pop-we Dinner Club Reviews Bonefish Grill

This month would be Scott's pic and for the first time in population-we™ (pop-we) Dinner Club history we revisited a previous restaurant. This would be the second time pop-we Dinner Club foodies dined at Bonefish Grill located in Regency Court in Omaha, Neb.

At Bonefish Grill I had the Angler’s Steak with peppercorn sauce. I ordered the steak medium, pink in the center. When I cut into the steak it was more red than pink; I think they cooked it medium-rare, as Rick who sat next to me ordered his steak that way. The steak was tender and juicy, with the peppercorn sauce it was delicious. The steak was served with a seasonal vegetable, which was a squash and a side that you choose, I chose the garlic mashed potatoes. I was very pleased with everything on the dish. Entrees are served with fresh bread and an olive oil sauce for dipping. Foodies in our group ordered a couple appetizers. Starting with Bang-Bang Shrimp, which is always a hit, shrimp tossed in a spicy cream sauce. I also sampled the Singapore Calamari, which comes with fried peppers and sweet/spicy Asian sauce. I am pretty picky when  it comes to Calamari but this was cooked perfectly, I would recommend.

After compiling the surveys from the other pop-we Dinner Club foodies the club scores Bonefish Grill a 4.18 star average on a scale of 1-5.

Atmosphere/Decor – 4.4

Angler's Steak at Bonefish Grill.

Cleanliness – 4.3

Wait Staff – 4

Menu – 4

Food Presentation – 4

Food Portions – 4.2

Food Taste – 4.6

Cost (was the cost worth meal?) – 3.9

Noise Level – 3.5

Overall Experience – 4.5

For more information regarding directions or menu items, visit the Bonefish Grill website.

Fellow population-we™ readers, if you've been to Bonefish Grill leave us a comment and tell us what you thought? Want to read about our dinner club's very first visit to Bonefish? If so, check out the 2012 pop-we Dinner Club Reviews Bonefish Grill post in it's entirety.

Want to do this yourself? To review How To Start Your Own Dinner Club, visit our January post about doing just that. Remember it is a template; tweak it to fit you and your friends' tastes. pop-we Dinner Club: good food…good friends…good times.

-population-we™ blog post by Brian Brown

© 2014 population-we, LLC 
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Blogger Couple Celebrates #TheBrowns20 Wedding Anniversary

& they lived happily every after...#TheBrowns20

Nothing in life comes easy; especially marriage. With divorce rates on the rise in the U.S. this is clearly a fact. According to divorcpad.com, "50% of all marriages in America end in divorce." Well, so this is no little feat, The Brown’s recently hit a milestone and celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary, which I coined on social media as #TheBrowns20.

Recently, I watched an interview with Pastor Rick Warren and his wife, Kay, that made me want to write this post. I’m so elated to share our anniversary with everybody--not just the highs but also the lows.

In regards to marriage Kay Warren said: “To get to intimacy you have to make it through the tunnel of chaos.”

Just like any married couple we’ve had set backs in our 20 year journey together. We’ve both grieved the loss of family and jobs. So, by no means has it been easy!

Odd Couple
Also, we’re so different. If they were to recast The Odd Couple as a husband and wife duo, we’d get the parts. Mr. Brown (Felix Ungar ) is neat and tidy and I’m not. I’m more like Oscar Madison, minus the cigar, of course. When it comes to tidiness Brian calls me: “Becky The Tornado!” Which is very ironic since our anniversary party was interrupted by an actual tornado (see my brother's Facebook status). Glad to report everybody is safe and sound. The only casualty--our gazebo top got shredded by the 82 mile per hour wind gusts.

Family
We do have a couple things in common our love for family, food, blogging and scuba. This year instead of an opulent divacation we had a huge party with family to celebrate our 20 year union. All were in attendance from two year-old niece Jayna to 91 year-old Grandma Estelle. To commemorate, a bounce house was rented for the littlest party goers from Hop 2 It!! Bounce Rentals.

Foodies

Happy 20th Anniversary sheet cake and homemade sugar cookies.

These days we’re also a blogger power couple and we have the population-we™ google analytics to prove it. Everybody who follows our blog knows were huge foodies. Mr. Brown is our resident Food Blogger for population-we™ as well as I am Dishcrawl Omaha's newest Ambassador in town. Read my very first post, Dishcrawl Across Omaha Tour Stops at Midtown Crossing's Cantina Laredo, Black Oak Grill & Crave. The Brown's live by the adage--that food brings people together! Food is always center stage in our life. We don’t just eat together, but cook and entertain side-by-side. For our recent 20th Wedding Anniversary party with family; we had three menu changes: Ribs, Brauts and finally decided on a “Walking Taco Bar.” Brian intends to share the recipe in a later post. So, stay tuned! We had hot dogs on-hand for the littlest of party goers too. And, did we have desserts! Homemade sugar cookies courtesy of BF Patty; homemade brownies from Brian's 91-year-old Grandma; Homemade pineapple cake thanks to my sister-in-law Lisa and a replica sheet cake of our wedding cake from my mother-in-law Jan. We truly are making life delicious together.

Scuba

Anniversary Divecation in Montego Bay, Jamacaii. 

The more time we have together—we both realize our time together is a gift. A couple years back we both started a new water sport together, which reinforced our bond. I made a reference earlier that The Brown's usually go on a divecation for our anniversary. Our love for scuba diving is apparent. It is a sport we found that we can do together all the way into our golden years. Brian is my dive buddy through and through.

Brecky 
"B-r-e-c-k-y!" When Mr. Brown’s friends would utter these words it use to make me furious. Brian + Becky = Brecky. These days, I embrace it! If anyone is curious how the Brecky courtship began, yes I wrote a blog post on it: Cupid is Coming to the KVNO Airwaves This Valentine's Day. Perhaps Brecky will be our new hashtag. Look for it!

Stay In the Room
While writing this post, I kept coming back to a short film directed by Jennifer Anniston years back called, “Room 10." The short directed by Anniston and Andrea Buchanan--still haunts me. As a spouse lay dying on a hospital bed, a nurse comments with amazement on how long the couple had been married. The grieving spouse responds, “I just stayed in the room.”

Love is a choice and 20 years later The Brown’s are still enjoying our marital bliss but most important our friendship for each other. He is truly my foodie companion, dive buddy and best friend who has indeed stayed in the room. #TheBrowns20 #Brecky

(Editor's note: Sorry for the delay in getting this post out. We had technical difficulties (no power) courtesy of the tornado reported earlier in my post. The actual tornado NOT "Becky The Tornado.")

-population-we™ blog post by Becky Bohan Brown

© 2014 population-we, LLC 
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pop-we Dinner Club Reviews Charleston's

Charleston's oven-roasted chicken.

Not to be confused with Charleston, South Carolina, this month population-we™ (pop-we) foodie Randy decided on Charleston’s. Charleston’s is located in five states with 16 locations. There are two locations in Omaha, NE: 13851 First National Bank (FNB) Parkway (off of Dodge by Boystown) and 7540 Dodge St. We visited the location on 138th and FNB. It is a freestanding building near a business park. When you enter the restaurant the dining area is straight ahead and a bar right of the entrance. It is dimly light place giving it an ambiance of a date night or special occasion eatery. According to their website they describe themselves as a casual upbeat restaurant with modestly priced American classic food with a warm comfortable décor.

Tonight I decided to try the oven-roasted chicken. Their chicken is herb roasted served with garlic-mashed potatoes and smokehouse baked beans. I was able to substitute the baked beans for green beans. I thought my meal was very good. The chicken was juicy and full of flavor complimented with the garlic mash and green beans--it was very enjoyable. My wife ordered the turkey burger, as she enjoys them very much but is particular about the red meat alternative. Becky expected a gourmet turkey burger because of the upscale restaurant. In her book Charleston’s turkey burger came up a little short. The meat was a bit dry and the bun was soggy not toasted.

After compiling the surveys from the other foodies the pop-we Dinner Club gives Charleston’s a 3.96 star average on a scale of 1-5.

Charleston's key lime cheesecake and molten brownie sundae.

Atmosphere/Decor – 4

Cleanliness – 4

Wait Staff – 4.33

Menu – 4

Food Presentation – 4.33

Food Portions – 4

Food Taste – 3.66

Cost (was the cost worth meal?) – 3.66

Noise Level – 3.66

Overall Experience – 3.96

For more information regarding directions or Charleston’s menu, visit their website at http://charlestons.ehsrg.com/.

Fellow population-we™ readers, if you've been to Charleston’s leave us a comment and tell us what you thought?

Want to do this yourself? To review how to start your own dinner club, visit our January post about doing just that. Remember it is a template; tweak it to fit you and your friends’ tastes. pop-we Dinner Club: good food…good friends…good times.

-population-we™ blog post by Brian Brown

© 2013 population-we, LLC 
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pop-we Dinner Club Reviews Beebeetown's The Twisted Tail

The Twisted Tail in Beebeetown, Iowa.

This is the tale of The Twisted Tail Steak House & Saloon, which was Rick's pick for this month's population-we (pop-we) Dinner Club. The tale starts here, when 12 of the club's foodies traveled across the Missouri River to Beebeetown, Iowa, for supper. Located just outside Logan, Iowa, from The Brown's house the trek is about 40 miles one way. My frugal husband decided not to fill the tank of our Chrysler Pacifica; since, gas is "usually" considerably cheaper in Iowa. We would find out later we were wrong.

We however got to drive a very scenic route from Elkhorn, Neb., to Beebeetown, Iowa. Along the way we crossed over the Missouri River with the help of the Mormon Bridge, zoomed by supple crops and acres of open prairie. As we rolled into town, we immediately came upon The Twisted Tail. We traveled down the gravel road in front of the restaurant and were greeted with our fellow pop-we Dinner Club foodies' waving us down. So, we parked on the other side of the gravel road.

As we entered the establishment we were immediately surprised with the rustic but very new naughty pine that adorned the walls throughout. If they were going for a saloon feel, as the sign said, they nailed it. This night it was extremely busy but was ample seating for the 12 of us. There even was a huge party shed out back. I sneaked away with Sue once we were seated to check it out. The shed area had concrete floors, a bar and even had a wall where patrons were invited to write their names.

Cheers from Beebeetown!

The Twisted Tail's menu is varied. It was a combo of down home recipes and bar food. See Randy's Steak & Potato dinner picture below. On this occasion, I decided to let my hair down and have a beer (see picture at right). To make the ambiance even better my beer came in a masonry jar. After the long drive we were famished and decided to get an appetizer, too. So, Jalapeno Poppers is was! They were tasty but typical prepackaged poppers. A couple of us ordered the Chicken Philly and for an additional charge made it Buffalo. The Buffalo sauce it was drenched in truly had a kick; and it paired nicely with my Bud Light. I had to eat it fast because I don't like soggy bread. Also, extra napkins are required for this sandwich because the sauce makes it messy. Sweet Potato Fries and a pickle rounded out my meal, too. The food was delicious but I have to slam the wait staff for service. Some how they forgot The Brown's meals, everyone in our club was finished eating before ours arrived. The manger even stopped by to ask how everything was--in which we said our food was out late--and he breezed by us. Luckily for him our waitress paid for our appetizer.

The train.

To make things worse, after dinner we found out there was no gas station in town. The closest was in Missouri Valley, Neb. So, immediately we took the windy back roads to find a gas station in Missouri Valley. Emerging from the road we had not met our destination yet. We could clearly see it--the gas station we so badly needed; however, a train was in our way. Yes, a train! This is a natural occurrence in these parts. But the gas light was blinking and thanks to Brian's quick thinking he turned off the engine as we waited for the train to pass. Because once the train passed; we literally coasted into the gas station on fumes. As you can tell from our tale, if anything, our time in Iowa for dinner club was a memorable one.

After compiling the surveys from the other foodies the pop-we Dinner Club gives The Twisted Tail a 3.6 star average on a scale of 1-5.

Steak & Baked Potato at Twisted Tail.

Atmosphere/Decor – 3.5

Cleanliness – 3.6

Wait Staff – 2.6

Menu – 3.8

Food Presentation – 3.66

Food Portions – 4.5

Food Taste – 4.16

Cost (was the cost worth meal?) – 3.16

Noise Level – 3

Overall Experience – 3.6

For more information regarding directions or The Twisted Tail menu, visit their website at http://www.twistedtailbbtown.com/.

Fellow population-we™ readers, if you've been to The Twisted Tail leave us a comment and tell us what you thought?

Want to do this yourself? To review how to start your own dinner club, visit our January post about doing just that. Remember it is a template; tweak it to fit you and your friends’ tastes. pop-we Dinner Club: good food…good friends…good times.

-population-we™ blog post by Becky Bohan Brown

© 2013 population-we, LLC 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure to leave a comment, 'Pin' or 'Like' it.

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pop-we Dinner Club Reviews Summer Kitchen Cafe

Sugar Cookies.

I had a game plan for this population-we™ (pop-we) Dinner Club outing. Knowing going in this cafe is all about comfort food, I had chosen to pick this Saturday night as my cheat night. At Summer Kitchen Cafe, temptation meets every patron at the door. The Omaha, Neb, restaurant has a full blown bakery counter. The smell of a bake shop engulfed us immediately. The counter had cakes, cookies, muffins, pecan rolls and pies. I snapped a picture of some sugar cookies and would decide later if that would be my dessert.

There are three locations in Nebraska: Omaha, Bellevue and LaVista. Each cafe offers catering and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Summer Kitchen is named after the gathering place where women would gather before the days of air-conditioning to: bake, cook and preserve produce. Having a separate building meant the women would not have to heat up the farmhouse. It also became the gathering place where family and guests would meet. The cafe website reads: "So, with that in mind, don't heat up the kitchen in your house tonight. Head out to the SUMMER KITCHEN. We'll be waiting for you with a big plate of something good to eat."

Most readers are aware that last year Brian and I joined LA Fitness (formerly known as Urban Active Fitness) and found a great personal trainer (Mike Good). As a result, we've turned a 180 in our lifestyle choices -- our exercising and eating habits have changed the most. When you've lost as much weight as we have you look at food in a much different way. That is why I decided this night, I deserved some down home cooking.

Waiting for the others to arrive in our party (one of those being my husband), I glanced over the menu. I immediately noticed a roast turkey & dressing meal. My mind was made up...or was it? I also noticed a southwest chicken quesadilla with a side taco salad. In all my days, I'd never seen a taco salad accompany a quesadilla. Now, I was torn, eat comfort food or a healthier alternative. Text messages went back and forth, and Brian finally announced he would not attend. He was clear across town at his friend's house for the guy's annual movie day/night. Later, he would tell me they watched '80s flicks until the wee hours. Now, I'm dateless, too! So, that turkey meal was looking very tempting.

Frustrated Mr. Brown stood me up, I was in even more a quandary. So, I borrowed a trick from my dad's eating out playbook and asked the waitress which she preferred: the turkey or quesadilla? The verdict was the southwest chicken quesadilla. She sat the dish in front of me and liked promised it came with a side taco salad. The chicken was tender, veggies still had a crunch to them; and the pepper jack cheese oozed out of the flour tortilla. It was tasty! The bonus was the side taco salad. Its crisp Romaine Lettuce, spicy meat, beans; and shredded cheese topped with a dollop of sour cream, was refreshing.

We had a small showing; there were seven of us in all. However, everyone was in agreement it made the evening nicer for visiting; since, they sat us at a round table. No gravy or sugar cookie for this gal tonight! I would indeed eat healthy and get to pick another cheat night. Thanks Caryn for a wonderful outing at Summer Kitchen! This evening, the Summer Kitchen is still a gathering place, which offers a big plate of something good to eat.

After compiling the surveys from the other foodies the pop-we Dinner Club gives Summer Kitchen: 4.42 star average on a scale of 1-5.

Atmosphere/Decor – 4.57

Southwest Chicken Quesadilla & Taco Salad.

Cleanliness – 4.42

Wait Staff – 4.42

Menu – 4.42

Food Presentation – 4.57

Food Portions – 4.42

Food Taste – 4.42

Cost (was the cost worth meal?) – 4.28

Noise Level – 4.28

Overall Experience – 4.42

For more information regarding directions or Summer Kitchen's menu, visit their website at http://www.summerkitchen.net/home.html.

Fellow population-we™ readers, if you've been to the Summer Kitchen leave us a comment and tell us what you thought?

Want to do this yourself? To review how to start your own dinner club, visit our January post about doing just that. Remember it is a template; tweak it to fit you and your friends’ tastes. pop-we Dinner Club: good food…good friends…good times.

-population-we™ blog post by Becky Bohan Brown

© 2013 population-we, LLC 
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