Road Tips

In Case You've Been Wondering...

It's been awhile since last posted on Road Tips.  I've been a bit preoccupied with something big going on in my personal life.  My brother passed away last week and I'd been trying to spend as much time with him at the hospital as I could before he finally passed.  

My brother was 4 years older than me and I have to say that we weren't all that close growing up.  I suppose it had to do with the fact that I was the next one to come along after my brother had been doted on by my parents and my older sisters for nearly 4.5 years.  Plus we had to share a room together growing up.  Some nights (and days) were pure hell with an older brother resentful of having to share a room with someone as dopey and uncool as me.  

Always one to live on the edge, my brother had a lot of hard miles on him and lived live in the fast lane, figuratively and relatively speaking.  A lover of fast cars, he drag raced - both legally and illegally - in his teens and early 20's.  His penchant for speed was well-known amongst those living in the town where we grew up, especially the law enforcement community.  His lead-foot was still with him in his final months when we was able to drive a car.  

When the love of music became the bind that began to pull us together in my early teens, my brother turned me on to a number of artists and bands long before they became famous.  I first heard Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Robin Trower, ZZ Top and a number of other bands and artists who were just starting out which he played on the Panasonic stereo system we had in our bedroom.  I would have to say that my brother was one of my musical influences growing up.  

A work place accident about 22 years ago led to a high level of chronic pain which he endured the rest of his life.  But he had been in and out of the hospital over the years due to a car wreck he was in when he was 17.  His body was crooked in places it shouldn't have been and it was hurting in ways that I'm sure many of us could never fathom.  He got hooked on pain pills over the years, got cleaned up, got somewhat hooked again and was probably taking way too much pain medication up to the time that he was diagnosed with empyema - a medical term for the collection of infectious fluids in his lungs. 

He was in his local hospital for a couple reasons a couple weeks ago and woke up one morning short of breath and with low oxygen levels.  He was sent to a pulmonary care unit in Cedar Rapids and I saw him the day after he was admitted.  I was shocked as to how he looked.  (The above picture was taken just last month.  I was standing next to him, but we cropped me out as it was the last picture he had taken of him before he went into the hospital.)  

When we walked into his room, it looked like he was dead.  But my wife and I - with help from the hospital staff - were able to wake him up and talk with him.  Two days later, I saw him again and he looked better.  He was still a bit confused as to where he was (he was in the early stages of Alzheimers), but he was much better than he was when I saw him from before.

I saw him a couple more times including spending some time with him a week ago yesterday when we were watching TV in his room, laughing, joking and just being brothers again.  I told him that I'd see him the next day.  "Love ya, buddy," were the last words he spoke to me.  

The next day, I got to the hospital at 12:25 p.m.  My younger sister was already there, along with my brother's wife and her sister.  10 minutes after I got there, he was gone.  Just like that.  I was absolutely shocked at how he had deteriorated in less than 24 hours.  

Now, empyema was not on the scorecard for the reason family and friends thought how my brother would die.  For years, we figured it would be in a fiery car crash, or at the hands of a jealous husband, or from a drug deal gone bad, or a getting cut down in a hail of bullets by the police after he had barricaded himself in a public building.  You know, the normal ways to die these days.  But he found a couple women in his life over the years who kept him on a leash and probably helped keep him alive a lot longer than many of us thought he would make it.  

When we announced that my brother had passed, I remarked that while losing a parent is tough, losing a sibling may be harder.  Being the only brother that he had, I was the one who wrote his obituary and this pretty much encapsulates what my brother was all about:

"(My brother) was gregarious and outgoing, he was a raconteur with a penchant for telling colorful stories in which there may (or may not) have been some embellishments along the way.  He could be charming with people, he could infuriate his friends and family with his actions, he could be loving, compassionate and caring, and he could frustrate many with his choices in life.  But in the end, everyone would shrug their shoulders, throw up their hands, smile and say, “Well, that’s (my brother).”  

As I told his lifeless body in the hospital room before I left him one last time the day he passed, "See ya on the other side, man!"  

That is, I'm not certain he'll be where I'm going...  😆😆😆😆

Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint - Nashville

With my new job, it appears that I'll be in Nashville three or four times a year calling on accounts who cater to the music industry in the city.  I have a former colleague who moved to Nashville a few years ago and we were able to get together at a burger and beer place near his home just north of downtown Nashville.  We made a date to meet at Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint.  

While I was not familiar with Jack Brown's, it turns out that it's a multi-location chain that started out in Harrisonburg, VA in 2009.  But long before they opened their first restaurant, Aaron Ludwig and Mike Sabin were pre-teen friends hanging out riding their skateboards around their neighborhood in Alexandria, VA.  And while they were out palling around on their boards, they started to collect beer cans.  They would find some along the roadways, or sometimes they'd dumpster dive behind bars to find other beers cans.  When their respective fathers would travel, the boys would ask them to bring home unique beer cans that weren't available in their home area.  

When the boys graduated from high school, the now-large beer can collection was stored in multiple boxes in the attic of their parents' homes.  The two teenagers went off in different directions - Ludwig to Radford University in his home state of Virginia, and Sabin went to Miami Beach to start on the bottom rung of a culinary career. They kept in touch over the years, even talking about one day opening their own bar.  

Ludwig eventually moved to Harrisonburg and opened up a ski and snowboard shop.  Sabin had worked his way up through multiple levels of the restaurant business eventually becoming an executive chef.  In the mid-00's, Sabin moved back to Virginia to become the sous chef at the prestigious Inn at Little Washington in Washington, VA.  

One day in 2008, Ludwig had a particularly tough day at work and he called Sabin to vent.  The two started to talk about a change in their lives (both were in their mid-30's) and they brought up their longtime dream to have their own bar and restaurant.  Ludwig was now a proficient home brewer while Sabin knew the nuts and bolts of the restaurant industry.  Ludwig decided to sell his ski shop and Sabin left his job at the Inn at Little Washington and worked on opening their first place that focused on a large number of craft beers and high quality burgers.  In 2009, Jack Brown's Beer & Burger Joint opened their doors - the beer can collection that had been stored in their parents' attic was now on full display in their dive-bar-style joint.  

Pictured right - Mike Sabin (left) and Jack Ludwig (right).  Photo courtesy Virginia Living magazine.  

Now, you would think that Jack Brown was possibly an influential friend, mentor or family member for Ludwig and Sabin, but the two came up with the name as kind of a joke.  When they were younger and couldn't remember the name of a person, they would just call that person "Jack Brown".  It stuck with them over the years and it became a permanent part of their lives, now immortalized by naming their restaurant after the fictitious name they gave to people whose names they couldn't come up with.  

Ludwig and Sabin knew that having good meat was the key to a great burger.  They decided on using American Wagyu beef - a result of cross-breeding between Japanese Kobe cattle and American black angus cattle.  They found a ranch in Idaho - Snake River Farms - a family-owned operation outside of Boise that was one of the pioneers of American Wagyu beef.  Sabin and Ludwig contracted with Snake River Farms to produce the 73/27 beef to fat ratio that has a complex flavor and a buttery texture for their burgers.

Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint found huge success and the blueprint for the business was forged for future expansion.  After a few years, Brown and Ludwig expanded across Virginia and into the Carolinas.  Today, there are 17 Jack Brown's locations in six states in the south with 3 more locations slated to open before the end of 2023.  Each location features over 100 craft beers and a number of specialty burgers including the Shocker (burger topped with jalapeño and habenero peppers with pepper jack cheese), the Elvis (topped with peanut butter, mayo and applewood smoked bacon), and the "Greg Brady" (topped with mac & cheese, and barbecued potato chips).  

(In 2011, Ludwig and Sabin opened a new concept restaurant just a couple doors down from the original Jack Brown's - Billy Jack's Shack - a restaurant that combined some of the menu items from Jack Brown's and added chicken sandwiches, sliders and wings to the mix.  Today, there are 3 Billy Jack's locations - the original one in Harrisonburg, VA, one in Fort Lauderdale-by-the Sea, FL, and one in Charlotte, NC.)  

There are two Jack Brown's locations in Nashville - one in the Germantown neighborhood north of downtown Nashville; and the other in the Edgehill Village neighborhood near Vanderbilt University and Music Row.  My friend lives in Germantown and we decided to meet up there.  (see map)  

There's a small parking lot next to Jack Brown's Germantown location, but that was full when I pulled up.  There's a larger lot to the south of the restaurant that is owned by the City of Nashville and to pay you have to download an application, scan a QR code on a sign and pay via phone.  Well, that turned out to be an ordeal - especially if you don't have the app downloaded prior to parking.  It took me a good 12 to 15 minutes to negotiate the twists and turns of the app and assign a credit card to the payment.  Then snatching the QR code was a pain as I needed to keep a couple windows open on my phone to toggle back and forth to put in my vehicle information and to finally pay.  It drove me friggin' crazy.  

When I met up with my buddy later, he asked me where I had parked and I told him that I parked in the city lot to the south of Jack Brown's and how much of an ordeal it was to get set up to pay for the parking.  "But you did pay for the parking, right?"  I said that I had. "Good.  They're pretty militant about not paying in those lots."  And to that point, when we walked out to the parking lot after we had eaten, parked next to my buddy's 60's vintage Chevrolet pick-up was a vehicle with a Denver Boot on it.  "Oh, man.  Bummer," my buddy said.  "That guy was parked there when I pulled in.  Obviously, he didn't use the app."  

I was still trying to figure out the parking payment app as I walked into Jack Brown's.  It was an unseasonably warm evening (I left Iowa earlier in the day in rain and the temperature in the 50's and got into Nashville with sunny skies and temps in the upper 80's) and the place was packed with people.  There were no seats to be had at any of the tables inside the small dining area or in an enclosed patio on the side.  I asked the hostess if I could sit at the bar as there were three or four seats open.  She said it was no problem and I took one of the seats with an open stool next to me for my buddy to have when he showed up.  One of the many bartenders at the bar came over and asked me what I'd like to drink.  I asked about a hazy IPA and she suggested a Hazy Jane from the BrewDog brewery in Columbus, OH.  BrewDog started in Scotland in 2007 and expanded operations into the US in 2015.  It was a very good beer and I was more than happy with her suggestion.

My buddy showed up almost as soon as I had my first Hazy Jane drained and sat down next to me.  We caught up on a few things and then started to look over the menu.  Each day, Jack Brown's features a burger on the menu and that day it was a burger topped with a sweet and hot Asian slaw mixture with smoked pork belly and a chili/garlic mayo blend.  My buddy said he likes coming on Friday when the featured burger is topped with fresh guacamole and applewood smoked bacon.  

All the burgers at Jack Brown's are cooked on a well-seasoned flat-top grill just behind the bar.  The smell of the wagyu beef cooking on the grill was sort of intoxicating, considering I really hadn't had anything to eat for most of the day.  Flat grilled burgers are - in my opinion - the best way to cook a burger.

My buddy didn't try to steer me in any direction in regard to what kind of burger I should get.  But he was adamant about the fries.  "The fries are really good," he said.  "You really need to try the fries."  OK - well, a burger with fries was probably a given for my first visit to Jack Brown's.  

One of the burgers on the menu was one with sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions that are cooked in a Guinness stout, applewood smoked bacon and Swiss cheese.  That was right up my alley.  But, I decided to go basic cheese burger - the Classic Jack that had caramelized onions, American cheese, sliced dill pickles, and something called JB's sauce that was a conglomeration of ketchup, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, a sweet chili sauce, finely chopped onions and a spicy brown mustard.  The ground Wagyu beef had me thinking that I really wanted to taste the meat for my first Jack Brown's burger and I thought the combination of bacon, Swiss cheese and sautéed onions and mushrooms would mask the flavor of the meat.  

The burger was presented on a simple napkin with the fries in a boat with checkered paper.  The burger was outstanding.  The fries?  Meh...  They were good, but they were a basic crinkle cut variety that didn't knock my socks off.  I was more interested with - and concentrated more - on the burger that had a robust flavor, juicy and tasty.  The beef literally melted in my mouth with each bite.  I was more than happy with my very first Jack Brown's burger.  

I'm always on the lookout for great burger and beer places during my travels and Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint was a definite spot-hitter.  It's designed to be sort of a dive bar, but with gourmet burgers and a long list of craft beers.  It was sort of hectic and loud in there, but it was still fun to get together with my buddy and slug back a couple three beers in addition to having a great burger.  When I get back to Nashville and my buddy suggests we get together at Jack Brown's again, I would have no problem with that.