Miles Inn — Restaurant in Sioux City

What is a Charlie Boy you ask? Well, let’s get that out of the way. If you don’t care about this, or a little history, just skip to the next paragraph. Depending on what part of the country you are from, it will be one of numerous names which are basically all the same thing. A Tavern, a Loose Meat, or a Made-Rite. It’s basically cooked and seasoned burger in a bun, with your choice of ketchup, mustard, pickles, cheese, etc. the secret is in how the meat is cooked down. Is it a Sloppy Joe? No… those have tomato sauce/paste, and the others won’t. Fun fact, the Tavern sandwich, was first created as a “steamed hamburger” in 1920 by Carroll Dietz of Missoula Montana, and then in 1934 imitated by Abraham Kaled at the “Ye Olde Tavern” in Sioux City Iowa, which used to sit at 14th & Jackson. Anyhow, there’s a variety of ways it can be called or recognized.

So as described above, it’s ground beef seasoned to taste good, and then placed on a bun. I’ve found typical toppings to be ketchup, mustard, pickles and onion, however, some places, like here at Miles Inn with their Charlie Boy, offer a slice of cheese as well. To me, I absolutely love cheese, but I could take it or leave it on this sandwich, as it can kind of drown the flavor of the meat as well in my opinion. Otherwise, I don’t want to sound critical, but I don’t see much that makes this sandwich here stand out much against the many other good ones I’ve tried. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but this place is known, even nationally to have one of the best. Eh… it’s good, but I just don’t see it making that high of a list.

Service was good., staff was friendly. Atmosphere, not our kinda of crowd. We were out for an evening cruise on the bike and stopped when it was later out, so more of the louder drinking crowd was there. Not really our thing when we’re going out to eat a meal. Other than that, it was pretty decent over all.

We personally won’t be in a big hurry to get back, because there are so many places we’d rather eat, but it would certainly be worth a try...

When I say I want a "cold" beer, THIS is what I'm talking about. The bartender gets the half pound glass out of a freezer before pouring your brew. The bartenders are polite young ladies (once you get their attention; they're very busy). Because in addition to pouring drinks, they're making Charlie boys, old fashioned loose meat sandwiches. At four bucks each, most visitors order two at a time. I think I heard (20 years ago) that the recipe comes with the bar if you buy the place. Maybe that's somewhere else. The loose meat ground beef is not the best ive ever had. But it's very good. And it's part of history going back I don't know, decades at least. Atmosphere: I'm giving them points for not being ridiculous. This is a bar. They're not trying to make it a restaurant or a British pub or a jungle watering hole. Excellent, it's a bar that looks and feels like a clean ...

As I awaited at a table for my friend, a lady sat at the bar. She kept turning towards me. It appeared she was holding tickets to something. Finally, she walked over to me. I thought maybe sure worked there. But what i found out was she was hustling me to give her cash for the tickets she had Tickets she acquired while gambling on one of the machines in the place. she was going to give me a "deal" if I gave her money for her tickets so she could get more cash. Irritated that she was trying to hustle, and want me to encourage more gambling, I said no thank you. she said the tickets could pay for my beers and food. I still said no. I then told the bar tender she was soliciting for cash. He stated she had been in before and gotten tickets. I hope they talk to her to not solicit in the spot where we...