Lake Martin Voice Realty
Archive for the 'Dining' Category
Uncle Nick’s Smokehouse – New Q And Brew At Lake Martin
Uncle Nick’s Smokehouse is the newest of Lake Martin’s waterfront restaurants. Its main gig is barbeque – offered lots of different ways, but it also has many non Q items on the menu.
They opened earlier this summer, so my “new” description might not be all that accurate. Sorry, but it has been a (blessedly) busy buyer summer and I am just now getting time to upload all of these video and photos.
Nick’s menu ranges all over the BBQ spectrum. They offer brisket, chicken, and turkey dishes, though the focus seems to be more on pork. At least when I have been there I have had mostly the pork dishes. I have had the BBQ turkey sandwich, the BBQ pork sandwich, and, while they were good, they weren’t my favorite. My favorite thing I have eaten at Nick’s so far are the BBQ potato skins. I don’t see them on the online menu I linked above, but trust me, they are awesome. I had the pork ones, and liberally applied their Carolina and Alabama sauces. Yum.
As of yet I haven’t tried any of their non Q items like steak or burgers or shrimp, but I have heard good reports from other folks.
Ambiance
Waterfront. Need I say more? No, but I will. You can dine alfresco – in riva al lago. If you don’t like that, I have concerns about your salvation. Inside is nice, too. They have plenty of room, nice tables, and a nice bar area. I would say that it’s a little more upscale feeling than nearby Oskar’s and Niffer’s.
Location
One of the many cool things about Lake Martin is the fact that we have many waterfront restaurants like Sinclair’s at Kowaliga, Chucks, and Harbor Docks Anchor Bay. Uncle Nick’s Smokehouse now joins that group. If you’ve never tried it, you should. There is something about arriving by boat that makes the food better, the sweet tea sweeter. If you are going to Nick’s by boat, please note that they are located on the east side of the Blue Creek Bridge, aka the Highway 49 Bridge.
Blue Creek Bridge is kind of low, so take care to note if your boat will make it under. At full summer pool of 490, you definitely will not make it under the bridge in boats like sport cruisers, fixed roof pontoon boats, T top fishing boats, or ski boats with fixed wakeboard towers. If you have a smaller boat with a droppable bimini top, or if it’s less than full pool, you might be OK. Just check it out beforehand and be careful.
If you are coming by car, no worries. It is the latest proof that the Blue Creek area of Lake Martin is becoming known for its restaurants.
Uncle Nick’s Strengths
Uncle Nick’s Smokehouse has several strengths which I think will give it staying power. Forget good food and a great waterfront location, although it has both. Other restaurants in this same location have had both, and not lasted.
I have been impressed by Nick’s management. They are professional. They are serious. They know what they are doing. Here are some examples:
Social Media – they have embraced social media marketing. For the last couple of years I have tried my best to help local businesses understand and take advantage of social media marketing. Nick’s gets it.
I see Nick’s reaching out and interacting with the Lake Martin community on Twitter and Facebook. I see they have started a blog. They are not waiting for you to walk in the door. They are reaching out to meet their potential customers on the web. I like it.
Synergy – This word is a tired MBA cliche. But Nick’s is living it by working with their sister company, Creekside Lodge and Conference Center. They share a parking lot, and cross promote each other very well. Indeed, I had some buyers in town from Florida last month and I recommended Creekside to them. They stayed there and ended up eating a couple of meals at Nick’s because it was such a short walk. They enjoyed their entire Lake Martin experience and they recommend both.
We at Lake Martin Voice Realty welcome Uncle Nick’s Smokehouse to Lake Martin and look forward to many more delicious meals there!
Alex City Farmer’s Market Flavors Lake Martin Meals
Lake Martin vacationers: MainStreet Alexander City hosts a farmer’s market every Saturday morning from 7-11am. This is a quintessential summer activity; if you’re into fresh produce, local honey, goat cheese, BBQ sauce, soap, herbs, and baked goods, head downtown.
On any given Saturday morning you’re sure to run into the Jones family, Lake Martin homeowners from Atlanta, who are hip to things culinary, and fans of local produce. Despite having a world of foodie options in the city, they frequent the Alex City farmer’s market (and then the Piggly Wiggly meat counter right up the street) and create fantastic dishes to serve lakeside. If you’re lucky enough to be invited to dine with them, leave your cooler of Natural Light and pimento cheese at home. Allow Mr. Jones to set the menu.
We took our own family trip to the farmer’s market, and filmed this quick video so you can check it out too:
The Lake Martin community extends well past the shoreline into the small towns and countryside around it. The more you know about the area, the more you will feel at home here. If you need help finding that perfect lake home, or just want some ideas of things to do while you’re here, give me a call at 334 221 5862.
Git Your Gumbo On At Large Times
Lake Martin has a new Cajun / Creole restaurant!
Large Times is located at 35 Kowaliga Road (aka Highway 63) in downtown Eclectic. For those of you who don’t know where downtown Eclectic is, it’s about 10 miles south of the Kowaliga Bridge (which is also highway 63).
A couple of weeks ago, I filmed this video of Owner / Chef Mark Moody at his new location. We welcome him to the Lake Martin area, and are really excited that we now have a restaurant that is specializing in creole and cajun food.
I went there with fellow Lake Martin Voice Realty agent John Christenberry, who is pretty able at the ladle himself. We had the beans and rice, and John, has been known to stir his roux for hours, gave it a thumbs up.
Large Times is set up for lunch right now. Mr. Moody will have a couple dishes like gumbo or shrimp etouffee made, plus red beans and rice, and you can choose which you want of the three. It was really good and also fast since they serve you up as soon as you order. Click here for Large Times’ menu.
Mark told us that they also do a lot of take out business for people headed to Lake Martin. They can call ahead and order whatever they want by the quart. Large Times fixes it up, with side items like bread, and people swing by there and grab it on the way to the lake. I think it’s a great idea to serve on Friday night so you don’t have to cook right out of the gate. Or, you can keep it over and it would make a great Saturday lunch. Either way, you’re a winner.
We would like to welcome Large Times to the Lake Martin restaurant scene and wish them all the best. If you are visiting the lake and want to mix in some Cajun and Creole cuisine to your palette, we highly recommend them.
To contact Large Times, see:
Their phone: 334-782-3512
Social Media:
Find Lake Martin Farms And Markets On Yelp
Main Street's Downtown Farmer's Market in Alex City
The Lake Martin area has a lot of great farms and farmers’ markets. Many times these hidden gems don’t even have websites, much less a marketing machine to let the average visitor know they are there.
It’s a shame, too, because so many of these places epitomize the recent trend back to healthy, locally sourced, “farm to fork” food in restaurants and on the table. Before the last couple of years, there was no way for the casual fan to help educate everyone else and share local hot spots with friends.
Enter Yelp.com
For those who haven’t heard about it, Yelp is a location based review service. If you have a smart phone, you can access Yelp through an app as you are driving around. If you are home or otherwise on a computer, access it via its website, Yelp.com.
Yelp lets you search for all kinds of local businesses – restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, retailers, even real estate brokerages like mine – they’re all there. You can get details of the business’s location, hours, phone number, etc. But all of these are second to its most powerful feature – customer reviews.
You can also “check in” to places while you’re there, which leads to friendly competition among your fellow consumers and maybe even freebies from the business.
Yelp also lets users create lists, and this is what I am using to pinpoint local farms, food sources, and farmers’ markets around Lake Martin.
Oakview Farms is just south of Lake Martin. www.oakviewfarms.com
Click Here for my Local Farms / Farmers Market List on Yelp
As I drive around the lake, I will add these farms to my list, or take pictures and enter these farms if they’re not already on Yelp. See – that’s another cool thing. If their business is not already on Yelp, you can take pictures, add tips, add them to Yelp, and draft a review, all on the fly.
So the next time you are hankering for some U Pick Blueberries, or organic eggs, or looking for wheat to grind, whip out your smart phone and check Yelp. Check FourSquare, too. You don’t have a smart phone? Don’t worry. Odds are, someone in your car does.
Have you found a farm or local produce grower in the Lake Martin area that’s not on my list?
Let me know! I would love to add them!
Pizza by Boat: Hard to beat Chuck’s Marina on Lake Martin
The website for Chuck’s Marina on Lake Martin says it best, so let me quote:
“The Marina beckons boaters like a Key West dream, with brightly colored buildings ranging from deep turquoise to lime green. It’s a perfect place to dock and enjoy the lake view.”
(The restaurant also serves a great pizza!)
If you haven’t been to Chuck’s yet, it’s a must-do on your next Lake Martin adventure!
Pictures Of The Old Kowaliga Indian, Restaurant And Kowaliga Kubbard
Christmas time gives way to project time around the Coley home. My wife started cleaning out the photo trunk on Saturday and needed my help to cull the many hundreds of photos I have saved over the years. Since there was a marathon of Bruce Lee movies on the G4 channel, I obliged her in sorting those that could be thrown away. Many of them are useless, anyway, like my 48 out of focus shots taken from inside New York’s Hard Rock Cafe I took I was in eighth grade.
Some of them were keepers, though. See below. For some reason I took two pictures of the old Kowaliga Restaurant – before it burned to the ground and they rebuilt in its current location. It burned in June of 1999. I am guessing I took these pictures of the Kowaliga Indian around 1993. In this one you can even see the Kowaliga Kubbard.
For those who never knew it, the Kowaliga Kubbard was sort of a convenience store without gas. They also had a little kitchen in there. They served sandwiches and burgers for lunch, but breakfast was by far my favorite. They made big huge buttery biscuits and all that goes with them: eggs, grits, sausage, everything. And when you needed more jelly or whatever, you just walked back into the “employees only” section and grabbed some more. They didn’t care.
The above shot shows the lake view. This was before the days that ole Kowaliga had to be glassed off to protect him from vandals, or at least from we kids that would hang on his arm. I know that I have had my picture taken while doing that, but I can’t find the photo.
You also can see the catwalk that leads into the old restaurant entrance. This is where the kids would hang out while waiting for a table, or if you were too loud and your parents sent you “out.”
Circa 1993 – 1996 was the golden age of Kowaliga to me. The Kubbard was rolling. The restaurant was booming. There were still enough local people in there that it felt like it was “ours.” Yet by then I had met enough out of towners to realize that folks from Montgomery – and – even as far away as (gasp) Birmingham – appreciated its worth. Plus by then it had expanded into that glass atrium / bar area.
But the most critical contribution to its zenith in my mind was that I was friends and / or relatives with a lot of the wait staff. There is nothing more impressive to a future wife than to be able to score a margarita in 45 seconds when there are 75 people waiting out on the deck who are supposed to be ahead of you.
Then again, for all my sentimentality, I must admit that I can’t imagine Aquapalooza 2009 being handled by the old facility and the old ways.
Hey reader – do you have any old pictures of Lake Martin landmarks like Kowaliga Restaurant? Leave a reply in the comment section below, or post them to the Lake Martin Voice Facebook page, the I Love Lake Martin photo group on Flickr, and let us all take a look!
Someone Left Me This Note On My Truck Today
Today I took my kids to eat lunch at Chappy’s Deli in Peppertree Shopping Center. We had a great lunch and it was fun to be “off” of work. However, I guess I ruined someone else’s fun today, because when I got back to my truck, I found this note tucked under the wiper:
 |
I guess I should be thankful there was no cursing. Actually it was pretty polite (see “please”). It is way too nice to submit to a site like PassiveAggressiveNotes.com.
Here is my parking job, the shadow hurts the shot but you can see the offending entry on the white line:
 |
Here’s a shot from directly in back. Snoopy is right, I broke the barrier:
 |
The irony is not lost on me that normally this time of year, Snoopy’s in a great mood. He’s on TV a lot, doing Christmas specials, etc. But here he is back to his dejected position on the dog house, looking straight up at what the person had to write. Clearly, I have disappointed him.
I would like to say to this person: I was wrong. I did a bad job parking there. Please know I will pay more attention in the future.
And….. Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!!
How To Help Out Hotel Talisi Fire Victims
Though not technically on Lake Martin, Tallassee’s Hotel Talisi has been a regional attraction for decades, until early this month. It was destroyed by an alleged arson.
The new owners of Hotel Talisi have apparently lost everything, and are in need of our help. A donation fund has been set up by one of the members of lakemartin.com forum.
If you would like to help out, please send any donation to:
Bodenburg/Shores Fund
c/o Banktrust
P.O. Box 780607
Tallassee, AL 36078
(334) 283-7000
Any donation will help. According to this post on the forum, “It is a total loss…..Some really great local folks put a lot of work into refurbishing it. It caught fire from a building behind which caught fire. A wonderful couple who moved from Minnesota were living in and managing the hotel. They got out with their lives Thank GOD, however, they have lost everything including their jobs and insurance.”
Thanks!
Coverage of the fire in the Montgomery Advertiser:
-
Tallassee plans meeting on downtown area Thursday Thu Dec 10, 2009
Tallassee will hold a town hall meeting Thursday evening to discuss the future of the city’s downtown. A fire destroyed the Hotel Talisi on Nov. 30. The landmark was considered the anchor of downto… more…
-
Juvenile in custody, charged in Tallassee blaze Wed Dec 9, 2009
A 17-year-old male remains in custody for his involvement in last week’s early morning blaze that swept through the city’s downtown area and eventually destroyed Hotel Talisi, one of Tallassee’s ma… more…
-
Juvenile may be charged as adult in Hotel Talisi fire Wed Dec 2, 2009
The Elmore County district attorney’s office wants to charge as an adult a juvenile accused of starting the fire that destroyed the historic Hotel Talisi. If the juvenile is tried as an adult, the … more…
-
Blaze destroys Tallassee icon Wed Dec 2, 2009
One of Tallasee’s most historic landmarks was destroyed by an early-morning blaze that swept through the city’s downtown area on Monday. An effort by more than 100 firefighters from nine different … more…
-
Investigators: Hotel Talisi fire began to cover up burglary Tue Dec 1, 2009
TALLASSEE – Investigators believe a fire that destroyed a landmark hotel in east Alabama was started to hide a burglary in a nearby business. A spokesman with the state fire marshal’s office, Ragan… more…
Lake Martin BBQ Fans – Check Out The Red Hill Cottage Cafe
Cotton’s BBQ has some competition.
Last week I ate at the Red Hill Cottage Cafe with my fellow Lake Martin realtor John Christenberry. He had been there before, and claimed that their barbecue was as good as Cotton’s. I laughed at him and accepted the challenge.
Verdict:
John was right, it is really good. Apparently their angle is that they cook everything on Green Egg Grills. They are also distributors for the Green Egg and you can get related supplies there, as well as a bunch of other lake home decor and furniture. It all looked nice, but I was there on a mission for Q.
I am an admitted stickler for good BBQ, therefore I am really tough on Q restaurants. The Red Hill Cottage Cafe passes easily.
Method: As stated before, they cook on Green Egg Grills, so that means their Boston butts are directly suspended over the coals. The good thing about this is that when the fat is rendered out, it drips down into the coals, sizzles, and returns as flavor bombs that return to the butt. Yum.
Presentation: I ate a sandwich, and the meat was of the pulled persuasion as opposed to Cotton’s that chops. No judgement here, to each his own. But I do think that the pulled method helped Red Hill expose the fabulous job on the meat.
Sauce: The sauce was good. Tomato based, sweet yet not overwhelming. They also did not put too much on it to hide 
the meat. That’s one thing I don’t understand about some places, they purportedly spend 12 hours cooking the meat and then smother it in sauce that they cooked in 30 minutes. Personally I like Cotton’s tomato based sauce better. One suggestion – I wonder how good Red Hill’s pulled pork would fare with a vinegar based sauce that can penetrate every nook and cranny on that sandwich? Plus they would be the only ones in the area with a vinegar based sauce.
Cost: It was cheap. $2.95 for a sandwich. Every lunch gets free dessert. I would say that the same meal at Jim N Nicks would be $15 pre-tip and it would not be 1/2 as good.
The Last Word: Great – a welcome addition to the list of Lake Martin restaurants. Their barbecue is so good that I wonder why they do anything else. It is every bit as good as Cotton’s, and for me that is saying a lot. I think they will benefit each other, because they all help traffic, which helps all area restaurants. In fact, Red Hill, along with Green Valley, Cotton’s, and Catherine’s, are worthy foils to the east side eateries of Niffer’s and another of my prime favorites – Oskar’s. But thankfully Red Hill’s menu is different enough from each of them that I think all can peacefully coexist. Johnny G’s, however, had better step it up.
Where: The Red Hill Cottage (I guess it’s the name of the decor store) and Cottage Cafe are located on Alabama highway 229, just south of the intersection with Highway 50, by Castaway Island Road. Official address is 4068 Red Hill Road, Tallassee. Phone is 334-857-2233.
When: According to their menu, they are open 7 AM to 7 PM Wednesday through Saturday.
What: DOWNLOAD RED HILL’S MENU HERE – they serve a lot more than BBQ. Even breakfast. In fact, I went back the day after the Q meal and ordered 2 smoked turkey sandwiches, 1 smoked ham sandwich, 3 bags of chips, 3 co-colas, and got 3 free desserts (nanner pudding, bread pudding, and strawberry cobbler). My bill total was like $15 pre-tip. Not bad, and the sandwiches were great – a worthy “chick option” to the Q.
Hey Reader – what’s your take? Leave a reply below and let me know about your experience! If you don’t see the “Leave a reply” below this, click on the word “Comments” and leave one so we can all benefit.
Another Reason To Love Green Valley Market & Deli
empty plate = good food
Last Friday I ate lunch at one of my favorite Lake Martin lunch spots – Green Valley Market and Deli.
To me it is a joy to experience any business or effort that sincerely tries to give great service, every time. This time they did not disappoint. I was craving their Reuben but feeling guilty about my cholesterol count from my diet of the day before (below) . So I asked the waitress (she must be new, I didn’t recognize her) if they can fix me a turkey Reuben – off the menu. She said, “let me ask.” The answer came back, “sure.”
The result was I was happy and with a few less grams of fat flowing through my bloodstream.
“Big deal, John,” you say. “Anyone who can make a Reuben should be able to turkey-ize it.”
Not so fast. I have been in plenty of places that don’t make even the slightest concession on their menu. Those places are either really good (think the original Dreamland) or really closed. Further, I celebrate the culture of a place where the employees are obviously trained to Look For Yes, not only when they are feeling in a good mood, but every time.
It makes me think about my real estate business. Am I doing enough for my sellers? Am I asking the right questions to help my buyers whittle down the list? Am I giving the same pat answers to Lake Martin real estate questions, or am I taking the time to listen to each person‘s wants and needs, every time?
Essentially Green Valley, Catherine’s Market, Oskar’s, and ME, we are all in the same business. People don’t come to Lake Martin looking for a restaurant, they come looking for a good dining experience. They also don’t come looking for a realtor or a team or company, they are looking for a waterfront home or lot. I try to continually remind myself to get out of the way and help them get their turkey Reuben.
PS - I also have to give out some props to Catherine’s Market at Russell Crossroads. I was there last Thursday. The tea was better. The burger was excellent. It was hand patted and served with fresh fixings. By the way, it was better than the burger I had that night at home. I fired up my grill and cooked some patties from a very high end, fancy Dan steak place in Montgomery. Catherine’s beat mine, no questions asked. That’s hard for me to admit as a prideful griller. Plus, I ran into Scott Goslin at Catherine’s. He is doing a great job there and was extremely hospitable. Scott knows me and my family and how cheap we are, so he will appreciate it when I say that I now realize that Catherine’s can make a better burger, for less money, than I can for myself.
