RV'ing: 6-9-12 Saturday (Indestructible Ribs)

In the early afternoon Jamie and Ruby picked us up. We drove to Shelby, NC, a very rural town about an hour away. We ate dinner, using a Restaurant.com certificate at Smoke on the Square. What a nice place. Being early it was empty. Ready for the review?

Terrible. Ruby ordered a cheese and grape plate to compliment her wine. Jim and I went with a crab/cheese dip. The cheese plate said 3 kinds of cheeses. It arrived. It was off the stem grapes which didn’t present itself very well and had cubed cheese. The cheeses all looked the same so Ruby asked what kind each was and the server said she didn’t know, it was a new menu. She left, came back and said only Gouda because “catering took the others”. Ruby said, the menu said 3 types though. I said send it back. The server offered a discount, Ruby accept the offer. I’m skipping to the end on this but we never asked what the discount would be. The end result? They took off 10% which was 60 cents. Pitiful. That was more of a slap in the face than not offering a discount.

Ruby ordered a pork tenderloin dish with a peach BBQ sauce. The portion was very tiny. We all chuckled about it and felt the need to offer up some of our food. Oy. She didn’t like the flavor. I didn’t either. It had a smoke flavor. Yes, the name of the place is Smoke on the Square BUT that doesn’t mean everything is smoked and it’s kind of important to mention that on the description of this item. Jim and Jamie thought her smoked pork was OK.

I ordered a half rack ribs. It came with a dinner roll which I thought was odd since Texas Toast would be a better accompaniment. The menu didn’t say baby back ribs BUT it did say fall off the bone tender. I couldn’t cut that crap with a butter knife. I was trying not to use my fingers. People, this wasn’t fall off the bone tender at all. Jim described as needing a tractor pull to get these apart. Using my hands I still had trouble separating each rib. I’m being honest. It was very tough.

Jamie ordered a chopped steak which came nearly burnt. He said he didn’t mind it. In NC burgers and other processed beef must be cooked at 155 degrees or higher.

Jim ordered a shredded BBQ pork plate that he said was OK. He didn’t care for the slaw side dish.

With alcohol, our 60 cent discount and then the $25 off certificate, the bill was still $82. What a shame. No we didn’t ask to speak to anyone. We didn’t complain to the server. I was tempted but didn’t. I think we may all have been tempted but maybe didn’t want to “be the one”.

Sometimes I think experiences like that are worth it in the end. We’ll always have Smoke on the Square is what we said. Something to look back and laugh about.

Let’s move on to the demolition derby, shall we? This was at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds and put on by Ultimate Destruction Demolition Derby. We got there a little early but were able to get grandstand seats that we wanted rather than what was left over. The show was supposed to start at 7 but nothing happened until 7:15. The “characters” that attend these things was quite entertaining. A fantastic event to go to for people watching. There was no lack of mullets here. Here’s some photos:

Above: And no Jim, that’s not a booger up my nose. Click on the photo to biggerize it and you’ll see it’s cartilage. Thanks for asking. =)