It’s been a sheepish start to the 2014 steak season but finally things are fully underway. After herding up half a dozen or so pubs it’s time for a report detailing rockers, shockers, anything in between & the various personalities that have joined us along the whey.
Senior Port Adelaide physio Pipes (Tim) O’leary was the first cab off the rank, joining us at the Metropolitan Hotel. Pipes provided some average banter; mainly focusing on his own gym regime (100% biceps) but did pioneer the dual steak/single plate combination, which had never been done before. For the likes of myself and big meater Lobbes this was considered an astonishing yet brilliant innovation.
New Irish recruit Daniel Flynn brought his strong background in potato eating to the Stirling Hotel on a perfect summers evening. Unfortunately we’re a steak group, not a baked potato group. And unfortunately a balmy summer evening for us is like a visit to the gates of hell for Flynny; requiring him to slip slop slap to protect his porcelain skin. The steaks were of a high calibre, as was the vibe that the Hotel created on what was a run of the mill Tuesday evening. Flynny mustn’t have liked the Stirling much, or our company, because he didn’t hang around for long after that. One could say he meat and ran.
Lastly, fellow croweater, private school boy & sheer man mountain Mitch Harvey joined us at his local, The Maid & Magpie. Sporting a rather ginger hair colour and a 110kg frame (something around that) he quickly earnt himself the nickname red 2 or sauce 2 (or 3) at the club. This is because PAFC have seemingly snapped up every tall redhead player or past player in the AFL, the most significant of which is our own Matt Lobbe. As is the nature of these big fair skinned, brightly fleeced creatures, their competitiveness spilled from the field to the table, seeing who could put away the biggest slab of meat.
As highlighted in the table below the Stirling takes the cake so far, closely followed by Kane Mitchells slick back…wait…. the Grange. For vibe, the layout of the Stirling hotel, which provides multiple dining areas, coupled with an exciting buzz from a hive of patrons is the place to be. The Gov also gets thumbs up in this area, with live music and the option of watching a comeatian a rare opportunity. The Dianne sauce at the Royal hotel, as well as the mushroom sauce at the Grange were very ‘saucey baby’ (good), while the stirling and Maid came up trumps for quality. A cutla free jugs of coke, and another nice set of jugs were strong reasons for the Metro and Royal to rate highly in service. I recall Newts stating “if we don’t fall in love with the food at least I’ve fallen in love with something.”
Disappointingly, the presentation throughout was mediocre. Brogs summed it up like this; “The Maid are acting like they’ve made it” and “the Gov needs a good Shove”… Good ones Brogs! Youngy took particular offence to the Saracens, saying it smelt like a Thursday night, and also noted that the value at The Royal was not fit for a king (Jeez the MR’s are clever).
‘Be there or be rare’
The Medium Rares 