Back in May, I went on my annual birthday road trip. This year it wasn’t overly ambitious. Nader went with me again, as he is my one and only true friend. We met up with Willy at the Houby Festival. I will cover the Houby Festival (in Cedar Rapids) in more detail at some point, but there is no denying that it is a bit of a disappointment.
But we didn’t eat there. It was my birthday road trip after all and I wanted to eat like a king. The no-collar/blue collar king that I am. It is well established that the food of choice for working class middle to no class stiffs like me is the pork tenderloin. I decided to hit up one of the finalists for Iowa’s Best Tenderloin from last year. So after bidding Willy a fine adieu, we loaded up the RAV4 with some mediocre (being generous here) kolaches (which I understand kolaches are just fancy pigs in a blanket – 1 person will get that joke and that is enough) and headed towards Monticello for lunch.
Here are some pictures from the day:
I didn’t take many pictures with the phone at the Houby Festival. But I like this mural at the entrance to the Czech Village.
Carla is going to these and taking her picture with them. So when I find one in the wild I send a picture of it to her.
A sweet trash panda mural in Mount Vernon on the way to Monticello.
The Blind Pig.
LOVE!
The Blind Pig crushes it with it’s decor!
They serve gross Coke products!
Nader doesn’t eat pork, so he got a lesser sandwich.
Sweet corn nuggets.
Here are my observations from The Blind Pig:
THE GOOD
- The Blind Pig is in a really cool building.
- They also just knock it out of the park with decor. There were so many decorations I would have gladly walked out of the building with and felt no shame.
- The corn nuggets, on point.
- The bun is toasted!
- They offer the proper condiments. Mustard, ketchup, onions, and pickles.
- The length cut pickles are a great touch and I don’t see many places doing that, but I’m about to argue that it should be the standard.
- They nailed the bun to meat ratio.
- The tenderloin had a good thickness. This was a tenderloin, not a fritter trying to pass itself off as a tenderloin.
- The breading had a good flavor.
THE BAD
- I don’t think a kaiser roll is my choice for a tenderloin. Feels a little uppity, for this working class hero’s sandwich. But as a standalone roll it was good.
- The meat itself was a tad on the dry side.
- Red onions. Nothing wrong with red onions, but for a tenderloin, I’m a white onion guy.
THE UGLY
- They serve gross Coke products.
THE DAMAGE
- It was free for me. Nader bought my meal for my birthday. If you are counting, that is the 2nd free meal I got for my birthday. You might be asking yourself, “Why didn’t I buy Chris a free meal for his birthday?” That is okay, we can’t all be good people.
THE VERDICT
- Graded on a scale of AVOID AT ALL COSTS, EVEN AVOID THE SIDE OF TOWN IT IS ON to I WOULD GLADLY DRIVE SEVERAL HOURS TO EAT THERE, I would give it I WOULD EAT THERE AGAIN. I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there, but if I was in Monticello and in need of some food in my tum-tum, I would go there. Although, full disclosure, the town of Monticello had TWO restaurants have tenderloins that were finalists for Best Tenderloin in Iowa (an award that is more prestigious than all the James Beard Awards) and I would probably go to the other restaurant and give it a shot. Crown a Best Tenderloin in Monticello. Which apparently would be a pretty prestigious award as well.
HOW DO YOU EAT THERE?
- 126 E 1st Street – Monticello, Iowa
- Sunday 11 AM – 9 PM; Monday – Thursday 11 AM – 10 PM; Friday & Saturday 11 AM – 12 AM
Next Sunday’s food adventure will involve a barbecue competition for Tall & Meaty.