Fox and Hound English Pub and Grille

By NANCY MOORE
CROSS THE POND: If you're looking for an actual English pub or hunt club - as the décor suggests - head to the airport and board a transatlantic flight. However, if McMansions and after-five-crowd happy hours are your bag, boy, are you going to love this place, one of a handful of North Texas locations of the sports bar chain.
RED-JACKET RHETORIC: Quaint, faux-needlepoint equestrian upholstery and coats of hunter-green and burgundy paint couldn't soften the boom of high-decibel, throbbing pop tunes, which reverberated through the cavernous dining room. Wait staff (all female on this night) were clad in tight T-shirts and short, scant khaki. We were expecting a Gap commercial to break out any minute.
Although a sign in the foyer stating "rules of the hunt" seemed all in good fun, we were glad we weren't motorcyclists: One of these rules read that "biker attire" was not allowed at "the hunt." Sheeesh! All of that just to get a beer and a burger?
TROUBLE BREWING: After waiting what seemed an eternity, our server came to the table for drink orders. The beer menu, a three-page laminated book of beer logos, mysteriously listed the same handful of brands identically on all three pages - as if we wouldn't "get it" on the first two.
Unsure whether to order a Coors Light, Coors Light or Coors Light, we settled for a Newcastle Brown Ale ($3.75) and a glass of Woodbridge Chardonnay ($4.50). Sipping the drinks, we were bombarded with a menagerie of sports programming on more than 17 wall-mounted televisions - a football player on one screen narrowly missed being run-over by a NASCAR driver on another as Janet Jackson stepped in to save the day. A delight for those with short attention spans.
FENCE JUMPER: From a list of appetizers that included nachos, stuffed potato skins and chicken wings, we chose fried mushrooms and broccoli bites with thin but flavorful ranch and horseradish dressings ($4.29). The thimble-size mushrooms were snug in a thick, golden breading, and the broccoli and cheese nuggets gushed warm cheddar when crunched. A stow-away, a solo jalepeño popper, made a guest appearance among our veggies - a hot surprise.
CARBOHYDRATE COMBO: Bread and barley played well together in the beer and cheese soup ($3.29). Served in a surprisingly elegant bowl made of satiny French bread, the creamy, beige soup cloaked bites of ham and green scallion. A reasonably authentic Caesar salad was served on the side.
FARE GAME: Pizza, burgers, sandwiches, fish, and steak are all entrée offerings. Barbecued pork ribs and chicken - a half-rack with three fried chicken fingers for $10.99 - came with thick-cut French fries and finely grated, creamy cole slaw. Rib meat was plentiful but musky tasting.
Chicken fingers were coated with a deeply browned flour crust. A thin 14-ounce rib eye ($14.99,) ordered medium rare, was served medium. It came with onion rings, though only two. We enjoyed both and an accompanying itsy-bitsy potato skin stuffed with twice-baked spuds, bright red bacon and sour cream.
TALLY-HO: An exciting presentation of brownie sundae ($3.99) brought closure to our eclectic evening. The dessert looked like Frosty the Snowman sitting on an asphalt parking lot. Two scoops of vanilla ice cream for a body and a scoop of whipped topping for a head were stacked vertically on a dark, fudge square. A lattice of caramel and chocolate sauces garnished the plate. We finally retreated past rows of pool tables and out the front door, glad that we hadn't "broken any rules." We certainly wouldn't want to upset the hunt master.
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