prime cut meats & eats, 9500 brimhall, bakersfield ca 93312

food: 3/5; atmosphere: 4.5/5; price: $ 1/2. the prime cut has been in biz locally for decades, owned by a husband & wife team. recently, i got the inside scoop on the new location: the owners wanted to deck the place out like new orleans. yes!!!! i still think for all the restaurants we have in kern county, too few focus on atmosphere... i'll eat most anything & be happy if the digs feel fun, glamorous, exciting, relaxing, mysterious, etc... dining out, even if you don't drink & be merry, can be real entertainment, if the place is done up right - you can nearly feel like you've traveled someplace special. however, most often when i go out to eat locally, the most interesting sites are tv sports, beer signs, cornball signs & the like. there's gotta be more.
the new prime cut is working on it. my aunt kept saying, "they're gonna get better." i know the new location was rush-opened, & the place was quite busy when we ate there for lunch. i imagine the owners are plenty overwhelmed in their new location, which is 3 times larger than the old. i liked the atmosphere: walls made to look like an old barn with faded brick & distressed wood; nostalgic LPs & NOLA signs on the walls; parade beads; a big mirrored bar; and best of all, recorded zydeco & cajun blues music playing behind it all. the last time i heard beau jocques in a restaurant was in austin - this was nice!!! i put my two cents in, too: "if i had a restaurant, it'd be darker & there'd be more **** on the walls & lights, too - the kinda place you go in for a beer & come out nine hours later, feeling like you've been someplace." a restaurant's music choice can really make or break an eating experience for me - once i had to leave a steak house at the market place, which was blasting country pop music, the worst of the knee-jerk pablum, nearly losing rather than indulging my appetite... on the other hand, prime cut's music was on par with the lovely & exotic stuff you hear in mama roomba's - i'll be back just to wash in the sound of "laissez les bon ton roulet!" i learned, too, that the decorating is not quite finished, so i hope that when i return, there'll be more neat stuff to look at.
prime cut sells mostly meats - tri-tip, shredded beef & chicken, ribs, & the like. there's a butcher shop attached to the restaurant, but we didn't go in. i know prime cut's reputation precedes it - the local paper has used much ink to sing the praises of the "merv burger," for instance.
the sides offered at this point are small: chili beans, macaroni salad, fries. "they need to have more of them," my aunt commented. right now, the place seems to be split - atmospherically, it's going exotically southern (that is, louisiana-mixed rather than oildale), but culinarily, it seems aimed at the tailgate crowd. i believe the menu'd benefit from adding on sides: greens, corn bread, mac & cheese, yams - the tasty extras that make J's Southern and Phine's over-the-top delicious & special local eating experiences. i know the new prime cut already is leaning more toward the southern - jambalaya every day, etoufee & gumbo, too. i hope they continue to add on, so the food's not only good, the atmosphere special, but the food choices special, as well.
we went plain - hot tri-tip sandwich for my aunt, shredded chicken sandwich for me. the bread was homemade, but way too much for me. i was certain the menu said my sandwich, with chicken as soft as tuna, came with BBQ sauce, but i had to go ask for it. my aunt said her meat was delicious, but "needed something - it's too dry," so i got her sauce, too. i ordered cajun fries, but was told "we only have regular ones right now." i imagine these are all kinks that will be worked out. we were happy enough with our food, appreciated this was a brand new place trying to offer something different to the locals, & like i said, i'd come back, anyway, just to hear that music someplace other than at home coming out of my own stereo.