Date Visited: 13 May 2008Meal: Dinner
Diners: 2 - Me & Alicia
Experience: Alicia and I found ourselves in need of dinner because we had to be out of the house for Wendy's Book Club meeting that night. After a brief discussion of our options, we decided that barbeque sounded pretty good. In Leesburg, that means Red Hot & Blue. It's a chain restaurant with locations in nine states.
Our family visited the Leesburg Red Hot & Blue shortly after it opened a few years ago. It wasn't very good then, and was significantly inferior to my favorite barbeque place, Famous Dave's (too bad they don't have a Leesburg location!) We had three poor experiences in a row ("three strikes and you're out") and haven't been back. Alicia and I decided to give them a chance to redeem themselves.
On this night, the restaurant wasn't very busy, so I was hoping for good service. It was OK, but a little unprofessional for me (e.g., waiter talking excessively with friends, some cursing). At one point, someone in the back dropped a tray full of dishes or something and there was a loud crash - at which the rest of the staff stood and applauded!
On to the food. First we got the Onion Ring Loaf appetizer. It's a big mass of deep-fried onion rings, in the shape of a cube or cylinder (it's kind of hard to tell). If you love onion rings like I do, you'll love the Loaf. For the main course, I had the half-rack of St. Louis-tyle Sweet Ribs, which came with BBQ beans, cole slaw, and cornbread muffins. It was much better than our original experiences, and the ribs were very tasty, with plenty of meat falling off the bones. Alicia had the Southern Fried Chicken Crispers, which came with Memphis fries and cole slaw. She ate everything but the cole slaw, so it must have been good!
One thing that makes a visit to Red Hot & Blue fun is the background music - it's all classic blues, my favorite! It helps make up for other deficiencies.
An interesting thing about this location is the history of restaurants that have come and gone before. When we first moved to Leesburg in the late 1980's, it was a Bob's Big Boy and a great place to eat. A few years later it closed, and a Shoney's opened up there, and was not as good as Bob's. A few years later, it too closed, and was replaced by America's Best Diner. It was an attempt at a 1950's-style hambuger place, but we called it America's Worst Diner. And that brings us back to the present: Red Hot & Blue.
Will I go back? Well, when the barbeque urge strikes and Famous Dave's is too far away (Sterling location is the closest one), yes.
Location: 541 E. Market St., Leesburg, VA, 20176
Web site: http://redhotandblue.com/
Total bill: $34.13 + $7.00 tip = $41.13
1 comment:
Great blog, Jim! I've had similar experiences at the Leesgurg Red, Hot, & Blue and haven't been back. I have to admit though that I've taken stuff "to go" from a different location. The food isn't too bad but I think I'll just stick to the Famous Dave's I have a few blocks away!
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