Guilty Pleasures

The seasoned french fries were good, but the real highlights on the plank, er, plate were the jalapeño hush puppies. Biting through the crunchy outer layer, I found a tender cornmeal center as expected but then found myself reveling in the spicy punch that came when I chomped down on a small hunk of green. This is where we like the jalapeños at Tilley's.

Our stint as a gastric glutton for high-calorie punishment wouldn't be complete without sampling the sweet treats. After all, Tilley's is a family refectory welcoming little leagues as heartily as beer leagues, so along with the kids' meals and the arcade games (Galaga and Big Buck Hunter II, anyone?), Tilley's has some down-home desserts and one that comes straight from the midway.

The Blue Bell milkshakes were hand-dipped by Wert herself in between anecdotes about how the restaurant got its name (it's an homage to her family's favorite eatery in Colorado) and other family nuggets. The strawberry shake had actual berries in it and, as it should, clung to my straw (and thighs) like an old-fashioned soda fountain concoction.

The peach cobbler was an exercise in sin. After eating the large portions Tilley's seems to pride itself on, it was practically suicide to look at the oozy ramekin of peaches, saturated dough crumbles and sweet goo. Even surviving only two bites before shutting down was bliss. The ratio of crust to peach was balanced, and the entire effort was not sickeningly sweet. It was cobbler victorious.

Tilley's also offers handmade ice cream cookie sandwiches with choices for the ice cream and cookies left to the customer (a sure win with the tykes). They were out of cookies, however, so I'll have to revisit that another time. And the aforementioned midway snack proved to be a bit too much to handle after all the fried foods I'd encountered: The chocolate chimichanga is a Snickers bar (one more time) battered and fried, and friend, we need Big Tex looming overhead and a fair pass to venture there.

But, you know, if anyone needs a burger after the game, misses their gran's cooking or just has a craving for fried goods in paper trays before the gates in Fair Park open...