The Pit Stop - Merrick, NY

The Pit Stop is not really a dive but, it is an old time hamburger place.  Although I didn't actually order the hamburger.  The crabby patty sounded too good to pass up and I just wasn't in a hamburger mood.

When the crabcake sandwich arrived, I wasn't initially very impressed with the way it looked.  The crabcake looked kind of overdone like it had spent an extra couple of minutes in the deep fryer and like there was too much bread on the bun for the size patty.

I was pleasantly wrong.  The crabcake was actually very moist inside and it was larger than it appeared somehow.  It had a very nice fresh slightly spicy fishy taste to it.  The French Fries were  obviously cut right here fresh.  They had a strong potato rather than oil taste and snapped when you bent them.  They don't add salt to the fries but a packet comes on your serving tray without asking.

The kaiser roll was actually pretty good.  One thing that I still miss about not living in New York anymore is the bread and rolls pretty much everywhere is really good.  When you grow up with it, you just take it for granted.  After you have been away for 16 years, it is nice to come home again.  But, I digress.


The Pit Stop is right on Long Island's Sunrise Highway.  It seems like one of the old roadside hamburger stands that appeared after the first automobiles hit the road.  A place that people might have driven to just as an excuse to go for a drive outside of the city.


The fact that this place was featured on the Food Network would be impossible to not know because they have a whole wall dedicated to Guy's visit here. 


I would rate The Pit Stop an 8.7.  I liked it.


The Pit Stop
1706 Sunrise Hwy
Merrick, NY 11566
(516) 223-7799
http://www.pitstopeats.com/

Joes Farm Grill - Gilbert AZ

If ever there was a triple-d restaurant where it would be worth visiting even if you are not eating then it would be Joe's Farm Grill.  It might be a triple-d restaurant but it is definitely not a dive.  It is beautiful.  It is right in the middle of 12 acres of "permanent urban farming."

Outside there are picnic tables facing right out onto the gardens with easy inviting walkways right through the gardens. There is indoor seating, although I'm not sure why you would want to sit inside because it was so beautiful outside.  One possible explanation might have been the sign warning people from climbing the large trees due to scorpion danger.  I suppose this is actually the desert after all.

The name of the actual neighborhood is called agritopia.  The land was obviously extremely well cared for.   I strolled down one of the long walks and started chatting with a greek guy who said he was picking grape leaves to make dorma for dinner.  Dorma, he explained was meat and spices rolled in grape leaves.   He seemed like a pretty happy guy. 

Joes seemed to be really popular with the locals.  I waited about 20 minutes in line to get to place an order on a normal Monday night.  My patience was however rewarded.

I think that Guy Fiere ordered the barbecue chicken pizza but, that seemed a little too heavy for me.  I just went with the vegetable pizza and a mango-colada milk shake.  This was a vanilla milkshake with bits of mango and some other citric ingredients; I'm guessing coconut cream and pineapple juice.  The pizza was a personal sized pizza with peppers, mushrooms, onion and a couple of unidentified veggies on there.  All of the veggies snapped when I bit into them. 

You can't help but imagining the cooks gathering up the day's ingredients out in the field in wicker baskets then serving them up throughout the day.  I don't know if that is true or not but, I like the fantasy.  It seems to make the food taste better.

I would rate Joes 9.8 on my triple-d scale.  The imagination that went into the milkshake was really pretty good.  I'm not a pickle person but, they actually make their own pickles right here.  The atmosphere was just delightful.  Between the Arizona sun, the beautiful gardens, kids running around and young people on dates, the atmosphere was just extremely pleasant.  I couldn't think of a better place to spend an hour on a Monday night.

Joes Farm Grill
3000 East Ray Road
Gilbert, AZ 85296
(480) 563-4745

Ange Netta's Cafe and Bakery - Canfield, OH

Ange Netta's restaurant is a nice, comfortable, family friendly Italian bakery and restaurant.  It is absolutely not a dive.

It is a little off of the beaten track on a local side street.  I had the address and still had to hunt down the restaurant.  I almost blew it off.  Something that the Food Network's Alton Brown often says resonated throughout my visit; "your patience will be rewarded." This was not a DDD restaurant.   It did get good reviews on yelp which was how I found it.

When you first walk in, the bakery case is right in front of you.  So,  you have desert on the mind even before ordering your meal.  I'm sure more than one person has elected to skip right to desert for this reason.

After you get inside, there are pictures of babies everywhere. The prints are huge: probably12 foot tall in their frames. No doubt a photographer is a family or business friend. The artwork is really well done and sets the mood of the place. You expect the food service also to be creative, comfortable and well executed.

I thought of the clientele as a suburban mix. The crowd included business people, a lady's club and moms with kids. Easter decorations were everywhere and done with care.

Unlike practically every DDD restaurant, they offered some healthy choices. I started off with a garden salad. The blue cheese dressing was really good. It must have been made here fresh.

Service was a little slow.  Again, the voice of Alton Brown "your patience will be rewarded" rang through my head. And it was.

My entrée was healthy kale and wheat pasta with broccoli, potato and collared greens. There was no sauce per se. It was covered with a light olive oil and pinto beans. I found it to be Just the right amount of crunchy and a little peppery. Very nice!

I couldn't pass up desert I tried the banana foster bites. They were little square donuts, bananas, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream and strawberries. The hot donuts made the ice cream into a syrup. Ooo boy, this is good. We'll be skipping diner tonight. So, it went from healthy to decadent in just a few bites.

Ange Netta's almost doesn't belong in a DDD ranking but, I would give it a 7.5. The food was really good but the service and atmosphere were just okay.

Ange Netta's Cafe and Bakery
64 Cardinal Dr
Canfield, OH 44406
(330) 533-6090
http://www.angenettas.com/

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Rudy's Can't Fail Café - Emeryville, CA

In the shadows of the famous Pixar Studios stands Rudy's Can't Fail Café.  It makes sense.  The place is definitely artsy-hippie.  There was a glass case probably 1-foot high and 20 feet long with a bunch of barbie dolls and other dolls the same size with waitress uniforms and "I am Rudy" buttons on.  I thought for sure that there must be a good story behind it but the waitress said that it was just the owner's wife expressing herself.

The crowd was a mix of all kinds of people.  A few that walked in looked like they could be an artist; an intellectual grunge, a bit of an attitude and hardly two nickels to rub together.  Although if they were from Pixar, then they definitely had more than two nickels in their pocket.

There was an English 20-ish year-old guy behind me who was trying to impress a couple of American girls eating with him.  I found it mildly entertaining.  He was working very hard at it.

There were lots of black clothes and tattoos.  One tough looking guy with long hair, an all-black kilt, black shirt and motorcycle boots looked like he was on a date.  I could imagine him walking into a biker bar just to pick a fight but, more likely he was dentist or insurance salesman.

The Rolling Stones were playing on the radio much too loudly.  I thought that it was an odd choice of music for an artsy place like this.  I expected some kind of indi-music.  They then switched to 1980's heavy metal but oddly turned down the volume for it.

I had the meatloaf special.  It was kind of like a meaty bread pudding more than the meatloaf that I am used to.  It was spicy in a pumpkin kind of way with a light dabble of cranberry sauce.  It was served with mashed potato with a mushroom jaeger schmitzel-ly sauce and a big helping of vegetables.

I thought that the meatloaf was really pretty tasty.  I ordered a ginger ale that caught my attention on the menu.  I figured it must be some cool California thing.  It turned out to be from Teterboro, New Jersey.

Service was pretty good.  At first I thought that it was just okay if not a little bit slow.   Then I figured out that my waitress saw me pecking out this restaurant review on my iPhone and was just leaving me alone to take my time.  I thought that was pretty cool of her.

I would rank Rudy's 7.5.  It is worth checking out but, it is probably not bucket list worthy.  If I was doing a tour of Pixar then I would come here again.

Rudy's Can't Fail Café
4081 Hollis St
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 594-1221