Reviews for Emerson Biggin's

09/16/2013 - Boy! Those Emerson Biggin's!
First off, we have to address the elephant in the room – Emerson Biggin’s Sports Grill. I am amazed at how many people do not get the reference. It’s not offensive to me, but to some - - well - - If you still don’t get it, say the name really fast, three or four times. Now think of a bar/restaurant called “Hooters”. Ahhh. Emerson Biggin’s. The big difference is while the ladies working here wear fairly short shorts, the rest of the outfit is often quite mild. Think T-Shirts. So with that in mind…
Being on South Meridian in the heart of hotel and restaurant row, there is quite a bit of competition for customers nearby. Lots of “Sports bar” type places vying for the Happy Hour Dollar (here it’s from 2-7, every day, with ½ off appetizers) along this street. There are daily rotating specials here, for both food and drink: $3.25 33 oz. Coors Lites, $1.00 10 oz. drafts; $1.50 Miller High Life’s. And on the day I dropped in, a Thursday, it was “½ off all of the beef hamburgers” night. This is actually an excellent special, and is served from 4:00 until 11:00 pm.
You order your burger by its number, and the selection is quite good: 15 burgers, starting with the Basic burger at $7.99 (regular price), up to $9.99 for one with Cheddar Cheese, Sliced Ham, Sautéed Mushrooms and a Fried Egg. There are many variations in between that include: Pulled Pork, Jack Cheese, Apple wood Smoked Pepper Bacon, Avocado, Teriyaki Glaze, Sautéed Peppers, Grilled Pineapple and Jalapenos, Sprouts, BBQ Sauce, Salsa, Onion Rings, Blackened, Swiss cheese……Whew. And perhaps the strangest choice of all? Jiff Peanut Butter. Yep, for $8.99. I’ve had something similar before, and it’s probably better than you would think. Anyway, the standard burger here is a 10 Oz. patty served on your choice of a regular bun, a whole wheat bun, or my favorite – The Pretzel Bun – all for no extra charge. This also comes with a choice of one of three sides: regular-cut or thick-cut fries or homemade potato chips. A small cup of house dipping sauce comes with any of those sides.
I ordered the #6 – described as Sautéed Onions and Mushrooms in a rich red wine sauce, with Swiss Cheese. I chose the Pretzel Bun for this all to sit on, and regular cut fries. Medium sounded good, which is how it comes, unless you order it differently.
I had an ice cold Miller High Life to sip on while I waited, but the wait was short – no more than 6 or 8 minutes at most. The food looked good. The Pretzel bun here is a beautiful, soft bun. It is domed like a regular bun, not flat and shaped like a pretzel, as is often the case in some areas, such as Ohio (think Servatti’s bakery buns). Chewy on the outside, soft on the inside. The burger was cooked exactly medium, and was well-seasoned. The Swiss Cheese was nicely melted. While the onions and mushrooms were cooked very well, I was not overwhelmed by the red wine sauce. If I hadn’t known what it was, I would not have known it was a red wine sauce at all. There was a little mayo on the bottom bun – to make it overall a nice burger. The fries were great, and had a real homemade feel to them. The “dipping sauce” tasted like a thinned down mayo/ketchup mix. It was nothing spectacular. I mixed more ketchup in with it so it wouldn’t run off of my fries.
The bar/restaurant is a typical sports bar with one huge TV, a group of large TVs, and a hand-full of medium-sized TVs. They have NFL Sunday Ticket, and NFL drink specials. They also show all of the OSU games, and they tend to concentrate on the Texas teams – The Cowboys, the Astros and Texans – as well as their local NBA Team – The Oklahoma City Thunder. There is an oversized Baseball Bat, an oversized basketball hoop (probably 10-12 feet across), an OSU “Locker”, signed OSU jerseys on the wall, and other miscellaneous sports items scattered around. The whole business strikes you as being a little tired. This was a “really cool place”, that hasn’t done much maintenance. An example of this is evident as you pull into the lot – the two “I’s” in “Biggin’s” are missing the plastic “I”. There are chipped tiles, nothing sparkles. It’s clean, but, a little unloved.
Emerson Biggin’s is co-located with Billy Simm’s BBQ, but I’m not sure exactly what their relationship, if anything, is.
Even with that, I would recommend a stop here. The staff is friendly, they have food and drink specials every night, plenty of TV screens showing a variety of sports, NTN trivia and Friday night Karaoke. There’s something for everyone here, if you’re looking for this kind of a venue. They seem to be a lot of regulars here, so you could easily become a “Norm!” here. Cheers!