Logan’s Roadhouse
Fellow Memphis blogger Skeeter, The Mempho Wino, has been doing great reviews of great places partly thanks to the fact that he is out for lots of business lunches. A business lunch for me is typically a club sandwich eaten hunched over a keyboard in front of a screen full of big green letters.
Driven partly by envy and partly by the need to take a coworker out for his birthday, I have been trying to come up with decent lunch places that would be acceptable to my two mild-palated coworkers. I had just grabbed a handful of peanuts from the bag we keep on hand to stave off smaller pants sizes when it hit me. We could go to Logan’s, have steaks, and throw peanut shells on the floor. It wouldn’t be too expensive, and we could tell the birthday boy that he was getting steak. This should go well. I ran the idea by coworker DJ Squirrelly Fresh, and he liked it. Crabby Squirrel, the birthday boy, was fine with it, especially since it meant we would finally leave him alone about his birthday.
We got to Logan’s before any lunch rush, so the floors were sparkly clean. DJSF threw a few shells on the floor, but our hearts weren’t really in it. I think that’s because we work for peanuts. We were ready for steak.
We started with a trio of appetizers. The loaded potato skins were average. It’s hard to get those wrong. Cheese sticks were fair. The marinara had a nice garlic bite, but it was too liquidy. Some nice mushrooms were ruined by a heavy, greasy coating of batter.
Our server committed our order to memory. After she left the table, CrabbyS commented that he hates when they do that because something always gets messed up. In general, I have to agree. After a moment’s thought, CrabbyS decided he would prefer mashed potatoes instead of a baked potato. He requested the change and was told it would be taken care of. When our food came, everything was exactly as we ordered it, including CrabbyS’s originally-ordered baked potato. Apparently our server was better with memory than with dupes. CrabbyS didn’t feel like making a fuss about the spud, so we all dug in.
Typically I don’t order steak in a restaurant. Sure, there are varying degrees of quality of both cooking and ingredients. Still, in most restaurants I am more interested in how the chef can combine ingredients and both meld and bring out their flavors. Sometimes though, I will get a steak with an ulterior motive, an excuse to get frites at Encore for example. Other times, a hunk of meat just sounds like a good idea.
If Logan’s did anything for me, it was to remind me that those varying degrees of quality really, really vary. DJSF and CrabbyS both ordered their steaks medium-well, so I didn’t feel much sympathy for their complaints. My medium-rare ribeye was cooked only slightly into medium territory. Sadly, that is pretty much the end of the praise. The initial meaty, grilled flavor of each bite of steak quickly faded and all that was left was a sad, mealy mush. I ate my way through half the steak for the sake of that initial flavor, but I finally gave up. The mashed potatoes were good, but I was too disheartened to do them justice. From now on, when I want steak, I will have to stick to a place I trust like Encore or Neil’s.
The food wasn’t so great at Logan’s, but the service was fine. There was only one flub which we honestly caused and could have rectified if we had only bothered. Still, when the check came, I was in a blah mood, so I only tipped fifteen percent. Our server picked up the signed slip as we were getting ready to go. As we were headed out, she gave us a big thanks for the tip. I immediately felt bad because I hadn’t tipped better when the service was perfectly fine. I left feeling down about the crowds that don’t bother to leave a decent tip. I’m not in any big hurry to get back to Logan’s, but man, if that is the place you decide to go, wherever you decide to go, do right by your server. Man.
Logan’s Roadhouse
7755 Winchester Road
Memphis, Tennessee 38125
(901) 759-1430
Hours:
Sunday – Thursday 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Friday – Saturday 11 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Thanks for the kind words. I am blessed with my lunches for sure! I agree it’s hard to order steak out unless you are paying a lot than its worth. It is so true the frites at Encore, they are not to be missed. I am sure all servers in town will appreciate your closing comments as well. Thanks again and I really enjoy your site.
I see that this blog is almost two years old, but as I searched for the phone number for Logan’s on Winchester, I found it and felt compelled to comment!
I was unfortunate enough to work in restaurants for several years – Logan’s being one of them – and one thing I wish people would realize is that when you change your order after it has been entered into the computer system, the server has to go back to the kitchen and make the change ( in the systems I’ve worked with, at least ). This leads to all sorts of possible communication breakdowns, from the server to the expo to the line cook.
Sure, the server could have forgotten, but there are also several other places where the request could have failed to process. People tend to think that there is a magic button that makes the right food come out, but in cases where you change something, there is no specific way to change that order other than walking back to the kitchen with an ink pen and writing it on the ticket ( and at lunch hour, I would be hard pressed to find a restaurant that allows servers to mingle in the kitchen with ink pens! ). In most cases, the server says, “Hey, change that loaded potato on the 6-oz. to mashed potatoes” and then it’s in the hands of the cook. If he/she was good at everything else, I always give them the benefit of the doubt.