Andy's Basement Welcomes Waffles
The Basement at Andy's Bar was known for a lot of things including being one of the divest joints left in town. Before it reopened last week, you could walk into the stale basement, throw a couple dollars into a Juke Box, drink for cheap all night long, play pool while chain smoking cigarettes. Now in a non-smoking environment, you can satisfy your late night munchie cravings or soak up all those shots you took earlier with your friends by ordering one of the new creative waffle concoctions.
Andy's Bar got a new stage and some much-needed renovations last year after local business owner Sparky Pearson purchased the three-story building, with Denton-fave Paschall Bar adorning the top floor. Now, let's dive into some waffles...
The Captain
The Captain takes Captain Crunch fried chicken, pepper jack cheese, chipotle honey, and cole slaw and creates the most unusual first bite. Your taste buds will do backflips trying to figure out how this crazy combination of flavors came to be, you’ll have to go in quick for a second bite to fully process. And not saying it’s bad, this is a damn good waffle, but the unusual pairing of ingredients creates a melding of flavors that’s unexpected. The chicken is crispy and tender, the chipotle honey acts as a sticky and delicious syrup, there is extra crunch from the pieces of the cereal, and you have the creamy coolness of the slaw to balance out the heat from the honey. The waffle is fluffy, flavorful in its own right, and works as an excellent vessel for bringing all these ingredients playfully together.
The Captain
Big Tex
Sweet Carolina
Big Tex
The Big Tex is a waffle filled with spicy chorizo, fluffy egg, cheddar cheese, cowboy candy (aka candied jalapenos), and a side of house made salsa verde. This greasy combination of savory ingredients, plus the heat of the cowboy candy, jalapenos that have been marinated in vinegar and sugar, is sure to cure what ails you. The coolness of the salsa verde brings the heat down and then lifts it back up on the back end so make sure you like your food with some spice.
The King
The King
The King combines peanut butter, banana, smoked bacon, and honey - a trifecta of ingredients complimented by the sticky sweetness of the honey. The crisp bacon adds the right amount of texture, and the honey melds everything together, letting each flavor fold into the next. The fluffy waffle, creamy peanut butter, the sweetness of the banana, and smokiness of the bacon creates the flavor profile for a savory and sweet treat that would pair perfectly with a stout or coffee porter on draft.
Sweet Carolina
Sweet Carolina is piled high with tender pulled pork, mustard BBQ, cole slaw, and cowboy candy. The star of this is the mustard BBQ sauce, it brings the right amount of tang and emphasizes the flavor of the pulled pork. The candied jalepenos adds a layer of heat that will wake up the taste buds, and the coleslaw keeps the right amount of balance so that the spice doesn’t overpower the other flavors.
Not going to lie, the last thing I expected to find myself doing would be eating waffles… in Andy’s Basement, but the renovations look great, and it is awesome to see the kitchen in action. They even have a limited run of bottled cocktails and feature cocktails named by local creatives and community members. Doors for the Basement open at 4 pm and closes at 2 am, so you can stop by and grab a Juice the Emissary to go with your preferred waffle.
Photos by Ellie Alonzo
Header image design by Sara Button