Eat Something Good

It was definitely motorcycling weather this past weekend.  Perhaps a bit too warm for us.  On hot days, we like to be moving, not stuck in traffic so we try to avoid congested areas.   That’s why taking a little trip up north to one of our favorite barbeque restaurants was such a fitting idea.  Luckily, I googled them and found out that they’ve relocated to Fort Montgomery.  We were excited to see what the new place had in store for us.  In fact, I was so excited that I emailed the chef in advance and complimented him wildly about his wings.  That’s why our trip was an extra disappointment.  The beautiful drive up the Bear Mountain Parkway didn’t make up for a great loss.

I immediately felt like we were in a sterile environment when we walked in.  The new place, other than displaying a few cool airplane pics had little personality.  The Newburgh restaurant had like a ton of old, cool license plates and stuff on the walls.  And they had big comfy, booths with one giant roll of paper towel on each table.  They also streamed some cool blues.  They kinda southerned it up for you a bit.  At first, it was really quiet.  There were only two other tables occuppied.  And you could hear a pin drop.  Then as the restaurant started filling out for its lunch crowd, it got loud, echo ee and somewhat unpleasant in there.  We have problems with acoustics at another restaurant we like to go to, but we make sure we’re not seated in that section.  Ok, let’s get to the food.

We started with their barbeque buffalo wings.  Steve & I have major cravings for them.  Usually, they are very hot to touch and very spicy to the taste.  We get them “hot” but they get even hotter.   As they bring it to the table, you’re hit with near toxic vinegary waves from the sauce.  None of that occurred during our last trip.  Initially, I got excited.  Upon closer inspection, I just knew they were going to suck.  And indeed, they did.  They were dried out and they weren’t that hot in temperature.  They were missing the slight crisp and had a little too much smoke flavor.  They were also a little sparing with the celery sticks.  Then, because I’d read about how good their ribs were, I got half a rack, “wet”, Kansas city style.  The ribs weren’t bad.  They weren’t the greatest ribs I’ve had but I was definitely enjoying them.  They were warm enough for me.  As sides, I got their french fries which were hot and really good as per usual.  Then I wanted to try their dirty rice.  It needed a good amount of salt but wasn’t too bad.  It just tasted like tomato ee  rice and diced green peppers.  Read on to see how Steve’s meal went.

Again, the wings were a big disppointment.  They just about set the tone for the rest of the meal including the service.  As an entree, Steve got the beef barbeque which is a beef brisket sandwich on a roll.  It comes with cole slaw and he chose cornbread (as he always does) as a side.  A little piece of beef brisket fell off of his roll and onto his plate.  I told him I was gonna eat it and I did.  I noticed right away that it wasn’t even warm.  Barely.  And it didn’t have a real smokey flavor like the menu description would have you believe.  Steve hated his sandwich and he hated the roll it came on.  And he got even more upset because his corn bread wasn’t even hot.  It was cold, not even warm.  Yeah, and the cole slaw they gave him wasn’t piled high.  It looked as though they plucked it off someone’s half eaten plate.  I didn’t even touch it.

So, you’re getting the picture, right?  But I do have to say a word about service.  It was so bad that I only wanted to leave $2 and I’m a good tipper usually.  At minimum, 20% for everything.  There was a really, really, really long wait for everything.  To order, to get our drinks, to get a refill, receive our appetizers, receive our entrees and it took forever to get our check.  Some other lady kept coming over and asking us, every now and then how we were doing.  And then we’d tell her thinking she was either gonna take care of us or tell our waitress, but nothing would happen.  Fifteen minutes later, our incompetent waitress would appear asking the same questions and same things.  I was ready to punch someone.  Steve was really upset.  I mean he was so upset that he stayed quiet.  We were both extremely disappointed with our dining experience.  And you know what else sucked?  Having to pay decent money for it.  That’s enough from me.  But we’ll have you know, this mishap was far too gone to be repaired.  We’re throwing in the towel at this place.  Will avoid it and Eat Something Good!

Here’s the Barnstormer BBQ menu.  Everything will sound good.

Barnstormer BBQ & Steakhouse
1076 Route 9w
Fort Montgomery, NY 10922