Lay off the chicken breasts, and you can do very well here indeed.
* * *
The Garden Spot is a high Christianity, high personality, high integrity cafe in Caldwell.
Nearly every square inch of wall space has inspirational messages.
Crosses abound.
However, the Holy Trinity here is not Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The Trinity here is Food, Jesus, and Coffee.
Or actually,
Food, Jesus, Coffee, Coffee, and Coffee.
It is a Quintinity and not a Trinity.
Antique coffee signs and placards praising the merits of coffee make up a huge percentage of the inspirational messages.
Other motto boards praise the blessed nature of homemade food.
These ladies are spiritual - but they are also fun.
* * *
Most of the food is major thumbs up.
The Garden Spot probably has the best version of Texas Toast on the planet.
From the taste, you would swear there is a pound of butter in every slice.
Slop houses that make Texas Toast often drown the product in grease.
There is not an atom of grease or oiliness in their toast.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is true kitchen magic.
How does the Garden Spot pull this off?
One of the ladies gave away their Texas Toast Secret.
They use jalapeno cornbread as the basis of the toast.
That gives you that rich wonderful taste from the dairy in the batter without having to overdo the fat on the griddle.
It was like having Penn and Teller explain one of their tricks.
The trick is still fantastic even after you see how it is done.
* * *
Cottage potatoes are absolutely nifty fried potatoes.
Like the Texas Toast - rich and buttery with very little grease.
Green beans are full of bacon.
The version here is a restrained version emphasizing green bean taste rather than bacon taste. The beans are dry rather than soaked in bacon water.
All of these ideas are fine fine ideas.
* * *
Accompanying all this wonderful food was the toughest chicken breast in the State of Texas.
My own belief is that in its lifetime, that chicken was a varsity linebacker for the Caldwell Hornets.
After it lost its academic eligibility, it was condemned to the Garden Spot Cafe.
I have never had a chicken fight so hard against the business of being chewed and swallowed.
And I have eaten field chickens in Albania which are intentionally raised for toughness. The locals there like the gamy flavor of well-exercised meat.
* * *
That said, I think the chicken breasts are a fluke.
All signs are this is an outstanding kitchen.
Note that about two thirds of the menu consists of breakfast items.
I would bet that their breakfasts are fantastic.
Note that I had had an energy drink an hour before getting into Caldwell.
So I could not take these ladies up on their kind offer of coffee.
Given the high spiritual regard in which they hold coffee,
I suspect this is a great place to get a cup of joe.
* * *
One last note.
This is the only restaurant that I have ever been in where they have One America Network News on TV.
Lots of places do Fox News.
Lots of places do sports.
OANN is your thinking person's conservative station.
No rhetoric. No grandstanding. No provocative flaming just to build the ratings.
Just straightforward news from a patriotic perspective.
The only other restaurant I have been in with this sense of seriousness about what is on TV is the Big Easy Bar and Grill in East Austin.
The Big Easy in a black-owned cajun restaurant in the heart of the not-displaced-yet African American neighborhood.
At the Big Easy, they have the McNeil-Lehrer Report on at dinner time.
The staff watches it and comments on it as they fix your dinner.
* * *
Good food.
Good things to read on the wall.
Good stuff on TV.
A good place. read more