Vicuña Chocolate Cafe and Factory

Vicuña Chocolate Cafe and Factory

15 Main St.

Peterborough NH

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Afew days ago, i was sitting at home watching a local magazine style show that focuses on places and people all over my beloved granite state, when something caught my eye, now its not uncommon for them to feature things out here in my part of the state, we are after all an artistic and musical mecha of sorts, well for New Hampshire anyway, but this had nothing to do with that, this had to do with a local woman named Neely Cohen, all around titan in the pastry and chocolate world as well as a former winner on the Food Network program "Sweet Genius", who with a kickstarter campaign started Vicuña Chocolate Cafe and Factory in a small hole in the wall sized shop literally 4 minutes from where i live in Peterborough. Now, i do love my chocolate, blame my mom's love of dark chocolate for that, and i do love to share wonderful places to go or buy amazing things to eat, and the idea of one of these places literally being down the street from me pushed this place right to the front of my must see line. And oh my god am i glad i did that.

Now going in, I knew that this place was an everything made on properly type of location, their chocolate bars are made in house, their pastries are made in house as well, as is some of their more unique items, they are the only place in New Hampshire, and by a quick googling, one of the only places in the US, where you can sit in the cafe, and partake of an old world tradition that is starting to make a come back the world over, drinking chocolate, think of it like a purer form of hot chocolate or hot coco, they also are one of the only places I am aware of that offers a tea made from the husk of the Cocoa pod from which the beans used to make chocolate comes from, tea being a secret passion of mine, I'd never heard of this before, apparently its very healthy for you, which is nothing new, well atleast to the those in the know on the whole "dark chocolate is good for you" movement.

We went in first thing on a Sunday morning, before the crowds showed up, i like to do that, it gives you time to look around and really get a good look at the place. We met Neely the owner, who was very friendly and talkative, and incredibly knowledgeable about her craft, and when you look into her history with chocolate, which goes far beyond winning a competition show on Food Network, way beyond, she has actually picked cocoa pods at the very farm where she gets her supplies from. There is even a place in the cafe were you can watch the staff making the chocolate on property, they weren't working when we went in, but I would assume it gives the place a sort of magical Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory like feel, but you know, with out a creepy boat ride through a tunnel or midgets that are forced to work there for asylum from the ravages of their homeland or any of the many unsafe dangers Wonka had on property. Honestly, if we had more time, i would have loved to sit and try their drinking chocolate, it smelled so very good, plus it seems like the kind of experience i need to have in life, sitting down, with a nice chocolate and coco nib brownie and having some drinking chocolate, sounds old timey, but awesome. My only real complaint about the cafe itself is it felt like it needed arm chairs, but i guess with their product the stains would be insane to clean. Oh well. Still a great place honestly.

 

As for their products, I mean thats why we're all interested in this anyway isn't it? They sell their in house made chocolate bars, chocolate chip and sea salt cookies, coco nib brownies, drinking chocolate, poor over coffee and cocoa husk tea. Now let me first tell you this, the coco nib brownies, are with out a doubt, the greatest brownie I have EVER had. They are moist and batter like inside, while still full of flavor from the nibs, and from the perfectly crispy outside, i seriously wanted to keep eating them till i couldn't handle putting anything else in my stomach, they were amazing, and honestly worth the drive to this place alone. The chocolate chip and sea salt cookies are just as amazing, a nice crisp bottom, a nicely golden browned top, with nothing but moist cookie dough like inside with giant chunks of chocolate, and just enough sea salt on the outside to make it taste amazing, i really wish she had these and the brownies in dozens, I'd go broke, but I really wish she did, it would be a gold mine. I honestly would love to go back for some of their drinking chocolate and husk tea, they seem incredibly good by the way they smelled from behind the counter. But really, you're all wondering about the chocolate bars themselves aren't you? They offer five kinds of chocolate bars, of which, they are made with bolivian dark chocolate, which is about 80% pure, too those that don't know, 80% pure is as close to pure chocolate as you will ever get, they mix the ground up coco beans that make the chocolate with only pure cane sugar grown not far from the cocoa beans themselves, which means you're getting a chocolate bar thats chocolate content is honestly possibly the most pure you will find anywhere in the world. As for their five flavors, they are pure chocolate, sea salt, yellow chili, coffee, and nib flavored, and now and then they make limited editions, when we went in, we got the last two of their honey and candied ginger bars, which btw, were like heaven in chocolate form. Seriously, you all need to try this stuff atleast once, its truly amazing, and ever so good, honestly there aren't enough words for how good the bars are, I am actually drooling abit wanting to go back for more while I type this, which really is something.

 

So the big question, is it all honestly worth it? Now I will say this, though the brownies and cookies were reasonably priced, between $3 to $4 per, which isn't all that bad, for the chocolate bars themelves, it is a case of paying extra for the high end quality, the fact there are only two things in the bars you are gonna pay for the purity, the bars are around $9.50 ot do per bar, which I am sure some of you just had a heart attack over, but honestly think about the quality of what you're getting, a chocolate bar that has only chocolate and pure cane sugar in it and is between 80% to 85% pure, which is about as pure as you can get with chocolate anywhere in the world, anywhere, and as most of you know, for that kind of quality, you do have to pay abit more for. So in the bigger picture its abit pricy, but you won't regret it, so its more of a not every weekend thing like the brownies or the cookies, but still a great treat. Honestly once you get to Vicuña and you try all they have, you won't be surprised why, though they are only open on weekends, and only in business sense last October, they've already been in Bon Appetit Magazine, New Hampshire Magazine, The Boston Globe, and many other publications both local, national and international. So if you're ever up around my little town in the middle of nowhere on a weekend, and you feel like trying something sweet and unique, then give Vicuña a try, honestly, you will fall in love, just as i did..... seriously i want one of their brownies like right now.... like RIGHT now.

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Chris

Sauce Making #2: Volcanic Ash

Ok, some of you have heard rumblings of a creation of mine called Volcanic Ash, which is, a salsa, a very hot salsa, like is dangerous to the touch kind of salsa. and something i am very proud of infact. See, how Volcanic Ash came about is simply, it was on a suggestion, it was a suggestion by my dear friend Ashley, for whom it is named, she was doing some "market research" for me by testing out my Barbecue Sauce and Blu Cheese dressing on her family and friends, and after them raving about it, and her raving as well, she mentioned that she felt i would make a great salsa, something i had never tried before, simply because i'm not a big salsa fan personally, but i figured as a thank you for her help, i would make an attempt, though I will admit, once she said to me "i'm from Louisiana we like everything hot as can be..." in answer to how hot she wanted me to make it, its fate was sealed, this would be one of the hottest salsas ever, just because, and as a thank you for her help, i named it Volcanic Ash, because, it just makes sense...

Now, lets have a look at how to make it shall we?

First you drain your jarred peppers, i prefer pickled habaneros and jalapenos for a little sweetness that should be there to lull you into a false sense of safety, do not leave them in the pickling brine, that will just water things down and really thats the last thing we want.

Now, take your drained peppers, if you have them, and mix them with the other, i won't tell you what they are because its a secret, but, there are seven of them total, put them in your blender or food processor because you don't want the stuff from these on your hands, unlike all that hand crafted stuff i was on about in Part 1, simply for your safety you don't want any of this touching you.

now once you've blendered your peppers into a nice paste, mix them with some tomato puree and some tomato paste that have been mixed together into a thick sauce, use a wooden spoon and make sure they're all mixed together and its thick but smooth.

Now i didn't get a picture of this step, but, next you add tabasco sauce, bird eye pepper hot sauce, and some of that red hot sraracha hot sauces with the pissed off rooster on it, hot sauce people will know exactly what i'm talking about, all of which are available over the net or in most grocery stores, make sure you mix this well as well.

Next step is key, you have to add this stuff, no knock offs, no other brands, it has to be puree of the carolina reaper pepper from puckerbutt peppers, the only people who make the caronlina reaper, the world's new hottest pepper, sure this stuff costs $20 for a 2 ounce bottle, but you gotta pay for the heat if you want it. This here is the same as adding 6 of the world's hottest pepper, which as you can guess will give you one hell of a kick. Be very careful with this stuff when you mix it in, do not get it on your hands, or near your eyes or anything it can and will burn you if you are not careful, mix it in one bottle at a time, its just easier that way.

and after you bottle them the same way i showed you how to bottle the blu cheese, you should have a pile of bottles like this, i should state, when making this, always use small bottles, because large amounts of it are often to much for your average person to handle, even if they're someone that claims to down hot things like they're nothing. I have seriously seen people who eat some of the hottest peppers on the planet like they're candy drop to their knees in pain and crying and sweating from this stuff, its truly no joke, its seriously like eating lava, or well, Volcanic Ash if you will.. lol


anyway, thats it for now... back soon with more stuff....

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Chris

Sauce Making #1: Blu Cheese

So, as some of you know, I am a rather accomplished cook in my own right, one of the things i love to make is sauces, now i do have a barbecue sauce that some of my readers have tried and swear to be the best they've ever had, but even more, each of them thats tried it, has loved my blu cheese dressing, which is something that truly came from the food gods.

So I figured, just for fun, I would show you how i make it, not giving away all of my secrets of it though, cuz, you know, trade secrets, and in part 2, i would show you have i create the hottest salsa ever...

Anyway on with this....

 

 This is everything you will need for making my blu cheese dressing, though you can add to it ifyou like, sometimes i add real chopped up bacon or chives, or something both for that extra kick over the goalpost.

Mix the ranch dressing and the sour cream and the powdered ranch together in a big metal bowl, cuz, thats just how the professionals role yo.

Add in the hand chopped four wedges of blu cheese, yes, it has to be four wedges, and yes, it has to be as finely hand chopped as you can get it, otherwise it won't come out right, because when you do it in a food chopper or processor, it doesn't work the same and just becomes lumps of blu cheese like gunk, so, hand chopped is important, it should take you about 15 or so minutes to get it right, you want as much as you can.

It should look like this when you're done mixing everything together, make sure you take a good five to 10 minutes to mix it, so its properly combined and everything you could probably do it for less, and maybe use a hand mixer, but, I rather the old fashioned way, there is something magical about doing things by hand when you can.

Now onto the fun part....

When filling the jars, its important to do so on a level surface, and its important to use a filler funnel like you see in the picture, just like when you put home made jams and jellies and preserves in a jar, you need as much open space as possible, I tend to make enough to fill 5 to 6 full jars of blu cheese dressing and atleast one half jar, be very careful when doing this, because, it can become very messy,

and in the end, you should have of bottles that look something like this, yummy yummy in your tummy blu cheese dressing, that is good on just about everything. 

So thats how you make that, i'll be back in a minute with something else!!!

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Chris

George's Deli

George's Delicatessen

1224 Gorham St.

Lowell, MA

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I know its been abit of time sense I sat down and wrote a review here, something i hope to change because I do love to do these, and I love the feedback I get from all of you who read what i write here, all the thank yous and suggestions. So with that said, I figured my first review of 2015 would be something special, not just a rare hidden jewel that most might just look past with no second thought, but a place that is special to me personally, and when I think of such a place, there is only one answer that comes to mind, a small out of the way place by the name of George's Deli, a place thats as much a part of my family as it is a part of the city from where we originate, you see, as we recently figured out in preparation for this review, my family has been going to George's for 46 of their 48 years in business. Its the first place most of us ever had take out from, and probably the one place you can get us all to go too in large groups now.

 Don't mind my mother and my uncle jeff in the shot, this was the closest i could get of a clear shot at the counter
all day, they were pretty busy when we went.

At first glance George's might seem like just your average small run down local neighborhood submarine sandwich shop with a slant toward Italian food, and to some degree that is exactly what it is, but yet, its also alot more, you see unlike most sub shops they make all of their subs to order, and put them together with the care that only comes from being in business for almost 50 years time. To put it as someone I took there once said after their first time "This ain't no Subway, thats for damn sure.". Though they do bring in some things, stuff like french fries and small things like that, they make the stuff that matters in house, as any place that wants to stay around as long as George's has should. For George's their key in house made product is their tomato sauce, and judging by the things they put it on, they are well aware of just how good it is.

You would think that like most places in the same field as George's that they would have one signature thing on the menu, you know, a draw, a thing you can't get anywhere else and people will drive for miles to get, but if you ask my family, and others who know of this little gem of a place to eat, you'll get a different answer from each person to what that is. To me personally, its what i got on our recent visit there, and what i get most of the time, the veal cutlet sub, or to some veal parmigiana, I like it served with extra sauce and provolone cheese, and a large plate of fries to stuff in the sub for extra yum factor, and because making food touch grosses out my aunt laurie, who just made a crinkly nose face when she read that, there is just something perfect about the way they make the sub, nicely fried breaded veal, just swimming in cheese and sauce, its honestly the only way I've ever had veal and truly enjoyed it. I also love their steak and cheese sub, but we'll get to that in a minute. If you ask my mom what she feels is their signature, she'll tell you either what she ordered when we went, the meatball sub, in house made meatballs cooked on a big flat grittle, then dropped into a sub roll and stuffed with cheese of your choice, and as you can guess, swimming in their home made tomato sauce, like i told you, they know what brings the people in and keeps them coming back, though my mother will also tell you her truest love on their menu is their traditional torpedo. Though some regions call it a ham and cheese, or some call it an Italian, in truth the torpedo is a hybrid of the two, made with ham, salami, cheese, tomatoes, shredded lettuce and normally abit of Italian dressing, my mother will tell you, she can not find anywhere that makes one the way George's does, I've seen her ask at other places, they really have clue how to get it right, much to her sadness. My uncle got what we around here call a Steak Bomb, I'm not sure if the term is universal or just a regional thing, but its a steak and cheese sub, which is a definitively east coast american classic, with peppers and onions, which yes, smelled as good as it sounds, even though i personally am not a peppers and onion person, well to be fair, its more that they don't like me more then i don't like them.

So you must be wondering, why would I review a place that by all accounts just seems like a little hole in the wall place that isn't really all that high end or stand out to the average food lover out there (for realz, i hate the term "foodie" btw), and the answer is very simple, to me, this is where it all began, most people's first non-homemade food is a place like Burger King or McDonald's, mine was here at George's, and sure, you could dismiss it as just some little out of the way sub shop, but to me, and more so, to my family, it'll never be that, its so much more then that, and sure as we all have grown older and spread out as we have, found other places we love to eat, if you mention to one that you're going to George's, and ask if they wanna go with you, you'll more then likely get a yes as an answer. So if you're ever down in Lowell, and you wanna get a feel of what the city's food scene is really all about, head up by George's, sure its across the street from a graveyard, and its small, but you won't be let down, i promise you won't. Plus, chances are atleast one person in the dinning room will be related to me, which, for some is kind of a bonus.

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Chris

Hmm Not to shabby...

Been abit laxed on checking out new places to review, but i figured i'd give this place a nice little redesign...

looks rather good i think.

proud of myself.

Will be back to operations soon..

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Chris

Local Brand Showdown: Squamscot Soda vs. Capt'n Eli's Soda

Local Brand Showdown:

Squamscot Soda vs. Capt'n Eli's Soda

Squamscot Soda

Capt'n Eli's Soda

I originally started this as a review of a Squamscot Soda, a local brand that is starting to gain popularity and notice around our region here, until the idea was posed to me, to do a comparison between it, and another local brand soda starting to gain popularity and sales called Cap't Eli's, which I also intended to review, I actually intend to start doing a feature where I review local/regional brand things, which I think means i probably should make up a logo or something eh? Anyway I feel this should be fun, and if you have any local or regional brands of things you think i should give a review too, even if i gotta order it over the net, please leave me a suggestion, I really feel this could be a great thing. Anyway, lets get into this shall we?

During my trip over the weekend to Papa Joe's Humble Kitchen, I noticed that they sold a local brand of soda that I had been interested in giving a try, Squamscot Soda, made in Newfields New Hampshire, half way between Raymond and Portsmouth, and sold not only at their store and bottling plant, but at a growing number of groceries, mini-marts, markets and places to eat around the state, Squamscot calls itself an "old fashion soda" made in the old fashion way, with real cane sugar and real syrup and flavorings, nothing artificial, which I would assume is the closest to "all natural" one can get in the carbonated drink business. To give Squamscot a try I grabbed three of the flavors the diner hate, Root Beer, Creamy Orange and Lemon Lime, the two other flavors i left behind were cream soda and diet root beer, I figured the three I had would have given me a good enough example of what their flavors are like to have not needed the other two. So after driving home from my review where i picked them up, I put them in the fridge to chill over night for a proper coldness, as one does, then I got to drinking my three bottles.

Off the top, I can tell you, though the bottles were rather small, about the size sodas were in the 1960s near as I can tell, I am loving the whole glass bottle and the bottle cap retro feel, there is something about having to pop a bottlecap for those of us old enough to remember doing them all the time, that just takes you back, oh sure, maybe its not the same on a cold day as that loud SSSSS of popping open a modern can, but it does bring back memories, for me, of the ealy 1980s, and I guess for those older then me, it will take them back to when they would personally like to remember, either way, its a lovely touch, and really something I kind of wish the big companies would be serious about bringing back, even if just for the summers, mostly because I'd love to see modern kids trying to find an app to open a bottlecap, but that might be just me showing my age abit more then I care to do.

The first flavor I tried was Creamy Orange, which i guess is a mixture of cream soda and orange soda, I've never been a cream soda person, but orange, i do love me a good orange on a hot day in summer, and surprisingly, this was pretty good, I was abit worried with its "old fashion" way of being made, it might just taste like orange juice with carbonation, but thankfully, that wasn't the case, it had a nice cream flow to it, and a nice orange tang that was just the right mixture, I was rather surprised, but also kind of sad how quickly the small bottle had been finished, thats always a good sign for a product, next I tried the root beer, now I don't know about other places, but here in the New England region, we are serious about our root beer, we're picky as hell about what we drink and we're incredibly loyal, as we are with most things we like, i'd actually venture the only thing we're more hardcore about is ginger ale, sadly i couldn't find any ginger ale for this battle, oh well, next time right? The root beer is a strong and heavy bite to it, just the way i like my root beer, its pretty much a must honestly, that you have a lasting taste from your root beer, its gotta stick with you, and this did, it actually kind of reminds me of Birch Beer, which is also a favorite and has a similar kick in the head to it. Finally, I tried their Lemon Lime, I was expecting sort of an old timey tasting mountain dew or sprite, but surprisingly it was more like Mellow Yellow, something we don't have around here anymore, and is kind of missed, seriously it was great, it wasn't to sweet, it wasn't to over the top, it was a nice happy medium, honestly i was very impressed with it, and infact I was overly impressed with Squamscot over all, I wasn't expecting them to be as good as they were, it really was a surprise, a great surprise really.

I was first suggested to try Capt'n Eli's Soda when it was found at my local grocery, and the idea of putting both this and my recently purchased Squamscot was pitched to me, I was slightly worried about it honestly, sure I know that much like with the local beer renaissance sweeping New Hampshire and surrounding areas, there seems to be one involving soda as well, and though thats great for people that enjoy local product, that doesn't always been every single company is worthy of more then a try, and honestly a company thats website seems more interested in selling their comic book, action figures, and even a pokemon style collector card game related to its namesake, as well as not really having an easy to figure out website, things like that worry me, when a company seems more about the merch then product, that sort of stuff worries me, it makes me wonder that maybe they aren't fully focused and spreading themselves too thin around the markets they wanna get their share of, too many fingers in to many pies ruins everything you know what i mean?

Capt'n Eli's is made in Portland Maine and is apparently very popular up in the vacation state, but thats not always saying something Down Easters (for those outside of new england thats what maine people are called), are always blindly loyal to local product, so its not always best to get info on something made or from there, up there, the flavors we were able to find were Cream Soda, Black Cherry Pop, and Orange Pop. Now the native new englander in me can chuckle at someone this far north using the term "pop", which is more of a term from the southern states, but Maine is abit backwards, so you can let that sort of thing slide,

The cream soda was, well as one would expect for cream soda, not to strong, not to soft, somewhere in the middle with that almost root beer, but not really root beer flavor, it was ok, but to be fair, i'm not really a big fan of the flavor in general, so maybe thats just a pass. Surprisingly, the black cherry, was both very strong and very flavorful, i actually had the taste of it with me for awhile after drinking it, but not in a bad way, if that makes sense, i wasn't expecting much, but I was happy to find out this one had raised the bar pretty high up, but to be fair again, cream soda doesn't really leave the bar all that high to begin with, their orange soda though, that was abit surprising, orange soda is supposed to be both highly fizzy and strong orange, almost like biting into an actual orange, just with out getting the juice all over yourself or all that work cutting open the damn orange, this orange was just as strong as Squamscot's and actually smelled like an orange, which is always a great scent to go with it, honestly it was my favorite of the three.

So overall, they are pretty good companies, i would buy them both again, maybe different flavors in afew cases, but they were both pretty quality product, though if i had to pick a winner out of the two, i would go with Squamscot, i find they have more of a down home local feel, and they also have a larger selection of flavors, somewhere around 30 or so vs. 7 or 8 from Capt'n Eli, and they focus totally on their product, its not "oh hey also, we have soda, but why you're here, buy our comic book, action figures and pokemon style card game!" or something weird. Plus, I'm always a sucker for a company that makes their own version of Mellow Yellow. But thats just me, I'm just a guy that lives in New Hampshire, where we think Moxie is a legit drink that doesn't taste like battery acid and poop mixed... well some think that anyway.

So if you're abit curious and you wanna do a test for yourself, pick up afew bottles of each if you can find them and give them your own taste test, and like i said before, if you got a local or regional thing you think i should give a try and review, drop me a line, i'd love to hear and give it a go.


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Chris

Papa Joe's Humble Kitchen

Papa Joe's Humble Kitchen

237 South St

Milford, NH

Website 

Facebook

I guess this week has become a rarity for me, more then one review in the same week, and more so, two of those reviews, are of the same kind of place, a lovely little out of the way burger joint in the middle of my lovely valley that most of my state doesn't know exists, btw, my third review will be probably tomorrow and something totally different, but anyway back to this. After my review of Local Burger afew days ago, I was pointed in the direction of a place that is literally a little roadside burger spot, its called Papa Joe's Humble Kitchen, and I figured with it not being to far away, and I never being one to pass up a burger, because, you know, being american, I would give this little out of the way spot a go. And my oh my am I glad that I did. I must admit through I was expecting traditional stuff you would find at a roadside diner, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, ect, i was not expecting to find such high quality and lovely versions of it.

Literally just off the highway in Milford New Hampshire, in what looks like a small house converted into a small diner with pretty ample outdoor seating, is a little place called Papa Joe's Humble Kitchen, at first, it looks kind of like you might be in the wrong place, or maybe you're in some kind of general store converted from a home, or some other crazy thing that you would see in a small town like this, believe me, up here, I've seen homes turned into many a crazy form of store or place to eat, I think its a new england thing honestly. When you walk in the door to Papa Joe's you notice first how small the place is, and though thats not really a deal breaker, I've had some of the best food i can think of in the smallest places along the side of the highway, and honestly, I kind of was digging the whole few small tables and a makeshift lunch counter with chairs and the open kitchen right there infront of you feel, there is something authentic and truly american about such places, and i kind of worry sometimes these kind of places to eat are dying out, which honestly would be a real shame.

The menu at Papa Joe's really isn't that large, afew specialty burgers, side from your standard fair of regular burgers, double burgers and bacon cheeseburgers, they also have "the taco burger" which is a burger seasoned with taco seasoning, and served with salsa, sour cream and cheese, "the oriental cowboy", which is a burger with teriyaki, wasabi ranch dressing, chinese noodles, and coleslaw, "the cardiac burger" which is a double burger with genoa salami, pepperjack cheese, onion rings, cheddar cheese, bacon, jalapenos, lettuce and creole mayo, and "The Spartan Burger", a cheeseburger covered in barbecue sauce, a hot dog, bacon, onion rings and lettuce. The Spartan is a burger created to celebrate the local high school basketball team won the state high school basketball championship. There are also burgers named after, what i am assuming are the owners kids, "Matt's Steakhouse Burger", with cheese, bacon, onion rings, and ranch dressing, and a "Kelsey Burger" which is basically a buffalo burger, oh and they have a veggie burger incase you know some prius driving hippie who doesn't really care for any kind of meat.

Their sides, though also not a large amount, are pretty awesome, aside from five kinds of french fries; regular, bacon and cheese, chili, buffalo and ranch, and cajun, style, they also offer sweet potato fries, onion rings, and poutine, that weird crazy canadian thing with gravy and cheese curds, they also offer both a regular and chili and cheese hot dog option, you can also get fried pickles, fried chicken tenders, a bowl of chili, a BLT, a grilled cheese, they also offer salads and afew cold sandwiches as well, if you're not up for the off the griddle stuff. They also have an incredibly large take home and catering menu, which you can order or buy at the diner itself, and though I didn't try any of these, so be able to fairy assess them, I will admit, i kind of wish afew of the things on those menus were available in the diner itself, all they seemed to be missing for a perfect menu for their kind of location was some chicken wings, shepard's pie, meatloaf, this creation of theirs called "chicken cobbler", and afew other things, as well as desserts, all of which were available in their expanded take home/catering menu, but to be fair, faulting them for such choices would be kind of silly and down right bitchy, but who knows, maybe they'll change these things down the road, time will tell right?

My mother, who once again joined me on this adventure in stomach filling, ordered The Spartan and a small order of onion rings, I ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger with pickles, some chicken tenders and the bacon and cheese fries, unaware that the chicken tenders came on a bed of fries, which was ok, it allowed us to try two different kind of fries as well as the onion rings, we each got a diet coke and sat down and watched the awesome show that is cooking in a small roadside eatery like this. The cook and his two children, who i am assuming were the other workers were amazing in what they did, one kept prepping, the other worked the counter and prepped, and as is the normal main attraction at such an establishment, the cook went to work. I wasn't paying total attention to what he was doing, but i gotta tell you, this guy is amazing at what he does, he seasons the burgers with, what I am guessing, is a form of steakhouse spice rub, or maybe one of the many dry rub barbecue mixes out there, whatever it was gave the burgers the perfect mix of griddle and almost a smokey like flavoring, its like I've said before, its all about the seasoning when it comes to using fresh beef vs. prepackaged, and you can tell how much a cook cares by how well a burger is seasoned, sometimes they go overboard, and thats ok, but this time, not the case, perfect, with just the right amount of grease to give it that true "side of the highway" feel, honestly thats something you can't bottle, you have it, or you don't. the bacon was a nice middle ground, crispy and flavorful, but not to crunchy, and not all the fat cooked out, honestly thats the best way you can cook bacon. On The Spartan, the odd addition of the butterflied hot dog makes the burger a whole new thing, as it was said, its like going to a cook out and having everything all at once, so much so, i apparently need to try it myself when we go back again. The sides, honestly were perfect, the fries were light and crispy, often times in this kind of diner you find the fries are just heavy lead like balls of grease, and when you add the cheese and bacon, they just become magically good, though they use pre-melted cheese, or as a friend overseas calls it "vat cheese", thats fine, normally cheese wouldn't give you the same flavor or texture, plus its real chopped up bacon, which kind of makes up for it. The Onion Rings were pretty light and crunchy, also made on properly, i am rather picky about my onion rings, i like mine with thin slices of onion, these were alittle thick for me, but my mom liked them, infact she couldn't keep stop eating them till she forced herself too, always a good sign when that happens. The chicken was also pretty amazing, nicely cooked inside and out, crispy outside fluffy light inside, nice and tasty, I wasn't aware they came with fries, which is something they might wanna tell you on the menu, but as i said before, that was just a welcome surprise. Honestly the food was pretty damn good, specially for a place that looks like it was made out of someone's grandparents house.

So I guess the big question is, if you're driving by this little roadside, and you are feeling abit hungry, should you stop in and have a bite, or drive about 5 minutes south and into the center of Milford where there are some award winning places to eat all in one large circle, well the answer is simply, YES. See, lovely little hole in the walls like this are a dying breed here in america, oh sure there are those that are surviving and doing well, and you see them on local, regional or national television, but these small ones that don't really have big followings, or that many aren't aware of, are dying out. And honestly, the food here is far too good to let fade, sure I don't see Papa Joe's going away anytime soon, but its what it represents, the small place carving out a small niche of space in a landscape littered with fast food that barely serves meat, and doing it for the love of cooking good food for those that love to eat it. And to be honest with you, I can't wait to go back to Papa Joe's, the food, the places to eat, both indoor and out, are such a great location, and its actually a pretty good value too, honestly, if you're up for a drive into the country, where the air is fresh and clear and you can eat some lovely food in a lovely country setting, you should GPS Papa Joe's and give it a try. You will love it. I know I sure did. Oh and if you plan on coming back, get the free burger club card, for every tenth burger you order, you get one free, so if you have kids, that kind of is a great idea... 



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Chris