, which wouldn't be good for my dad.  But he tasted it and didn't break out in huge beads of sweat, so all was good.  The sauce was really good as well.  The siracha sauce definitely added a kick, but the ginger kind of evened it out.

For dinner I went with the drunken noodles with beef.
Spicy seasoned flat noodle stir-fried with chicken, bell peppers, and onions in basil sauce
Their dishes come in levels 1-5 for spiciness, so I ordered a level 3.  I think there was a language barrier between me and the waiter, because I swear it came out as a level 7, which isn't even on the menu.  

The dish was really, really good, but after the first bite I had to guzzle the rest of my water because my mouth was absolutely on fire.   Not only was it spice hot, but temperature hot too.  The sauce had amazing flavor, and the beef was super tender.  Not sure if the carrots and cabbage was meant to just be garnish, but I used them to help cool down my mouth.  That and constantly having the waiter refill my glass. 

Will I go back?  Definitely.  The staff was so friendly and welcoming, the food was delicious, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere.  Hopefully next time I'm there it will be great weather and we can eat out on the patio.


#77 - J Gilligan's (official bowl game party headquarters), Arlington, TX

About a year ago I did a post on what I do at the bowl game, and one of the things I talked about was finding bar(s) to be our official party headquarters.  If the hotel and stadium are close enough to each other, we just use the same location for the whole time.  If not, I'll find one for gameday and one for the days leading up.  Occasionally I'll be contacted by bars that historically host visiting teams; most of the time I ask for recommendations from colleagues who live in the area.  Obviously I won't contact a bar that is already the "official" party bar for the home team.  That would be silly.  My only requirement is that it be a fun place where we can send our fans. 

During our site visit for this year's Cotton Bowl we spent half a day at Cowboys Stadium going through the bowl manual.  Our alumni association had been contacted earlier that same day by the manager of Tailgate Tavern, and I had also been given the recommendation of Boston's by the dad of one of our players.  After asking several bowl reps for their recommendation (without bringing up the other 2), without hesitation everyone said J Gilligan's Bar & Grill.  I thought there might have been some bias considering members of the staff eat there several times a week, but they insisted that there wasn't.  We ended up going for lunch that afternoon, and that gave me the opportunity to talk to the owner. 

J Gilligan's is really close to UT Arlington, and at first glance it reminds me of a combination of a dive bar and mom-and-pop restaurant.  It didn't seem to be in the greatest part of town, but really no NFL stadiums are.  As you walk in the bar is to the right, and then the restaurant is towards the back.  It looks like it hasn't seen much if any upgrading since it opened, but hey, that's part of the charm!  We were seated and then greeted almost immediately by Randy Ford, the owner.  He took me on a tour of the restaurant, and we were able to discuss the particulars of gameday.  He even suggested that I contact the Texas A&M alumni association, as they had used J Gilligan's as their gameday bar last year.  After talking to Randy, as well as Monica from the A&M alumni association, my decision was made.

The day before the game, Ellen, Mary and I had lunch at J Gilligan's after decorating the club level at the stadium.  We started with their world famous Irish Nachos:
Natural Cut Cottage Fries with Skins, Topped with Melted Cheddar Cheese, Bacon,
Chives, Onions, Tomatoes and JalapeƱos
Oh yummy deliciousness.  Yes, you might as well inject all that cheese directly into your arteries.  I have to say, these rival Joe's cheese fries.  I could have eaten the whole thing by myself, but I decided to be nice and share.

I forgot to take pictures of my food, but I got the Best Dressed Chest in the West (A Tender Grilled Chicken Breast. Served on a Toasted Kaiser Roll Open-Faced with Mayo, Monterey Jack Cheese, Guacamole and Hot Sauce).  I wasn't a huge fan of the hot sauce and guacamole mixed together.  Just didn't do it for me.  So I picked off as much as I could and ate the rest, and it was good.  The onion rings were awesome.  They're breaded, my favorite kind.

We promoted the heck out of J Gilligan's in the days leading up to the game.  The parking especially, considering the shuttle is $8 roundtrip and he had 12 vans shuttling people back and forth day.  The other option was to park at the stadium for $45 per car.  No thank you!

On gameday I didn't get to the bar until about 2:30. The entire place was full of OSU fans, along with a few brave Missouri fans.  I was excited to see all of his staff wearing OSU gear, and found out that he told them their options for that day was OSU or J Gilligan's.  Love it.  We also had orange beer!

It's just food coloring, but that's still really cool.  Randy had created a gameday menu for us, featuring burger/chicken/brat/hot dog baskets with fries, all at a very reasonable price.  I took a bite of a friend's burger, found it outstanding, and immediately went and got my own.

Randy had reserved the entire bar portion, as well as several tents for us.  I was a little disappointed because I thought it would be a lot more packed out in the tent area, but a lot of our fans stayed at the hotel until it was time to head to the game.  It was sunny but chilly, so I'm guessing they didn't want to brave the weather. 

Randy called me the day after the game to thank me for using them as our host bar.  They shuttled about 675 fans to and from the game, which is the second largest they'd done for a college game.  He also said that we were the best fans they'd ever had.  Could he have just been saying that?  Maybe, but I went with it...

My parents took the shuttle to and from the game, and went in to get food when they got back.  This surprised me, because there's really not much on the menu for vegetarians.  My mom told me they had the Irish nachos.  Neither of them are into really cheesy foods so I was pleasantly surprised they both raved about them. 

Will I go back?  No question!  I already told him we'll be using J Gilligan's as our official party bar when we go back to Arlington to kick off the 2014 season.