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| If you see Black Bart's Antiques and General Store, you know you're getting close to the steak house. LFP photo |
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| Bart (real name Charles E. Boles) was a successful California road agent between 1875 and 1883 who usually left behind scribbled poetry after making off with the strongbox. Legend has it he always used an unloaded shotgun to stop the stage, and never took money from the ladies. After finally being arrested, tried and spending six years in prison, Bart (or Boles) disappeared in 1888 and was never seen again.
The Pedricks, sadly, died in a car crash in 1992. The RV park, restaurant and antique shop continue today, owned and managed by some of their children.
Back to the restaurant. We found out that it’s dinner only, and the doors don’t open until 5 p.m. Fortunately for us, we got there a little before, parked and walked over to the entrance; there was a line of people waiting to get in. Black Bart’s takes reservations, and after tasting the food and seeing the show, we recommend you make them—the place gets really busy.
We were quickly seated at a table, and noticed a small stage where a player piano was providing a little background music all by itself. (A larger stage is in the main dining area.) The live entertainment, we found out, would be provided by the restaurant’s servers. Once the customers’ orders were taken, the musical revue began, and continued throughout the evening.
The premise is pretty interesting. The servers mostly are students attending Flagstaff’s Northern Arizona University. The majority are from the music department, while a few are from the theater arts program. There were even a couple of NAU teachers that night serving and singing.
Whether in the chorus or singing individually, sometimes using hats or simple props to help their performance, the students did remarkably well, in our opinion. Each has their own song book kept in a rack at the back of the stage, and a pianist accompanies them as they sing; mostly Broadway show tunes. At times they even walked out among the tables, belting away Broadway classics.
The food really was good. Steaks, chicken and anything else you would toss on the grill all get cooked over oak coals that start out as split logs taken from the woodpile out back. The restaurant serves Midwestern beef that they age and cut on site. We each enjoyed a N.Y. strip steak which came out of the kitchen with a nice char on the outside, medium rare, and tender and juicy inside.
Side dishes included a house or Caesar salad, and a choice of oven-baken potato, French fries or cowboy beans. A pan of sour dough biscuits (all you want), with honey-cinnamon butter is included. Our only food complaint was the vegetable dish; a pan-fried corn and pepper dish that was disappointing. The cowboy beans (pintos) weren’t bad, but could have been punched up a bit.
Other main dish items include rack of lamb, baby-back pork ribs, broiled or barbequed chicken, grilled salmon, a catch of the day item, and grilled shrimp.
But steaks are the name of the game at Black Bart’s, and include filet mignon ( 6 and 9 oz), T-bone, porterhouse, ribeye, top sirloin and a ground sirloin. There’s also prime rib.
Prices are not cheap. The porterhouse was $32.99, while our N.Y. strip was $22.99. A 12 oz. prime rib cut is $26.99. But since the entertainment was “free,” we figured the menu prices were not all that out of line, and probably had a bit of “entertainment cost” built in.
Wine list? Sure, but even though there was a nice selection, the prices reflected the beef prices—a little high for our tastes.
Desserts included such items as a fruit cobbler, Oreo pie, Snicker pie, deep-fried ice cream or a fudge brownie topped with ice cream. We skipped the desserts, but we peaked at some of the goodies coming out of the kitchen and they looked really good.
Would we eat there again? Sure. Good food, good service and an entertaining musical revue made for a very pleasant evening.
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