Unexpectedly Good Food In Bad Places

[Zomby Woof]

Virginia Beach, Virginia shall eternally remain a pit of hellish right-wing ignorance and despair, but by gawd, back in the early 80's a Greek immigrant family opened up a restaurant there called "Athen's Pizza". The pizza was absolutely amazing (they served some Greek cuisine of course, but the pizza was the main attraction).

I have no idea if they are still there (they were doing very well when I left back in '88), but the next time I go back there to visit friends, I will have to check it out.

It is still the best restaurant pizza I have ever had - and in Virginia Beach, of all places.

How about you?

[nini]

1. Hummus at Pars!!

Excellent Persian food at an Italian restaurant. Who knew?

:9

[Zomby Woof]

3. But that isn't a bad place!

There is nothing bad about either an Italian or a Persian restaurant (or combo) in L.A! :P :loveya:

[nini]

7. true.. I went for more of an 'unlikely' place

:loveya:

[Zomby Woof]

8. I could bathe in their hummus

I would smell like garlic for a year, but it would be worth it. :loveya:

[nini]

9. uh.... maybe not

:P


I'm so bored but have a million things to do!

[AlCzervik]

2. The boat on route 1960 in spring texas, best catfish ever.

[Rhythm]

20. Best catfish i've had was on the south end of Lake Okeechobee

We passed a few billboards for some little tourist-trap restaurant there and thought nothing of it (frankly, what in Florida ISN'T tourist related?) until we passed the place, and had to turn back.

The outside of the place was gaudy beyond compare... the food was fabulous.

[Shakespeare]

4. The sushi bar in the FOOD COURT (of all places!) at Union Station in DC.

Extremely fresh, and expertly prepared. Affordable, too! :9

[arbusto_baboso]

5. In a mini-mall in Oxnard, California, across the street from the Seabee base...

in the 90s there was this restaurant there called The garden, which served the best Cajun and Creole food outside of Louisiana.

I took my future-wife there on our first date. I can still remember their jambalaya.

[Arugula Latte]

6. Horrible, awful, depressing mall in Portland -- fantastic authentic taqueria.

They had the fresh pico de gallo, the crumbly cotija cheese, you name it...

...sadly, no longer there... :cry:

[alphafemale]

10. A little place in Savannah, GA selling remarkable Arabian Food.

Out of a tiny, unremarkable shop on Habersham St. Al-Salaam Deli.

Falafel, Tabbouleh and Hummus "Oh My!"

[Xipe Totec]

11. How about not a bad place, but deceptively named

Farm Grill & Rotisseria in Newton Highlands Mass.

You wouldn't know it from the name, but it is a Greek restaurant.

They have excellent seafood dishes, octopus salad, calamari, plus more conventional dishes.

I've had the dolma, fava beans in tomato sauce, baba ghanoush, shrimp grilled in olive oil and crushed garlic, swiss chard sauteed in olive oil and lemons...

And the best part is that it is blocks away from the New England Mobile Book Fair, another deceptively names establishment, since it is permanently located there.

[driver8]

12. I have eaten there, but cannot remember exactly where it was.

I was thinking it was in Norfolk but maybe I'm thinking of a different place.

My friends and I used to love eating at the Raven (french dip sandwiches) and the Sea Side Raw Bar (shrimp, roast beef sandwiches) and who could forget "The Jewish Mother"?

[Zomby Woof]

13. Ever eat at Eliot's in Ghent?

My sister was the manager there for awhile in the mid-to-late 80's. It was okay... right across from the Naro Theater, which was one of the few decent things about Norfolk.

[LeftyMom]

14. Squeaker's Cafe in Findlay, Ohio

Who the fuck knew there was vegan food worth eating (and groceries to boot) in rural Ohio?

:bounce:

[AwakeAtLast]

16. I have a cousing in Findlay

Will have to check it out if I get a chance to visit!

[LeftyMom]

18. I'm not sure if it's still there, I was out there almost four years ago now.

If it's still extant, the address is 601 N. Main. (Sadly enough, I still have their business card in my wallet.)

[Redstone]

15. Conshohocken, PA, before the Yuppie Takeover, when it was just a ratty steel-mill town.

Any bar or hole-in-the wall restaurant would have at least ONE thing that was terrific, expecially in the line of Italian food or hoagies.

Never anything fancy, but GOOD? Oh, my.

All gone now. The fucking Yuppies have erased the old Conshohocken like it was never there. ALL of it.

Redstone

[Roon]

17. Chubby's!

Their burritos are so hot, they have signs warning that no refunds will be given.

[Rhythm]

19. Little "holes in the wall" around Charlotte

I lived in Charlotte NC for most of my life, and i think i found all of the really GOOD little off-beat places dotted around. These two were my favorites:

#1 - Lupie's Cafe - http://www.lupiescafe.com/start.html
Best damned chili E-V-E-R!!! It's spicy, but i've kept going back to torture myself again and again.

I used to live around the block from there, and my ex-hub and i went in there weekly. I moved from Charlotte in '98, and hadn't been back in there until January of '2006, when Oktoberain and i were visiting in the area, and decide to stop there for dinner. The owner saw us as we came in and gave me a big hug, treating me like it had only been months, not years...

#2 - The Penguin - http://www.penguindrivein.com/
Burgers were fresh-pattied, fries hand-cut, and the iced tea was the best i have had anywhere.
And it was damned cheap.

When i lived there, The Penguin was a dive, pure and simple.
It was what a lot of us called an "old men's bar", where grey haired old white men would go for a beer and to gripe about the "kids today", or relive their glory days.

But the food was good, and cheap, so a lot of us kids would go in there for a to-go order now and again. In the summer, I personally couldn't walk past there without stopping to get a glass of sweet iced tea.

From the look of their website, they're under new ownership/management, and it looks too trendy/trying to be "retro" chic now... it'd be sad if it's charm had been replaced by all that saccharin.

[Initech]

21. One of the shit hole places in LA contains one of the best restaraunts in CA:

Phillippe's Roast Beef Sandwiches

And it's across the street from the Olvera St. district, where they have some really kick-ass Mexican food.

[jobycom]

22. The old Blow Fly Inn, in Gulfport, Mississippi

It started at as an old dirt floor barbeque shack behind some smelly fishing camps on a backwater bayou, but their steaks became legendary. The shack, which had been rebuilt into a respectable establishment, was destroyed by Katrina, and they relocated to a major highway location. But their humble beginnings are not forgotten.

Legend has it they couldn't get a phonebook listing for many years because the name sounded dodgy. At some points early on, they had a bit of a dodgy image, too, as a fisherman's bar more than a restaurant. But the food kept the place on the map, and eventually got it into the phonebook.

They put a plastic fly on all their meals. It'll make you jump the first time you see one. :)