Paddy's in Leawood
I was delirious with hunger. I had to fast for 12 hours prior because of my physical at the doctors in Leawood (5 more years for the really uncomfortable stuff). I was weak and delirious because of the hunger, it had been nearly 16 hours since I ate a log of crackers before bed. It was about 1:30, Chick-Fil-A was on my mind. I just couldn't remember if there was a Chick-Fil-A on 119th and Roe or if it was in Olathe near a similar metroplex o' commerce. I get them confused, south Johnson County all looks the same to me. It turns out the Chick-Fil-A I was thinking of was either on 135th or in Olathe. There was no time, I was too hungry, I was going to have to grab something immediately.
After a u-turn by the Waterway across from Crate & Barrel, I turned into the strip mall and decided to venture into the Paddy O'Quigleys and grab some chicken wings. I'm a fan of the one in the Crossroads and I've been to this location several times. I lived across 119th Street for a month when my company moved me to KC so I ate and drank here a couple of times a week for that month. I also saw the Elders play there one night. It's not an unfamiliar place.
Anyway, I walked in and there was maybe 3 customers in the place. I decided I should just sit at the bar, have a beer and get my wings. I checked out the menu just to see if I should explore and try something different. O'Quigley's has perhaps the largest menu this side of Houlihans (I should have a post up about that soon) and at this point everything looked fab. But, the daily lunch special, which was only good until 2, sounded perfect and I had 10 minutes to get it ordered. At that moment nothing sounded better than the Prime Melt (Chargrilled Prime Rib Eye served open face with montterey jack cheese and au jus on a grilled slice of rye bread.). Again, in my hunger delirium, I only saw the words rib eye, cheese and au jus. I thought what I had ordered was a French dip (sometimes Blink just doesn't work out for me).
While waiting for my sandwich, I got a glimpse of why bartender's jobs really must suck. Sure it sounds like a great job, you're around booze all day, talking about drinking. But, at 2 in the afternoon, you may end up talking with a bar patron about how he dislikes cleaning his bathroom. I don't think the hot bar wench would want to talk to this dude about anything, but certainly not his dirty bathroom. I was a little revolted by the whole conversation. I thought about running out to the car to get my Ipod so I didn't have to listen anymore.
My sandwich finally came and I became confused. It was really just a grisly steak with melted cheese on some marble rye bread. Aside from the fatty parts, it was a pretty good little steak, cut a little more thin than I really like, but pretty good. I think it would have been better cut up in little pieces and put in a hoagie roll for a proper French dip, but the marble rye bread added a nice touch and I have yet to see a marble rye hoagie roll. The au jus added just the perfect amount of taste to the overall platter. The fries, errr chips at O'Quigleys, are really just thick sliced potato circles. Not real great, not real bad. My judgment on fries usually depends on me needing ketchup, if I do, they're not quite up to snuff. I used quite a bit of ketchup on the chips at O'Quigleys.
The chips did do one thing, encourage me to order another beer. Between the steak, au jus and chips I didn't think I was going to be able to go on my little Barnes and Noble shopping excursion without having something to drink. The something in this case was another beer. I messed up in my initial order of a beer because I didn't see the taps behind the bar and I didn't want to bust the bartender's balls by asking what they had on tap, so I just ordered a Miller Lite. At O'Quigley's domestic taps come in what must be a 20 to 22 ounce glass. That was nice. The second beer though was a bit of a question. It WAS only 2 in the afternoon and I didn't want to go into an afternoon beer coma after drinking one too many. I don't usually drink beer until at least 4 because I don't want to get all tired. But I was super thirsty and I had some book shopping to do. So I went ahead and ordered a second Miller Lite. I sucked that second one down in about 5 minutes.
In retrospect, I should have ordered a Boulevard Pale Ale or a Smithwicks, both on tap, and only deal with 16 ounces of good beer. Also, in my haste to get something to eat, I missed a big banner right inside the door proclaiming $3 Blvd beers on tap on Wednesdays. I really screwed up my customer responsibilities on this visit, I'm just glad the place wasn't called Chuck Norris' or the last thing I would have seen would have been a black boot heading towards my head.
