Adam & Eats: Cadillac Grill

This week we head back to Alma to investigate a claim that they serve excellent food at A to Z.

If you are not familiar with the shopping compound that is A to Z, get ready to learn something. A to Z, or AtoZ (pronounced ay-tozz) is a place where they sell everything you can imagine at a very low price. Furniture, sporting goods, clothes, groceries, sparkley cowboy hats, artificial flowers, and pretty much anything that has fallen off of a truck and been dented or scratched. It is where condiments go to die. For anybody who has a drop of bargain hunter blood coursing through his or her veins, this is the place for you. But the question is, can they serve decent food at a place where you can buy mysteriously stained carpet squares? (Author’s note: I carpeted the floor in my office with these mysteriously stained carpet squares.)

Let’s find out, shall we?

Located smack dab in between the antiques store and the clothing store in the A to Z complex just north of Alma, is the Cadillac Grill BBQ & Catering. To say that we are dubious of this restaurant, would be putting it lightly. Forgive me for saying this, but A to Z just makes you feel a little dirty.

We bargain hunters are used to that feeling. You dig through enough piles of used clothes looking for a vintage powder blue tuxedo and you’re gonna have 40 years worth of dust on you. You get dirty hunting for deals. It’s the nature of the business. But, you typically do not want to associate that elated dirty feeling of being a picker with that of eating a sandwich.

Believe me, you spend a day digging for treasure, and you’ll be washing up to your elbows like a doctor scrubbing in for surgery before you even think of touching something that goes into your mouth. To quote my mother “you don’t know where that stuff’s been.”

Despite our misgivings and raised eyebrows, Cadillac Grill is about to make us eat our worries smothered in tangy barbeque sauce.

Right out of the gates, they have my attention. Two words people: smothered fries.

What you get is a giant pile of crinkle cuts covered with smoked pulled pork, topped with grated cheese, and drizzled with either hot or mild barbeque sauce. To say that these are awesome would be an enormous understatement. Why stop there? Sure people have been putting coleslaw on bbq sandwiches forever, but Cadillac Grill gets many brownie points for approaching this next item in a creative way. They call it the BBQ Reuben. Take two slices of rye and pan fry them in butter, pile a stack of sliced smoked brisket onto them, add bbq sauce, some wonderful coleslaw, and a slice of Swiss cheese, now insert it into your mouth and enjoy wave after wave of flavor-gasm.

Add wonderful homemade potato chips to the mix and you’ve got a helluva lunch on your hands (and face).

I’m a potato salad fan, but CG’s might just be the best tater salad I’ve ever eaten. Yes, I’m going to go out on that limb and make that statement. Also, try the southwestern potatoes. Damn, they’re good.

If you weren’t filled to bursting yet, get the Cadillac Cookie. Once you try it, you’ll order it first the next time around, so that you don’t miss out. What it consists of is a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie (and by fresh baked, I mean when you order it) in a tiny cast iron skillet, topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, with a cherry on top. It’s so good, you’ll have to go to confession after eating it.

If you have been to scared to eat at the Cadillac Grill, suck it up Nancy. This place is gonna blow your socks off. That said, I’m heading back right now.

Until next time, good eating to you and yours.