Clay’s smokehouse is on 28th and Division, or thereabouts, just west of the Wild Oats. The Smokehouse resides in an older storefront and is rather unremarkable from the exterior. what is remarkable is that you’ll be smelling the woodsmoke for a block or two in each direction.
Clay’s is one of those places that has suffered, image-wise, with the rise of places like AppleBees. The walls of Clay’s are covered in schlock of the same ilk as the things found on the walls of common ‘american’ eateries of the franchise variety, but at Clay’s the layers of smoke and grease sediment on them indicates they’ve been collected over the existence of the restaurant. One particularly campy item is a selection of beer cans from the 1930s-70s, featuring ‘Billy Beer,’ the existence of which I had yet to confirm outside of one single reference in the Simpsons, season 2. shows my age, I guess.
I believe that on this weekend I was the least hungover and the least hungry, so I sampled the corn and barley salad. A wrangle of romaine lettuce, well cooked cold barley and fresh-tasting (though it was likely not fresh) corn. All in all, nothing interesting, nothing disgusting–what would be a good side dish to counteract the heavy meats that were in front of Billy’s Dad (brisket sandwich) and big-L (short ribs, i think. it’s been a while.)
so we ate. No one seemed blown away by their food, and the only other memorable thing I recall is that when the waitress carded me, she said ‘your photo makes you look like a criminal.’
geez.
