As you might know we spent the weekend in Jersey. I wasn't looking forward to it but we had to go to a birthday party. Since is was deep in the bowels of the Garden State we had to stay over. The wife got to hang out with her friends who had been her friend since the first grade in Saint A's. The party itself was fine and then we adjourned back to the home of one of the friends where it was decided we would all meet together again at a diner for breakfast. Now that was something I could look forward to for fucks sake!
I have a new procedure when I go to a new restaurant. It is usually not one of my haunts so I have no idea about it so I look it up on Yelp. Now Yelp is just a tool and it is often wrong about a business. You just have to know how to read the reviews. What is useful is that they normally have a link to the menu so you can see what they have and what they are the most proud of and feature as their specials.
This was breakfast so we were looking at the omelet and egg category. I never get pancakes or French Toast when I am taking a long car ride as they sit in my stomach like lead. So I was trending toward eggs and I saw my absolute favorite on the menu.
I got a bacon egg and cheese on a Kaiser roll with home fries, Back in the day I would have a bacon cheese and egg every day for breakfast. Nothing is better with a good cup of coffee. This one was fine. I mean it wasn't the worst and it wasn't the best. The roll was fresh and the bacon was crispy. The cheese wasn't that great so it threw it off from great to good. Still and all I enjoyed the fuck out of it.
The one thing that made me flinch was something I noticed on the menu. No meatloaf and mashed potatoes. What kind of freaking diner doesn't have meatloaf and mashed potato? I always order that when I am in a diner. I would have ordered it for breakfast. That's how you can tell if it is a great diner. If it has great meatloaf. I was very disappointed I must say.
But as the great Phil Leotardo said in the Sopranos when discussing the Jersey crew "Jersey, eh get the fuck out here."
7 comments:
Nothing could be finer
than to eat at a greasy diner
without a stomach liner
in the morning.
I've eaten in local diners in probably 35 states, at least. The northeast has some of the best. And, NJ is the best of the northeast in my experience.
If you like docs. The Donut King is an interesting look @ Cambodian refugees who cornered the market in SoCal in local donut shops. They battered Winchell's and have held Dunkin @ bay. Inspiring and cautionary tales.
A great breakfast which I eat every other day.
Next time go to a North Jersey deli and order a sloppy joe. triple decker ham swiss coleslaw russian dressing.
You passed up a chance for a true Jersey icon , a Taylor Ham breakfast sandwich ???
Both of those sandwiches sound great but neither were on the menu.
When I checked out this diner on Yelp they had about 90 reviews and only three of them were positive. In fact only two of them were in the last year. You have to know how to read the reviews to know if you want to discount them. For example the most prominent bad review was from a guy who said his breakfast group met there once a week and canceled and moved somewhere else. But then he mentioned that it was twelve guys and they all wanted separate checks. You what that means. Everyone orders as little as possible and the tip sucks if there is a tip at all. The place was absolutely right to say no separate checks and put a tip on the check. It is a standard practice. So you discount a review like that. Most of the bad reviews were nit picky bullshit like that so I just ignored it and gave them a chance. The food was adequate at best but hey it was fucking New Jersey.
Spot on, Troop! You've also got to be able to filter out the Foodies who'll crap all over a perfectly good restaurant because the eggs don't come from a local farm where the farmer reads Elizabeth Barrett Browning to the hens everyday.
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