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DISH ON DINING/LIBATION NATION: ‘Camp ranch’ and plenty of big screens

Jamie and Patty Douglass serve tailgate fare and specials — and “camp ranch” dressing — at Tartans Sports Bar downtown.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 7, 2023

After retiring six years ago as a police detective in White Plains, New York, Jamie Douglass drew on his experience as a young man tending bar in Orlando, Key West and St. Thomas to pursue his vision of “something that Hendersonville Main Street didn’t have, sports bar-wise.”

Together with his wife, Patty, he created a menu of standards for their Tartans Sports Bar plus specials, including the chicken parmesan wedge and the newly added turkey BLT, chicken club and Reuben.

Bread for the burgers, Philly cheesesteak and other sandwiches is imported from Port Chester, New York. “We did that for a reason,” Douglass says. “It’s better bread.”

The owner was talking with the Lightning when chef Joe Edwards emerged from the kitchen. He praised Edwards for the quality of the food.

“We’ve had great reviews about our burgers already,” he says. “Not patting ourselves on the back and I don’t want to sound cocky but a lot of people will come in and say they think that we have one of the best burgers in the county, which I love to hear. The reviews that we have for the Reuben and the burgers are all due to his cooking.”

Credit Patty for leading Jamie and their three daughters to Hendersonville. A counselor at Camp Greystone from 1979 to 1987, Patty has been close to the Miller family for years, through the Green River summer camp and Reformation Presbyterian Church. Jimboy Miller slipped her the secret recipe for “Camp Ranch” dressing, which Tartans features.

Fried pickle spears and fried green beans ($9.95) are two of the apps diners can dip into camp ranch. Other options include pork rinds with pimento cheese ($9.95), fried cheese bites ($6.95), fried mushrooms ($10.95) or the trifecta — any three ($19.95). Although chicken or crispy cauliflower wings are regularly six for $9.95 or a dozen for $18.95 wing nuts can also wait till 50-cent wing night on Wednesday.

Burgers —classic, black bean or black and blue — are $13.95 and come with a side. The chicken parmesan, veggie fried Portobello parm and Philly cheesesteak are $14.95.

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Douglass shows off his five 42-inch screens, five 50-inch screens and two 80-inch screens and sweeps his arm toward the impressive display of jerseys and other sports memorabilia.

He got U.S. Open caddie jackets from Tommy Tolles, the retired PGA pro once described in a newspaper profile as “the most famous golfer from Flat Rock, North Carolina.”

“He gave me a lot of the golf stuff and most of the jerseys in here are his,” Douglass says before turning to one of his own.

“This one I like,” he says, pointing to a green jersey worn by an NFL legend. “I’m a Jets fan. Joe Namath signed my jersey.”

Douglass is planning to remodel the outdoors space at the cellar level — no plans for sidewalk dining up the steep staircase to Main Street — to add his version of the jumbotron — a projector TV screen. Fan clubs eager to party during their fave’s big game will be able reserve the space, order munchies from a limited menu and quaff $2 beers — 200 bucks to reserve the space “but you get that back” as long as you show up.

You can tell it’s a pet peeve of the Scottish lad when he vows that he’ll never run fans off before the final horn.

“We will not ever close for a night game,” he says. “If it’s the fourth quarter and there’s 10 minutes left in the game we will stay open until the game is done.”

He’s already backed it up. A recent Carolina Hurricanes playoff game ended in the fourth overtime.

“We stayed open until 12:30,” he says, beaming.

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Tartans Sports Bar, downstairs at 321 N. Main St., is open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. seven days a week. For more information visit tartanssportsbar.com or call 828-388-7907.