Alien Indeed

where can a brother get some ribs?

Sunday ended up with a rainy jaunt to the Albertville Outlets. With four kids to clothe in cargo shorts and ridiculously expensive paper-thin tees, I need all the break I can get, so northward we trip.

I’m not a crowd-shopper, I reach my patience limit quickly. Needless to say, having been just a touch hung over from the Fri./Sat. night activities, my fuse might have been even shorter. So, as we finished our rounds and the nuggets complained of hunger, it was all about turning into the first parking lot.

That lot turned out to be Space Aliens Grill & Bar. I know.

Yes, it’s everything you think: brightly painted with planets, cheesy black light “magic” on the ceiling, spacey movie posters all around, an alien diorama on every flat surface, and an arcade. It’s brilliant.

The kids were WOWED and we laughed as we named all the little dudes and the movies in which they lived. They ran off and spent a little cash and more energy in the arcade playing various things and winning tickets redeemable for prizes. There were ten whole minutes when no one asked me a question.

But most importantly, the food didn’t suck. In fact, it was good.

Now, let’s remember context: I wasn’t looking for any butter-poached lobster or a truffled cheesebuger. Hell, I would have been happy with a Diet Coke for lunch at that point.

Instead, I ordered Martian Munchies, which despite the lame name, are a great idea: seasoned and slowly smoked strips of pork which come to the table like curled little fingers. They are crispy to the bite while remaining tender on the inside, and are snacky addictive.

Their BBQ is a big feature for the menu, and at every chance they’ll tout their award for America’s Best Ribs from the National BBQ Convention Cook-off in Memphis. Looking around almost every adult was eating ribs.

Kids were happy with chicken fingers, burgers, “fire-roasted” pizza (I just hate that term, roasted pizza, it’s just not right) and the like. But it was the fries that killed them: an order of the Outer Space Fries is served in a cone-shaped holder with choice of two dipping sauces. Not just ketchup mind you, there’s ranch dressing, nacho cheese, buffalo wing suace, taco sauce, sweet & sour and more to choose from.

Sure it’s schticky and gimmicky, the menu has a few too many trademarked silly names (Cosmic Coleslaw TM), but at least they’re actually putting some thought into the food. Apparently there’s one about to open in Blaine, and rumors of another opening somewhere in the Western Metro in the near future. I have a feeling the invasion will be successful….