2012 Summer Trip

Re:2012 Summer Trip (ChrisOC)

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 12:02:25 GMT

Very nice report. Thanks for sharing.

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Davwud)

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 10:30:22 GMT

Hey Gang
Here is my blog post about Dead End BBQ in Knoxville.
http://bit.ly/TksosE

Enjoy
DT

Re:2012 Summer Trip (wallhd)

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:48:00 GMT

Sounded like a great trip. Thanks for taking the time to share it with the rest of us Road-Fooders !

Wally
Plattsburgh NY

Re:2012 Summer Trip (buffetbuster)

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:16:42 GMT

Davwud-
Nicely done! You have the Pittsburgh accent down to the point you can consider yourself an honorary yinzer!

Eggs N' At is a fine place that gets big enough a crowd that I have always had to eat at the counter. Friendly people, too. Thanks for the tip on the corned beef hash.

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Davwud)

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 07:31:02 GMT

Eggs N'at in Pittsburgh
http://davwudsfoodcourt.b.../10/pittsburghese.html

DT

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Davwud)

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:16:09 GMT

Hey Gang

Here's my review of Countryside Cafe in Ooltewah, Tn.
http://bit.ly/OzRvZO

Hope you enjoy it
DT

Re:2012 Summer Trip (myterry2)

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:10:46 GMT

Nice report with good pictures...enjoyed everything.

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Davwud)

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:17:15 GMT

Hey Gang.

Here's my review of Ritzy Lunch in Clarksburg, WVa. I really wish I could go right now. That Giovanni is some kinda good.
http://bit.ly/SnNGsh

DT

Re:2012 Summer Trip (icecreamchick)

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:00:23 GMT

That is a good trip report -- I enjoyed reading it!

We'll have to try out Eggs N'at some morning. Glad you also got to experience our beautiful ball park!

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Michael Hoffman)

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:33:31 GMT

Nice report.Thanks. And thanks, too, for the information about New York Lunch. Seems to me that Erie isn't all that far from Rochester, Pennsylvania, where we seem to be spending a lot of time.

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Davwud)

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:06:17 GMT

Here's my blog post for Miller's.
http://davwudsfoodcourt.b...mous-ground-round.html
I would have to say that it's second behind Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger in Ann Arbor for best in the US. Of the ones I've had obviously.

DT

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Davwud)

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 09:44:53 GMT

carlton pierre

Excellent trip report. I was hoping you would miss Knoxville but alas! You discovered that there's not much here in the way of good, interesting food.

Well I'm starting to realize you really need to do your homework in K'ville. I have a few spots marked out. But yes, it's not like Nashville or some other great food cities.

DT

Re:2012 Summer Trip (carlton pierre)

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:16:23 GMT

Excellent trip report. I was hoping you would miss Knoxville but alas! You discovered that there's not much here in the way of good, interesting food.

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Davwud)

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:33:12 GMT

buffetbuster

I haven't written about Eggs N 'at here on Roadfood yet, but it is a terrific breakfast spot. Still, exploring the menu to find out what they do best , but Mrs. Sippi was probably on the right trail with the sausage. And thanks for the tip on New York Lunch. I had never heard of it before.

Thanks for the nice report!

One of the things that I really liked about Eggs n At is it's (as I'm told) owned by a young lady. Maybe not even 30 yet. I thought it was nice to see someone young getting into this type of business. Makes me hope that the Mom and Pop places may still have a future.

I was also tipped off about a place called Barbato's in Erie. I haven't really done much research yet (other than to find out they have 4 locations) but I was told they have excellent pepperoni balls.

DT

Re:2012 Summer Trip (buffetbuster)

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:38:40 GMT

I haven't written about Eggs N 'at here on Roadfood yet, but it is a terrific breakfast spot. Still, exploring the menu to find out what they do best, but Mrs. Sippi was probably on the right trail with the sausage. And thanks for the tip on New York Lunch. I had never heard of it before.

Thanks for the nice report!

Re:2012 Summer Trip (mr chips)

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 02:15:57 GMT

Lovely photos. Nice report.

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Buffalo Tarheel)

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 14:38:04 GMT

Very nice report - thanks for posting it. Those hot dogs in Erie look good. I'll need to put that place on the radar for the next time driving through Erie on the way someplace else.

Re:2012 Summer Trip (Davwud)

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:25:19 GMT

You can read more about the Flagship Niagara and our visit to New York Lunch here. http://davwudsfoodcourt.b.../flagship-niagara.html

You can also read more about our visit to Nadine's here. http://davwudsfoodcourt.b...g-lives-of-others.html

As always, plenty more pictures.

More blog posts to follow.

That'll be all for now.
DT

2012 Summer Trip (Davwud)

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:21:09 GMT

Hey Roadfoodies.

Well our summer trip has come and gone and to put it bluntly, we ate like Vikings. Lots of good food, good places and good people. Probably one of the best trips we've had from a food standpoint.
As I usually do with these longer trips I'll post the journey in one thread and our stay in Huntsville in another.

Anyway, we went "Through the mountains" as we call it. That means crossing at Ft. Erie/Buffalo and heading down through Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia before hitting Tennessee and finally Alabama.

Without further adieu, I present our trip in food.

Our first stop was in Erie Pa. I'd heard about these Greek Style Hotdogs at a place called New York Lunch and it's been on my "To do" list for a while. It was finally time. New York Lunch is a little lunch counter right in the middle of town. The building dates back decades and seemingly they haven't been visited by a renovator or maybe even a health inspector lately either. It's a dive in the truest sense.
That said, the "Greek" Hotdogs are really quite tasty. The chili sauce is pretty loose, somewhat like Cinci chili but certainly not as intense. I did sense a bit more of a traditional chili note in there too.

A fellow patron highly recommended breakfast there. They do simple bacon and eggs type stuff and there ain't nothin' wrong with that. Sadly, the burger with Greek sauce wasn't all that good.
Erie also affords you the opportunity to visit one of only 2 US War of 1812 ships still around today. The USS Niagara.

The other being the USS Constitution in Boston.

Next up was a stop over in Pittsburgh. We've driven through countless times and we decided that a stop in town would be in order. As was a stop at Nadine's Bar. We saw Nadine's featured on D3 the day after we started putting our trip together. It looked too good to pass up.
Mrs. Sippi is trying to figure out a way to ditch me and marry the Open Face Roast Beef Sandwich w/ Mashed Potatoes. She loved it that much.I risked life and limb to secure a taste and it was indeed excellent.

We also got Meatball and Fried Baloney sandwiches which, while fantastic couldn't compete.
PNC Park is just as beautiful as advertised.

While staying at La Quinta you get breakfast. Sometimes it's pretty servicable. Others, it's not. This was one of those second type breakfasts. Fortunately while walking the hound I noticed Eggs 'n At across the street from our hotel. It looked pretty busy so we thought taking a chance would be a pretty safe bet. It was.
They do the old standards of course which Mrs. Sippi jumped on. Proclaiming her Sausage and Eggs to "Hit the spot." I opted for the Corned Beef Hash. I'm fairly new to CBH and fully figure I haven't had the best one I'll eat yet. Not that there was anything wrong with this one. Again, just a good solid offering.
They get bread brought in every morning from a local bakery and it was fantastic. Well worth the extra cost for real bread.

Off on our way we hit the open road where our first stop would be the famous Ritzy Lunch in Clarksburg, WVa. This little lunch counter has also been around for decades and may possibly have the best hotdog chili I've had. Just the perfect balance of meat, gravy and spices.
The also make a phenomenal sandwich called a Giovanni. I'm told it's a local specialty and I just absolutely loved this one. It's a burger patty smothered in sauteed onions, sweet and hot peppers and yellow and white processed cheese. It came grilled cheese style and I could've eaten a half dozen or so. It was phenomenal.

They also do chili cheese fries. One of the interesting things is the chili, being pretty loose, made for a rather soupy dish. It worked well if you looked at the glass half full. Rather than a runny, soupy mess, what I found was a chili cheese potato soup at the bottom. Yummy.
Clarksburg is also the home of General Stonewall Jackson.

That night was stopped in Knoxville where we ended up at Dead End BBQ. This place is a bit of a local legend however I have to say it's reputation exceeds itself. A couple red flags were waved as we pulled into the driveway. First off, no pig outside. Secondly, too new. I'm sure the great Q places were once new but it seems like you really want a place with character.

I wouldn't say the food was bad because it wasn't. Sadly, very little was any better than good. One thing that certainly stood out was the smoked sausage. They serve it sliced on the plate but where I think it would shine is sliced, fried and along side some over easy eggs.
Mrs. Sippi said their tea was dreadful and we both thought the sauces quite good.

One last stop before our arrival in Huntsville. The well known Country Side Cafe outside Chattanooga in a little town called Ooltewah. Well, it's at the intersection of 2 country roads in the middle of nowhere actually. The food was really good but not in the pantheon of great Meat n 3 places.

I opted for the meatloaf. I was asked if I wanted gravy on it and of course I did. When it arrived I thought the addition of gravy was weird. It had a tomato sauce baked on it rendering the gravy redundant. I soldier on though and found that ultimately the two worked together. I wouldn't order it that way again but it was interesting and a very tasty option.

I read a blog review of the burger place across the road and it deemed it very good.

Thus endeth the journey to.

As usual the road home was much less interesting. We're usually on a bit of a mission to get back asap. Our first lunch stop was at Sonic. I still think they make an above average coney. Dinner that night was supposed to be our usual Skyline in Dayton however construction, detours, traffic jams, more construction, more detour, detours on our detour route due to more construction meant we didn't arrive in at our hotel until 11pm. It was a long day. We did split a bag of Doritos in the car for dinner. BTW, the new Enchilada Supreme flavour is awesome.

Our final meal on the road was lunch in Dearborn at the legen-wait-for-it-dary Miller's Bar. Whenever a list of the best burgers in the US is drawn up, Miller's is on it. They do simple flat top burgers of ground round served on simple buns with Velveeta.

A couple of really cool things are they serve their burgers on wax paper only. They have no menues as there are only a half dozen options or so. They're also on the honour system as well. Just tell them what you had and they tell you what you owe.

As for the burgers...ya, they're THAT good.

So there you have it. Our journey to and from Huntsville for our summer vacation.

DT