Smokey’s BBQ
The plan was to meet Amy in Baldwin City. On my way to Baldwin, I had plenty of time, so I swooped around through Wellsville to check out that town. While walking up and down Main Street, the aroma of BBQ was strong and tempting.
Amy and I had made our meeting plans over the Internet and we picked a restaurant in Baldwin City from an online list. When we met at that place - it was closed on Saturday. So, I mentioned this place I had just walked by and off we went, 7 miles to Wellsville.
I checked out Wellsville in the Guidebook for Kansas Explorers and in the book, friend Rex Buchanan mentioned his liking of the burnt ends and fried dill pickles here at Smokey’s. Rex and I had previously discussed food options in Kansas, so I trusted his opinion. And I wanted the fried pickles! It had been way too long.
But, the only way fried pickles come is as a huge appetizer.
“We can split it,” Amy said. She knows fried pickles. We used to eat them at Sonic- pickleos, they called them. In Larned and/or Great Bend. A hundred years ago. Or maybe 30.
Frickles with ranch dressing. They were as good as I remembered.
I had the rib ends and the sweet potato fries, because I never pass up sweet potato fries. Here they served them with a great dipping sauce. I should’ve asked what was in the sauce. Dill was the primary flavor that came through. Yum.
People came and went. We stayed here a couple hours, talking, and eventually went outside where it was warm and sunny and we walked around downtown Wellsville.
Filed under: small towns, vittles on May 18th, 2008
I have never in my life had fried pickles. Are those dill pickles? And what kind of batter? Well, I’m not going to make them, so I guess a better question would be:
Are fried pickles served anyplace closer than Wellsville?
I’ve never had sweet potato fries either. Can I get them any closer too?
Should I take alka seltzer with me? LOL That’s a whole lot of fried food! But it sure looks yummy.
Yes, dill pickles. Just regular batter, like onion ring batter, I suppose. I don’t think Sonic still serves them, so don’t know where to get them.
I’ve made sweet potato fries at home - without frying. Just cut them up and bake them… well, here’s a recipe.
http://www.grouprecipes.com/6956/baked-sweet-potato-fries.html
We are definitely cosmic sisters. We would have been too much for one set of parents but at least we were only blocks apart and rarely separated.
“Ralph” is Amy, btw. Old childhood nickname - we wanted to have boys names. I never found a good boys name that I was happy with though.