The two places that best represent your town

Yesterday I made a few posts that might have been considered by some to be a lttle, errr, "flamboyantly angry". I would like to atone by starting what I hope will be a fun topic. I'd like to hear about the two eating places that best represent the essence of your town. In Portland Dan and Louie's oyster bar is an obvious choice. It has been owned by the same family for over a century. It is an oldtown classic with a decor of cluttered nautica, each room filled with plates and drawings featuring ships. Your major decision is whether to order a single or double portion. I strongly recommend the double. If it is available, marionberry pie makes an excellent dessert.
My other choice would be Kennedy School, a combination, hotel, restaurant, cigar bar, snd movie theater, located in a former Portland elementary school. The place serves superb microbrews and is one of several places in Portland to offer the opportunity to enjoy good beer and a movie. It is one of a number of places owned by the McMenamin brothers, two gents who have made a good living buying old buildings and renovating them into micropubs.

There used to be a terrific French restaurant in Tigard, the name of which escapes me.

I'd love to reply here, but first I'd like you to clarify. Are you asking for the two best places that represent your town, or the two places that best represent your town? I swear I'm not being snarky; there is a difference and there are two very different answers depending upon your meaning. Clear it up and I've got some good answers for you.

Buddy

quote:

Originally posted by BuddyRoadhouse

I'd love to reply here, but first I'd like you to clarify. Are you asking for the two best places that represent your town, or the two places that best represent your town? I swear I'm not being snarky; there is a difference and there are two very different answers depending upon your meaning. Clear it up and I've got some good answers for you.

Buddy

Thank you, Buddy. At your suggestion I have changed the thread name to more clearly reflect my intent.

Okay, I'll give Boston a shot, and I hope others will have different ideas of what represents Boston.

Legal Sea Food - unfortunately now a chain, but at least in the area reliable for good quality traditional New England sea food preparations, along with some newer-style offerings. The representation here is purely in the food. The menu encompasses what coastal Yankees knew of as seafood.

Other would be Loch Ober, an Victorian-era tin-ceilinged dining room and bar with a huge menu (and you truly believe they would make whatever you asked for off the menu) and impeccable service. I believe they started permitting ladies in the dining room in the 70s (or maybe 60s). I haven't been since Lydia Shire took over the kitchen (which has been a good while) but the reviews continue to support Loch Ober as part of old and new Boston business society.

Of course, I don't take out of town visitors to either. Lock Ober is out of my price range, and for seafood I take people to The Daily Catch for Sicilian seafood straight from the kitchen as Lleechef has so beautifully described elsewhere.

Round Rock, TX is famous for Round Rock Donuts, so that certainly would be one. http://www.roundrockdonuts.com/

We used to have a landmark Mexican restaurant, El Matador, that would have certainly been my second choice, but the owner sold out a few years ago, and the new owner couldn't make it work.

So, I think my next choice would be Ward's Cafe (formerly Mom's Cafe & Mini-Storage). The original owners have now taken it back over, but the name "Mom's" went with the second owner. Holly Moore has this place reviewed on his site as "Mom's". Nice little cafe with good food. http://www.wardscafe.com/

The Louisville area has a pretty good cross-section of types and menus and prices that we could use as 'qualifiers' to narrow our choices.
Using the "Representing the Community" theme helps a lot!

My nominees would be the Moonlite BBQ in Owensboro, and either of the two following... Hubers Family Farm Restaurant in Starlight Indiana or Claudia Sanders Chicken Dinner House in Shelbyville Kentucky.

While not in 'downtown' Louisville I think they represent the area in and around the 'Derby City' quite well. All three of these places are highly active in community events and support local charities and sporting events far beyond the normal for many businesses. The menu's represent the 'Fried Chicken' and 'Barbecue' portions of the food-loving population, which tend to be the mainstream of the total population of the area.
This is not intended to eliminate all those 'hole-in-the-wall multicultural experiences' that are dotted all over the map in this area. But for established traditions of food and service I invite any of you to join us at any of the three places for a real Kentuciana meal.

Here in Fresno, I would have to say the Basque Hotel for its 'of the people' cuisine and atmosphere, and either Ama's, or Robertito's for representing our rich Mexican culture.

I have to add my 2 cents with Louisville, to me the 2 places that show off Louisville's "uniqueness" would be Lynn's Paradise Cafe for the electic mix of great food, and for making sure Louisville stays weird, and The Brown hotel for the Kentucky Hot Brown, but.. I must mention another place thats not in Louisville.. The Southside, it's a cafeteria style place in new Albany, IN (or how the locals say it.. Knobany) it's a place where you can get fresh salads, at least 20 kinds including jello, veggies, fish, meat and chicken, and fresh baked pies. with Ian, my GF and I... we usually spend 16.00, thats with 3 salads, a meat and 2 veggies for me, Ian and GF are veggieheads so a full plate of veggies for each of them, 3 desserts and 3 drinks...check it out.

I don't think I can keep it to just two places, and since we rarely eat at the expensive fancy places, I won't even go there..

In Rochester, Roadfood is best represented by Nick Tahoe's or Tom Wahl's.

Best BBQ would be Dinosaur BBQ or Sticky Lips BBQ. Both offer on-site pit smoked brisket, pulled pork, ribs, and chicken.

Best Italian would be Ricci's (a smaller family type place), or Mario's Villa Abruzzi.

Best Greek food (and a 24/7 diner atmosphere) is Mykonos Cafe.

We have several representative restaurants, but these are my favorites:
[url='http://www.marinersrestaurant.com/']Mariner's[/url] has good food and a pretty decent menu that offers a representation of cajun/creole dishes as well as more "simply American" foods. It also has a spectacular setting: built out over a lake, you can watch sometimes-splendid sunsets as well as fishing and pleasure boats in decent weather. If I'm taking visitors to town out to dinner, this is where I take them if they want a "nice" place.


[url='http://www.mamasoysterhouse.com/']Mama's Oyster House[/url], where my son has worked for several years is reviewed on this site. (Yeah, it's a conflict of interest. Sue me.) Its adjoining restaurant, Papa's, share a wall and the owner, but have different menus. This is where I take people who want to have fun at the expense of elegance--and where I go myself. See my [url='http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=2744']RoadFood review[/url] for details. It's in our Historic District on Front Street across from Cane River Lake, which was the Red River until it changed courses long ago.

Representing the Italian immigrants that came to Cortland, New York I'd nominate the Green Arch, a 50 year old steak and spaghetti restaurant.

Representing the Lebanese immigrants the Pita Gourmet with lots of tastey middle eastern fare.

....and for the rest of us its Bob's BBQ featuring cornell chicken in the summertime

Is that Portland Me. or Oregon? Portland Maine has an Old Port. Chow Jim

Ian's Mom,
Great choices for Louisville. If I had 5 choices to post they would have included Lynn's and the Southside!! Your's have the advantage of being MUCH closer to the heart of the city.
See you next week at the Brown !!
AL

Not to kvetch, but Moonlite seems a bit of stretch for Lou, as it's at least a 2 hour drive from any part of town. I'd put Linnig's on the list for its unique atmosphere along with the delicious food. And possibly John E's, not that the food is that great, but for the amount of authentic Derby memorabilia and the amount of cigarette smoke soaked into the building.

Des Plaines, out on the northwest corner of Chicago, is no culinary Mecca (How's that-three cities in one sentence! Not bad, huh?). I could cheat and call Chicago "my town", but then I'd have so many to choose from I'd never narrow it down to two. Besides, I like the challenge of finding two places worth mentioning here in Des Plaines.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of places to eat here. We've got a pretty nice steak place, a couple of decent red sauce Italian places, we just got a pretty good Teriyaki joint about two blocks away. There are at least three nice little taquerias, and one Salvadoran pupusa house, within walking distance of my home. There are probably another dozen Mexican restaurants, ranging from taqueria to white table cloth, within two minutes driving time. But, in spite of the abundance of south of the border grub, Des Plaines is better represented by a different genre.

You see, the very first Ray Kroch McDonald's franchise opened here in Des Plaines. There's even a museum near downtown, an exact reproduction of an old McDonald's stand with the walk up window, benches and tables built right in to the red and white check patterned outside walls, and the iconic golden arches actually sprouting out of the roof, front and back. Des Plaines is a Hamburger town!

Now I'm not cynical enough to suggest that McDonald's is a restaurant that best represents my town. I mention it only as a point of history and reference. The two places I've got in mind, if they'd had the same advertising and marketing budget, would have crushed McDonald's a long time ago.

The first place is The Choo-Choo in downtown Des Plaines. I've mentioned The Choo-Choo in a previous "Where Should I Eat" post. It is a small classically laid out diner; a long counter as the focal point, surrounded by booths on each side and along the front window wall. The gimmick here is a large scale electric train that runs around the inside perimeter of the counter. As you sit at the counter, the locomotive delivers your food carried in plastic baskets permanently mounted to multiple flat cars trailing behind. The counter waitress removes the food from the train and places it in front of wide eyed children of all ages.

The Hamburgers themselves are very good. They're made Steak N Shake style; a big meatball of raw ground beef slapped on the hot grill and mashed down as it cooks. Rough, ragged, crispy browned edges make this a rich flavorful treat. The burger is bigger than a typical Steak N Shake burger too. Fries are included making The Choo-Choo a good value as well.

The other Des Plaines defining place is Paradise Pup, a tiny free-standing shack on River Road just south of Oakton Street. While the name seems to indicate a Hot Dog joint, Paradise Pup has built their reputation just as much on their Hamburgers. In fact, a 2005 Chicago Tribune rating of the metro area's best Hamburgers included Paradise Pup as the only fast food place on the list! The normally long lines tripled in size for weeks after the article first appeared.

Paradise Pup's Burgers are in a different part of the spectrum from The Choo-Choo. These are thick 1/3lb. pub-style burgers grilled over an open flame served on a slightly chewy Challah style roll. Remarkably juicy, satisfyingly deep beef flavor, these Burgers stand up to the full compliment of condiments piled on the bun! Great seasoned fries or cheddar fries with Merkt's cheese, and real(mid-western)milk shakes too.

Next time you come to Chicago for business, when your plane lands at O'Hare, before you head into the city, cab on up to Des Plaines and visit Paradise Pup or The Choo-Choo. Des Plaines is a town with a great Hamburger heritage.

Buddy

For my hometown of Kansas City, it would have to be Arthur Bryant's and Stroud's. Of course, the North location of Stroud's will have to do for now. The deal to reopen the south location fell through.

quote:

Originally posted by jim hilton

Yesterday I made a few posts that might have been considered by some to be a lttle, errr, "flamboyantly angry". I would like to atone by starting what I hope will be a fun topic.

I saw nothing to atone for but it IS a fun topic.

quote:

I'd like to hear about the two eating places that best represent the essence of your town,

In San Francisco:

1. The Ferry Building Marketplace: http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/ . If you check out the web site you'll see that this isn't really a single place but a collection of places in a renovated architectural icon. As such, it "represents" both SF's tradition of honoring, preserving and, if possible, reusing the old while at the same time innovating the new. And the food offerings really do, I think, include all the best of the area from "fast" food at Taylor's Refresher to haute wines, artisanal products, fabulous seafood and even an outlet of my favorite cookware store, Sur la Table.

2. Nihonmachi/Japan Center: http://www.inetours.com/Pages/SFNbrhds/JapanTown.html . This is another collection of places, all Japanese in this case. It's really a completely Japanese shopping center but that concept in itself kind of makes it "representative" of the Bay Area because hardly anywhere else will you find a sizeable enough Asian community to make something like this work commercially. Still, it contains a large variety of pretty authentic Japanese eating places (I lived in Japan for 15 months--I've eaten real Japanese food), including one of my favorite "Roadfood" places, Sapporo-Ya noodle restaurant (ramen).

In (or near) Green Valley, AZ:

1. Miguel's Mexican Restaurant: This place is certainly the most popular Mexican place in town and serves very good food (actually, their beef fajitas are "to die for"). It's family owned and operated--the family is actually a local dynasty as another branch of the same family owns Miguel's chief competition, which is similar and almost as good, La Placita).

2. The Cow Palace:

This place represents the "Anglo" side of the local cultural mix, serving a variety of "comfort" entrees like "chicken fried steak" and meatloaf.

hmm....DC
Tough one, there are so many sides to our Nations Capital.

I'll do this, here's the government side, the Georgetownian side and the regular folk side of DC:

Government places -
#1 Old Ebbots Grill
#2 Bull Feathers/Capitol Lounge/Pour House/Hawk-N-Dove
(all places that cap hill staffers go, within about a small two block area of each other. they're all fairly similar and you get the same experience, except that Hawk-N-Dove is typically democrat and Bull Feather's is typically Republican and the others are a mix, so take your pick of these for #2)

Georgetownian:
#1 Nathan's - Expensive, nautical theme restaurant and saloon. Maybe you prefer Mr. Smith's Saloon two blocks away, but this place oozes the typical wealthy Georgetown.
#2 Chadwick's. Chadwick's is that classic joint where you always see people meeting in the movies. not all the Georgetown stuff is on M St.
(#3 Billy Martin's Tavern -hey, we're online, I can add a third!)

Where the locals go amidst tourists
#1 SW Waterfront - tourists never seem to walk here, yet it's so close to the Jefferson Memorial you wonder how they miss it. This is an old fish market who's time may be coming to a close.
#2 Eastern Market - tourists sometimes find this place by mistake. But locals rule in what is the last real city Market. Butchers, bakers, florists, farmers, the Market Lunch, with Tunniclifs across the street.

No surprises in Nashville. Both Prince's Hot Chicken, as well as Loveless Cafe, are well documented.

Ann Arbor, MI - Zingerman's Deli and The Blue Nile. Mile high sandwiches in a funky little shop with a great mail order business as well at Zingerman's. Or you can sit on the floor sharing communal plates of African/Moroccan cuisine at the Blue Nile (vegitarian or carnivore)! That's us!

Jeff Steaks in Egg Harbor Township , NJ (near Atlantic City) on Fire road in the Genuardi's supermarket shopping plaza

I like them even better than the White House cheese steaks...

also the chicken francaise at Rosauris' italian restaurant in nearby Ventnor....and their incredible and huge garlic rolls

ellen in EHT

quote:

Originally posted by Jimeats

Is that Portland Me. or Oregon? Portland Maine has an Old Port. Chow Jim

Sorry. I always forget about the"other" Portland, even though my town of Portland, Oregon was named after the Portland in Maine.

The very first Original Joe's
was established in San Francisco by Louis Rocca and Tony Rodin 1937

when Lou Rocca's only child Lou “Babe” Rocca Jr. married Marie Ann Sole, Lou Sr. decided that it was a good idea to open another Original Joe’s restaurant for his son and his family. After searching throughout the Bay Area, Lou Sr. settled on San Jose, an up and coming city blessed with great weather and that presented a great opportunity.

That was 50 years ago and today "OJ's" as it's called by we locales is indeed San Jose

We have approximately a million people living here in San Jose and I venture to say every one of us at one time or another dined at OJ's.................

Old man Rocca was so right in choosing San Jose for today our city is bigger, has better weather and more sun then that little boutique town north of us and we are now the hub of the Bay Area and the Capital of Silicon Valley and Original Joe's is the city's most famous and best restaurant.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/09.30.99/cover/best-hof-ojs-9939.html

quote:

Originally posted by fpczyz

our city is bigger, has better weather and more sun then that little boutique town north of us and we are now the hub of the Bay Area

But, strangely enough, has no major league baseball, no NFL football, no world class symphony or opera, no "Wall Street of the West", no bridges, no harbor, not much to look at, really. But someday--not likely in my lifetime or yours, Frank--it'll get over the inferiority complex. Till then, I'll maybe try a meal in ORIGINAL Original Joe's which is in the ORIGINAL hub of the Bay Area. Cheers.

City: Salem, Oregon
Two Places: McDonalds & Taco Bell

I kid you not! This town has terrible taste in food. We have the usual Applebee's, Red Robin, and fast food, not only are we the capital of Oregon, we are the capital of fast food! And lousy fast food at that. Service is unheard of, and good food, I'm sorry, not here. Oh yah, and everyone who has a speck of Hispanic blood in them opens a Mexican food place. These are usually so bad, I make better Mexican food! And I'm not Hispanic! That's why my husband and I do road trips, for the food!

My hometown: Liverpool, NY

#1 - Heid's of Liverpool. Incidently, there isn't a Heid's hot dog stand anywhere else. So, you can ignore the "of Liverpool" part, since it's a little redundant. Founded in 1883 by Valentine Heid, it's one of the nation's oldest true fast-food restaurants. Heid's Hot Dog stand has gone through many changes from a push cart, to a restaurant, to a failed expansion (much to the delight of Liverpudlian's who just assume keep it a Liverpool only landmark). But through it all, no single restaurant in Liverpool or all of Central NY has garnered more attention and enthusiasm than Heid's of Liverpool.

Tied
#2 - The Retreat. A Restaurant and bar with an eccletic collection of antiques from Liverpool's early days as the Town of Salina during the salt "mining" years, along with newer rowing collectibles, inlcuding a scull from Syracuse University, due to the fact that Central New York is one of a few hubs where the team sport of Crew has developed many national championship teams and individuals. For years, the NCAA National Championships in Crew were held here. But The Retreat is still a local home with the pub side and fine dining side. Casual, or dress up.

tie #2 - Mother's. I've mentioned this place on Roadfood before. IMO, one of the Syracuse areas best italian restaurants that, really, only Liverpudlians ever notice. In a quaint, usassuming red house on 1st Street in Liverpool that is filled with some strange decorations, like a doll that stands in the corner on the floor, and a floor that has a definate tilt to one side of the restaurant, you're treated to a fabulous dinner for about as much as I pay for a hamburger at a DC restaurant ($8-$12).

I love the Original Joe's in San Jose. A bowl of minestrone would be really good right now, with the snow beginning to fall.

For Northern Kentucky, I'd nominate Pompillio's, a classic "red sauce" Italian restaurant that has been around for ages. Lots of Italian immigrants settled in Newport, Kentucky and this place represents them well. Pompillio's is featured in the "spilled matchsticks scene" of the movie "Rain Man" starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.

I'd also nominate the Green Derby, also in Newport, which is an old fashioned bar/restaurant featuring fried fish, a staple of the Northern Kentucky diet.

BT -

Can the public still get tickets to the California Culinary Academy's dinners? I went to one years ago and the food was outstanding. I've been to their website but there was no mention of dinners being open to the public. Thanks for any info.