American Fare Always in Style at Stone Lodge

Back before the country-Western movement and its music, dance steps and cowpoke-chic dress style hit Poway, there was the Big Stone Lodge.

Built in 1925 on the site of a former stage coach way-station on the only road between Escondido and San Diego, the low-slung stone structure and several adjacent buildings were envisioned as a sort of early mixed-use project by the owner, Homer Hanson, who simultaneously operated a general store, a dance hall, a restaurant, a service station and a rehabilitation home for alcoholic women.

Some of the outlying structures no longer stand, but the Big Stone Lodge remains, recently revitalized as a restaurant (“An American Restaurant,” as the place bills itself) and as the Pomerado Club, a country-Western dance hall that offers live music Tuesday through Saturday.

One end of the building houses a bar and a clientele that seems drawn more by the pool tables than the Western ambience. It is in the other half of the establishment, where a number of dining tables face the bandstand across a large dance floor, that devotees of the Texas two-step chew on barbecued ribs and T-bone steaks between trips around the floor. The restaurant and club evidently meet at the boundary between tables and dance floor.

In a way (rather well-defined, actually), there is a dress code, set by a clientele that largely opts for jeans, boots and hats, although T-shirts seem acceptable. A necktie would be as out of place as a 1960s hippie costume. The music and dancing go on virtually nonstop and amount to a great deal of fun, and unless you choose one of the outdoor tables (warmed by heaters, and too removed from the action), the mood becomes irresistible.

Inside, an attendant periodically sprinkles the dance floor with sawdust. The beer is served in long-necked bottles offered without glasses, which are available by request, of course, although such a request may make your country-Western credentials somewhat suspect.

The menu is more than an adjunct to the floor show. The kitchen does a good (not great, but good) job with the basic list of steaks, ribs and chicken, and with the garnishes that accompany them. Two items seem out of place--the chicken piccata served over angel-hair pasta and the “Sonoma coast”-style salmon (which is marinated in olive oil, lemon and garlic before being consigned briefly to the broiler)--but there is no reason to quarrel with a menu that offers expanded choice to the clientele.

There are three or five steaks, depending on perspective, since both the rib eye and the “good ol’ T-bone” are offered in two sizes; the T-bone, the larger of the two, is served in 16 and 24-ounce cuts. The smaller version nonetheless was a large, handsome steak, cooked a bit more rare than requested, and quite juicy and toothsome; a T-bone has a bit of chew to it, which in the opinion of many makes it the most select cut possible. There was a day in this country when ketchup invariably was offered with steak, a practice still observed at Big Stone Lodge, where the server unceremoniously plunks down a bottle alongside a bottle of steak sauce. De gustibus non disputandam .

The third steak, chicken-fried and served with mashed potatoes and pan gravy, certainly is a natural for the setting; pounded, batter-dipped and crisped in hot fat, it is a totally different way to enjoy beef.

Other choices are barbecued spareribs and chicken, served separately or on a combination platter. The ribs, by and large, seem the better choice of the two, and feature tender flesh under a grill-crisped crust. The chicken, while not bad, was nothing special and seemed barely more than a short step above the dry, tough stage.

In any case, the barbecue sauce itself had plenty of spice and pungency, the thick-cut “Western” fries could have been more crisp and the chili-flavored “cowboy” beans not only had a much better than usual flavor but were obviously done with some attention and included savory bites of onion.

Meals also include the choice of a decent green salad or the soup of the day, recently a “beef Burgundy” brew that did taste like a spiced-up, slightly thinned-down version of the famous French stew.

The kitchen makes the strawberry shortcake the old-fashioned way, with a firm baking powder biscuit-style crust, and serves it copiously portioned with sliced berries and mounds of whipped cream. The chocolate sundae, also oversized, nicely hits the spot, and the apple pie, while catered, is well-made, generously stuffed with fruit and lavishly portioned.

Big Stone Lodge

12237 Old Pomerado Road., Poway

Calls: 748-1617

Hours: Lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday

Cost: Entrees $8.83 to $19.34; dinner for two, including a beer each, tax and tip, about $30 to $60