Restaurant Review - Ron's Place.

It's rare that there is a hometown bar that can attract people by reputation from sometimes a hundred miles away. But we, in Kenosha, have a little treasure like that.  Ron's Place has been a staple for low key gatherings and dates for well over 40 years, providing excessive alcohol and incredible food, good lighting, and a fairly social, but private table setup. I've eaten at Ron's many MANY times, and I've been carried out of there more than once because their teas are delightfully strong.  Given my experiences, I'd like to talk a little about the food, drinks and service.

Ron's Place is a bar, therefore, it's expected that they do have bar food.  And they do have a wide assortment of it.  However, the executive chef of the establishment wasn't satisfied to just have the same thing as every other college bar.  You don't get a burger and fries at Ron's, you get a massive "5x5" cooked how you want it, with limitless variations like my personal favorite, the T-Hurst special (a 1/2 lb burger smothered in ham, cheese, and onions).  The chicken can be served as a sandwich, or a knife and fork dinner, and grilled or fried. Several steak and seafood options; such as my personal favorite, the cheese stuffed shrimp dinner; along with a rarely used kid's section, make this small town bar's menu one to rival mid level dining establishments throughout the area.  You can seriously walk in and have your meal be either fancy, or comfort food, or anything in between. 

Now with a great selection of food like that, you need to have something to wash it down with, and being a bar, the first place we look is the liquor counter.  Now the liquor is well stocked, various whiskeys, scotches, vodkas, schnapps, and tequilas, and other liquors, but the real stories are the beers and the teas.  Ron's Place is best known, Chicagoland and Greater Milwaukee over, for its 44 different flavors of Long Island Iced Tea.  The majority of its patrons are going there just for the teas.  True they are a bit fruity, but they are packed full of enough liquor to warrant a strict 3 tea limit.  Grape, berry, original, lime, and even one that tastes like a heavily spiked cherry coke are just some of the offerings.  An old girlfriend asked me about the place once, from Miller Park area in Milwaukee, and if I could take her there (as much of a lightweight as she was, I regretted it later, but she enjoyed herself).  They have promotions for drinking every different type of tea (The tour of teas) along with drinking just 50 of any type of tea you want (the custom tour), doing either will win you a T-shirt.  Along with this, they have a Tour of beers promotion, encouraging patrons to come back again and again and try all of the 28 types of beer they have available. 

Now, to top off the teas and all the great food, the service is absolutely second-to-none.  The Olive Garden may treat you like family, but Ron's Place treats you like their best friend.  On slower nights, the bartenders and cooks come out and talk to you, get to know your name, even come up with nicknames for you (one cook always calls me "Ed, Edd and Eddy").  There is always enough staff to ensure that you will never be waiting very long to get anything.  They tend to overstaff rather than understaff, but I would do that too if I knew how busy that place has the possibility of being, even on a Monday night.  Ask them anything, they will gladly bring it to you, even a big to go cup of pickles. 

All in all, this is one of the better establishments I've ever eaten in.  I would go there over and over again. If I moved away, I'd keep coming back just to go there again.  It is a wonderful cornerstone to the fair city of Kenosha, and I hope it continues to be in business for years and years to come.

Tequila Butter Sauce - Recipe

5 tbsp Butter or Margarine (be extra careful with the butter as to not scorch it)
2 tbsp Gold Tequila
approx. 5 oz coarsely chopped white onion
2 tsp garlic salt

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over high heat until mostly melted.  Reduce heat to very low.  Add tequila and onion.  Be very careful, as the mixture will bubble and may splash back at you.  Simmer over very low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove the onions with a small slotted spoon and discard.  Add garlic salt.  Whisk mixture one last time and serve immediately

This sauce works very well as a butter sauce for lobster, as well as pouring over your favorite pasta or vegetable.  I really like this with corn.  It makes enough sauce to lightly butter three 3/4 cup servings of rotini. 

Margarita Shrimp - Recipe

1/3 lb thawed raw shrimp peeled, and deveined.  Tail off optional
                                          -or-
1/3 lb thawed cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined. Tail off optional
1/2 cup tequila
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp fresh minced onions or 1 tsp dried minced onions
1tsp garlic salt
1 tsp old bay seasoning
2 tbsp butter or margarine, divided

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a medium skillet.  Coat bottom of skillet with butter.  Add shrimp to skillet, along with onion, garlic salt, and old bay.  For raw shrimp...saute until shrimp are almost all opaque, don't let them start to brown.  For cooked shrimp, saute just long enough for them to be warm through, again, don't let them brown.  Once the shrimp are to their allotted level of done-ness, add the tequila and lime juice slowly, so they don't splatter from the hot butter.  Stir the mixture, cover and simmer under low heat for about 5 minutes.  Remove the lid, turn up the heat to high and cook an additional 2-5 minutes, ensuring the tequila and lime mixture stays liquid and doesn't coagulate into a sauce.  Drain the liquid.  Most of the excess seasonings will come out with the liquid.  Melt the second tablespoon of butter into the pan and coat the bottom.  Add the shrimp back to the pan.  Sautee over medium-high heat until the edges start to brown slightly.  Remove shrimp from pan and set on a paper towel to absorb the excess butter. 

Serve these in any of your favorite dishes that you would put shrimp on.....Pasta or salads with your favorite sauces or dressings, or you can use them alone as appetizers with cocktail sauce.  They will have a completely unique flavor and you'll be surprised how many people eat them alone without sauce.  They work really well on a simple plate of lightly buttered angel hair.

Enjoy

Tequila as a Culinary Tool

One of the things I've been playing around with a lot lately in my kitchen is tequila.  It started out as just something i had in the liquor cabinet to make a margarita with, and it quickly turned into my favorite go-to for dozens of recipes. 

Tequila is a distilled liquor made from the blue agave cactus.  It can only be produced legally in Mexico, and only in a couple of states, and it is generally distilled to a strength of 61-110 proof.  Tequila has a very unique and distinct flavor to it. It's very very strong and noticeable, but not so strong that it drowns out the original flavor of the food you're cooking it with if you do it right.  Obviously, if you overdo it with any sauce or seasoning, you're gonna drown out the flavor, and with something as strong as tequila, moderation is definitely the key.  This distinct, cactus based liquor is especially great in seafood, one of my favorite things to cook with it.  Saute your shrimp in a little butter and some select seasonings, add some tequila and lime juice when they are just about done, finish cooking, drain off the liquid, and you have something great to zazz up a boring plate of pasta.  Sausages are another great use of tequila.  Baste them and grill, or just saute some cut up cooked sausage, eat or add to pasta, and enjoy. 

Sauces, on the other hand, are a great use of tequila.  I'd stay away from the cheese sauces with this one, personally, but I know from experience that your favorite stir fry sauce will burst if you add just a little tequila to it.  Tomato sauces come alive with just that extra little kick that comes with a couple ounces of it, and tonight.....well tonight I'm gonna try and add a bit to my butter sauce and see what happens.  

A final note before I close.  When cooking, I definitely go for the cheap stuff.  Almost all of the alcohol will be lost in the cooking process.  What goes into my pans, honestly, generally comes from the 8 dollar special at Pick and Save.  Save your Cuervo for the margaritas you will serve your guests.  To follow this article will be a recipe for Margarita Shrimp.  Enjoy!!

Welcome to Chef Ed's Food Corner

I'm gonna be getting this started right away.  Since I'm in culinary school, I decided to do a second blog all about food.  Be sure to like this blog on Facebook so you see the new article right as it comes out. Any suggestions of things you want to see are always welcome, and I will try to accommodate you.  This blog is not gonna be any one thing. There will be reviews of dishes I've tried and made, recipes for dishes that deserve to be shared, I'll talk about ingredients I like to use, reviews of restaurants and bars, maybe a review of a chef here and there, and my cooking styles as they develop.  You can share with anyone, I'll never be mad if I find out you spread the word around.  Please remember to read my social blog at some time too.  I'll post a link to my social blog as well as the fan page for that and the fan page for this here in my introduction

Please enjoy

Chef (to be) J. Edgar Davis

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