About a year ago the former buffet-turned-thrift store a mile down the road opened as a new restaurant. Its bright sign announced it as “Buck’s: KC’s Original BBQ & Italian Restaurant.” The establishment’s mascot-slash-logo is an unusually muscular male deer.
It didn’t exactly seem like my kind of place.
First of all, Buck’s? I don’t know if you’re aware, but Kansas City has a few other BBQ and Italian restaurants. As in, famous ones.
Second of all, thank you for featuring such a macho buck on your sign. Had I been confused about what kind of customer you were looking for, this would have certainly cleared it right up.
Strangely enough, my husband and I have different opinions on both of the above points. He’s of the opinion that Buck’s might just be the first one bold enough to offer both BBQ and Italian food under one Kansas City roof. And since the day it opened, he’s been convinced that he is, indeed, the type of person who would enjoy such a place. We’ve had many rounds of this conversation:
Mary: Fine, let’s just go out. Where do you want to go?
Mark: Well, we could try that Buck’s.
Mary: Um, NO.
Last month, I realized I hadn’t used a Restaurant.com gift certificate I’d earned from Swagbucks. When I saw that I could buy a gift certificate to Buck’s, I decided to be An Awesome Wife and buy it for Mark’s birthday.
He had to work the night of his birthday, but we had time for dinner together. After we gave him a cute daddy card and a mushy husband card, we surprised him with dinner at Buck’s.
And it was Not Awesome.
First of all, we could smell the grease when we got out of the car in the parking lot. Second of all, we could smell the smoke – the stale smoke – when we opened the door.
But I was determined to be An Awesome Wife, so I didn’t complain. After we ordered our food (and suspicious sounding – and, to be honest, looking – BBQ Nachos), we sat at our table. In between birthday hugs, Annalyn was pointing out everything of interest in this new-to-us restaurant.
- “Look, Mommy! They have bottles of water!” (Also known as wine coolers.)
- “Oh noooo! He’s got a smoker! It’s going to stink!” (Yes, the man was lighting a cigarette.)
- “Aghhhh! I can’t breathe! It smells so baaaad!” (The bathroom did smell strongly of sewage.)
- “Look! They’re playing a game!” (Pool.)
- “Yay! He hit the ball!”
- “Are they married?”
- “Did the boy win? Why did the girl win?”
Luckily, our fellow patrons of what had turned out to be much more bar than grill were amused by my innocent and mouthy little girl and not offended. Unluckily, my dinner was neither BBQ nor Italian and could be better classified as “bar food.”
After wolfing down his BBQ (which was, reportedly, very good), Mark headed off to work, while Annalyn and I went home for the night. The moment we walked in the door, we stripped off our smoky clothes, made our way into jammies and turned on the music for a dance party before bed.
Because after that night it seemed apropos to jam to a little Lynyrd Skynrd.
(As in Sweet Home Alabama. As in the song and the movie. As in the source of my title’s quote. In case you didn’t catch that.)
All right, put your Mom of the Year candidacy aside and tell me: Have you ever had “a baby . . . in a bar”?
As soon as I saw the post title, I burst out laughing thinking of Sweet Home Alabama.
Sorry for the junkie dinner experience though!
I don’t know why, but that is one line that has stuck with me. I often find myself saying it (which is weird), but never has it been so fitting!
When I just got the email notification about your reply and it popped up at me, I burst out laughing again. LOL
Seriously cracked up over here, but sooo sad for you guys that it did stink! Major kudos to you though that you played the awesome wife and did that for Mark, seriously sweet of you!!! :)
Yes, I was very awesome…but I did complain about it later. So, maybe not so awesome. ;)
Yes, I took my baby to a bar without knowing that’s where we were headed beforehand. My in-laws kept telling us about this great place for wings called Leo’s, so one day we all piled in some cars, the whole family and some neighbors, and drove 45 minutes to Leo’s. We stopped at McDonald’s on the way to get a happy meal for my 2-year-old son. Yep. Leo’s totally turned out to be a biker bar!! Don’t know how my MIL could have failed to mention that to us ahead of time.
Oh my gosh, this story totally cracked me up!! :)
I didn’t get the Sweet Home Alabama reference….but that is on my list of movies I definitely want to see soon. Better late than never :-)
Well you know I got the movie reference and I have actually been to the YUMMY BBQ place in KC where they made the Top Gun movie (I will take your movie reference and raise you one). Or was that St. Louis? Or LA? Dang. Can’t remember. Anyway, it was delicious and maybe in LA and called the Kansas City something.
I ramble.
Um, yes- have had baby in bar several times, because- I live in Alabama= totally socially acceptable and a lot of restaurants are in both classifications. :)
And, on a different note, Reese W. lost her Southern Card in many circles for acting so dumb in that movie. Fiction, yes? But the “South’s gonna rise again” at the end? Come on. Really, people.
Well, not living in Alabama myself, I love that movie. I don’t love Patrick Dempsey’s hair in that movie. But I do love that movie.
Worse – Yes, I’ve had a baby in a bar, but the worst for me was a baby at a Third Day concert – too close to the speakers and way too loud for said wee one.
My favorite BBQ place of all time (And I’ve spent lots of time in KC) is a place called Roys, south of KC in Reno county Kansas. They have the best smoked meats in the world! I like all the well-known KC spots, too, though and miss the dry-rub midwestern BBQ flavor. Here in the south, it is all honey and tomato based, sometimes vinegar.
Have a great week – Happy New Year!
Ohhhh, ouch! Loud music is definitely a bad one – but one I might not think of until it was too late! And I’ve never heard of Roy’s. I’ll have to ask my husband if he knows it (he looooves BBQ)!
Penelope has been to multiple bars, but only kicked out of 1, and that was in Westport.
Check this out: http://babyinthebar.com/page/5
Matt, that site is hilarious! Also, I’m not sure if I’m impressed that Penelope has been kicked out of a bar…or appalled? Perhaps somewhere in the middle…amused? :)
I love that movie and that line….followed up by the mom’s response of why her baby was in the bar;) Makes me laugh every time!
Hah! Giggling over here because I have been to Buck’s. Totally a bar- like where we go if we are out on the motorcycle and need a cold beverage. Luckily I have been there when it is totally dead and there is an absence of tobacco smoke. Lol at least you won’t make the same mistake again taking the kiddo to that establishment.
No, we will definitely not take her there again! It’s like I told Mark – if I’m planning to visit a bar, I don’t mind being in a bar. But when we were planning a family dinner, it’s not okay at all. (Although it was entertaining, to say the least!)