Knight's Stick-To-The-Ribs Fare A Carnivore's Dream

CRUMPETS

Knight's stick-to-the-ribs fare a carnivore's dream

By CONSTANCE CRUMP

NEWS RESTAURANT REVIEWER

Carnivores, start your engines. There’s a new presence on the meat and potatoes scene.

Knight’s Bar and Restaurant, formerly Annie’s Dugout, features stick-to-the-ribs fare with a menu based on simple, satisfying American classics. Ignore the canned peas and frozen corn. The meat is fantastic.

Daily soups are generally good, if standard. Bean soup with tiny cubes of ham was familiar but obviously not Campbell’s. Someone was paying attention when they chopped the tiny cubes of ham. At the same lunch, a hamburger looked and tasted well past medium. (“They’re only cooked rare or medium,” the waitress had promised.) The bun was grilled black. The whole tasted better than it sounds, however, thanks to a superior burger.

The chili was barely passable, not hot or spicy, and tasting vaguely of V-8 juice. The clam chowder had very good clam flavor and lots of clams without an overload of thickeners. The sizzler steak was enjoyable, with tiny French fries, almost shoestring, perfectly cooked - “like McDonald’s, only good,” one Crumpet observes.

The meatloaf dinner special was a WASP dream, the loaf nicely spiced with onion and just the right amount of brown gravy. The baked potato was delicious, despite the gold foil wrapping that usually signals a steamed spud. Frozen corn isn’t my favorite vegetable, but it’s a perfect complement to meatloaf. The house salad with homemade ranch or French dressing was just right.

The prime rib is a meat-eater’s dream.  A regular serving is more than adequate. The Texas-size is only for the protein-deprived. The Delmonico steak is a prizewinner, too. Gulf shrimp is acceptable,, but not as good as the sauteed Canadian lake perch.

Stacked ham and roast beef sandwiches aren’t up to the rest of the menu. They’re fine, but very ordinary. Drinks are good - generous and well-made. The football Saturday brunches are already legendary, after one short season.

Service at Knight’s is excellent. Allow me to throw a tantrum concerning service at most Ann Arbor area restaurants — it stinks. It’s usually either obnoxiously closing and hoverful (“Hi, my name is Ralph,” etc.), or a bad case of the Total Ignores.

At Knight’s, in total contrast, the servers keep a close eye on their tables from afar. At the slightest sign of diner interest, they appear at tableside, but without the instrusion of horrid remarks, filled with self-doubt, like “Is everything all right?” Instead, a gracious “Are you enjoying your dinner?” fills the bill. Food appears at decent intervals, water is refilled when it needs to be, coffee is offered after the meal, the check doesn’t arrive with dinner or an hour and a half after you’ve finished eating.

Still, the restaurant has a casual air. The whole place exudes a really pleasant feeling, in a large part due to the eagle eye of proprietor Ray Knight. Nothing escapes him and he works the room as bartender, host or social director as if he’s been doing it all his life.

On Saturday nights, a pianist plays the baby grand that nestles under the stairs to the new dining room. His talent exceeds his choice of material. The room is large, but not barn-like. There’s a mix of booths, tables and bar seating. Unfortunately, the open room lets smoke spread easily from smoking to non-smoking sections.

The menu’s pages are livened with amusing turn-of-the-century graphics. Choices are thoroughly American in the best sense of old-style cuisine - no blue corn crepes filled with American caviar or Michigan blueberry sorbet. It’s a little like Bill Knapp’s, if there really is a Bill Knapp, and he hangs around one of his restaurants, the one you frequent.

There are things I’m not wild about, like foil wrapped butter pats and sponge-bread rolls - but the whole wheat rolls are very good. The nachos are probably the worst restaurant nachos in town.  Fused together with cheese, the chips are sprinkled with Baco-Bits and chips of green pepper and crowned with four big wedges of tomato. The alleged salsa tasted like barbeque sauce, and there wasn’t a hot pepper in sight. Tables all around us were lapping them up like there was no tomorrow, however.

Knight's Bar & Restaurant

2324 Dexter Ave.

665-8644

FOOD                     8 out of 10

SERVICE                8 out of 10

ATMOSPHERE       8 out of 10

HOURS: Monday through Saturday, food service 11 a.m. until 11 p.m.

LIQUOR: Full bar and wine list

PLASTIC: VBA, MC, AMEX, $10 minimum charge on credit cards

PRICES: Inexpensive to moderate. Lunch for two, $12.00 with tax and tip; dinner for two, $30 with tax and tip.

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Good

NEWS PHOTO RICK LIEDER
 

Ray Knight: owner, social director