Jim 'N Nick's Joggers

Most of what goes on at Jim 'N Nick's is S-L-O-W. Slow cooking, with care in the kitchen, slow smoking, of the pork in the smoker. There are a few times a year however that we try really hard to be fast. For the past few years, Jim 'n Nick's has sponsored and participated in marathons and charity races across the south. In Atlanta for instance, Mike Hoffman and the 26 member Jim 'N Nick's running team named, "The Drinking Team with a Running Problem" have participated in the Jingle Jog. Not only are they running in the race, they serve up Brunswick Stew and Pulled Pork Sliders to folks after the race! The race benefits local charities and reminds us all that pulled pork and fitness are great together! Congratulations and thanks to Mike and the team!

Keep your eyes peeled here for updates on the races that we are involved in for 2011. Jim 'N Nick's has decided that these races are important. They're important to our community, they're important to our health, and they're fun! On Sunday, February 13th, Jim 'N Nick's will host the post party and awards celebration at the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham, Alabama. We'll have the big rig there to serve food and members of our staff will participate in the race. Jim 'n Nick's is proud to sponsor this 10 year old race that has raised $2 million dollars for local charities. Come out for some great food and cheer on our team!

Food Blog South 2011

Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q was proud to host the opening party for the first annual Food Blog South Conference that was held this past weekend in Birmingham, Alabama. Our Executive Chef, Drew Robinson created some great snacks for the bloggers to eat while sharing and listening to food stories that were collected by the Desert Island Supply Company www.desertislandsupplyco.com. Desert Island Supply co. is a nonprofit writing center based in historic Woodrow Hall, in the heart of the Woodlawn commercial district on the East side of Birmingham, Alabama. Bloggers, presenters, sponsors and Southern food folk gathered in the lovely 5 Points location of Jim 'N Nick's to eat fried catfish, pulled pork sliders and their famous pimento cheese and hot links--a snack that has traveled from coast to coast, picking up pimento cheese converts nationwide. Thanks to Shaun Chavis and Jason Horn for organizing such a great event and thanks to all of you bloggers for spreading the love!

Spotlight on Greg Best

We like to imbibe. Not simply random drinking—just to be drinking (although we’ve been known to do that), but really imbibing—truly tasting, absorbing and assimilating. Frequent forays into Atlanta’s pub culture find us often at Holeman and Finch Public House where proprietor/barkeep Greg Best holds forth along with his partners and talented kitchen and bar crew.

Originally hailing from New York’s Hudson Valley, Greg has been working in the restaurant and bar scene for about 12 years. Greg has been oft credited with “kick-starting” the craft cocktail scene in Atlanta with his work behind the bar at the award winning Restaurant Eugene. His role at Atlanta’s Holeman and Finch Public House, has earned him numerous accolades such as GQ magazine’s “Top Ten Cocktail Bars in the Country” and Playboy Magazine’s “Top Ten American Mixologists”. Most of Greg’s free time is spent hunting down boutique spirits and up-and-coming American distillers to celebrate and writing a cocktail column for Atlanta’s Creative Loafing weekly newspaper. An active member of groups like the Southern Foodways Alliance and the United States Bartender’s Guild Atlanta Chapter, Mr. Best has officially decided that the South is his home.

Last year, during the Charleston Wine and Food Festival, at the Jim ‘N Nick’s “Bourbon and Q” dinner, Greg created a special cocktail for the event called the “Pig-Pik Sour”. The libation is ingenious, mixing tart juices with our favorite, Old Rip Van Winkle 12yr. Bourbon and finished with a smoked egg white. That’s right, Greg agitates some egg whites, places them in a smoker for a few minutes and then foams them together with the other ingredients to create a smoky cloud. If you don’t happen to have a smoker going, (although why wouldn’t you?!), we suggest that you at least light a fire in your fireplace, chew some Benton’s bacon while you drink this or heck, just light a match in homage to Greg’s brilliance. For those of you who want to get an idea of how it’s done, here’s that recipe.

The Pig-Pik Sour

1 & ½ oz. Old Rip Van Winkle 12 yr. Bourbon

½ oz. Apricot Liqueur

1 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

¼ oz. Tamarind Syrup (1:1 ratio)

2 dashes Regans’ Orange Bitters #6

1 smoked egg white

-Shake all ingredients vigorously without ice for 15 seconds. Add ice and shake again for 15-20 seconds. Strain over ice into an old-fashioned glass*

*Rim the glass with a mixture of bacon powder and brown sugar.

Oh, and bacon powder is dehydrated bacon, whirred in a fancy commercial kitchen machine to create a powder. Again, we suggest you chew on some Benton’s bacon while you drink it or smear the glass with Benton’s bacon drippings then dip the rim of the glass in the brown sugar (you think we’re kidding—we are most certainly not)

Greg will grace us with his presence once again at the Charleston Food and Wine Festival this March during our “Hickory, Fire and Smoke” dinner. There will be more Q, more Old Rip Van Winkle and another new cocktail from the “Best” in the business.

Find out more about Greg at www.holeman-finch.com

(photo by Heather Anne Thomas of Beall and Thomas Photography)

Learn about the Charleston Wine and Food Festival at www.charlestonwineandfood.com

Resolution: Spread the Love—Make More Pimento Cheese!

“Low and Slow”, “Scratch Made”, “Southern Goodness”—these are all phrases that Jim ‘N Nick’s has embraced for the work that we do in our restaurant kitchens. For the past couple of years now, Jim ‘N Nick’s has also adopted, “Spread the Love”. Yes, we want to make sure that everyone who comes in contact with our food and our people “feel the love”, but the phrase itself is quite literal. We want to spread the love by spreading our love of a spread.

Pimento cheese is one of the most iconic recipes of the South. It’s a beautiful thing. Sharp cheddar cheese, glistening mayonnaise, chunks of roasted red peppers and a sprinkling of hot sauce is how it’s done. Spread onto white bread, it’s simple perfection. Troweled into celery ribs, it becomes a crunchy hors d’oeuvre. A slather of it on a bun elevates and Southernizes a burger.

Our restaurant menu boasts an option that is a trifecta of taste. The Pimento Cheese and Hot Link appetizer has become one of our most celebrated offerings at Jim ‘N Nick’s. We knew it was good, that’s why it’s on the menu in the first place. But its popularity has grown and the juxtaposition of cool, creamy pimento cheese against the smoky-hot wheel of sausage, the green jolt from a Serrano pepper all piled upon a classic, crunchy Saltine cracker gets folks talking. We have served the recipe at parties and taken it coast to coast—from the Eat Real Festival in Oakland, California to the Big Apple BBQ Block Party in New York City. This week, it made its television debut in Atlanta, Georgia on WAGA, Fox 5’s Good Day Atlanta show. Drew Robinson demonstrated live how to make the simple dish and offers the recipe so that you too may “Spread the Love” in 2011.

Check out the video and the recipe here:

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/good_day_atl/Tailgating-for-the-Chick-Fil-A-Bowl-20101230-gda-sd

Happy Birthday Mable Washington!

Today we celebrate a woman who has set the standard for what the kitchen at Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-b-que is all about. Mable Washington has developed recipes for us, taught us technique, and more important, shown us that food—scratch-made with honest products and a loving touch is the most delicious, most soul and body nourishing food we can put in our mouths. The pies we serve bear her name and she teaches all of our cooks exactly how to make them. It’s safe to say that Mable is the matriarch of Jim ‘N Nick’s. She’s worked with us for over 20 years and seven of her children and one grandchild has come to work with us. And for all the praise we have received for the pies that bear her name, this endorsement of the Jim ‘N Nicks's family, to her own family is the highest honor or accolade we could ever receive. Thank you Mable for your wisdom and talent.

We love you Mable and wish you the happiest of birthdays today!

Sweet Magic on your Holiday Plate

Sweet potatoes are magic. You can bake, mash, roast and fry them. George Washington Carver discovered myriad uses for the tubers and their leaves including a way to pave streets with a derivative of the potato! Their orange flesh is beautiful, nutritious, versatile, and delicious. Sweet potato casserole is a simple recipe to prepare and a delicious way to brighten up a winter plate. Jim ‘n Nick’s Executive Chef, Drew Robinson, shares his recipe for sweet potato casserole here. Oh, and if time gets away from you, don’t worry, you can order a casserole from Jim ‘n Nick’s to serve at your holiday table or come in to the restaurant on Fridays and try it along side some pulled pork or bbq chicken.

Jim ‘N Nick’s Sweet Potato Casserole

For the filling:

5 lbs. sweet potatoes peeled and sliced into 1 inch cubes

3 ounces melted whole butter

2 eggs, beaten

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Boil the sweet potatoes in water until they are fork tender. Once tender, strain the water and discard. Place sweet potatoes in a bowl of an electric mixer with the remaining ingredients and whip on high speed for about two minutes. They should be smooth and fluffy. Place the whipped sweet potato mixture into a 10 x 12 baking dish.

For the Topping:

8 tablespoons brown sugar

7 tablespoons flour

3 ounces butter diced into small pieces

½ cup chopped pecans

Mix brown sugar and flour together in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter in until the mixture becomes coarse and crumbly. Mix the pecans into the topping.

Sprinkle topping evenly over the sweet potato mixture in the baking dish. Place the casserole in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes until the toping is golden brown and a knife or toothpick inserted in the filling comes out clean.

Thanks for Helping Us, Help Others!

Scattered throughout previous posts on this blog, are mentions of collaborations with charities and organizations that we believe do good work. Organizations like Feeding America, the United Way, the Low Country Food Bank, Fertile Minds Learning Garden and Junior Achievement. Visit our community page on the Jim ‘N Nick’s website (www.jimnnicks.com/community) and you will find links to these good agencies and more. Supporting them is important to us because they are part of our collective and they help all of us out—including you. For that reason, our company’s charitable giving efforts include you as well. You, the Jim ‘N Nick’s customer, help make it possible for us to do that good work. By eating at our restaurants, you help all of these groups and more. It’s not just big organizations that get our help—it’s local and it’s personal.

There are Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q restaurants in 28 different towns; some small, some large. In those 28 different towns are people who make up a community and those people are our people. Within those neighborhoods, are individuals who have hopes, aspirations, problems and concerns—we all do. Some of those hopes or problems are rooted in deep and troubling situations while some of them are cause for celebration. There might be families struggling with emergencies or illnesses or it could be a young farmer who wants to bring good food to schools and to the people. Could be a group who wants to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit of food trucks and urban homesteading or folks who collect stories from food artisans, fishermen, farmers and cooks. The point is, each neighborhood is different and each neighborhood matters.

Southerners love covered dish dinners, potluck gatherings and church dinner on the grounds. Parades of revelers carrying casseroles and buckets of fried chicken, deviled egg plates and cake carriers to a community gathering get our heart racing and mouths watering. There’s good food of course, but it’s the combination of the food and the folks that make it great. That’s why, when we pack up the Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q rig to haul to a charity event, it means more than just a day’s work. We know we are going to get out and meet our community and the very people who have the hopes and the problems or the great ideas and celebrations. It’s the same in our restaurants when guests gather at our table. We want to know who is dining with us, and what their story is. Everyone is part of the community.

Thank you for allowing us to be part of your community and for helping us bring good food, good people and good work to the table.