Imagine with me a moment a place that brings together the decadent excess of your favorite Fall Festival food offerings, the comfort of sit-down dining, enormous portions, reasonable prices, and a full bar. A restaurant where deep-fried bacon, a half pound pork chop sandwich, stromboli, chicken and dumplings, and hand-cut and battered mozzarella sticks live in harmony with certified Angus beef burgers, fresh salads, thin-crust pizza, and a Buffalo wings selection that could entice the dead.
Now, if you can possibly conceive that this place also uses a buttery breading recipe that floats on air (not week-old grease), boasts the benefits of a charbroiler (instead of a carbonized-meat-caked flat grill), and daily charges less for truly humongous piles of food than you’ll pay in October for a single pronto pup in a paper cup, then you, friend, have formed in your mind the beautiful dream that DC’s Pub & Charbroiled Grill has made manifest on Evansville’s North Side.
On First Avenue and Buena Vista, in the building that previously housed Nick’s Pizza and Wings, and, before that, the venerated and oft-missed Sir Beef, a small sprightly woman named Debbie Karczewski (pronounced car-chess-key) has come from the previous confines of career cost-accountant to bring her passion and penchant for cooking to the hungry masses. With business partner, and friend, city councilman Curt John (the C), Debbie (the D) opened DC’s Pub to recreate a laid-back neighborhood bar and pub feel and offer a panoply of dishes that keeps regulars coming back for more and more, and more. And more, hungry readers!
The husband and I got the party started with DC’s Coolers – a glowing mixture of blueberry vodka, Sprite, and blue Curacao liqueur with the sweetness of a Dum Dum, but cold, crisp, and clearly spiked. And then, praise be, the appetizers arrived.
Brought before us were baskets truly heaped with such wonders as crisp, hearty homemade potato chips; curling cutlets of deep-fried bacon; and the sweet, light JK’s Onion Petals, hand battered and breaded, essentially a “blooming” onion plucked apart – all accompanied by DC’s Creamy Pub sauce (an orangey ranch concoction, equal parts tang and richness) and peppery Mushroom Sauce, so named as the original dip for the highly recommended fried mushrooms.
Fresh, layered nachos were both discovery and delight, as we excavated, by the forkful, tortilla chips beneath diced tomatoes, slathered in homemade nacho cheese sauce, chopped lettuce, jalapenos, and a succulent spiced beef (like many items here, made and delivered fresh from a local supplier). We didn’t even bother with a plate. And yet, while very delicious all, these things were essentially shamed by what came next: DC’s New York style Buffalo wings.
At DC’s you can pick your poison among six homemade wing sauces: Nekked, Mild, Hot, XXXHot, BBQ, Teriyaki, and Candied. We sampled two, the Teriyaki and the Candied. And days later, writing this at breakfast-time, I drool verily for those candied wings, a subtle bite of spice within a syrupy-sweet glaze over those cute little tender chicken parts. True meat candy! In fact, I’d like a basket of 50 right now.
And though we (and a medium-sized village anywhere else on Earth) could have lived on those appetizers alone (us for a week and the village for many months, I suspect), we took a brief breather and just kept on eating. Debbie advised we sample, at least, the Buffalo chicken sandwich and a signature charbroiled burger. And loving pizza as we so do, we ordered one of those, too.
The double lobed (you know, the whole heart shaped chicken breast) Buffalo chicken sandwich is battered and breaded in DC’s mild, hot, or Teriyaki wing dip (we had the chef-recommended mild). A word for this sandwich: gigantic. Just the right buttery, cayenne vinegary sauce and wafer-thin hand breading made what’s often a grease-laden mushy puck from less-careful kitchens into a fluffy loaf of chicken succulence instead.
Now, the pizzas come in infinite combinations, a la carte or as specialty combos. A thin, toasty crust carries the ingredients, with sauce spiced ever-so-thusly by Italian seasonings, and melted fresh mozzarella atop (shaved from the same blocks as the hand-cut mozz sticks). Veggies were fresh, not overcooked, and every topping taste stood out just as it should. A decent contender!
As for the burger? Ah, the burger. As I swoon, let me reiterate: DC’s offers certified Angus beef and charbroiled specimens, to boot, which means they taste like Real Actual Meat. And anyone who’s not yet had Real Actual Meat will be forgiven for weeping a bit as they try a DC’s burger, as the epiphany of true beefy, grilled flavor fills mouth, gullet, and, indeed, soul. (I’d have one of these for breakfast, too, you know.) Best of all, you can choose a third, half or a full pound burger! Cheese and toppings galore, too! Grilled pineapple? Okay. With a bona fide fried egg on top? Sure! Baked ham or bacon? Yep! Salsa? Well, if you must…
We might also have ordered a rib-eye steak sandwich, replete with sautéed mushrooms and onions and topped, if you wish, thee fried egg! Or a charbroiled pork chop sandwich (either house-seasoned or blackened)! Or a Philly beef sandwich! Or a Keta salmon, halibut or swordfish filet meal! Or any one of the build-your-own salads that might certainly prove a full meal!
But, remember, I said there’s more and more? People, there’s even more! DC’s also offers daily plate-lunch and dinner specials that run the gamut from a baked chicken with standard sides, to a homemade chicken and dumplings meal with prices averaging around $6! Can’t be beat! Whew!
Yes, it’s true, friends and comrades, you can get almost anything at DC’s Pub and that’s the point, says Debbie. She wants weekday business lunchers, after-work social snackers, early evening diners and late-night partiers alike to feel welcome here. The North Side eateries scene around First Avenue is no Burkhardt (thank heavens, I’ll add); it’s still more of a neighborhood, and DC’s Pub wants to be the gathering spot. She’s really put her money where your mouth is, too: She and her husband Ray moved from Henderson to just up the street from DC’s, to live where they sell and make a go of the place. Now that’s investment!
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Credit Jesika Sanders-Ellis // Logo Courtesy of DC's Pub
