“Blood may be thicker than water, but it's certainly not
as thick as ketchup. Nor does it go as well with French fries.”
---Jarod Kintz
JAKE’S ROADHOUSE
622 South Myrtle Avenue
Monrovia, CA 91016
Monday – Thursday 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Friday – Saturday 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM
Sunday
8:00 AM to 8:00 PM
Well, it’s not exactly a roadhouse. Located in a storefront in charming Old Town
Monrovia, Jake’s Roadhouse is a storefront coffee shop that majored in barbeque. It seems to be well run, but it doesn’t
concentrate on just the que, and it shows.
How many barbecue joints do you know that open for customers at 7:00
AM? Jake’s does because they serve
breakfast.
The breakfast menu is as extensive as any good coffee
shop, in fact, it looks better than most big hotel room service menus. Is the food at breakfast as good as the
descriptions and the pictures? I’ve
never sampled their breakfast, so I can’t comment on that. For lunch and dinner they serve barbecue…and
burgers, salads, tacos, and quesadillas.
OK, to be absolutely fair, the tacos, quesadillas, one of the salads are
barbecue oriented.
Inside, the décor is restaurant designer roadhouse,
planked walls with a mix of reproduction and authentic license plates and signs,
plus the additional accent of peanut shells on the floor. They put a substantial bucket of peanuts on
the oilcloth covered table and you are expected to drop your shells freely. The seating is all tables and chairs in a dining
area that probably seats fifty. We
arrived in the middle of the dinner hour with reservations for a party of
eight, one child and seven adults who act like children. Our server, Maricella, seemed to take the
group in good stride. Which was
fortunate as she was noticeably pregnant and standing on your feet all day can’t
be too thrilling.
Sharon and I ordered a BBQ Combo, a half chicken, 2 beef
ribs, 2 pork ribs and tri-tip. The sides
we ordered were the usual baked beans and cole slaw. A blueberry corn muffin came with the combo.
Blueberry Corn Muffin
The muffin was tasty and moist. Moistness is one of the key signs of a good
corn muffin. It should be just moist
enough to hold together and not cower in the face of a butter patty. This one makes the grade, edible, without
turning into a crumbled mess. The blueberries were a nice addition.
Baked Beans
Typical baked beans with bacon. It was hard to tell if they were made on the
spot or canned, a good thing when they meet your expectations for baked beans.
Cole Slaw
It was a well done, not too wet, shredded cabbage slaw. I prefer a slightly sweeter mix of cabbage
and dressing, but on the whole, not bad.
Fries
One of my dinner companions asked me to try her
fries. I have to say, points off. One of the no trans-fat frying oils has a
vaguely washing solvent taste to it, and I’m afraid that this is the one they
are using. I have run into fries that
taste like this at other locations, including one of the chain burger sellers,
and it annoys me every time I taste it.
Substitute the fries here.
The meat arrived and a red flag went up. Everything was covered with sauce…the same
sauce. There is a reason that most
barbecue places have at least two sauces on the table. Even if meat is done in wet style it should
be served as it came off the grill. Good
que stands on its own. To sauce the meat
before tasting it is almost an insult to the grill master. The sauce should be an option. And, not every sauce goes with every
meat. There are some great sauces that
go with pork or beef that I would not put on chicken. So, note to self: if we try Jake’s again, be
sure to order the barbeque choice “dry”.
Tri-Tip
Tri-tip is one of my joys in life. Cold meats should be sliced thin to maximize
surface exposed to the tongue and thus maximize the flavor. Hot meats, especially tri-tip should be
thicker to get a good chew and maximize the flavor from the juices in the hot
meat. This was sliced too thin and the
sauce was strong enough to make the meat seem a bit dry. I really could not get that good tri-tip
flavor. In fact, it tasted much better
the next day as a cold leftover. In its
favor, it was not overcooked.
Chicken
Again, I think the sauce spoiled the experience. The chicken seemed a little dry under the
sauce. The dark meat was moist, but the
breast was dry enough to have a somewhat mealy texture when chewed. It was not lacking in flavor, but I have had
better. Chicken is not the easiest thing
to barbecue and many places cannot pull it off.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt we may have just hit Jake’s on an
off day. This was another item that came
off better when revisited as a cold leftover with the sauce wiped off.
Pork Ribs
Good meaty ribs, not outstanding, but definitely above
average. Not dry, good flavor, but again
overwhelmed by the sauce.
Beef Ribs
The beef ribs stood up to the sauce. They were not exceptionally meaty, but not
stingy either and had enough flavor to balance the sauce. The problem is it should be the other way around. If you sauce, the sauce should balance the
flavor of the meat. I did not find the
sauce too hot, but it was just a bit too peppery for Sharon.
Did I mention that I didn’t like the use of the same
sauce on everything? Don’t take me
wrong, if we are in the Monrovia area and hungry we would have no problem about
stopping in again. (After reading this
they may have problems with us, but that’s another issue.) The barbecue at Jake’s
Roadhouse is above average, but we wouldn’t make it a destination meal. We give it a solid seven.
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