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- August 2011
Bob’s Bar is not a dive, it is a great RTE.
Written By: Chad Gillen
Ride to Eats are a great way to venture out on your motorcycle. They are a great stepping stone from just cruising around town to doing full on motorcycle touring. Ride to Eats almost never include franchise restaurants like ChiliRobinBee’s. They are a local mom and pop’s, eateries, or bars & grills. Some RTE destinations may be for a particular food, such as pie, Bar-B-Q, or maybe loose meat sandwiches such as my Loosemeat Loop Ride. Some are just because of good food, good prices, and a good twisty road. Bob’s Bar in Martinsburg, NE has these three things but also includes huge servings.
Getting to Bob’s Bar from South Dakota is half the fun. Cross the Missouri River at Vermillion on SD Hwy 19, and head southeast towards Newcastle on NE Hwy 12, also known as the Outlaw Trail Scenic Byway. Keep going and after Ponca turn west onto Hwy 9 and ride 7 miles to Martinsburg. These roads are well paved long sweepers with rolling hills, bluffs, and open farmland views. The roads won’t necessarily tackle the chicken strips on your tires but are a welcome reprieve to the straight, square grid roads of South Dakota. The BMW Autobahn Society Motorcycle Club makes the trip to Bob’s in the early spring and the late fall. Usually the first and last ride of the season. And you will find other motorcycle groups from South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska frequent there as well.
Bob’s Bar is pretty easy to find on Main street as it is typical to see motorcycles or hunter’s pickups in front of it on a normal Saturday. The building outside and inside is nothing pretty to look at, and in fact, it will turn the pretentious away immediately. And if you have a fear of public bathrooms, make prior plans. The fixtures are rustic, clean, but rustic. The only improvements over the years have been where it counts, a new kitchen.
Menu prices seem normal and cheap until you look at the prices for cheddar cheese balls and fried mushrooms as they are a little high. But the portions are HUGE. The burger patty is half the size of the plate, on a normal size bun. The sides are a heaping plate full, like Mt. Everest high. When you order french fries they fry up a whole bag. That is your serving! It all seems so ridiculous until you start to think of it as family style eating. Bring friends and share. Isn’t that what meals are about anyway? But one more thing about Bob’s is that it is old school. Bob’s is CASH only. No debit or credit cards are taken here. As long as you know that before you make the trip you’re OK. Because in a village of 94 people you’re not going to find your bank’s local branch there to make a fee less ATM transaction.
If you binged too much, you are going to regret the ride home as you fight off your food coma. If you’re a traveling genius, you packed a hammock and can set it up at the Newcastle/Vermillion Bridge Overlook on the Nebraska bank and give in to a short nap. And then maybe explore a little more of the Outlaw Trail Scenic Byway as it parallels the Missouri and Niobrara Rivers where steep bluffs and tree-shrouded slopes give way to lush, rolling green hills.
So, venture out and give Bob’s a try, you’ll enjoy the ride and the food, but don’t go alone unless you are like Adam Richman from Man Vs. Food.
P.S. Other RTE’s near Sioux Falls with good food and roads are: Big J’s Roadhouse in Humboldt, SD. Waddy’s Bar and Grill, Hudson, SD. Lange’s Cafe in Pipestone, MN. Miles Inn in Sioux City, IA. If you know of others I would love to hear about it.