When we knew we were going to spend a week in Cathedral City, next to Palm Springs in the California desert, I tapped into social media for value dining to seek out places locals recommend.
One caught my eye: Bubba’s Bones and Brews located in a strip shopping center on one of the main drags just a couple of miles away. The regular lunch and dinner menu looked good, but Happy Hour was particularly appealing. It included $4 domestic beers, $5 for its draft selections and house wines and bargain margaritas.
Bubba’s menu 3zfeatures what you’d expect for a “bone house” with pulled pork, ribs, chicken, wings and the like. The Happy Hour menu featured three-course dinners for $17—a choice of fish and chips, ham steak, salmon plate, bourbon chicken, chicken-fried steak and cod. That’s the entrée plus mashed potatoes, veggies, a green salad and ice cream for dessert. Good luck beating that price.
My bride selected the fish and chips and was served an ample portion of chips plus four fried and moist pieces of cod. It was a thumb’s up, as was her house margarita ($7). It’s a relaxed environment with a big screen television in the bar—ideal for keeping up on the NBA playoffs—with the food served on trays covered with brown paper. The margarita was served in a pint jar
The menu offered a wedge salad ($8.50) that I could not pass up. It was half of an iceberg head cut in half with blue cheese dressing and bleu cheese chunks, tomatoes, and bacon. I had to intentionally go quite slow to not fill up completely on the salad.
I had opted for a quesadilla ($10.50) that had a choice of chicken, pulled pork or sausage as filling. I tried the sausage that came with yellow cheese with sour cream and salsa on the side. Given the size of the salad, I took a quarter-slice home. The sausage was a nice spin and made a nice appetizer for lunch.
Burgers, fries stacked with pulled pork and covered in cheese sauce, wings, ribs, street tacos, and a barbarian pretzel with cheese sauce were among the other offerings.
We were there on a Monday so it was quiet, but I suspect it gets quite lively. The marketing on the menu noted it ranked No. 1 on one social media list.
We’d certainly return to try more of the Happy Hour offerings next time we’re in the area.
By Tim Hunt