Aint No Sissy Food

Wise Guys

A Chicago Eatery

http://www.wiseguysonline.net/

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579 North Valley Mills Road

Waco, Texas 76710

254-732-0582

                So we all know it has been a while since my last submission. It has been a busy, crazy, long year. My dad has been in & out of the Hospital, just recently had a major surgery, my older cousin was just married, his brother just engaged, I started school back up, picked up extra hours at Uncle Dans, and even started working at some Nite Court Saloon.

                During all this off time from the blog, plenty of new restaurants have opened and plenty more are still in the process of opening, while others have changed owner ship, some have closed down. Things have definitely changed with some good and some bad. I still try to make time to eat out at least 2-3 times a week.

"I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand."
Al Capone

                One of my favorite New places to have moved into Waco is Wise Guys. When I first heard they were moving in, that really peaked my curiosity. Then when I found out the location, I was a bit worried. But only time would tell, and so far it is looking promising.

                So after a couple of weeks, I always give new places a window to get the kinks worked out, I stopped in with my brother. We both ordered the Chicago Cheese Steak; “Tender sirloin grilled with sautéed onions, bell peppers & shrooms. Topped with melted while American cheese,” along with a side of home cut fries and of beer battered onion rings. We bother loved it; the cheese steak was just great. Like all the menu items, it is brought out in a plain brown bag, usually with some light grease stains peaking though. The sandwich is wrapped up, ready to be devoured. The meat was flavorful and tender, hot and buttery, Tasted fresh and well-seasoned. One order of fries were more than enough for the two of us, fresh cut, fried and seasoned to perfection. The onion rings were nice, they seemed to have a slightly different, thicker, batter than most other kinds. They will be an acquired taste, but well worth a try.

                Between my first experience and today, I have got back at least 1-3 times a month, and always order myself the Chicago Cheese Steak and fries or rings. Occasionally Ill add a dessert, like the gelato. Often I would take it back to my bar and share with my manager or one of the bartenders, get them hook on the awesomeness.  I honestly believe, out of all the places in Waco that serve a Cheese Steak Sandwich, Wise Guys is the best AND the most consistent when it comes to taste and quality.  

                I always wanted to try new items on their menu, but I just couldn’t move past the Chicago Cheese Steak. Well, I finally just messaged the manager on Facebook and asked him what he would recommend (top 3): He recommends the Italian Sausage with peppers and onions, and to try their burgers. Then he kicked it up a notch and offered to hit me up with a sampler platter, so I could try a few different items and get a real feel for the restaurant…. How could I say “No.”

                I stopped by last night, after work, to take them up on the offer. What can I say, they hooked it up, I got to try 6 different menu items.

Here are the names & menu descriptions of what I dined on:

       >Burger- Bugsey Siegal : 1/3lb Burger topped with yellow American cheese, BBQ Sauce and onion rings.

       >Sandwich- Italian Beef: Chicagos #1 sandwich! Seasoned Roast beef. Topped with sweet bell peppers or hot Giardenera. Order it Dry, Wet or Dipped! 
      >Sandwich- Italian Sausage: A grilled Italian sausage served on a lightly toasted roll. Topped with peppers and grilled onions.
      >Sandwich- Meat Ball: Three large perfectly seasoned meatballs in marinara sauce served on a lightly toasted roll. Topped with mozzarella cheese.
      >Hot Dog- Chicago Dog: All Beef dog placed on a steamed poppy seed bun. Topped with mustard, relish, raw onions, tomatoes, pickle spear, sport peppers  & celery salt. Dont get more authentic than that my friends.

     >Side: Home Cut Fries.

  Defining it is one thing; tasting it is a whole different ballgame.

The Bugsey Siegal:

First off who was Bugsey? Well according to the World Wide Web Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American mobster with the Genovese crime family. Nicknamed "Bugsy", Siegel was known to be ruthless with associates and was known as one of the most "infamous and feared gangsters of his day.
Quick educational fact of the day out of the way let us get back to the Chow.

The Bugsey is a classic style burger with BBQ Sauce and O.Rings. Many a place serves this style, it is one of my brothers favorite and hard to mess us. The BBQ sauce used on this specific burger, was nice and sweet, light twang to it and was pretty good. The onion ring was nice and crisp, the bun was toasted and warm. The burger pattie was very good too, not too fatty or dry, had nice flavor and texture. I would definitely be interested in trying a couple of their other burgers to see how they play out. I am a very picky burger eater.

The Italian Beef:

When I first saw this sandwich laid out on the plate, it shocked me. I had to wrap my brain and eyes around it, had to figure out my plan of attack on eating it. It is a mound of thinly sliced roasted, packed between a toasted bun and topped with peppers. This sandwich was delicious and filling, I had to stop myself after a few bits to ensure I had room for the other menu items. The beef was nicely seasoned with peppercorns, salt, etc… great pop and still let you enjoy the natural beef flavor. Think I will order this next time, also with some cheese and “dip.” Oh and did I mention you can get a regular size or a large? Betting the large one could feed a small family, with a side of fries.

The Italian Sausage:

This sandwich was served without the bun, allowing me to enjoy the sausage and not fill us on all the spare carbs. Much thanks for that. It was very flavorful, nicely grilled, juicy, smooth meat consistency; the sausage casing wasn’t chewy or tough like I’ve experience in the past. I could see ordering one of these for a light lunch or quick bite.

Meatball:

Like the previous sandwich, this was served sin bun, just meat cheese and marinara sauce.
This was very tasty; I’ve tried the Meat Ball subs at Jason’s Deli, Subway, and a couple other places around town and this one was my favorite.  The meatball was of nice size, it was extremely flavorful, tender and moist. The marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese paired with it very nicely, only adding flavor, not overwhelming it. I will definitely be adding one of these to my dinner plans soon and is probably one of the best Meat Ball Subs in town.

Chicago Dog:

Last but not least, the Chicago Dog. Nothing against the Restaurant but, I must be honest and admit that I’ve never really been a big hot dog fan. I just really never liked them, maybe because they were the last minute meals of my family and were served way too often at preschool and summer school, and these are the cheap water hot dogs.. Yuck. Those probably just killed my appetite for them on a mental level. But that won’t stop me from trying new ones; I’ve tried the Dirty Dogs up in New York, the Ball Park Franks at the baseball games and often grill them for friends during cook outs, yet I still leave unsatisfied. Back to the review though.

My first though upon seeing this hot doggie, was the NEON Green “stuff” layered over the side of the dog. “What is this stuff” I thought to myself, even asked my friend sitting with me. Some goofy looking stuff, almost candy like…. Well feel no fear, it is just hot Dog Relish. Flavorful, neon green Relish… haha. Topped alongside with mustard, onions, a pickle spear, tomato wedges and sports pepper. It was a pretty tasty Dog, I finished most of it off giving the rest to my friend. She like it, I thought it was alright. The topping all came together, as you take your bites; you’d get layers of different flavors all accumulating to one flavorful bite. Served with a side of fries for only $3.99, that’s a pretty good lunch I’d imagine for any Hot Dog lover.

Over all, I am fairly impressed and happy with the quality and flavor of Wise Guys food. It is probably one of my favorite new restaurants in town. The service has always been prompt, even during the busy hours you get your food in a timely manner and the staff is helpful and friendly. It is no surprise that they are working on a second location in Waco and expanding out of state from what I read. If you’ve been curious about stopping by and giving them a try, wait no longer. They have a nice menu selection, great prices, specials, live music on the weekends, over all great atmosphere and décor, oh and did I mention the great food?

Almost done

 Go In, tell’em DavieG sent ya and treat your taste buds to some Authentic Style Chicago food cooked up to order. You won’t be disappointed!

Random quote from guy sitting a table behind me “I could make a meal out these fries alone.”  

Smoked Bananas for Scale.

A while back I was asked if I could smoke a Banana, "for science."

I figured, why the heck not, I’m either smoking BBQ at home or at work nearly every day.

I had kind of forgotten about it for a while, till we got onto the subjects of bananas at work, and the idea reignited. I ran over to the local grocery store and picked up a bundle of bananas.

Once back to work I had to come up with a game plan on how I wanted to proceed.
I finally decided I would rub one with brown sugar and a bit of salt, while leaving another one plain for comparison. After prepping them, they were ready to be smoked. I loaded the smoker with a new batch of oak wood and locked them in for ten minutes. The time passes and I check on them; they look alright, but decide another five minutes won’t hurt them. The final time passes and I pull them out.

Everyone at work is giving me a hard time and making jokes. But this kind of stuff is what gets us through the stressful days, like this morning had bee.

I look over them and check their appearance, and then I smell the funky aroma drifting off them. Can definitely smell the bananas and oak smoke, with a bit of the brown sugar lingering.

NOW FOR THE TASTE:

• The first one I try is the brown sugar glazed one:

My first impression was that I put a tad too much kosher salt on it. After the saltiness dissipated, you could finally taste the banana, smoke and after taste of sweet brown sugar. Unfortunately the smoke was a tad over powering.

• Second I tried the plain one:

This one was better, but mostly because there was no salt to bother your taste buds. It was definitely smoky; no doubt about it, then it would finish off with a warm banana flavor.  As the banana slid down your throat it left a lingering smokiness trialing up your nostrils.  


-The General Manager was the only other person to try it. My reaction peaked his interest. He came to the same conclusion as me: ODD, was the general word thrown around.


CONCULISION: Was neither good nor really bad, odd, but could be greatly improved upon and has potential.  

My next plan is to: Rub with just the brown sugar. Smoke it with a lighter & sweeter wood and for a shorter period of time. Then we will slice them up and create a bananas foster. The smokiness and brown sugar glaze should pair well with the caramel, rum and vanilla ice cream.

Keep an eye out for this next culinary adventure.

And if you have an idea, please share, I am always looking to try new and different things.

Zoo Brew!

Brew at the Zoo, Year 1

(They took down their webpage for it)


                I love the Waco Cameron Park Zoo; I take my friends and their kids there, I’ve taken dates there, I visit there just to clear my mind and walk around. This year I finally became a Member and take full advantage of it. When I heard that they were planning on hosting a Beer Tasting Event there, I jumped at the chance and bought my ticket as soon as I could and tried to get as many of my friends and family to join in as well. It sounded great- Could try 20 out of 50 available beers, snacks, live animal encounters and live music, and all for a great cause… it doesn’t get much better than that.

After a bout of month of waiting, the big day finally came! It was a big day in general; Baylor vs TCU home game, Baylor Parents Weekend, and it was a tad cloudy outside with a slight chance of rain. After work and feeding a couple hundred Baylor student and family, I went home got cleaned up and grabbed dinner with some friends before heading to the Zoo. 

It started at 7:00pm and we arrived a little past 7:30pm, already getting a little dark and the parking lot was pretty full. Did I mention they sold out nearly a week ahead? Ya, they did. So they had a pretty big group of folks here, all of drinking age. We head up, turn in our tickets and in return they hand us an awesome miniature beer mug and a “beer passport.”  The mini mug was for us to drink our tasting beer out of, and the “passport” was to be used as a record for the number of beers we tried- every time we tried a beer, they would stamp the passport with a special stamp. Was a pretty cool idea, and everyone loved the mini mugs.

So far so good… but now it starts to become a tad shaky. As we are walking toward the sound of music, we start to see this large, long, winding line. We have no idea what is going on, where it’s going, or what it’s for. So we hopped in line anyway and go along with it. It is slowly moving, and we ask some of the people that are volunteering there, no one really knew what was going on. After waiting in line, we finally figure out that we are in the first line for beer tasting. Really? This is really long line! The whole deal was this; Apparently due to the weather, the lines and table set-ups were moved around. There were 3 tables serving samples of beer… 3 tables for 50 beer samples. That’s what, roughly 16 beers a table and you are getting one sample at a time. Doesn’t exactly sound like a smooth train, huh? 

Because of this chink, the lines weren’t moving and people were getting tired of just standing in line. People weren’t able to fully enjoy the full experience, the live music, the animal encounters, etc. Speaking of animal encounter, we met a couple of reptiles and an opossum (something that sneaks in my yard almost every night, the sneaky b@stards). We also met a corral snake that my cousins fiancé was slightly obsessed with.

                So we decided to stick with a simple game plan; get in line, sample a beer, go chill listening to the band for a while, then start it back over again. But even after a while, that was tiring so we just bought some beers and drank those. Through the whole night, we left just trying 6 beers. I know others tried all 20, but they had to have waited in those lines for quite a while, and I know we could’ve snuck in a few more that last hour since the lines had shrunken so much. It really seemed that people were leaving early and no one seemed to be having a great time; which was really disheartening. 

                They had a nice beer selection, they had nice snack foods, received a nice Brew at the Zoo shirt upon leaving, and they had great local music. But with all the other problems they were having, it really was disappointing. I would really love to see them put this on again next year. If they do put it back on though, they really need to make some changes;
1) Spread the beers out over more tables; ex, 50 beers spread over 10 tables.
2) Have the Volunteers a little more informed
3) I would’ve liked to see more live animals out and about.

4) Keep the awesome mini mugs, passport idea and shirts.

                           Over all, my friends and I had a good night, but it could’ve been much better. This was their first year, so leeway is to be given and understood. I can’t wait for them to host this again next year, I will be one of the first to purchase my ticket and I honestly encourage you to buy a ticket if you like some beer.

And I guess I should mention the actual beers I tried, well I never really found on I liked. I am really picky when it comes to beer. I suppose the one I like best, out of the 6, was Magic Hat #9. It had a definite bite to it, a tad sweetness, with a slight bitter aftertaste.