The Mother Plucker’s Ramblings

First of all, let me say that I am not 100% confident that Vince is going to be an All-Pro quarterback. That is more because he may lack the arm strength than the brains to be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL…but then again, did David Woodley have a cannon when he led the Dolphins to a Super Bowl? How about Trent Dilfer with the Ravens? That said, anyone who knows anything about Texas football shouldn’t bet against Vince. Why do the pro scouts and the media have to knock the guy down all the time since the Horns won the National Championship? I want to know what the guy didn’t do on the college level that someone can definitively say that he won’t be a success as a pro? I heard that over 95% of All Pro quarterbacks scored a 25 or better on the Wunderlich. So what that means to me is that 5% of them didn’t. And if there ever was an exception to a rule, it is Vince.

Mack Brown has said on many talk shows that Vince became what he is today when the coaching staff got out of his way and let him do his thing. He led the nation in passing, ran for over 1,000 yards AND won a national championship. How many NFL quarterbacks did that in a season? The answer is zero. How many NFL quarterbacks had college coaches that changed their whole attitude on coaching because of one player? Once again, the answer is zero. Vince is the exception to the rule again.

Everyone wants to make the comparison to Vince and Michael Vick. The funny thing is that they make this comparison as if it was bad for Vince. As an Atlanta Falcons fan, I find this laughable. The two of them are very similar…let me point out the similarities:

1. Both of them changed the position in college football.
2. Both played for the National Championship for schools that hadn’t played for a championship in years (Texas 35 years and Va Tech never).
3. Both can out pressure on a defense with their arms and legs.
4. Both are accused of “not being smart enough to play the QB position in the NFL”.

So how is that defined? Mike Vick was the first QB ever to beat the Packers in Lambeau in the playoffs. Mike Vick took a crappy team like the Falcons with no name receivers to the NFC Championship in his second year as a starter. Mike Vick has been to 3 Pro Bowls in the 4 years that he was healthy. If you said these things about Peyton Manning or Eli Manning, everyone would be calling them geniuses to take over the most cerebral position on the field and to accomplish that much. In my opinion, it comes down to people being afriad of what they cannot categorize.

So Vince, all the Horns fans wish you the best and we should only hope that you can be as “bad” as Mike Vick. And to all the teams out there that pass him over for Matt “I think we were the better team” Leinart and Jay “I can’t beat Middle Tennessee State” Cutler, remember in 5 years that you had a chance to draft the exception that always breaks the rules.

As self proclaimed “Wing Connoisseurs” here at Pluckers, we are constantly on the search for the best wings. We’d like to think that we have the best since we were voted best wings in Austin, Dallas and Baton Rouge (basically everywhere we are) but we know there are some other restaurants around the country that also do a great job. I grew up in Atlanta and some of my favorite places that I wanted to model Pluckers after included the Three Dollar Cafe, Taco Mac, Clay’s and Rib Stickers where all my friends worked in high school. I remember the day after I had my wisdom teeth pulled out, I was all hopped up on vicatin and could barely open my mouth, but still managed to eat 10 Rib Stickers Hot wings over the course of 2 hours. Sure call me stubborn, but that’s how much I love wings.

I’ll start the list with some of my favorite wing joints and tell you why I love them and maybe throw in some of my not so favorites as well:

Taco Mac - Atlanta, GA - A lot of the Taco Mac’s have been turned into another restaurant called Summits Cafe, which is not half as good. Recently, they have been expanding the concept throughout the Southeast. One of the reasons I love “The Mac” is that they would sell “Swimming Wings”. Basically, they’d give you however many wings you ordered and then just dump like a gallon of sauce into the cardboard box they would serve them in so you could dip your wings and celery for hours.

Also, the Taco Mac on Roswell Road was the best place to drink beer when you were in high school and had a fake ID. On one fateful night, all of that changed for me and my friends. It probably isn’t a good idea to have a fake ID anyways when you don’t look close to 21, but it is even a worse idea when all of your friends have the same name on the ID. When the owner walks to the table with all of your ID’s in hand and asks “Which one of you is Rick Ramsey?” and 5 guys raise their hands, you probably are getting kicked out. I wonder if our “lifetime ban” has been lifted?

Hooters - Jacksonville Landing - I know that is probably sacrilege for one of the owners of Pluckers to list Hooters as a favorite place for wings. First of all, let me tell you that any place that serves breaded wings isn’t really a wing place…but for the sake of this blog, I’ll include it. No one goes to Hooters for the food anyways. But there is a certain Hooters at the Jacksonville Landing that my family has a tradition of visiting every year for the Georgia-Florida football game also known as the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party”. This weekend is like Texas-OU except that everyone is packed into one courtyard with a live band and parties together. And Hooters is usually the epicenter of it all.

Wild Wing Cafe - Hilton Head Island, SC - This is another place that makes great wings. They have like 25 flavors, so it has a Pluckers feel to it and a huge selection of beers. The one in Hilton Head is special to me because I have usually had great vacations there and somehow we usually end up finding this place.

Some of my Not So Favorite Places:

BW-3 in Gainesville, Florida - I don’t feel bad taking a shot at Buffalo Wild Wings since this location doesn’t exist anymore anyways…and for good reason. Back in 1995, when they played the Georgia-Florida game for the first time in Gainesville, some of my friends that went to school there thought they would take me to get some “good” wings. They knew I was opening Pluckers in a few short months and thought I should try out BW-3. Maybe it was all the drinking and other vices that took place that weekend that we won’t talk about here, but after eating there, I think I threw up for 24 hours straight.

Wing Zone - I won’t lie, it pissed me off that they opened one of their restaurants less than 100 yards from The Original Pluckers on Rio Grande. And I still have yet to find someone that prefers them to Pluckers, but I need to share a great story. About 7 years ago when Wing Zone first opened, a group of Pluckers diehards, (completely unsolicited I might add) decided to picket their store. There they were, about 20 college students with a bullhorn, pickets, t-shirts, etc. screaming to all passing cars how they shouldn’t betray Pluckers…how Pluckers had gotten them through many late nights off 6th Street…how Pluckers was what made studying for finals tolerable. It got so bad that the owners of Wing Zone called the police and tried to remove the students until they were told that they weren’t on their property and had a right to free speech! I don’t remember who these students were, but for an owner that was trying to create something he could be proud of, I knew we had made it when that happened. If you happen to know who those guys were, feel free to shoot me an email at dpaul@pluckers.net.

So there are a few of my favorites and not so favorites, lets hear yours!

At Pluckers, we’ve always encouraged our staff, family and friends to come up with new recipes for the menu. Our chili recipe, Cajun Corn and Bakers Gold were all employee creations that we added to the menu. Well, we figured it was time to see if any of our fans have any sauces of their own they would like to share with us. So go ahead and send us your favorite recipe for a sauce that you think would be great on our wings. If we select your sauce for the menu, we’ll even let you select the name of it and you’ll go down in Pluckers lore for years to come.

Here are a few rules you need to know before you send us your sauces:

1. Please be sure and give us exact specifications for each ingredient. For example, there are many types of honey, so if you use a particular brand, please let us know what brand it is.

2. Give us measurements for each ingredient. A pinch is 1/2 teaspoon to some people and 1/2 tablespoon to others.

3. We would love to hear a story behind your sauce. Is it your favorite recipe that your mother made? Did you try it at a friends house? We want some background.

4. Be sure and include your name and an email address and/or phone number so we can contact you if necessary to ask you some questions.

Please either reply to this post with your recipe or send it to dpaul@pluckers.net. We look forward to hearing from you soon,

I don’t know about you, but I always enjoy the Winter Olympics so much more than the Summer Games. I have never fully been able to but my mind around why that is, but I thought I would put together a small list of the reasons. By the way, feel free to stop by Pluckers in Austin, Dallas or Baton Rouge as we will have all of your favorite events on our plasmas for the next 17 days.

The Prima Donna Factor:

So who would you rather root for: Carl Lewis or Dan Jansen? Michael Johnson or Bode Miller? The Dream Team or the 1980 Miracle on Ice Team (yeah, I know hockey is professionals now). The Summer Games are always full of stories about guys with too much money, bitching about how their sports are bigger in Europe than in America. The Winter Games are no-names, getting attention once every four years, and putting their life’s work on the line for one moment of glory.

The “I Could Be An Olympic Champion Factor”:

First of all, I am an average athlete at best. I know I can’t run a two and a half hour marathon, sub-four minute mile or the 100 meters in 10 seconds. But haven’t you ever watched some of the sports in the Winter Games and wondered if you had ever played that sport, you could be one of the best in the world? I mean, I watch Curling and see four tools sweeping the ice in front of a big shuffleboard puck. Why can’t I do that? Is there really any skill to that? Or what about short track speed skating? Now I grew up in Georgia and have never really learned to skate, but I think that I could have learned to avoid crashing into 3 other guys and get lucky enough to medal with a few years of practice. Finally, take the Luge, Skeleton, Bobsled or any other sport that you risk breaking your bones to go faster down a ice chute. You can’t tell me that I couldn’t sit on a sled and beat out some guy from Latvia when the whole sport comes down to hundreths of a second? I think it’s my parents fault. You see, if they had made sent me to luge school as a child, I could have been an Olympic champion!

The “Snow” Factor

Sure I live in Austin because it is usually 70 degrees during February, but like most Southerners, I love seeing the snow on TV. There is something about watching people freeze their asses off while ringing a cow bell as skiiers fly by them at 79 miles an hour while I sit in my house that pleases me. And hey, I love skiing too. But I certainly couldn’t spend my life devoted to training in the cold. Oh well, I guess that rules out the “I Could Be An Olympic Champion” Factor.

The “United States Isn’t the Biggest and Baddest” Factor

Sure, we may be the greatest nation in the world, but I love it when we participate in sports that we are the underdog. It’s kind of like the World Cup of Soccer, nobody expects anything from us, so any wins make you feel good. In the Summer Olympics, usually there is no room for anything but disppointment. We never win “enough” medlas to satisfy America. In the Winter Olympics, we’re just happy to be good at anything. Also, as someone who loves to travel the world, it’s great seeing smaller countries have that one guy who finishes with a bronze in the Biathalon and the whole country goes berserk. Also, I am convinced that if every American had a chance to attend an Olympics abroad, that the xenophobia we have at home would go away.

The “Olympics Theme Song” Factor

Sure they use the same music for the Summer Olympics also, but outside of the Monday Night Football theme song in August, there aren’t many things that get me more excited. The best part, is we’ll get to hear it about 700 times over the next 17 days.

The “Best Hockey” Factor

I am convinced that I am the only hockey fan in Austin, maybe in all of Texas for that matter. However, if you love hockey, there is nothing better than the Winter Olympics. If you don’t love hockey, this is the best chance to learn to become a fan. The NHL has changed their rules this year to match the international game which allows for the skilled players to freely roam the ice and showcase the speed and hitting the sport should always be about. Look for the US to finish with the bronze…and you know what, I’ll be happy with that.

People ask us all the time…”dude, I love Pluckers and I eat there like 5 times a week. So if you own Pluckers and it’s free…how many times a week do you eat Pluckers?” The answer to that question is too many. Like you, we appreciate a free meal and its nice to have our own kitchen to create whatever we want. Sometimes I think the reason we created so many sauces and toppings is that we would get sick of eating there if we didn’t! Although we eat at Pluckers 4-5 times a week, we all love going out to eat around Austin. So I’ll pass along my thoughts on some of the great places to eat around Austin. Some of them may be your favorite places and some of them may surprise you…but here goes:

Best Mexican: There is nothing better than Trudy’s migas and fajitas for breakfast as far as I am concerned. I have lived in Austin since 1991 and I bet that conservatively I have eaten this dish once a week for 15 years. That’s like 750 orders. As far as chips and salsa are concerned, Trudy’s is the best too. I love that you never know what the heat of the red or green salsas are going to be. For best atmosphere, I have to say Gueros on South Congress. For great breakfast tacos there is a place on South 1st called La Mexicana….best salsa in Austin

Best BBQ: I am partial to Salt Lick brisket (but not at the airport), County Line for Sausage and the best ribs in Austin are at Houston’s. Sure, Houston’s isn’t a BBQ joint and the ribs cost like $23, but they are the most tender and have the best sauce.

Best Sushi: Musashino hands down. Their fish is always the freshest. Try the Sawagani the next time you are there also. They are baby crabs and are one of the most unusual things you can eat. Anyone who claims that Kenichi or Uchi is better just likes to spend a lot of money to be seen. Not that those places aren’t good, but you are paying an extra 20% for the atmosphere.

Best New Restaurants in Austin: If you haven’t been to Moonshine, then you are missing out on the best eclectic menu Austin has to offer. The quality of food you get for the price is almost unfair to them. I don’t think I have had a bad meal there in 10-15 visits. Actually I am headed there again tonight. Try the Corn Dog shrimp with the blueberry mustard for an appetizer, the Rainbow Trout might be the best in Austin and even though I am partial to Pluckers Holy Macaroni, the mac n cheese here is incredible. And if that isn’t enough, check out the Sunday brunch for like $14.00 that has over 20 items and is the best deal in town.

If you haven’t checked out Taverna on 2nd street, then get there this weekend. This place is making $ hand over fist because they have a limited menu of great food (try the pizza or roasted chicken) and excellent wine selection. Granted, this is one of the places that is helping turn Austin into Dallas, but at least Taverna is worth it.

Best Italian: For great Italian, check out a little known place called Bellagio. It is off 360 near the Jester Estates. They have a pasta dish there that is called the Sicilian Seafood Platter that has shrimp, mussels, clams and fried calamari in a delicious light tomato sauce. There has to be like a pound of seafood on the plate.

Of course I have to mention Vespaio also, even though they won Favorite Restaurant in Austin. Probably the best place to take a date in Austin because you can chill at the wine bar and then be treated to authentic Italian. My personal favorites are the pizzas, portobella mushroom on top of polenta and any of the pastas. However, never get the Mixed Grill (meat or seafood) as it usually disappoints compared to the rest of the menu.

Best Vietnamese: I am always looking for great Asian food and one of the best is Tam Deli on N. Lamar just North of 183. The place is a total dive and although it is family run, the service isn’t overly friendly, but the food is as good as in Ho Chi Minh. Try the pork and seafood salad for an appetizer and the Combination Sandwich for an entree. The sandwich has Vietnamese ham (basically pate), chicken and pork and is on the best French Bread in Austin.

Best All You Can Eat: I normally shy away from pigging out for a set price, but Truluck’s Monday night special is All You Can Eat stone crab for like $40. They give you the small crabs which are the sweetest and when you are hungry you can put down about 30 of them. That would normally cost $80 so the value is good. Once when they were out of stone crab, Mark and I went there for all you can eat lobster. We put away seven 1 1/2 pound lobsters in one sitting! Oh yeah, save room for the giant piece of carrot cake at the end of the meal.

Best Sandwich: The Sloppy Joe at New World Deli. Don’t worry, it’s not the typical Sloppy Joe your lunchlady with the hairs sticking out of her chin served you. This is basically a toasted reuben stuffed with turkey or whatever meat you want, Russian dressing and cole slaw.

Coolest Place to Hang out if you believe in Keeping Austin Weird: If you want to make a great night of it, head to Ararat on North Loop. Besides the fact that Ararat is BYOB which makes for a great cheap meal, the owner’s wife belly dances and the walls are covered in cheap rugs. It has always been one of my favorite places no one knows about. After you eat, head across the street and hit The Parlor. This is a pizza joint cum Punk Rock hangout. They have hands down the best jukebox in Austin….Sex Pistols…Misfits…Johnny Cash…New York Dolls….you get the picture.

Best Breakfast: OK, so I am biased because I grew up in the ATL…but if you haven’t had a Bacon, Egg and Cheese Sandwich and Double Hash Browns Scattered, Smothered and Covered at the Waffle House, then you haven’t lived. Next time you are on your way home from Sixth Street, try the Patty Melt Plate which might be the best burger anywhere.

Restaurants that I just Don’t Get:

Here is a quick list of places I’ll never understand why people go there:

• Fonda San Miguel - old-school Austinites love it….I don’t know anyone who has had a good meal there…$20 for average Mexican is not a good think in a city littered with great Tex-Mex.
• Katz’s - Without a doubt, the most overrated restaurant in Austin. I root for Marc Katz as an owner because he just seems like a good guy, but the food is average at best.
• Carlos N Charlies on Lake Travis - great atmosphere on the weekend (i.e. lots of good looking people wearing little clothing), but the worst food I have ever eaten. I have tried it like 5 times and walk away wondering how the chefs can even think that the recipes are supposed to taste good.
• Freddie’s Place - someone told me they had a great burger…I think it might be improved if I mixed it with some Hamburger Helper
• Abuelo’s - cool place, good drinks, the most average Mexican food this side of On The Border

All right, there are some of my favorites and not so favorite, let’s here what you have to say.