Keith’s Oaks Bar and Grill, Brandon
We pass Keith’s Oaks often when traveling through Brandon, usually when on the way home from shopping with ice cream melting in the back of the sporty little runabout. The tin-roofed cracker bungalow set back under mossy oak trees appeals to us, beckons us into its bucolic embrace from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding commercial gridlock. Whether sheltered in the shade from the beating sun, or at nights, tucked into the shadowy cave of branches, the glow of interior lights and neon beer signs are a beacon of cool camaraderie, the twinkling of its string of porch lights a soothing call to run our ship aground upon its rocks with a splash of bourbon and a burger.
I don’t know why I used a boating metaphor, we’re miles from navigable waters. This is a stream of consciousness, folks.
Keith’s Oaks looks like a place to have a relaxing good time and I had failed to check it out for memory reasons. Finally one evening, I says to the wife, I says, “Christa, why don’t we go to Keith’s Oaks for a dinner of burgers and beer. And by beer, I meant iced tea or Coke Zero. She agreed and we were off to toward that bustling artery of commerce that is Brandon Boulevard.
Just off the strip mall choked boulevard, on Lithia Pinecrest Road sits Keith’s Oaks Bar and Grill. Their sign’s arrow directs you under a tin roof (rusted) with a wraparound porch in bright yellow and white trim.
Before you actually read the words, the design of the sign and the umbrella tables on the patio suggests a burger and fries drive-in. Then your eyes meet the building peeking out of the shadows and you think maybe steaks and seafood, or bayou cajun with zydeco and jazz if your mind is particularly creative that moment. Then you notice the neon beer signs in the windows, the karaoke banner on the porch and you start to get the right idea. It’s a bar. Do they have food? Now, let me read that sign…yep: Bar and Grill. We have a restaurant.
Keith’s Oaks Bar and Grill
108 Lithia Pinecrest Rd.
Brandon, FL 33511-5306
Phone: (813) 685-5257
Hours:
Sunday – 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Monday – 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Tuesday – to Thursday – 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Friday – 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Saturday – 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
http://www.keithsoaksbarandgrill.com/
Keith’s Oaks was one of several Brandon eateries that slipped our minds everytime we were thinking of a place to eat. This can be understandable given the black hole-density of restaurants in the area. The light of many an establishment is sucked into the singularity of competition. Unless we were passing it, the place was usually out of sight, out of mind. This particular day we were feeling peckish for burgers and wanted to try something new. Keith’s Oaks popped into my mind. So, through the knots of traffic, we weaved for some casual eats and drinks.
As we strode up the front steps I realized for the first time that its porch was enclosed in glass. Bummer. Then I noticed that the windows swing open. Nice—I had been contemplating a perch on the porch with a cold beer in the coming cooler fall. It was currently a balmy bright and sunny eighty degrees—-air conditioning would be appreciated, today.
We sat anywhere, as advised by the server who greeted us and we chose a spot by the front window in a corner perfumed with stale beer. My kind of place. This could be a replacement for my old haunt back home—wood plank flooring, plenty of shit on the walls, friendly smiling staff, and a reasonably priced menu.
We were decided on wings and burgers, hold the beer. Iced tea would suffice today, water for the missus. We’re a rockin’ good time.
The menu starts out typical sports bar, which Keith’s Oaks decidedly is with a slew of flat screens, none of which were playing Poldark, to my wife’s dismay or Cheers reruns, to my dismay. The menu features nachos and the usual array of fried appetizers and I was eyeing a devil crab to add to my collection when Christa mentioned the wings. Neither of us had enjoyed wings since our move so I agreed we were overdue.
They also had an amberjack fish spread which I considered trying to see how it fared against Skipper’s Smokehouse. This seemed to be a Florida traditional app. But, no, Wings were our mood. We got ten for $10—half medium, half teriyaki barbecue.
In addition to the wings, their menu is extensive and becomes less typical with some interesting entries: Eighteen signature entree dishes, nineteen sandwiches, seven burgers plus make your own, five salads, and two soups (crab and cheese, or french onion), chili, and gumbo, and seventeen appetizers. And desserts. In my typical indecisive nature, I panicked then decided to go with my gut. I came for burgers, I was getting burgers.
I went with my usual classic and ordered the Build Your Own Burger with American cheese, LTOP. With a buck for the cheese, it came to $9 which is pushing my limit but—drum roll—this burger comes with fries. Christa ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, confusingly named a Chicken Club, served on a kaiser with bacon and American cheese, LTO for $9.
Drinks arrived in tall red plastic tumblers that brought me back to eighties pizza parlor days. I checked the place out as we waited for our appetizers to arrive.
A sports bar is an apt description, but in a down-home neighborhood fashion—like Applebee’s claims to be, but with a soul…and beer-soaked wood. Okay, more like TGI Fridays, but with a soul and edible food. Though the floor plan was open without dividing walls, the outer porch areas seemed far enough from the main bar area to make it comfortable to socialize away from any big game activity that might be going on in the hub.
Five flat screens were visible from our table with a large one over the horseshoe bar. It was a quiet weekday afternoon with not much going on sports wise—this didn’t seem like a World Cup establishment. Everyone seated at the bar seemed a regular or were treated as such and the atmosphere was congenial. It felt like the kind of place that could easily become a habit. Lucky for my productivity, it lies across twenty minutes of traffic. My Aunt and Uncle live literally around the corner—I’d never get a thing done.
Our wings arrived in the typical red baskets and satisfied our visual expectations. A dollar a wing seems to be the market price these days, so I’ll have to look for specials if we like these. We liked these. They were chicken wings, so I’ll spare you any prose: They were large, meaty, fried crispy, free of breading, and glistened in their respective sauces. The medium sauce was a true medium of the classic Frank’s and butter variety. They hit the spot and were a pleasing way to break the wing fast. The barbecue sauce seemed a good bottled type with a splash of teriyaki.
Plates of burger and chicken sandwich arrived without a wait (I may have had a wing still in my hand—good timing, really) and they looked fantastic. The beef patty was finger-thick, flat-top-fried to a dark crispy sear. The golden cheese melted over the plump glistening disc and dripped onto the bun. Christa’s bacon and American cheese smothered chicken sandwich almost made me jealous. Almost; because burger trumps chicken. But bacon is mighty. Dilemmas.
I squeezed some mayo onto the bottom bun from the supplied packet and shot a dose each of ketchup and mustard from the table caddy. I moved the three pickles and broke up the onion to the join the condiments on the bottom bun and with a trim of the iceberg lettuce to a suitable single sheet made the burger complete as I married the top and bottom. Yeah, I’m finicky like that.
After a smoosh to make it mouth size, I bit into it. There was that sensational moment of teeth through cold vegetables and into the hot meat. Yeah, I said it—Hot meat dripping with juices. As I chewed the creamy melted cheese mingled with the seared meat to form one of the great flavor and texture experiences of life. After the second bite, the shock to the taste buds gradually subsided. I was resigned: this was an adequate burger.
It didn’t blow my mind, I wasn’t going to name this place best burger in Brandon, but it was solid and tasty and certainly joins the ranks of places from which I’ll feel confident in getting a tasty burger. The beef was tender and had a good ground beef flavor, was well seasoned (a plus, these days) and cooked to my spec of medium with a warm pink center. It was juicy and tender but still had a nice browned crust outside. Nice grillwork.
Could the same results be had on a busy night? Online reviews suggest not, but then my decades of experience as a customer, server, and cook teach me to never visit a place when it’s busy (or if there’s no choice, kick my expectations into the basement).
Christa enjoyed her sandwich very much and said it was moist, tender, well seasoned…how can you go wrong from there? A well seasoned boneless breast of chicken grilled tender and juicy and topped with bacon and melted cheese is a combination difficult to cause disappointment. You’d almost have to be trying to disappoint for it to do so.
All that goodness came on a kaiser, which is acceptable for a chicken sandwich, though not my favorite burger bun. The bacon was cooked tender with a slight crisp but flexible, still glistening from residual fat. The melty American sagged its processed goodness into the valleys and hollows of undulated strips of swine. The bright red tomato and crisp iceberg made the thing essentially a BLT with the bonus of grilled chicken. Again, how can you go wrong? Keith’s Oaks went right…into her belly. It was delicious and no leftovers is always a good sign with my wife.
The fries were the frozen seasoned and coated variety, and fine. They lost points for not having fresh cut fries, but these are a favored substitute. This may confound some people as a seeming contradiction, but I assure you, it is not. Someday I’ll do a writeup on french fries. For now, suffice it to say, our subjective tastes prefer fresh cut but appreciate coated seasoned fries as an alternative to standard frozen fries. Keith’s Oaks fries them up crisp and they went well with both the burger and chicken sandwich.
We finished every morsel of food on our plates (I helped Christa with her fries) and we called it a satisfying day. They have eight tasty-sounding desserts options including six flavors of ice cream (spumoni!) and two pies: key lime and sea salt caramel. Very tempting, but we were full and took a raincheck.
Keith’s Oaks made our list of go-to spots. The place appears laidback and welcoming outside, is low brow and comfortable inside, cooked us delicious food with great service and left us fed and happy. That’s a win and though the quality and service from this experience have me hovering my finger over three and four stars (top rating for a casual bar and grub) consistency will bring them to a solid four. We will need to visit a couple more times to gauge that.
What keeps it from a five-star place? The food wasn’t exceptional but we only got burgers and a chicken sandwich. Future visits could sway us up the scale. And location counts for something.
I love that amidst all this retail bedlam that defines Brandon, this country cracker cottage sits calm and serene under these oak trees with good food and cold drinks at hand. But, that same oasis state of being is also a negative. This area is congested and traffic getting here between seven a.m. and ten p.m. can be murder. Put Keith’s Oaks on a country road, beside a creek, or better yet on a river, and it just earned a star. But this isn’t yelp and I don’t really do stars or points. It’s has pleased us and with a few more visits, will likely prove itself solid.
We will be back. I’ve got to try some other sandwiches (I’m looking in your direction BBQ Grouper). The 12 oz Loaded Steak Dinner needs a test, and I also spied this:
“PITTSBURGH’S PRIMANTI
This is how we pay homage to our northern friends… Corned beef, coleslaw, warm fries piled high on a hoagie roll with Thousand Island dressing.”
Hmmm. Glutton fare from mother Pennsy? Tempting. Also, like Skipper’s, they have a blackened Grouper Reuben. Maybe Keith’s Oaks could prove the concept viable where Skipper’s fell short.
The point is, there’s a lot to try at Keith’s Oaks Bar and Grill. It’s not going to be easy for Mr. Indecisive to figure out what and when to get it. Assuredly, when I do, I’ll let you know. Suffice it to say, if you want a tasty burger or chicken sandwich or just wings and a beer, to catch a game or hang with your buds over brews (iced tea or barley and hops), you can get it with comfort and satisfaction at Keith’s Oaks. We did on a relaxing Monday afternoon.
Thanks for reading!