The Lowdown on H-Town, Part II

This is part of a series that begins here.

After returning from Galveston, we made off for dinner at Magnolia Bar & Grill. This was my second trip to this venerable Houston establishment. The last time I was in town, the weather was great and we ate outside. This trip, temperatures dipped into the 40's, so we decided an indoor table was in order. Magnolia has a large and varied menu, but their specialties include a lot of creole seafood. First up on my agenda was this stellar bowl of shrimp gumbo. The picture, as usual, does not do this bowl of spicy goodness any justice. You could not dip the spoon into the bowl without pulling up three shrimp per spoonful. The broth was spicy, but not distractingly so.

My dinner entree was another Texas gulf specialty, stuffed redfish. There were three of us at the table, and two of us ordered the redfish. My other dining companion (the artist formerly known as "Wacky Mutant Assistant Chick") went with the stuffed shrimp, which were also described as excellent. The redfish came with a lump crabmeat stuffing (like the shrimp in the gumbo, you could pick out the large chunks of crabmeat in the stuffing). The mashed potatoes that accompanied the dish were some of the best I have ever had.

Wacky Mutant Assistant Chick also grabbed a piece of their key lime pie, and put away the whole thing. Personally, I liked the fruit garnish, but I am not a fan of key lime pie - and can I just tell you how hard it is to live in Florida and not like key lime pie?

Breakfast the following morning was at the Avalon Diner, which earned a prominent spot on my Best of 2006 list. You can follow along after the jump...

Before departing Houston, "wanderingjew" and I planned to meet up for breakfast at the Avalon. Unfortunately, he ran into some car trouble and had a rough go getting to the restaurant. We ended up in slightly more of a rush than we had anticipated, but the Avalon is a worthy stop for some pre-road trip grub. Located in a non-descript strip mall in a somewhat upscale neighborhood, the Avalon Diner doesn't look like the kind of place that would normally attract my attention. But, one step in the door, and you immediately feel as though you have taken a step back in time. The decor is retro - the traditional 1950's diner feel. I love the oversized soda caps hanging on the wall.



To be honest, my breakfast was unexciting - I ordered the old-fashioned, thin, small-tread waffle, based on a Michael Stern recommendation. It was good. But, just good. Wanderingjew ordered the chicken fried steak (sorry, I didn't get a photo), and I have to admit - he won. This is definitely an instance of "when in Rome..." and when in Texas, chicken fried steak is usually a pretty good option.

The real reason I added Avalon to the Houston recap, though, was to add the photos and the full attention that my previous visit deserved, but was never written. On my last visit, I sat at the counter and observed the inner workings of a tradtional diner from a cat bird seat at the counter. There is nothing like getting the first-hand view of the interaction between the cooks and the servers at the counter. On top of the ambiance, the thin-patty burgers at Avalon are delicious. The crinkle-cut fries are the ideal accompaniment.



The burger, fries and a shake was a great meal, but on my next trip through town, I want to check out their fresh-squeezed lemonade (they also do limeade). This machine makes the magic. You can see the fresh limes and lemons in the background. I watched as they created each glass, as it was ordered. Each lemon squeezed on the spot, a little syrup and sugar added and blended perfectly and served in an old-style fountain glass.



Well fed, we departed for Shiner, Texas, the home of Spoetzel Brewery - the makers of Shiner Bock beer. More on that in the next installment.

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Love and White Castles

File this under "Is It Any Wonder I'm Single?"

White Castle is going upscale for Valentine's Day this year. They are offering hostess seating, candlelit dinner, and your own server as part of their dinnertime promotion. As with many an upscale restaurant on this festive holiday, reservations are required. Right now, all I can think of is how bummed I am that there is no White Castle nearby for me to have a proper Valentine's Day celebration. Yep - hard to believe nobody's scooped me right up, huh?

If you would rather treat your sweetie to a sack of Whiteys in the comfort of your own home, White Castle is offering a take-home deal with "eight cheeseburgers, one sack of fries, two regular soft drinks, coupons and keepsake items to heat up your homespun romance." For $20, I would consider this, if only to find out what "keepsake items" White Castle thinks will "heat up my homespun romance." I can't imagine what a White Castle sex toy would look like. [shudder]

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Dining Out: Best of 2006

Consider this post the sequel to last year's Best of 2005 list.

It seems like I traveled more this year than in years past. Unfortunately, a lot of it was to the same places I have been in the last couple of years. That's not really such a bad thing - I don't suppose that I would have wanted to return to the same places if I didn't like it there - but, since fellow ROGUEfooder "wanderingjew" laid down the challenge of only using places that are new this year, I thought I would have a tough time coming up with a Top 10 of just new places. As it turns out, I had to whittle down a list from about twenty. I will deviate from my past rule of only including restaurants recommended by the Sterns. Still, I think that the quality of the following 10 destinations would prove worthy. To rank one ahead of another would be a grave injustice (but, #1 will be considered #1 for those who feel that there should be a definitive "winner."

10) Smitty's; Lockhart, TX

Central Texas is my absolute favorite place for BBQ in the whole country. The picture of my own meal, however, does not nearly sum up the quality of Smitty's the way this picture of one of their smokers in action does. In addition to serving this wonderful food, the staff here was very freindly and cordial - allowing me to take a number of photos, with full run of the place. I enjoyed a plate that consisted of two healthy slices of beef shoulder (brisket) and two pork ribs. I was trying to eat light so that I might also get to Kreuz's Market (and compare the two!), but alas, my eyes were bigger than my stomach, once again. My plan is to make it back to Lockhart sometime in February. The thought of getting my hands on some of that beef is probably what gets me through the next few days!

208 S Commerce St.
Lockhart, TX

9) Tony's Restaurant; Bridgeton, MO (RIP, as of 12/06)

I am glad to say that I made it to this hidden treasure before it's untimely demise in late 2006. This picture doesn't do the size of this omelette justice. If I was told that there were a half-dozen eggs in there, I wouldn't blink. The menu did not mention that this was an item to be served family style, but it fed three healthy adult males with no problem at all. The pancakes, wonderful as they were, had no business being on the table. These two plates made for too much food for three adults. The best part of the whole meal - that cost of that omelette was around five bucks.

8) Grimaldi's Pizza; Brooklyn, NY

This is the scene outside Grimaldi's most of the time that they are open for business. New Yorkers, impatient bunch that we can be, will wait - for something worth waiting for. Grimadli's pizza is one of the things worth waiting for. In my case, excellent company made the wait for a table and the food seem all too short. Don't poke in expecting to grab a slice to go - there are no slices at Grimaldi's. Even calling and ordering in advance may not get you a pie any quicker. Everyone is queued up together, egalitarianism at it's best. Upon completion of your pie, bang a right out the front door and walk a block or two down to the water and grab a fine dessert at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

19 Old Fulton St.
Brooklyn, NY

7) Dinic's; Philadelphia, PA

Located inside the Reading Terminal Market, Dinic's is destination food in Philly. Pictured above is the roast pork, served "wet," which is just as it sounds - drenched in it's own juices. A side of locally produced Herr's chips is the accompaniment. It would take you weeks to eat your way around RTM without duplicating any single establishment, but Dinic's is on my list of places to hit whenever I am in town. Everyone may tell you that the touristy thing to do in Philadelphia is to get a cheesesteak from Pat's or Geno's. Let the tourists head there while you get a better meal at Dinic's. Everything pictured above was less than $7 (including the fountain drink).

Reading Terminal Market
51 N 12th St.
Philadelphia, PA

6) Pho Van; Portland, OR

This was my first experience with Vietnamese food. I am sure that part of what made this meal exceptional was the company - fellow ROGUEfooder Mr. Chips, and his family - Trudy and Sam. I will be darned if I could remember the name, but the bowl pictured above was my entree, which included BBQ pork, large shrimp, ground pork and veggies in a chicken broth with vermicelli noodles. This bowl followed some excellent spring roll appetizers (well, the bite or two that I managed to sneak in before Sam torched the rest!), and was more than I could finish. What you see pictured above was about $7. I only hope that I didn't set the bar too high with my first Vietnamese experience. The odds of me being able to walk into any other local restaurant expecting to get this same quality is are probably not that high.

1919 SE 82nd Ave.
Portland, OR

5) Puerto Sagua; Miami, FL


The aforementioned "wanderingjew" traveled down to my home state for some baseball and eating, and I met up with him and a friend of his down in Miami. After a sunny afternoon of Marlins baseball, we drove down to Miami Beach to eat some of the best Cuban food served outside of Havana. This picture isn't even my own meal, but upon being served, I immediately regretted not ordering the seafood enchilada.

700 Collins Ave.
Miami Beach, FL

4) Avalon Diner; Houston, TX

Sitting at the counter at the Avalon Diner is like taking a step back in time to the 1950's. I suppose that the 1950's wouldn't have seen the Avalon in as strange a place as a strip mall, but sometimes you just have to roll with the times. A burger, fries, and a shake - All-American comfort food, if ever there was such a designation. In addition to the hand-dipped shakes, the Avalon still squeezes the lemons and limes fresh for their homemade lemonade and limeade, respectively. Seems like every town used to have at least one of these places. Now, they are stretched far and wide.

2417 Westheimer Rd.
Houston, TX

3) Primanti Brothers, Pittsburgh, PA

When I mentioned to friends that I was heading to Pittsburgh, every single person told me that if I only had time for one meal, that meal should be the sandwich made famous in Pittsburgh - the Primanti Brothers. I will admit to being skpetical - a sandwich with bread, french fries, and cole slaw all slathered on a sandwich together did not really appeal to me. I am a basic fellow - I want to taste the meat in a sandwich, and am usually resistant to any and all condiments. Still, I was told, this slaw is different...the fries add a unique texture....it's an experience. I figued that the worst case scenario would be that I would never have to eat another - and I could claim the experience as done. Instead, the sandwich, and the experience was unforgettable. I was seated at the counter in the original Strip District location, next to two college buddies, in town on summer break. One lived in Pittsburgh his whole life, the other was visiting from NY. For the NYer, this was his "must" experience in Pittsburgh, too.

46 18th St.
Pittsburgh, PA

2) Round Rock Donuts; Round Rock, TX

It is almost hard for me to justify a "Top 10" spot on donuts - but, these donuts are THAT good. I made two visits to the Austin area in 2006. In March, I stayed in Round Rock, and Roadfooder "Bushie" sent me to these fried doughy delights. When I booked my hotel for my October trip, I clearly wasn't thinking about donuts, and booked a hotel on the south side of Austin, near the airport. Waking up and needing a donut fix, I drove about 1/2 hour, in driving rain, to Round Rock to get my hands on these treats. They raised the price from my first visit to my second - up a nickel now, to FIFTY cents a piece. On a recent road trip, I stopped at a roadside Dunkin' Donuts and found donuts had risen in price to 84 cents. I know that it is only 34 cents per donut, but a difference of about 40% in price, for quality that is not anywhere close is a complete injustice. Round Rock Donuts is just one more reason to look forward to that February trip.

106 W Liberty St.
Round Rock, TX

1) Ess-a-Bagel, New York, NY

I try not to throw around the label of "best ever" too often, or it loses its impact. Unfortunately, I don't know any other way to say it - these are the best bagels I have ever eaten. Period. The cinammon raisin that you see right in the middle are fresh and warm out of the oven. I ordered a half-dozen, and walked out towards my hotel. As I was walking, the heat from the bagels permeated the bag and began toasting my hands. Between the physical signs of the warm bagels, and the aroma coming out of the bag, I couldn't resist reaching into the bag and tearing off a hunk of fresh bagel as I walked. The crusty exterior texture blended with the chewy interior to make bagel bliss. My boss often asks me to bring back "real" New York bagels whenever I travel to the Motherland. If she only knew, she would think that anything else I had brought back to this point was absolutely inferior!

831 3rd Avenue
New York, NY 10022

As I look back at the remaining restaurants on my 2006 list that didn't make the cut, I could easily make ANOTHER Top 10 list that would rival most anybody's travels. It really was a good year. In the next couple of days, I will try to highlight some of the honorable mentions, some of the places that would have made a Top 10 if there was no "first visit" rule, and feature my biggest disappointment of 2006.

I wish you all good eats and safe travels in 2007!

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Meat, meat, and more meat!

Why would anyone go to Texas and not just gorge themselves on ounce after ounce and pound after glorious pound of red meat? I don't even think that I tried that hard, and I came away from one week in the Dallas/Fort Worth area having packed away steak three nights, barbecued beef brisket three times for lunch, and two of the most phenomenal hamburgers I have ever consumed.

Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me the whole time, and didn't get photos of the steaks (the best of which was the "Panhandle" at Love and War in Texas) or the brisket. I ate at Spring Creek, Randy White's and Sonny Bryan's - and ol' Sonny B is still the king of Dallas 'Q. However, I did take care of you, all those who seek food porn. Read on, my friends...

Finishing my high school visits in Fort Worth usually means one thing - a trip to Kincaid's. The fact that Kincaid's makes a darn fine burger is not a big secret in Fort Worth. One of the college counselors I met with even seemed a little jealous that I was headed out that way! As is standard for me, I had a hard time finding the place - it is a little hidden, just off Camp Bowie Blvd, just outside of downtown. Once inside, I made my way to the counter to place my order. The staff is sharp, and greets all guests pretty quickly. I ordered the bacon cheeseburger with fries, and it was prepared fresh and quickly. Everything is packed and prepared as a to-go meal, but many patrons eat in at stand-up counters and long, family-style tables that are anchored throughout the restaurant. For additional photos, click to see below the next review and then the fold.

I don't usually need to have my arm twisted to go and visit the uber-talented kids up at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, either. TAMS is a residential high school housed at the University of North Texas. I usually meet with one or two students while I am there, and the college counselor is excellent. Still, if I am going to drive 45 minutes outside of Dallas, there had best be a meal attached to this trip, too! About 10 minutes west of Denton is the tiny town of Ponder, which may or may not have a stop-light. I am not going there in search of traffic control devices, though - I am going for one of the best hamburgers in the country.

Ranchman's Cafe serves up some excellent dead cow. They lure a crowd from Dallas, Fort Worth, the mid-cities, and all over for dinnertime steaks. At lunchtime, they lure me back year after year by serving some of the freshest hamburgers, grilled under the watchful eye of an on-site perfectionist owner. I am a little surprised that the Texas Burger Guy hasn't made his way out to Ponder yet. This place would be right up his alley! Being a New Yorker, Texas hospitality always throws me for a little bit of a loop, but the gang at Ranchman's Cafe is straight of central casting for Texas friendly. In addition to making a meal you would want to buy, you will also feel good about spending your money will such fine folks.

Follow along below the fold and see the great pictures of the food (and menus!)....

The exterior of Charles Kincaid's former grocery store. Now, Kincaid's sells only hamburgers (well, there is a limited menu of other items, but who are we kidding?). The car on the right was my rental for the week, a snazzy (if purple) Hyundai Azera - a surprisingly nice luxury car, which is probably somewhat affordable.
This is the bacon cheeseburger I ordered. Actually, this is the replacement for the bacon cheeseburger that I ordered. I neglected to omit the mustard from my order, and when it arrived, I asked the counter guy for a an extra bun bottom to eliminate the bulk of the mustard-y taste, but he insisted on remaking the burger. The standard dressed burger comes with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and mustard. The crinkle-cut fries were tasty, but unspectacular.
A good view of the burger, mid-meal. Note the grease-stained paper, which has already soaked up some ample burger juices.
The interior of Kincaid's. As mentioned before, the seating is all family-style, and some is not seating, at all. The oversized blow-up thingies hanging from the ceiling make for odd decor, but I think I want one of those Shiner bottle-shaped ones for my office!


For those of you who enjoy reading menus in establishments like this.
I have heard Ranchman's Cafe referred to as Ponder Steakhouse, as well. Maybe having two signs with different names on the exterior of the building doesn't help dispell the confusion! :)
Let me assure you...this is a man's hamburger. It is 1/2 pound of freshly ground beef (yes, they do their own, on site). Those fries were an actual potato mere moments before this picture was taken. Come to think of it, the hamburger may have been a cow up until just a few minutes before that. My server (Allison?) informed me that Ranchman's is now serving these burgers as DOUBLES, as well. She told me that they have a regular customer who can put away two of those bad boys in one sitting (no fries, mind you). Most people get a little freaked when they see some dope taking pictures of his food. Not Allison...she actually said that she has the same hobby. She may be my kindred spirit!
If we are going to use the food porn analogy, this would have to be the money shot. The lettuce on this burger was just filler, but the tomatoes, bacon, and melted cheddar were burger perfection. The Mrs. Baird's bun was almost enough to hold this beast together, but, in the end, wasn't quite up to the task. I am not sure there is a bun that WOULD be up to the job of holding this burger together.
The interior of Ranchman's, an exquisite historic building, built next to a bank that was once robbed by Bonnie and Clyde. The doorway in the rear leads to an addition that was built more recently for extra seating. The gentleman standing on the left is Dave Ross, owner of Ranchamn's, who offers first-time visitors an opportunity to sign his guest book, which has entries from around the world.

The only downer of the day in Ponder was that I didn't order the pie. In the past, I have had the apple pie and the buttermilk pie. They were both divine, and I knew that I wanted something sweet. Still, I had been referred to a place in Denton called the Southern Fried Pie Company. My plan was to attend my meeting at TAMS and then seek out some delicious fried pies. I researched the place previously, got directions from the gang at TAMS, and drove out to the middle of town. Unfortunately, the Southern Fried Pie Company is no more, or so I was told by a local, after making three or four passes looking for a storefront that did not exist. Not only was I bummed, but I was also pie-free as I made the 45 minute trek back down to Dallas!

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Trip Log, Day 1; St. Louis

Note: This is this first post in a series. You can find the complete series index here.

Travel days on vacation always seem like such a waste to me. I travel for a living, so I usually get PAID to fly. Burning a vacation day to fly seems proposterous to me. My preference would have been to fly out after work and arrive in the late evening at my destination. Since I take two summer trips with one buddy of mine, we are each responsible for travel arrangements for one trip. I had no say in this one, so we flew out in the morning! Fortunately, it was a first-class flight into STL, which arrived around 1 pm.

Vacation meal #1 was burned on airline food. I had a lovely, overly salted, turkey sandwich on a croissant. Accompanying the sandwich was a salad with not-quite-wilted lettuce, and a bag of walnut cookies. I am glad that I don't ever see those cookies in the supermarket, because I like them a lot. Most of the products from Old Colony are pretty good (on the return flight, I had one variety that I had never seen -- Chocolate Mint), and if they were readily available locally, I am afraid I would buy a bag every trip to the grocery store. And, even though they are very reasonably priced online, I don't think that I need 100 bags of cookies lying around the house.

Rental car pickup and hotel check-in were quick and smooth. I used Hotwire for this trip, as opposed to my favored Hertz because the Hotwire cost was almost 1/3 the charge for the Hertz rental. Now, I love Hertz, but not that much.

After a quick change at the hotel, we drove off to check out the world famous St. Louis Zoo. The St. Louis Zoo flourished under the care of Marlin Perkins, of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom fame. The St. Louis Zoo was one of the first zoos to eliminate the old-style cage system, and provide more of a free-roaming environment for it's animals. Best of all, for all you penny pinchers out there, the place is absolutely free. They do charge $9 to park a car there, but you can load up as many as you like in the ol' family truckster and head out for a good day at the zoo.

I have become a fan of good zoos over the years. As much as I love to travel, I haven't been outside North America since a trip to Europe in the eighth grade. For me, zoos are a way to see some of nature that I would not otherwise be able to inside this region of the world.

Every time I go to the zoo, I never fail to see something that I had not ever seen before. This trip was no exception. I happen to think that lemurs are among the coolest of the mammals, and so I always make it a point to check out the monkeys, orangutans, and other primates, which are housed together at most zoos. The St. Louis zoo recently added a new species of lemur, which may well be one of the coolest animals I have ever seen, the sifaka. Native to Madagascar, it was only recently discovered how to care for these animals in captivity.

I also want to check out how they have my favorite animals cared for -- the penguins. The St. Louis Zoo had an excellent penguin and puffin exhibit, and on the day we went, many different species were roaming about and making quite a bit of noise.

Due to the layout of the exhibits, you do quite a bit of walking at this zoo. It makes for a decent bump in the heart rate (for a while, it seems like everything is uphill). Needless to say, after about three hours, I was exhausted.

Dinner on the first night was burgers at Blueberry Hill. Traveling with someone who has lived in STL previously, I got quite a bit of historical background on this area...unfortunately, not many pictures! While the burger was fabulous, what I was most pleased with was the Shiner Bock on draft. Whenever I travel to Texas, Shiner is THE beer of choice, and I can even get in bottles from the local Publix. My understanding, though, was that Shiner beer is only available on draft in Texas. A pleasant surprise, to say the least.

The specialty burger here is the Cheddar Burger. It is 7 oz. of beef slathered with spreadable cheddar cheese. I am not usually a big fan of any kind of cheese spread, but this gooey cheese added a unique flavor to the burger. At our table, one burger was ordered medium and one medium rare -- and there was a discernable difference in the two. The fries were tasty, but I was subsequently told to order the onion rings instead. If you are in the STL area for the first time, I would add this place to my musts. They have live music (Chuck Berry still plays here once a month!), dart room, pinball, displays of toy and sports memorabilia, and GREAT food. You can find them in the Loop on Delmar.

The last stop of the day was the ultimate St. Louis institution -- Ted Drewes for frozen custard. I read in one of those cheesy tourist books how St. Louis is famous for two things -- one made of steel (The Arch) and the other made of concrete (the name for Ted Drewe's blended custard concoction). This was my second visit to Ted Drewe's, and I recalled that during my last visit I had an apple pie concrete. For the uninitiated, this is vanilla custard blended with a hunk of fresh apple pie -- similar to a DQ Blizzard, but with quality ingredients! The server turns the dish upside down to show just how thick (kind of like....concrete!) this treat is. For some reason, they serve your custard with a spoon AND a straw -- but, I have never seen anyone eat their concrete with a straw.

However, after perusing the menu thoroughly, I did not see apple pie on the menu. I understand that the menu rotates somewhat periodically, but I was bummed. One of the folks I was with suggested that I ask for it, as they sometimes have stuff that is not on the menu. Good call...and moments later, I was chowing down on my apple pie concrete!

An exhausting first day of vacation done. Good sleep was the next order of business.

For anyone interested, I will post a few more pictures from the zoo below the fold.

My favorite bad ass lookin' penguin!

We caught this polar bear at feeding time. Here he is mauling a fish!

The insectarium at the St. Louis Zoo is wonderful, including a large collection of butterflies.

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Sickly Amount of Beef

I was going to title this post "Gooey Blood," but that was even too gross for me.

In-N-Out Burgers are some of the finest "fast food" in the country. But, this guy takes his lust for "animal style" just a little too far.

Earlier this year, 20-year-old Anaheim resident Merwin Barrientos ate a 26x26 at In-N-Out Burger: 26 hamburger patties glued together with 26 slices of American cheese.

Their regular menu calls for a "double-double," two beef patties with two slices of cheese on a burger. In what might be considered one of the world's worst secrets, In-N-Out is well known to have a secret menu, and they will gladly make a burger of any size combination of meat patties and cheese slices.

I tried to figure why anyone would even think about doing this kind of disservice to their bowels, when I came across this line in the article:

Nevertheless, he doesn’t plan on joining the competitive-eating circuit: he’s just a Cal Poly Pomona computer science major who really, really likes to eat. “I’m sure I’ll try something else soon,” he says. “I hear there’s a 96-ounce steak in Texas . . . ”

Ahhh....a computer science major. That does explain a LOT. It's kind of hard to believe that computer science majors have a reputation of having difficulty getting dates on Friday nights.

It sounds like he has his eyes set on the Big Texan Steak House in Amarillo, TX. If I were them, I would get ready to give up a free steak soon!

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Lunch with a Rogue Roodfooder

My name is not Al Gore, and I did not invent the Internet. I have, however, had web and email access for as long as I can remember, and have participated in many of the advancements to our society brought forth by such technology. I used email when it was *gasp* text-only! For that matter, I used espn.com when it was text-only. I have bought and sold stuff on eBay. I have instant messenger accounts with four major food groups. And, of course, I have used online dating services (mostly with less-than-pleasant results). But, except for a few people that I met from online dating, I haven't really "met" too many of the people I know from online life in person.



Tuesday, I had the fortunate opportunity to dine with someone I had only known previously from interactions in an online chat forum at roadfood.com. "Bushie" met me for lunch and a short tour around his home town area in northern Round Rock and Georgetown, Texas. Bushie suggested the Monument Cafe in Georgetown, which has been recommended by the Sterns.



I don't know if my picture taking is getting any better, but I do like the looks of the sky above the Monument!

If you want to see the food, continue below...
Service in this diner-esque place is quick and attentive. We were seated almost immediately, even though the place was doing a brisque lunch business at around 11:30 am. I got the impression that the place is probably frequented by many local regulars, but you are immediately given the impression that there are no strangers here for long.

Monument serves their full dinner menu after 11 am and has lunch specials daily. Bushie ordered the smothered steak, which was accompanied by Yukon Gold mashed potatoes and asparagus. I was more in the mood for a burger, and found a 6 oz. Kobe beef bacon cheeseburger. One of the options for burger sides was "half and half" -- half an order of fries and half an order of onion rings. As I had previously been advised that the onion rings were notable, I opted for the combo sides.



You will also see a fresh glass of iced tea on the table. One of my favorite things about the Monument is that the server is ever-present with tea refills -- long before your glass reaches empty. They don't just walk around with a pitcher and top-off, they offer a fresh glass, with garnish, without asking, from the time we ordered until well after the bill was paid.

Both of us agreed that the meals were good -- not overwhelmingly spectular, but surely passable. Looming over our heads was the dessert menu, however, and here is where the Monument excelled.



In the foreground is the Monument Cafe's famous chocolate pie. Hey, if Michael Stern says so, then who am I to argue? I am, however, jealous that he takes a much better picture than I do! On the back/right is a slice of hummingbird cake. I admit to never having heard of this specialty, but was told that it included pineapple, cinammon, mashed bananas, and pecans in a cake covered with a cream cheese frosting. I don't know if it is clear from the pictures, but the chocolate pie also includes a thick pecan crust, which makes for a fabulous flavor combination.

After the meal, Bushie showed me around some of the residential areas of Georgetown. I am a closet fan of older architecture -- especially churches and the like. We passed by Southwestern University, which also offers some splendid architectural views.

All in all, an excellent meal with great company. Bushie is only the second person I have ever met from roadfood.com, but both experiences were surely ones that would make me want to meet more folks who share the same love for food not offered by corporate purveyors. I look forward to my next such encounter.

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