Bourbon, Bacon, Music and Snow

Wow! I'm not a very good blogger am I?! Six months in between posts is ridiculous. Too much going on rather than not enough! So, just the fun stuff.

It's finally winter and we're so happy! With the first snow came Bourbon Creme once again- delicious on it's own over ice, in coffee or hot chocolate, or... Come up with your own Bourbon Creme creation!

In October we started a new monthly event called Second Saturdays. Each month bands play here on the second Saturday to benefit a different non-profit. Our first month Melissa Mitchell, Spiff, & Dan Lesperance played a benefit show for the Alaska Sudan Medical Project. It was such a great time and a lot of money was raised! Coming in December, Stray Dogma will be playing with others still TBA - a benefit for the Alaskan Aids Assistance Association.

Bacon is delicious. Bacon jalapeno corn fritters are our current Bacon of the Month appetizer and they're delicious. Come December we'll have another bacon treat!

Bumper stickers are on the way! Love Bourbon, Bacon, Tots or Spenard? So do we! Check 'em out!

Enjoy the lovely snow and happy holiday season!

C-Note String Band Now Playing!

Literally! They have their instruments in hand, and are getting ready to jam the night away. From their sound check I think it's going to be an awesome show. We're keeping the kitchen open until midnight tonight - it's an experiment so we'll see if people keep ordering food until late.

In other news, the patio has been jammin' with all this great weather we've been having, we have a new bacon appetizer (Bacon Corn Pops w/ Dijon Aioli for dipping), and we also have a ton of new wines, beers, infused vodkas and bourbons for those who haven't been in for a while.

Summer in Spenard is lovely!!!

We Have a Patio!!

If you've driven by in the past couple days, you might have noticed a couple umbrellas in front of the restaurant. That's because we have a patio! Where else in Spenard can you enjoy the peaceful sound of traffic on Northern Lights while eating one of the best meals in town!? We are still working on our landscaping surrounding the patio, and we will soon have a lovely oasis where you can pass the summer days away thoughtlessly.

The only not-so-perfect thing about our new addition, is that you cannot drink alcohol out there yet. But... we are working with the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) Board to have our patio approved for alcoholic beverage consuming ASAP.

In the meantime, catch some rays with a glass of our housemade lemonade and enjoy a delicious meal with family and friends!

Bikin' to the Roadhouse

We have had a lot of inquiries about a bike rack, and we finally got one, just in time for spring!
I began biking to work last week and I am so refreshed! Speaking of biking, May 15th is Bike to Work Day. I am trying to motivate our entire crew and beyond to bike to work that day and everywhere every day! Good fun, good for you, good for the environment! Tell all your friends!

Also in honor of spring, we're working on landscaping out front, which, for anyone who has come in since the snow has melted, is badly needed.

In other news, we just opened for lunch on Saturdays and Sundays this past weekend and it went really well! We had a few disappointed people looking for breakfast - we did serve one yummy egg dish each day (breakfast burrito on Saturday, and a grilled ham and swiss sandwich topped with a fried egg and served over mornay sauce Sunday) - but overall we had great response.

Thanks to everyone of you for spending your free time eating and drinking with us! We love you!

After School Special!

Today we released the After School Special and Late Nite Special Menu! I have such fond memories of many an early evening spent enjoying happy hour when living out of state, and I have been missing some good odd hour cheap eats here in Anchorage! We'll have the menu up on the website soon.





We had a close call late last night just as we were getting ready to leave the restaurant: Mt. Redoubt erupted! We pulled out the tarps that I bought a couple months ago when the mountain was bubbling, and we tromped up onto the roof and covered all the vents and fans. Of course the duct tape I had purchased with this in mind had vanished somehow, so we were out there on the cold, dark roof in 4" of snow trying to get masking tape to stick to the metal vents - it was comical. Luckily, our work was not necessary, and today all was ash-free and business as usual!





We have some excitement coming up on April 4th. At 9:30pm, Duff from Ace of Cakes and his band ...Soihadto... are playing here at the Roadhouse! It should be a super fun show. You can buy tickets any time we're open at the bar... might as well try a flight of single barrel bourbons while you're at it!.

The Cubano – love it!

At least, most of the time… According to Wikipedia (a dubious source to be sure), or in the immigrant community of a Cuban sandwich is a variation of a ham and cheese originally created by Cuban workers, either in Cuba, Ybor City in Tampa Florida. Later, Cubans brought it to other communities in southern Florida, particularly Key West and Miami where it is very popular. The sandwich is made with ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard, and sometimes salami on Cuban bread.

Our Cubano, which I am actually eating in between typing sentences, is BBQ pulled pork, black forest ham, swiss, pickles, pickled onions, and housemade mayo, on a ciabatta roll. We think it’s totally delicious and is one of our most popular menu items. However, we have heard complaints from some purists, because it’s not pressed, there’s no mustard, or they don’t like that it has BBQ sauce.

Having not been to Cuba, we don’t know how it stacks up against a real Cubano. But the vast majority of the customers who order it love, love it. We’ve considered changing the name but for now, we’re going to rebel a little against the purists and do it our way.

One week old today

No real crazy problems. Just working on consistency of food – trying to get all the cooks to do everything the same way. Our chefs, Shane and Mike, have been working incredibly hard. There are a lot of details in making sure that the kitchen runs smoothly. Mostly fast ticket times but we’ve had a few drag. Nothing unexpected for a place that’s only a week old. Word is slowing getting out. We tried to put “Now Open for Lunch, Dinner, Bar” on our reader board but we found out that we don’t have any “H”s! We are discovering that we have some favorite menu items among the staff too. So far they seem to be the cubano sandwich, calamari, tater tots, all of the pizzas, and the spinach and chevre salad – yum!