What do you do when you have a home where
the buffalo roam? If you're Ted Turner, who owns 152,341
acres in Montana, you open a steak house serving bison
burgers and steaks.
Ted's Montana Grill in Argyle Forest near
Orange Park is a cross between clubby wood paneled steakhouse
and an old-fashioned small town eatery. Dominated by
a buffalo head mounted on the end wall under a brown
tin ceiling, the restaurant has a row of cozy booths;
tables covered with bowls of dill pickles and bottles
of sauces and old fashioned bow backed chairs strung
out along the bar.
Before discussing how delicious the bison
meat is or isn't, let us praise the American Buffalo
for its healthful qualities. According to the USDA,
bison has less than a third of fat, 50 percent more
protein and a third fewer calories than beef.
First a quick look at the menu. One entire
page featured 16 varieties of brick chicken- that's
chicken on a sour dough roll. The selection ranges from
plain Naked to Skinny-Dip with avocado slices and Cordon
Bleu, topped with grilled ham and Swiss cheese. Another
page lists 19 burgers including Naked, S.O.B., Swiss
cheese, grilled onions and bacon, and America's Cup
- American cheese, bacon, grilled onions and mushrooms.
Appetizers - chili cheese fries, shrimp
cocktail, onion rings with dipping sauce - there are
8 salads. Big Sky Cobb salad is a crisp and cool mix
of iceberg and Romaine lettuce tossed with a basil vinaigrette,
blue cheese, avocado, bacon, tomatoes, scallions, diced
egg and parmesan croutons topped with diced warm chicken
breast. An even better choice is Cedar Plank King, Salmon
Caesar with a large warm salmon filet over a Caesar
salad.
I have sometimes run into the anomaly
of a steak house featuring a seafood dish that turns
out to become one of the most notable things on the
menu. This can be said for the extraordinarily moist
and flavorful warm salmon gracing the salad. The same
beautiful piece of fish in a larger portion is available
on the dinner menu as fresh Cedar Plank King Salmon.
Now let's take the bull by the horns and
compare beef and bison. If I had but one bison dish
to choose from, it would be Delmonico. This was a thick
slice of 12 oz. rib-eye brushed with lemon-butter. With
beef, it's almost impossible to expect a tender steak
without marbling, but this juicy Delmonico was
tenderer than the best beef filet mignon, devoid of fat,
while the flavor was pure prime rib and the texture
was smooth and pleasing to the palate.
To test another cut, I ordered barbecue
bison short ribs. They were more succulent than beef
and a bit less tender than baby back. I would gladly
order them again. Dinner entrees come with choice of
garlic mashed, French fries, baked potatoes, sweet potato,
green beans, fresh veggie of the day or sliced tomato.
Kudos for all of the above, especially the green beans.
I tried a root beer float - it's been ages since I've
had one, and it was wonderful - thanks for the memories,
Ted Turner.