Meat and Three and AC
Posted by Pete Robbins on Dec 11th 2019
Everyone should have a friend like Alan Clemons, someone who is not only willing to mentor you and share trade secrets, but also eager to drive long distances for a meal. We email and text a lot, and occasionally talk on the phone, but our face-to-face time is limited, and usually takes place at an event like the Bassmaster Classic, where we’re both being pulled in 323 different directions.
That’s why I was thrilled that he drove down from Huntsville to Birmingham on Monday to join me for lunch during an all-too-brief gap in my schedule. Since it was on his home turf, I let him pick the place, and I knew he would not let me down. Indeed, some of the most memorable meals of my life were with AC – one, at Kentucky Lake a decade ago was at a little place that featured alligator and frogs legs and all kinds of rough fish. That was fun. Less fun was a carb-loaded trip he took to Mother’s in New Orleans in 2011 with my wife and my editor while I sat in Cataouatche eating a sack lunch and watching KVD catching bass after bass after bass.
This week he took me to Niki’s West, a famous Birmingham “meat and three” institution where we upped the ante to “meat and four or five.” It’s the type of place that’s putting elastic-waisted pants back into semi-style, and no Michelin-starred operation could’ve hit the spot better. Then we headed 20 minutes down the road, not in search of Lipitor, but rather to Simmons Sporting Goods, an epic outdoors store which is best known for its previously-massive selection of WEC crankbaits. Their stock is dwindling, so if you have an appetite for them, bite off as much as you can chew. You never know where your next meal or flat side is coming from.
