Aw Baloney

It is not true that in Pierz you can eat baloney in a bar every day of the week.

But you can get it on Wednesdays at the Red Rooster( actually in Genola), and on Thursdays at Patricks. It is served from 11AM till 1PM as the lunch special. At the Rooster it is served help yourself buffet style. Which means it is an all you can eat deal. There is baloney, homemade white bread, butter, horseradish and mustard. I think that the horseradish is homemade too.

At Patrick's it is served to you in a basket. The entire ring of baloney I believe -sliced into 5 generous 4 inch hunks -along w/ 4 slices of homemade white bread( the soft variety), butter, and homemade(?) horseradish. It is indeed a "ring of fire" if you use enough horseradish. In Pierz, a bottle of tabasco will last for years, but horseradish is consumed like a cold beer on a hot summer day.

Is it a midwest thing this eating butter on a meat sandwich? Pastrimi on rye at a Deli in New York City? Nope.

Where does all of this baloney come from? Thielen's Meat Market right in town. Thielen's has been written up in the New York Times, rightly so, for their bacon. Try the black pepper variety, or garlic. Also get their jalapeno cheddar summer sausage. Or smoked hams. Or marinated pork chops and chicken breasts, smoked whole chickens, all the usual steaks, and much more. They have a professional and attentive staff, and the place is immaculate.

It is worth it to adjust your trip up North to include a stop in Pierz. Make it a golf date, in fact, at the mature 9 hole golf course, and be sure to do it on baloney day.

$4.95 for all you can eat. That is no baloney. And it sure ain't New York City.