Growing up, I was a Madison Heights resident. I attended Lamphere and by Madison Heights law, I had to visit Augie’s Bar and Gill countless times in my life. Heck, even back in my younger, more impetuous days a band I played keyboards in played there on a few occasions. That, however, was a lifetime ago. At Augie’s over the years I have drank there, laughed there, sang karaoke there, caught up with old friends there, but never once did I eat there. Interesting.
Omar and I were looking for a new trivia venue (we love to play live trivia). Augie’s had live trivia on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. We headed up first on a Friday night. We started our evening at Eddie V’s, had a few Bourbon Sours, ate some oysters and appetizers, headed home for a bit then up for trivia. I wasn’t expecting much as I had been to Augie’s many times before, but we had a great time. We sat by a really fun couple Tammy and Tim, who managed to leave their little one home with a sitter and get some much needed time out. We crushed trivia, coming in first place in the first game and second place in the second game. We gave our second place gift certificate to Tammy and Tim, who said they went there quite often. We really did had way too much fun with them that night. My poor aching head the next day was a constant reminder.
We did so well at trivia we decided to try a Tuesday night. We had to get there early to get a table so by no choice of our own, we had to eat dinner there. Honestly, I was kind of dreading it. Augie’s simply to me, just did not seem the place to get a good meal. We had a great server named Katie, who was cheerful, friendly and very attentive. She was brutally honest about the menu, what to order, what not to order and what to order on a Wednesday because it was half off. I love that in a server and Katie was right on about everything!
I ordered an Augie’s melt, which is essentially a Patty Melt, and on the side what they say is homemade 1000 Island dressing. Omar ordered a Tocky burger, which is a smoked ham and bacon burger topped with the usual suspects, tomato, lettuce and good old ‘merican cheese. We split an order of the loaded fries, hand cut fries topped with cheddar cheese sauce, bacon, diced chives and sour cream on the side.
As we waited for our food, and enjoyed a cold beer, I did not have much anticipation growing. I must say, I was surprised to see some of the food coming out. Everyone seemed to be eating and the food looked shockingly good! Large salads, chicken wings, pizza, it actually looked pretty good! Our food came and with some trepidation we tried it. The burgers were really good. Cooked perfect, crisp rye bread on mine with nice caramelized onions, and Omar’s was juicy, soft bun and seasoned well.
The fries were ok, but some simple changes could have brought them to superstar status. The fries themselves were good, skin on, what appeared to be hand cut fries. However, they were topped with some cheese goo that Omar can’t stand, bacon bits and dried chives.
Take these same fries, cover with real shredded cheddar and top with real bacon, place under the broiler to just melt that cheese into gooey goodness and top with chopped (fresh) green onion and you would have a winning dish. The fries just missed their mark, and oh, had so much potential. All in all, we were impressed, and told Katie that who laughed and said she thought the same thing until she tried the food herself.
The next week brought us back, but this time, back on our “healthy eating” or least an attempt to do so. Healthy choices on the menu are fairly limited so we tried the chicken fajitas and guess what? They were pretty darn good too. Not a lot of them, but enough to make 3 small tacos, with flavorful chicken, peppers and onions brought on a sizzling platter. Shredded lettuce, cheese and sour cream accompanied. All and all a pretty decent dish. Again, Katie was our server, and again she laughed when we expressed our surprise.
We keep going back now, partly because we keep finishing trivia in first place (which is impressive when it is just the two of us up against teams of 4-6, and there are usually like 15 teams) but then come crashing down when we bet too high and get stuck on some silly final category. We keep coming so close it just draws you back in. At least now we know we can have a decent meal and some nice cold beers when we are winning, or even when we are losing, which we do NOT like to do. Ever. So go to Augie’s and play some trivia with us! We are team… wait for it…. JOMAR!
