Offbeat Eats

As part of a project at work, I travel fairly regularly (at least 4 times a year) to Edwards Air Force Base, which involves at least 7 hours of flying, usually arrive late at night and leaving late in the morning (since the return flight is usually a red-eye). So, we’ve come up with a tradition that every trip out there, we stop at Roscoe’s House of Chicken n’ Waffles, either as a way of restoring our spirits after a day of flying, or as a way of preparing ourselves for an upcoming red-eye flight (since it’s basically dinner and breakfast at the same time) Roscoe’s itself is an institution. Unless you’ve either been to Harlem, or been to Roscoe’s before, most people haven’t run into the particular combination of fried chicken and waffles served at the same time.

Every spring, I go with the local high school FIRST Robotics team down to compete at Manchester, New Hampshire, for three or four days. Usually this means that I have a few hours to explore the local food scene a bit more. In the past, that’s pretty much the way I discovered the Red Arrow Diner, Greg’s Place, Golden Bowl, and Gauchos Churrascaria. (And I should actually write up all of these, too.) This time, I made a concerted effort to find someplace good for breakfast that was off the beaten track. A quick web search lead me to Belmont Hall, at the corner of Grove and Belmont SE of the Verizon Arena.

So, it’s lunchtime, and you happen to be in an office on Etna Road in the backwaters of Hanover. You’re hungry, but you didn’t bring a lunch, and you really don’t want to drive all the way into Hanover or Lebanon just to grab something to eat. So where do you go? The Etna General Store, in “Metropolitan Downtown Etna”. I have a bit of fondness for the Etna Store, since it’s your basic General Store, with food (a bit more than your typical gas station or convenience store), video rental, animal feed, and a few other random items like lottery tickets, all in a, umm, distinguished building. They also have a fairly predictable schedule of lunch specials, so, if you like a particular item (like the sausage grinder, every other Friday), they’ll usually have it if you go on the right day

(Closed) Both my job-related travel and my volunteering as coach of the Lebanon Robotics Team give me plenty of opportunities to roam around downtown Manchester on a regular basis. One of the places that has always intrigued me is the Post Office Fruit Luncheonette. This is one of the those little businesses that seems like it is right out of the Twilight Zone. It’s basically a small convenience store style storefront, which used to sell groceries, magazines, stamps, and lottery tickets (the last of these apparently providing the bulk of their revenue). However, it’s plainly obvious that aside from lunch-counter related items, the grocery operation has been slowly petrifying over the last decade or so, with a few tired packets of aspirin and Pepto Bismol with a healthy patina of dust on them being the last major holdout.

I’ve held off for a long time on review Lou’s, for a number of reasons, including (a) it’s in downtown Hanover, so it’s obvious, and (b) it’s probably the most-reviewed restaurant in the area. But for completeness, and since that’s where I ate this morning, I decided it was finally time to write it up. Lou’s is quite the institution in Hanover, having opened in 1947 (so I’m expecting some minor press next year as the restaurant turns 60). And it obviously has quite the following with both the Dartmouth crowd and the tourist traffic, since the place is universally packed after around 9am every morning (and generally, forget about going there on a saturday). Some would call it small (but by Upper Valley standards it’s pretty roomy), and having a long queue of folks waiting for seats gawking at you while you eat your meal is part of the charm.

For this week’s takeout lunch, I hit the Little Store in Lebanon, NH. This is one of those odd little convenience stores that are around the Upper Valley that we all drive by on a regular basis. Indeed, when I first mentioned the Little Store to most people, I got back a “where?” in response. But inside, it has a lot packed into a little space. In addition to the typical convenience store amenities (drinks, chips, some wrapped sandwiches under warming lights, and the ubiquitous McKenzie hot dog warmer), it also has a full meat and deli counter (mostly McKenzie products). And, most importantly, every day they have hot lunch specials, hand-written on a piece of paper taped to the front of the deli case.

Sometimes, the breakfast gods just aren’t smiling at me. Saturday, Carol and I decided that we needed another breakfast, and so we decided to hit The Fort in Lebanon. I rather like the Fort in a number of ways. It’s neat, there’s almost never a wait, and the food is definitely trucker-approved (most of the clientele is truckers when I’m there). This time, I ordered a breakfast skillet with sausage special (eggs cooked in a skillet with sausage, home fries, onions, peppers, and cheese), and Carol ordered the papas y huevos burrito.

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.