It was to my great surprise recently to find myself not only north of Kennedy, but on the Veteran's Expressway driving north to Holy Cow, Pasco County pasture land. We were on our way to Pappas Ranch. Mind you, that is a thirty mile drive from the paradise that is SOG City and all for their advertised bone-in prime rib. I salivated the entire trip which made for a rather disgusting ride, or so said my lovely bride.
Pappas Ranch is a huge warehouse building that resembles a barn and is situated smack in the middle of nowhere, or at least it looked like nowhere to me. And I have been to nowhere before. The barn was crammed with people, but since I had made reservations the day before we were seated quite promptly and our server arrived soon after. We were queried as to whether we had ever graced their establishment before and we said no that this was our first visit. We then received a rather drawn out history lesson on Pappas. After that long drive from Tampa we would have preferred our medicinal alcoholic beverages first, but our server was sincere and passionate about the place. To avoid the speech just say that you are regulars or some such.
If you order appetizers, be prepared to split them since the servings are generous. Two in our party ordered the famous Pappas Greek salad (recipe from the now closed Tarpon Springs restaurant). My ravishing bride and I chose the Ranch Fries with cheddar-jack, bacon, and Bad Dude sauce. There was enough salad and fries for the four of us to share. And, then came our entrees.
My wife's filet mignon was flavorful, delicious, and cooked to perfection. My bone-in prime rib arrived...without the bone. "Where is my bone," I cried? Without a snicker or missing a beat the server grabbed my plate and headed back to the kitchen. A few minutes later the chef returned with my plate and a humongous slab of prime rib, still boneless. She apologized by saying that they had run out of bone-in prime and she had substituted an even larger than usual boneless cut to compensate for my lose. Well, alright, I will miss gnawing on the bone, but that beef looked so good doing the backstroke in the au jus. I dived in to one of the most tender and juicy prime ribs I have ever consumed. Too often the meat is tender and juicy around the edges but the center is dry and tough. Not so at Pappas Ranch! Either they do something special with the preparation or they really do serve prime beef, not the choice that I believe other restaurants pawn off on you.
Dinner for two with four or so glasses of house wine came to $82 without the tip and since the food and service was so good we tacked on an additional 20%. We believe in rewarding good service.
My only complaint about Pappas Ranch is that it is closer to a famed city in Egypt than it is to SOG City. That sixty mile round trip just for dinner was a killer, but I am glad we did it.
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