Taytro's

I'd been craving a steak.
We went out on Sunday this time, Saturday we had stayed in and hosted the doggy birthday party. We do this every year on, and instead of, our anniversary. We've run out of ideas for gifts for each other, so we set the day to be all of our dogs' birthdays. This works out well since some of our dogs, all of them rescued, have no known birthday, or for a couple of them, no actual known birth year. So we made one up.

Pip and George desire a burger.

         This weekend Bailey turned 14, George 9, Blue 8, Deedee 5 and Pip 4.
The neatest part of the tradition is that whatever other dogs happen to be at our house, and that can vary from two fosters through a half dozen board and training clients, they get burgers and fries from McDonalds.
I mentioned this on Facebook and one of my so-called 'friends', also a follower of these pages, commented: 'McDonalds?'
 I replied:
Yes, McD's. I realize that I have given the place bad reviews and several negative comments, but I don't have a dog's taste buds... They absolutely love the stuff. I don't know why, but they also seem to like the smell/taste of their own 'backsides'.... What does that say?
So that was Saturday. On Sunday I wanted steak.
Angel and Adam decided on Taytro's and insisted I was in on that conversation, I don't recall it, but I was not disappointed.
The Place:
On the hill in Festus. Busy, bustling. We had to park well away from the entrance.

Ravioli appetizer

Most of the tables were full, and the bar was half full. There was a 'seat yourself' sign up, so we did, right in the middle of the dining area. It's not a big place, but they didn't cram too many tables together.
Menus were delivered, drinks asked for, tea, sweet tea and Coke. The lady rattled off the specials, one sounded pretty good. Angel and Adam also went for an appetizer, the ubiquitous fried ravioli.
A large family (not individually large, just large in number) at the table next to us bowed their head and said grace. I thought it a bit odd in this bar, this den of iniquity. Well, maybe not total iniquity, a lot of families eat there as it turns out, but it is a bar.
The Food:
I asked for the special, a 12 oz. Philly Steak with peppers, onions, mushrooms and a savory sauce. I asked for the salad with the wonderful poppy seed house dressing, and snap peas for the side. No potato this time, I wanted to eat a lot of steak.
Adam went with the diner burger, no onions please, and fries, Angel predictably asked for the crawfish etouffee again, with a salad.
The ravioli arrived, I skipped it. I wanted steak, no need filling up on empty deep-fried carbs beforehand. Angel and Adam didn't seem to mind that I was skipping the crispy meat filled pasta, "More for us." one of them muttered.
They did a thorough job, no argument came up until there was only one left.
The salads arrived, I donated the big white bread croutons to Adam. A pretty simple salad of lettuce, spinach, red onions, some shredded white cheese and an entire cherry tomato. The dressing is killer, a sweet poppy seed vinaigrette concoction created in-house. I had to use the knife to cut up the onions and most of the greens, not too much of a problem, though a slight nuisance. Sure, onion rings are pretty, but I can't stick a whole one into my mouth at one time.

Steak!

Otherwise it was quite good, up until two thirds into it when . . .
The entree's arrived. I hate that. I don't know what the proper serving protocol actually is, but I really like to finish one thing before another is delivered. However, there was a bright spot in this arrangement.
Adam opened his no-onions-please burger and realized he should have ordered it no onions or tomato instead. Two big fat and pretty tomato slices on top of his bacon. He slid them off and laid them into my salad plate. "Happy Father's Day" he said. I was quite pleased. Taytro's is kind of stingy with tomatoes in their salads, and I love tomatoes.

Crawfish Etouffee

My steak was sizzling, I knew that wouldn't last. It was a monster, edge to edge in one direction on the plate. Beside it were some of the greenest sauteed snap peas I've ever seen, in a little ramekin of their own. The steak was smothered in a thin sauce, chunks of peppers, onions and mushrooms aplenty. I took the steak knife to the crusty southern point of the meat, felt a little fat and gristle. The taste was superb though. Grilled, a little char, still pink, and soaked with that sauce, simply great tasting.
A few bites in though, the gristle was still there. I'm not sure what cut a Philly steak actually is, though in places it seemed more like' filly', as in horse.
I was not having any problems eating most of the steak. I still didn't finish it, it was huge, but it was quite meaty and tasty. The only thing I'd change in the future will be the cut of meat. A couple extra bucks would be worth it.

Diner burger, no onions

The snap peas were okay, I prefer them raw though, sauteing them seemed to bring out the 'green' taste. I could only manage to eat a few.
Angel couldn't quite finish all the rice in her etouffee, the grains expanded in her tummy to the size of packing peanuts, she said. She did manage to strip the crawdad carcasses bare though. She loves the stuff, simply loves it.
Adam left nothing behind. He fussed a bit with the arrangement of the bacon on the top of the burger, but it all disappeared.

Summary:
The bill: $58.51
I love Taytro's. However there are a couple of minor points about this trip that I must bring up. First, the timing of the entree, too soon after the delivery of the salad. Secondly, when we were done, and after the waitress had taken away most of the plates and was then told that yes, we'd like the check, she disappeared.
This is not actually true. It's a small place so she didn't actually drop out of site, she just ignored us for several minutes. She was behind the bar chatting up a couple of guys. It wasn't flirty, just bartender-talk. I resorted to trying to get her attention, then just staring at her, fidgeting restlessly in my chair. She finally noticed, rang up the check and delivered it without offering so much as a simple 'sorry!'
Thinking she might disappear again, rather than just accepting the check, I handed her my powerful debit card. It's a trick I learned on this quest. Sometimes, at some places,  the time lag between them delivering the check and then coming back around to take the card can extend into several minutes of unnecessary overtime.
Also, that cut of meat, the Philly, is not quite worth the premium price. I believe the 12 oz. ribeye cost about the same.
The food was prepared very well though. Taytro's menu is not expansive, but mostly what they prepare is very good.