John's Famous Stew

I NEED to find this stew recipe; it's incredible!. My company was doing disaster recovery drills at our offsite location, which happened to be next to this place. When we broke for lunch, we went to "John's Famous Stew". Honestly, I was NOT excited. Stew? I thought - I like stew, I guess, but couldn't tell you the last time I ate it for lunch or saw it on a menu. Kind of hard to get excited about stew. Besides, the place looked like a dive.

But once inside, the place did have a homey atmosphere, and a good crowd. "Good sign!" I thought to myself. The menu was actually pretty large, offering all sorts of burgers and breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches - but front and center was the stew. It comes in mild, medium and hot.

I'm a "When in Rome..." kind of guy, so I ordered the stew. I can't remember what the waitress called me, but it was either "Hon", "Darlin'". Either way, it's that kind of place. Homey, comfortable, blue collar, bucket-o-beer specials. They have a bar; you can get beer and I assume other drinks. There were several TV's. The place would seat maybe 60 or so. Big booths and tables in the middle.

The stew arrived quickly, garnished with a slice of generic white bread. It looked really good. But the taste - the taste! How can I describe it so you can understand? Perfectly balanced, with depth - layers of flavors. The beef falls apart, the spices add a bit of heat. Good vegetables. I was an instant apostle. This is stew nirvana. I had gotten the "mild" out of some strange notion that stew wasn't supposed to be spicy. Don't get me wrong, my stew was great - but I tried someone else's who had gotten "Hot" and I liked it even better. Don't be afraid; it's not too much heat.

They also have the best onion rings I've ever had - no small feat, but the stew, oh man that stew...…