Bootsie's Good Eats!

Guess what restaurant has re-opened in Tomball without the previous chef, but with an excellent grill man and terrific new menu?
Bootsie's! It's 2 doors down from Quilters Crossing quilt shop and because of a slight menu change is now my favorite local restaurant.

I 'discovered' Bootsie's not too long after my non-Mother's Day junket to Snook, Texas in search of the infamous home of chicken fried bacon. Since Bootsie's originally opened, the've had a gigantic hamburger on the menu: the Mother Rucker Burger. (Don't play cute with the name like my 10 yr old son did many years ago when he thought he'd play with the Fuddruckers restaurant name. In the car. I almost went off the road.) So the Mother Rucker - wish I had a picture of it - 2 huge hamburger patties, lettuce, tomato, cheese, chicken fried bacon, topped with a fried egg. It is one fabulous hamburger, and good for at least two meals for a normal person. Even though most normal people are afraid to order it.

But I digress. As soon as I saw what was on the Mother Rucker - namely chicken fried bacon - I've been after Bootsie to put it on the menu as an appetizer. When her son was the chef, he refused. She'd apologize to me each time I suggested it, and say the chef wouldn't do it. He was more into butterflied free range quail legs, with teensy hand-carved baby vegetables, for a very pretentious price. That was before I knew he was her son. If I'd known that, I would have made another suggestion to her.

Anyway - two weeks ago at Friday night FreeSew at Quilters Crossing, I saw Bootsie's new menu at the shop. And guess what was on it?!

Chicken Fried Bacon! Holy :insert porcine expletive:! Bootsie listened to me! If I hadn't already eaten dinner I would have run right over, tucked my napkin into my collar and ordered a great big plate of the crispy, melt-in-your-mouth, deep-fried pork ribbons. But I couldn't. So I did the next best thing: I got everyone up early the next day and as soon as Bootsie's opened, we were at the door. They weren't quite as excited as me, but they went anyway.

Bootsie gave us our menus - not that I needed one. We ordered Chicken Fried Bacon (obviously), fried pickles, a wedge salad, homemade potato soup, a patty melt, and meatloaf.

Everything was outstanding, as expected. Except the bacon was served with ranch dressing. Bootsie said next time I could ask for cream gravy.

The only kinda weird thing was the meatloaf. See the picture? Look at the mashed potatoes. Now look at your hand - all the way from wrist to finger tips. Look back at the plate. The potatoes were as big as your entire hand. Great if you love potatoes (which all Andersons do), but not so great if you love meatloaf. The picture was taken before Gillian even took a bite. So how big was that meatloaf? The size of a meatball. Delicious, but miniscule. I think they made it in a muffin tin. Time to make another suggestion to Bootsie. More meat, less potatoes.
Anyway - run to Bootsie's and get you some Chicken Fried Bacon. You will SO not be sorry! But if you are, call me and I'll come over and finish it up for you.