Tucker’s Tavern
Tue: Open at 11:00AM
Wed: Open at 11:00AM
Thu: Open at 11:00AM
Fri: Open at 11:00AM
Sat: Open at 2:00PM
Sun: Closed
Biker Bar or Pizza Joint? You Decide!
A few days ago, some of my biker friends decided that it would be a good idea to go to Tucker’s Tavern in Anamosa.
We put the word out on Facebook that we would be there, and ended up with a good crowd. From talking to a few of the bikers that showed up, I learned that Tucker’s is quite a popular hangout for all kinds of people living in or around Anamosa.
A Pizza Place Known Throughout Jones County
I personally found out about Tucker’s Tavern in Anamosa sometime last year. I saw a pizza at someone’s house and had to ask where it came from. It was a pretty good-looking pizza, and mind you, this was at a time when I had yet to find any pizza within 50 miles of Cedar Rapids that I considered edible. I knew right then that I had to give them a try.
It seemed to me that some Jones county people consider Tucker’s to be more of a local pizza place than a bar.
With so many choices on the menu, I had a hard time deciding which kind of pizza to show off, but the bartender suggested the Reuben pizza. Their chicken bacon ranch pizza is extremely popular as well.
The Reuben sandwich just isn’t popular where I’m from, so I don’t really have a taste for corned beef and sauerkraut. So, in order to be fair about this, I recruited some Iowa native bikers to do the official taste test on the Reuben Pizza. One biker said that his pizza tasted like Saint Paddy’s day. Be sure to watch the video for all the details.
Biker-Approved Pizza
The pizza definitely turned out to be a biker-approved food, and quite a few of the bikers who live in Jones county had great things to say about the pizza at Tucker’s.
One thing I have noticed since moving to Iowa is that some people participate in the custom of dipping their pizza in ranch. I would never personally recommend this practice, but I wanted to see it done. One of the Iowa native bikers agreed to demonstrate the act of eating pizza dipped in ranch. In the end, it was obvious that he did not enjoy the addition of ranch to the pizza and would have preferred to eat the pizza as-is (look for a short video of this experience coming soon). This most likely means that the popularity of eating ranch on pizza is somewhat overstated.
Specials for Lunch and Dinner
I turned my attention to other types of food and asked the bartender about lunch specials. I found out that not only do they have lunch specials, but they have dinner specials as well. Just looking at the pictures on their Facebook page, I can tell that they have the kind of variety that would make me interested in trying one of the lunch specials.
A Small Bar that Packs A Punch
After we got done with the food, the place pretty much turned into a biker party. It’s a fairly small bar, and we packed it out with all our friends that showed up. I was about to find out what happens at a small bar after the pizza-eating part of the evening is over.
It didn’t take me long after moving to Iowa, to figure out that Fireball is somewhat unofficially the state liquor of choice. It appears to be available at the checkout of every Casey’s store, and it’s as common as tenderloins and cottage cheese. One of the things they offer at Tucker’s is a shot-ski. This is accomplished by mounting five shot glasses onto a wooden ski and filling them with Fireball. Five people then hold the ski and attempt to drink the shots in a synchronous fashion. You can see the full demonstration in the video.
We also staged a small biker talent competition out back. One guy thought that the fastest way to drink a beer was to shotgun it, and another guy thought that just chugging the beer would work better. We got one of the wives to be the timekeeper and turned it into a competition. The shotgun approach seems to be the clear winner after seeing the side-by-side comparison of rapid beer drinking techniques.
A note from Will Carter, The Ambassador of Flavors:
“These are just a few of many biker bar and motorcycle-friendly restaurant reviews I will do on a weekly basis. The goal is to promote local bars as destinations for motorcycle enthusiasts. These reviews are part of an online resource created to help bikers find bars with good food and entertainment.”