I’m not going to sugar coat it. The first time I tried a Kentucky Hot Brown, I hated it.

To quote myself, “Under the cheese shower curtain was pretty bland. Swimming in the sauce were two pieces of toast, Canadian bacon, sliced turkey, sliced tomato and topped with two strips of bacon. What… the… heck…”

Taking into consideration my stellar review of my first Hot Brown and listening to a random internet person tell me it was amazing — why would I try it again? That is a fair question. When my wife, zippy toddler and I sat down at one of our favorite haunts, we saw that the Hot Brown was the special. I figured at the very least I will get to blast the Hot Brown as something old Depression-era people ate because there was nothing else to eat. But really it is an icon and it has to be better than the one I had.

Right?

Boy was I right. This version I had of it was out of this world. No longer were sad thin strips of deli turkey a staple of the dish. This version had full-on carved turkey piled high on perfectly buttered toast, warm tomato slices and topped with a normal amount of gravy, cheese and bacon. To say it changed my mind on the Hot Brown is an understatement. This thing was flat out delicious.

I suppose the lesson to be learned here is regional staples are only as good as the people making them. A steak from a chain restaurant won’t compare to a steakhouse and the same goes for the Hot Brown. That… and the dinner I went to must have paid internet Stacy to talk up the first Hot Brown I had.

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