Offbeat Eats

Okay, I admit, I’m close to running out of breakfast places to review, so I decided to start reviewing some lunch spots on days when I haven’t brought a lunch from home. However, I’m trying to focus on the more unique places, the out-of-the way spots, the locally-owned businesses, the hidden gems, and the good deals. And, most importantly, the places that are close enough to my office and fast enough that I can grab lunch, bring it back to my office in Etna, and eat it at a reasonable pace all within about 45 minutes or so. Today, it was Jake’s Market and Deli on Mechanic Street (a.k.a. the Mobil Station). What brings me to this particular gas station on a Tuesday at lunchtime? Chicken.

Miller’s Bar is the sort of place you have to hear about before going there, since from the outside (below right), it doesn’t really look much different from any of the other bars on Michigan Ave. It’s your basic neighborhood bar from the 1940s, with a fairly non-descript facade. Inside, it’s more of a post-WWII 40’s time capsule, with formica, copper, and a giant dominating bar…

(Closed) Detroit Burgers, Part Deux. As mentioned previously, the front desk clerk at my hotel in Michigan had some unusually strong opinions about the best burgers to be had in the area. Previously, he had recommended Bates Burgers (see review below), which was actually quite decent, but they were sliders, not the big, wrap your hands around them burgers I was craving. So I asked him the next best place to get a burger in Livonia. His second recommendation was Cheeburger Cheeburger, located just down the road from the hotel.

(Closed) It’s a White River Junction institution. We all drive by it. I’ve eaten there several times. I even have a t-shirt of it (from the Main Street Museum). But, somehow, I hadn’t yet reviewed it. I’m talking about the Polka Dot, which has been located on Main Street by the railroad tracks for a long time (I’m not sure when the Polka Dot name showed up, but the location has been an eatery of one sort or another since the 19th century). Sure, WRJ doesn’t have the train traffic it used to, and several other businesses have come and gone, but the Polka Dot has stayed on (even through the fire that demolished the rest of the block a few years ago)…

(Closed) here are several cuisines that are difficult for me to enjoy in rural NH, two of the most notable being Middle Eastern food and Vietnamese food. So whenever I’m travelling, I try to find good places to fill these gaps. Luckily, my September work travel ended up taking me to the western Detroit metro area, which is loaded with good Middle Eastern places. One of the more notable chains is La Shish (which I’ve been to before, although in a different location), which happened to have a location just down 6 Mile Road from my hotel.

Let’s start this out by getting something cleared up: there is no one sandwich known as a “hamburger.” Hamburgers have types; the hamburgers you get at different places aren’t really even the same. They range from your basic fast food burger (McDonalds, Burger King, …), to big two-handed thick burgers (Cheeburger Cheeburger, Fuddruckers, and, for you Arizonans, The Chuck Box), to specialty burgers (like the cheese-filled Jucy Lucy of Matt’s Bar in Minneapolis). And there’s little comparing burgers from one category to another. Indeed, one of these categories is the “slider”, the diminutive little burger fried on a bed of onions served on a little poofy roll. Midwestern folks can get them at White Castle, while Southerners get these at Krystal. And, for some odd reason, there are a lot of places in the Detroit Metro area that really took the White Castle concept to heart, opening similar burger joints in similar-looking buildings, with similar sliders.

One of the odd regional idiosyncracies about New England is that very few places actually have hash browns (“hash browns” defined as crispy fried shredded potatoes, as per the image below and right). Most places have “pan fries”, “home fries” or “american fries” instead, which are all variations of cubed or sliced potatoes deep-fried or grilled. Now, some of thes home fries are indeed delicious (for example, Daddypop’s Tumble Inn diner in Claremont, NH, or the Fairlee Diner in Fairlee, VT are both good examples of excellent homefries). But sometimes I just find myself craving good hash browns. Seeing that my last good HB fix was Al’s Breakfast in Minneapolis, it was time for another fix.

(Closed) Today’s review is Wasp’s Snack Bar and Diner in Woodstock, Vt, which several UVScene readers requested that I review (and one person requested that I didn’t, more on that below). It’s been several years (and multiple owners, if I’m not mistaken) since my last trip to Wasp’s Diner, since Wasp’s isn’t open for business on weekends (which is my normal reviewing time), so it’s primary clientele is Woodstock locals. That, and the decidely low-key storefront really keep this place from showing up on too many tourists’ radars as well.

(Closed) Carol and I dropped by the new Farmers Diner location to see how things were going. Back in 2003, when Farmers Diner was in their former Barre, VT location, we had a fairly pleasant meal there, but not longer after that, they closed the Barre location. We’ve been looking forward to their return to the local restaurant scene. For those that aren’t aware of Farmers Diner, in addition to just serving food, they have a particular mission, to spend 65 cents of ever dollar on food that originated within 70 miles of the Diner at local farms and small scale producers. So, a substantial fraction of the menu is made from locally produced meat, cheese, and produce (and, with the current menu, they even highlight in red the items that were produced locally). The goal is to create a larger market for local suppliers, and not have to be bringing in our meat and produce from distant locations when we have good products already here.

I’m always a bit amazed by regional names for things. In most areas, a hot dog with chili is simply a “chili dog”. In Detroit or Worcestor, MA, it’s a “coney dog.” In Northeast New York State, it’s a “dog with Michigan sauce.” And, in southwestern NY, it’s a “Texas Hot.” (Yeah, yeah, purists will explain to me the difference between coney sauce and chili, but the point remains that’s it’s essentially the same thing.) In any case, I stumbled on one of the better examples of a New York “Texas Hot” hot dog stand in Corning, NY…