Sunday update: This Pork Is a Jerk sliders @ Slider Inn Downtown

About 11:30 yesterday morning, my friends Randy and Theresa texted me. “Slider Inn Downtown has their dining room open 4 to 10 today,” they told me. “Want to join us at 4 when they open?”

Human interaction! I was not expecting to have any of that yesterday. “Sure!” I texted back.

I got there a few minutes after 4, and the “Please Seat Yourself” sign at the door had been replaced with a “Please Wait to Be Seated” sign. The hostess at the door took my first and last name and my phone number and wrote down that I planned to sit with my friends at the corner of the bar area. She took my temperature and then I was free to go to my seat. Excellent! That is what every full-service restaurant should be doing right now, and that is what every bar limited service restaurant should do if they are allowed to reopen. No one gets in without a mask, a temperature check, and an assigned seat to go to.

I was starving. We’re having a fruit fly problem in my building right now and I have been hesitant to eat at home and have uncovered food out. So I didn’t eat at all Friday and I hadn’t eaten yesterday. I was excited to be in a place where there were no fruit flies and plenty of menu items I hadn’t tried yet.

As they slowly reopen following a temporary closure a week and a half ago, they are running a limited menu:

I ordered the This Pork is a Jerk sliders with Caribbean jerk spiced pork tenderloin and Jamaican mango cabbage slaw. I got them with a side of fries.

These were outstanding! The pork was juicy and tender, and the jerk spice gave the meat a bold flavor put not overpowering, and the slaw complemented the meat well. I enjoyed the sliders very much, and they looked so good that Randy and Theresa ended up ordering them later in the evening.

I have a very obedient troll:

Normally the troll only stands next to the things I eat, not things other people eat. However, I made an exception when Theresa ordered a side of elotes con crema. It’s an alternative to the fries that usually come with sliders. Have a look at this!

Wow wow WOW. I may never order fries at Slider Inn again. It looked amazing!

Although they were open limited hours this Saturday, they told us they’d be back to full hours of 11-10 next Saturday. They close at 10 because the Health Department says you can catch COVID-19 at full-service restaurants beginning at 10:01 PM. Also the golden carriage turns back into a pumpkin at midn… oops, I confused Cinderella with Health Directive No. 8 there for a minute.

I can hear the Facebook “medical experts” now: “How IRRESPONSIBLE was it for you to meet at a restaurant bar area with two people from OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSEHOLD!!! You should have cooked pork sliders at home, then got on Zoom and compared your pork sliders to the ones your friends cooked! ALONE, TOGETHER!”

Look:

  • I had no problem sharing contact tracing information
  • I had no problem having my temperature taken, and would have left (and quarantined until I could get a COVID-19 test and had the results back) had my temperature been above the limit
  • No one was sitting within six feet of Theresa’s left
  • No one was sitting within six feet of my right
  • My mask was on anytime my feet touched the floor
  • I counted to 20 each time I washed my hands after using the restroom

I take careful precautions, but I am willing to take on an amount of risk slightly greater than zero in order to be human. To suggest that we not socialize face-to-face at all for up to 18 months until a vaccine is ready is preposterous.

More from the Facebook “medical experts”: “And you probably had ALCOHOL with dinner, didn’t you??? Don’t you know that the combination of socializing and alcohol causes COVID-19, kind of like kissing in a swimming pool causes pregnancies?”

Health department director Dr. Haushalter said there is nothing wrong with dining at a bar area and having a beer with dinner. It’s just that I considered each individual slider a dinner unto itself, and to borrow a Taco Bell term, I considered the fries to be Fourthmeal. Also my troll had a French fry for her dinner and had a shot of Jameson with it.

Thanks to Slider Inn for an excellent dinner, an excellent overall experience, and for following COVID-19 protocols. If bars limited service restaurants had all followed the protocols as closely as Slider Inn did (especially having a host/hostess at the door at all times), I doubt they would have been forced to close this week.

So, what else was open yesterday?

  • Local, a bar that is licensed as a full-service restaurant, was open
  • Green Beetle, a tavern that is licensed as a full-service restaurant, was open
  • The Majestic patio was being set up for ghost restaurant Cocozza diners who wanted to dine al fresco (for those who don’t speak foreign languages, that means “while frying like an egg in a skillet,” or at least that’s what it meant yesterday)

(I can just see the Jennifer Biggs “we visited 25 bars which are licensed as full-service restaurants and this is what we found” headline on the Daily Memphian website tomorrow)

Oh also I saw a party pedal bike riding down Main as I looked out the window at Slider. How ridiculous is it that those public nuisances on wheels are allowed to operate, but I can’t sit at the bar and get crawfish mac and a socially distanced PBR and watch a show about a vet rescuing a mangy fox at the Blind Bear?

(God I miss sports)

I may have to take a walk today. Sunday is the day when idiots get out in large groups – idiots who don’t wear masks, often argue when told to put a mask on, and have no concept of giving others 6 feet of space. They probably have no idea the bars limited service restaurants are closed because they don’t read or watch the news. Might be fun to observe them from a distance as they go in bars limited service restaurants and come right back out after being told it’s take-out only.

Let’s have a look at the MemphisWeather.net forecast for today… possible morning shower, then chance of PM thunderstorms. High 91, low 72 with upper 60’s in the ‘burbs. The great news, though, is wind becoming northwest at 10 MPH, shifting to northeast at 4 MPH by night. Oh, man, the rooftop is going to feel so good tonight around sunset! Well, assuming that thunderstorm doesn’t come through right then.

There’s a petition going around for liquor by the drink reform in Tennessee. It was created by Skinny, owner of Hi-Tone, who paid $5000 to renew his liquor license but has been unable to open since. As of this writing about 800 people have signed it, including me.

This is sad:

I’ll repeat something I wrote in Monday’s post since it’s now timely… a friend who went to Loflin Yard next Sunday for brunch said the breakfast sandwiches are delicious, reasonably priced and they fill you up.

That’s it for this post. About 7 I’ll grab the PBR and head up to the rooftop weather permitting. As for between now and 7… yeah I don’t know. Please wear a mask if you go out, and I will see you tomorrow.