I was very impressed by the yelp raves for this restaurant. I've been plotting and planning and finally the stars aligned and I was able to get my husband to bring me for lunch here.
Parking was difficult- the street has 2 hour parking, but was all full. The lot in front of the restaurant has three spots, but a very tight turnaround. It was hard to get in AND out.
The next issue was- how the heck do you get in?! Where the door would be intuitively, is a wall with lovely windows. Around the side to the left is the service entrance. Around to the right is a fenced-in patio seating area. It turns out one must go through the patio seating in order to access the restaurant.
The interior of the restaurant is quaint and rustic. Unmatching chairs, movie posters on the walls, a very casual feel. It was comfortable. First stop- the bathroom! I'm 7 months pregnant- this is usually where I head first. I've come to find you can typically judge a restaurant based on the cleanliness and upkeep of its facilities, which should be addressed nightly, if not more often, giving staff and owners ample opportunity also to address any repairs that need to be made. The restroom was clean, but clearly old.
Our waitress told us to sit anywhere and brought us waters quickly. I'm not sure if it was the heat of the day, or if we just didn't get any ice, but I sure didn't see any in my glass or in the pitcher. Usually you get so much ice in a pitcher and in the glass that your'e constantly refilling the glass- this was definitely a change.
I was impressed by the menu selections and the all-day breakfast. I couldn't make up my mind! The crab cakes looked amazing, as did the french toast and eggs benedict or a lunch item. I didn't get much breakfast and got out to lunch late- I was starving! I noticed that many of the breakfast items offered avocado OR guacamole on the side as options, which is awesome! I noticed that their menu (in addition to being in desperate need of a spelling/grammar check) advertises many local and sustainable options.
I made a note of it for later and decided to make this a monthly destination. Well.. given all of the flies that were all over the place, and getting annoyed swatting them off of me, I decided to come back more regularly during non-fly weather to try out all of the tempting dishes on my list.
The waitress was absolutely sweet, very friendly and conversational. She took our order and offered cole slaw, sweet potato fries, home fries, and... she lost me after home fries. I LOVE home fries!
I decided (coin flip) on a Mexican burger with grilled chicken avocado (important) and jack cheese with home fries. My husband went with the pulled pork bbq sandwich, which automatically came with cole slaw, and home fries. I spaced asking for another drink or more ice, and the waitress didn't ask.
Our food was done in a reasonable amount of time, which is nice since I was already halfway through my hour lunch break.
Both sandwiches were topped with a speared pepperonicini. I sincerely HATE these, and hoped the juice hadn't gotten on my bun. Gross. Why would a place automatically top someone's food with something so spicy? I can't imagine there's a huge call for these, like, anywhere, ever. WTF?
I picked it off and noticed a lump of green snot on my chicken sandwich. I asked the waitress- the description clearly said "avocado," not "guacamole." ICK. I tried it, to be fair. The guacamole was salty as hell and tasted of onion- not much else. Just disgusting. The item description said "avocado," I was expecting sliced avocado. The waitress was very sweet and offered to take it back. 20 minutes left on my break, I declined and opted instead to scrape it off, which took off most of the cheese. The waitress offered to get me more cheese, which was great. She brought back a little dish of shredded jack, which is hard to get on a burger. She offered to have the chefs melt it, but I was just too hungry and too much in a hurry.
The tomatoes were fresh, but one still had the stem end and wasn't edible. I stole my husband's. He hates tomatoes anyway. My bun was flat and soggy, my chicken was thick but very dry. I choked down the chicken with a ton of ketchup.
The biggest disappointment (ok, next biggest from the avocado) were the home fries. YUCK! Mine tasted stale and old and some were barely lukewarm. Many were darn-near burnt. It looked like they had been refried from earlier in the day. My husband and fellow potato-holic didn't eat his either.
My husband reports that his pork was dry and crunchy in some spots, but that the bbq sauce was one of the best he'd had. I stole his cole slaw, which vacillated between huge leaf chunks of cabbage, cabbage dust, and every size in-between. It was a little vinegary but otherwise flavorless.
Now out of time for lunch, I paid and we left hungry. The waitress was such a sweetie, we still left her a decent tip. $17 for two inedible sandwich lunches. read more