Visiting Main Street Ohio

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:48:06 GMT

macaroni-
Thanks so much for the kind words and welcome to Roadfood!

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (macaroni)

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:52:41 GMT

Love traveling and eating vicariously through your trip reports, buffetbuster! Thanks!

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (lleechef)

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:06:14 GMT

pnwchef
It isn't easy keeping a curmudgeon mustardless!

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (Michael Hoffman)

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:01:05 GMT

buffetbuster

Michael-
I'm guessing the food at GG&G is nothing special.

Nope. Nothing special. I was there during the Bratwurst Festival one year and of course I had a cheeseburger.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (pnwchef)

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:50:53 GMT

wanderingjew

buffetbuster

M and I spent the weekend in Ohio, so I have some places to write about, which will happen tonight. The highlight was lleechef and Michael Hoffman joining us at Crabill's for some delicious sliders.

A full report to come.....

Ah! It's the two beauties and the beast!

Pretty book ends, with a old classic in the middle. I'm just happy he didn't have mustard on his sleeve, Great job Lisa, he cleaned up well.......................

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (ann peeples)

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:25:18 GMT

Mariton and I will get along just fine-chicken livers! And those look fantastic!

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 09:06:20 GMT

Michael-
I'm guessing the food at GG&G is nothing special.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (Michael Hoffman)

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 08:59:59 GMT

Yep, I've eaten at the Grill & Grog. Unfortunately, they don't have any real grog, which is a killer if you really need your hot rum and water.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (HollyDolly)

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:52:37 GMT

I'm really enjoying your report.That's funny about your great grandfather maybe being a mechanic for the Red Baron. Never been to the Air Museum in Dayton.It does have a family connection though.My dad was a flight crew chief and mechanic during WW2.The museum has some parts of the Lady Be Good, the famous
376 Th Liberator bomber. My dad knew the guys who were on it when she disappeared.In fact, I recall him saying he was supposed to go on her, but there was some sort of change of plan, and he went on another plane.Daddy of course came back, but these guys never did. The museum is also supposed to be haunted.
My mother made cabbage rolls, but never put saurkraut on hers.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:48:26 GMT

As we continued across US Rte. 30, when I saw the road signs for Van Wert, near the Indiana border, we got off the highway and headed into town. That's because Van Wert is the home of a classic Roadfood spot, Balyeat's Coffee Shop. What makes it such an interesting restaurant starts with the terrific neon sign.

I have been here three times before, but they were always in the day, so this was the first time I could admire it at night.

Obviously, the chicken is the star of the menu. But, they no longer fry the chicken, they pan fry it and then bake it. It gives it a limp skin and juicy inside meat.

It is different and it is good. And the mashed potatoes on the side were real mashed potatoes. Mariton wasn't too interested in eating again, until I pointed out they have chicken livers.

That's all she needed to here and ate an order all by herself, calling them delicious.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Balyeat's is well known for their pies, but since it was late, they were already sold out. Disappointing, but I knew there was going to be plenty of great pie the next day in Indiana.

Balyeat's Coffee Shop
133 E. Main Street
Van Wert, OH
419-238-1580

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:24:12 GMT

In the trip report that began this thread, I mentioned a drive-thru place in Bucyrus that caught my eye. When I saw that our trip across US Rte. 30 would take us near "the bratwurst capitol of America", I knew a stop in was necessary. The name of the place is Bratworks

and it is both a beer distributor and a brat purveyor. Are you sure this isn't Wisconsin? Anyway, we pulled in and was greeted warmly. We got one brat, with brown mustard on a rye roll.

Oh my goodness, was this good! It was juicy, nicely seasoned and grilled perfectly. They do make their own brats, though not on the premises.

The Bratworks
574 S. Sandusky Avenue
Bucyrus, OH
419-562-9872

Also in town is Carle's Bratwurst, which I had previously visited and an intriguing place called Gus's Grill & Grog. I looked at their menu and not only do they have brats, but they also have lake perch and what they call Waldo Bologna. Has anyone been here before? I'm thinking there is a good chance Michael Hoffman has eaten here. Next time in town, this is where I am going.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (ScreamingChicken)

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:18:19 GMT

That's too bad that the soups were a little thin, but on the flip side it's still better than more body and less flavor!

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:12:15 GMT

We have made a couple of trips to and through Ohio in the past month and tried some really good new places.

In Wooster, just south of Akron, we visited Tulipan Hungarian Pastry and Coffee Shop. They always have Hungarian Pork Goulash on the menu, so we tried a cup of that and a cup of Cauliflower w/ Chicken and Dumplings.

Both of the soups had good flavor, but were on the thin side. We wished they were a little heartier. The items on the menu that had me excited was a crepes (palacsinta) that came with a chicken paprikash filling and paprikash sauce. Unfortunately, our visit was late in the day and the young lady who waited on us (the owner's daughter), told us her mother took the last two home as dinner for her husband. Bad timing! We will be back if nothing else just for those.

They had several cases of interesting pastries

I had never seen before and we bought things like ischlers (chocolate dipped sandwich cake with different fillings) and bishop's hat (papsapka), but the item we liked best was the Dobos Torte.

This multi layered sponge cake was moist and had the hardest layer of caramel top I have ever encountered. It was excellent and Mariton and I raced to see who could get more!

Tulipan is located in a charming downtown area. We are looking forward to returning!

Tulipan Hungarian Pastry and Coffee Shop
122 S. Market Street
Wooster, OH
330-264-8092

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (Michael Hoffman)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:27:53 GMT

Ann, I am mad. I'm seething inside because I didn't have room for more than four of Crabill's burgers and buffetrbuster was buying.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (Michael Hoffman)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:25:31 GMT

Congratulations. You finally got something right.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (wanderingjew)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:19:22 GMT

buffetbuster

M and I spent the weekend in Ohio, so I have some places to write about, which will happen tonight. The highlight was lleechef and Michael Hoffman joining us at Crabill's for some delicious sliders.

A full report to come.....

Ah! It's the two beauties and the beast!

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (ann peeples)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:09:03 GMT

Good to see you, my friends. No offense, Mr Hoffman.......you ,in my mind, looked so much more, well, Mad! How lovely......love you guys........

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (ScreamingChicken)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:27:51 GMT

TJ Jackson

Finally - a picture of the ancient one

TJ, I'm sure there are some others of him around somewhere. Of course, they'd be daguerrotypes...

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (Davydd)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:09:12 GMT

Blew away my image of a man with long wavy white hair and a beard down to his waist.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:03:15 GMT

TJ-
Actually, there were a couple photos from this year's Nashville Glee Club of Michael. This is probably just the first photo on Roadfood of him with a lovely lady on each arm!

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (TJ Jackson)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:01:18 GMT

Finally - a picture of the ancient one

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:29:36 GMT

M and I spent the weekend in Ohio, so I have some places to write about, which will happen tonight. The highlight was lleechef and Michael Hoffman joining us at Crabill's for some delicious sliders.

A full report to come.....

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (lleechef)

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:02:41 GMT

Hey BB, by all means go to Jolly Roger. We drove 300 miles round trip to eat a walleye and a perch sandwich. Definitely worth the trip. Then there was the pie at Henry's on the way back.....

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:27:47 GMT

WJ-
Believe it or not, we ate no coneys on this trip to Detroit. I had a couple places picked out, but was never able to fit it into the schedule.

The chili dog at Woody's was one of the items I liked least, even though it was a perfectly acceptable chili dog. Still, no match for a coney at an elite Detroit place like Lafayette.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (wanderingjew)

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:11:19 GMT

Buffetbuster

Quoting the words of Chi Town Diner
"You've eaten lightly so far"
How did the chili dog compare to the coney dogs of Detroit?

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:35:51 GMT

Nancy-
Corndog with pancake syrup? Okay, now I have to find a way to try this!

lleechef-
So glad that you brought up Jolly Roger in Port Clinton. I did a little research ahead of time and if we didn't stumble upon Woody's Drive-In, we were going to hit Jolly Roger. Next time we are in the area, that is where we are going!

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (lleechef)

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:02:44 GMT

Ahh, Main Street Ohio. Love the walleye sandwich at Jolly Rodger in Port Clinton. The perch sandwich looked also excellent. Then there is the white bean soup and Coney at Phillips in Columbus. Good food in Ohio.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (Nancypalooza)

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:18:46 GMT

The silence you hear is me blinking at the size of that hamburger. Dammit Cliffmond, you've made me hungry again! Now you should introduce Mariton to the joys of eating a corn dog accompanied only by pancake syrup.

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (buffetbuster)

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:13:09 GMT

We stopped in Fremont, Ohio to visit the President Hayes Presidential Center. We were getting hungry and was happy to find Woody's Drive-In.

A sign in the front of the building said curb service only on Saturdays and Sundays and considering it was in the mid-90's outside, we were happy to stay in the car. As soon as we parked, a pleasant young woman named Amber came over to take our order. When we told her we had never been to Woody's before, she gave us a paper menu to look at and said she would be back. Despite having a menu in my hand, it was still more fun to look at the giant menu board

in the parking lot.

We decided to just choose several different items and split everything.   Amber took our order and returned about 15 minutes later with our food. Here is our tray hanging off the window.

As you can see, the meal started off with two big mugs of frosty root beer. There are few ways a restaurant can endear itself to me more than with homemade root beer in a frosty mug. And this is some first-rate root beer. It seems like I could taste some vanilla and maybe some caramel in the root beer, but I know for sure it was wonderfully creamy and satisfying. The mug could have been a little more chilled, but that is just quibbling.

The first food I grabbed was the onion chips.

These are small, cut up bits of onion rings, maybe about a third of a regular size onion ring each.   These are much easier to eat than the often over-sized ring and had a deliciously brittle outside crust. Ranch dressing came on the side for dipping.

Before ordering the chili dog, I asked Amber if they make their own chili sauce and they do. She asked if I wanted any onions on it and how could I turn down onions on a chili dog?

The bun was soft and the chili was a typical Greek sauce, with pebbly meat and a slight hint of heat. We got the chili dog as part of a basket, which means it came with cole slaw and french fries.

The fine fresh tasting fries were slightly salted, but the sweet and vinegary cole slaw was a big hit with me. I only wish it had come in a larger portion.

Mariton's favorite food was the perch sandwich,

which was two lengths of perfectly cooked, crunchy coated fish, in a long toasted bun. It does come with tartar sauce, but that was completely unnecessary.

They have a sign on the roof of the building advertising a huge burger called Woody's splitter. They refer to it as "A Wedge Against Hunger."

I can spot a challenge when I see one and this is not a burger

for the faint of heart. That is two quarter pound burgers, plus cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, ketchup AND onion rings. All the toppings tasted fresh and even though the burgers themselves were well done and a little on the dry side, still provided plenty of beefy flavor. And the onion rings gave the burger an unusual crunch in the middle. By no means was this a great burger, but still miles ahead of your typical fast food burger. Mariton complained a little bit about it being so big, that it was difficult to eat. Of course, I had to prove that it was possible to get a full bite of it!

As if that wasn't enough food.....   When Amber brought us the tray, I remembered that no corn dog had been ordered. Mariton had never seen a corn dog before and was curious.  The corn dog

here at Woody's is a classic. Too many corn dogs taste like the batter at the county fair needs changed. This was very fresh, with a nice moist interior. She was a little surprised to find that there was a hot dog on the inside!

Before we left, I took a few more outside photos. They do have a little shaded dining area with picnic tables,

but we were staying in the air conditioning of the car! I also liked the happy, dappily dressed hot dog, carrying a mug of root beer.

Woody's is seasonal and in fact closes in mid-August, when their young employees head back to school. The elderly tour guide at President Hayes house told us that a lot of locals get upset when they close so early each year. I know many towns across the country have places like Woody's Drive-In, but not many have food as good.

Before we left, Amber told us about a Facebook page her and her twin sister, who are both longtime employees, have for Woody's.

Woody's Drive-In
1630 East State Street
Fremont, OH
419-332-9790

Re:Visiting Main Street Ohio (Nancypalooza)

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:51:54 GMT

A teaser!