Dining By The Alphabet: Letter F

Letter F. Was it a failure or fortune?

Our original plan was to head to Fizz's Bottles and Burgers or Burgers and Bottles or Brottles, I forget which one, regardless they were closed by the time we were ready. We nixed out on Felipe's cause we've already had Mexican for Letter A and C, and if we went to yet another place that served chimichangs, we'd be forced to change our blog name to "Wichita Por E.B." and our feature to "Comer Por El Alfabeto". We may lose all five of our readers due to language barriers then.

When deciding on our place, we were aiming for something most people haven't been to yet. Your staple F's like Fox and Hound (one of the worst customer service spots in Wichita hands down) and Felipes, many of you have all been to. Even Freddy's Frozen Custard has gained its popularity through the years and seems to be blowing up lately all over the region. So where does that leave us?

We bring to you.......

FAT TONY'S! Home of the Largest HDTV in Wichita.

Located on Douglas at the southwest corner of Douglas and Emporia. Don't drive too fast or you literally might pass it. http://www.fattonysgrill.com/

The Mural

I must say walking in the place is pretty overwhelming. Lots of space inside. Its very large and claims to have the city's current biggest HDTV (20 feet!) you can find in any restaurant or bar with 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound (even though I can't tell the difference between 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, and any other number Dolby uses). I'm not an audio buff by any means..... or just buff in any sense of the word. The walls are also lined with many flat screens. I think they are placed a little high forcing you to raise your head constantly but that's just my opinion. The walls have signatures on them, i'm guessing was placed on there by patrons. There's even a little mural painted on with a Chiefs, Jayhawk and Wildcat football player. I'm not so big on that but its a nice representation of Kansas football so I won't complain.  



 The bar also features a "skybox" of sorts. You take the stairs to higher level that's open to the entire bar. You're nearly eye level with the big screen they have. Plus you get a birds eye view of everybody below you. If you have a God complex, THIS is the spot for you! There's also a couple flat panel televisions up there, a couple old arcade games like Pac-Man along with necessary tables and chairs. The perfect mancave, except its not a cave! I didn't get a chance to check it out but I may have to some time for my upcoming birthday. I was told you can rent it out for parties and such.

Before coming in we noticed on their website they have two food challenges. And for the friends that know me, I've done two food challenges before. Both happened to be wing challenges. One I passed and the other I failed MISERABLY! Maybe i'll tell that story in another blog. Fat Tony's has a wing challenge and a burger challenge. For the wing challenge. You have to eat 12 bone-in wings in 15 minutes with nothing to drink. Win and you get a t-shirt, your name on the plaque and bragging rights. Lose its $10. For you burger fans, the Burger Challenge consists of a five pound burger with all of the fixings and a full pound of fries. Same prizes if you win, and if you lose, $25 cost. I might have to try their Wing Challenge and see if I can raise my win percentage to 66%.

The place was nearly dead when we came in. Probably cause its a monday, the place is new and lots of hungover people from the long basketball 4 day weekend. We seat ourselves and our server comes to us. Friendly gal who looked like she was happy to be there. Even the bartenders and cooks greeted us as we walked in. For a mere three seconds, we felt like royalty until reality set in. Our server asked us if we've been to Fat Tony's before and we replied "no". So she sat down by us and showed us the menu. She mentioned how Fat Tony's has great New York style pizzas and that's what they were started for but lately they've been known for their philly cheese steaks. She also mentioned they have great burgers and showed us those.

The apps minus one popper somebody
I won't say who ate before the
camera came out. 

So we glance over the menu over a couple dollar drafts they had on special for mondays. Hard to pass up on a dollar draft, right? The server gave me a list of their specials and if you ever get a chance,  check it out. They have very good drink specials for each day of the week. Competitively pricing themselves against other bars. So back to the food ordering..... Thought about ordering the pizza but went ahead with her suggestions to see if they were the real deal. Ordered that and some fried pickles cause we both love fried pickles. A few minutes later she comes back with "We sold our last order of fried pickles yesterday and we won't get another delivery until tomorrow". Losing. We sat there and looked over the menu to see what other appetizers we could get. Their options are basically what you would find in any bar. Mozy sticks, nachos, artichoke dip, fried mushrooms, etc. We agreed on the jalapeno poppers. 

So our orders come out. Tiffany had the Original Philly Cheese Steak (thinly sliced steak blazed with peppers and onions then topped with melted Cheez Whiz) and fries. I had the Tony's Half-Pound Burger (a 1/2 lb of Premium Black Angus beef from Creekstone Farms grilled to your liking and topped with lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion) with fries. I added a slice of bacon, which I think is a rip at 99 cents, should have just ordered another beer instead of that. All the food came out in a very timely manner.

The best thing about Philly is not the Eagles



Excuse me sir but we decided to just put the entire cow
inbetween the buns just for you!

 The burger was pretty big. Have you ever seen that Burger King commercial where the guy has very little hands and can't eat his burger cause of it. That's how I felt. NOT cause I have little hands but because the Burger is big. Before I can even take a bite out of my burger I look over to my right and here Tiffany say, "Wow these fries are bank! Probably the best in Wichita.". Now that's a very bold statement to make. People have varied opinions on whats a good fry. So let's describe what the fries were like...... ..... ..... ..... I'm pretty blank on how to describe them so Tiffany put it best as "Similar to Spangles fries but seasoned differently". She hit the nail right on the head. They are shaped like Spangles fries, have the same feel to them but don't have that very salty taste. So after some more fries, they did taste eerily similar to Spangles which we both consider the best fries in fast food. We ate portions of each others meals and Tiffany, I think, was in love. Not with me, Not with Kenny Chesney, Not with Bradley Cooper but with both the burger and the Philly Cheesesteak. Regarding the Philly Cheesesteak she wished it had more peppers and onions but she still loved it. For the burger, she thought it was awesome. Just awesome. I think the only word I could make out from her non-stop raving was "yummy". The burger had a backyard grill out taste to it. You could almost taste the charcoal. That, I loved. It was seriously a big burger. I've been used to the greasy burgers in Wichita and this its not, almost a little too dry. Then I realized it had no ketchup or mustard on it so I had to pile it on to add a little more moisture to it. That helped. I had some of the Philly Cheesesteak and I must admit, it was good stuff. I too would prefer some more onions and peppers to add a little zing to it. But overall, one of the best I've had in the city. Based on that alone, i'd change the name to PHAT Tonys not Fat Tonys cause that philly cheesesteak was pretty hot and tempting! (insert chuckle).

We were stuffed to the brim after that to where I probably could have crawled up onto a bench and napped but decided it was best not to. Our total bill ended up around $27 for two dinners, an app, and a couple beers. That's very comparable to what you'd spend in any Wichita bar for the same amount.

On our Super Scientific Scale, we both scrored Fat Tony's above a four. So the final verdict 4.25! So a much better outing for us compared to Letters D and E. Both very satisfied for what we had plus the customer service was top notch from the moment we walked in to the end. Its hard to say what the future holds for Fat Tony's but if the word gets out and they can keep focusing on their customer service, this place should succeed. I've seen bars start off great and then lose that focus when they start to garner their following of regulars (aka Fox and Hound) so heres to wishing the best to Fat Tony's.

For the final picture, I decided to take a live photo of the receipt. Enjoy and have a great Tuesday.

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