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

Kings

 

Kings

Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts

Kings Boston

Last night I went out with my family for my cousin Casey's 21st birthday party, I was rather excited to go, because we were going to place I'd only heard of recently, and thought would be a great place to try, after all I do love all in one locations, where you can eat your food and then have all your entertainment right there in one spot, places like this are starting to pop up all over the food landscape here in the United States, and though by design that can be, for lack of a better term, Chuck E. Cheese for adults, thankfully, Kings is no such place. Also, if you are from outside of the United States, or from somewhere other then the east coast, and don't get the Chuck E. Cheese reference, please, be grateful, you're not missing anything other then terrifying foam rubber mice and a history of even more terror inducing early animatronic anthropomorphic animals singing country jamboree songs that will haunt your nightmares for decades to come.

The Main Dining Room, if you look all the way to the back on the left, that is where we sat

The Main Dining Room from the opposite end of the room.

Located in the Back Bay area of Boston, down the street from both The Berkley College of Music, and the often buzzed about Dillon's Pub, and attached to a parking garage for easy parking, infact, Kings is technically under the parking garage, which allows them a tremendous about of space for a location in Boston where everything is compact and ontop of everything else. From the moment you open the front door and see that giant disco ball that shines about as you descend the kind of steep stairs into the main seating area, you find yourself noticing two things, first, that the look of this place is sort Retro-1950s/Rockabilly meets modern Pub/Sports Bar, and that you kind of wish they would turn the lights up, because its very cave like, maybe they kept the lights low because the restaurant wasn't busy the night we went, apparently were were the only people in the area not going to see country singer Jason Aldean at Fenway Park, but i didn't mind that, I like to check places out when they aren't that busy, it allows you more time to relax and look around and truly think about what you want, instead of the order, eat, pay, tip and leave mentality so many busy restaurants give you, i am sure they have nights like that, but thankfully, for us, this wasn't one of those nights. The staff was very polite and friendly, and went out of their way to make us happy, which truly was impressive, normally i wouldn't mention such thing, but, two of our servers were in training, and one of them accidentally dropped two of the entrees, and though we didn't make a big deal out of it, because mistakes happen, they not only deducted the price of the two dinners off our bill, as well as knocked off afew of the appetizers as well, they continued to ask if there was anything they could do to make things better for us, as if we were the most important people in the place, infact, after finding out it was my cousin's birthday, they gave her a free slice of their triple chocolate cake free with a candle on it, and sang her happy birthday. I'm not sure if thats how they handle every single mistake, but their constant making sure we were ok after the incident and going above and beyond with the bill was very impressive, I've never seen a restaurant go that far out of their way to please visitors after that sort of accident. Truly a class act if there ever was one.

Mini Cheeseburger Empanadas

The last of the Buffalo Wontons

As for the food, oh my god! I wasn't expecting the food to be as good as it was, because again, lets be honest, this is a bowling alley/pool hall with a pub attached, you sort of expect pub level food, even though they want you to think they're high end. I started with a large order of mini cheeseburger empanadas, in a large you get six of them and what they call "fancy sauce" which is basically the big mac sauce with out the hot dog relish in it, they were abit to small for my liking and were mostly dough instead of cheeseburger filling, and you'd think you'd get more for the price, but, they are "mini" after all, so i guess i should have expected what I got. Don't get me wrong, they were excellent, I just wish there was more of them for the $12.oo price tag. My mother and one of my aunts split a small order of Buffalo Wontons, which is buffalo chicken and a creamy cheese sauce lightly fried inside of a wonton wrapper, served with a dill ranch dip, they both rather enjoyed them and happily gave me the last one for tasting reasons, I can tell you, i would much rather order those again then my empanadas, though i would order a large instead of a small, given their size, but for $8.oo for a small they were pretty nice sized and very tasty, i would go back just for them infact. For dinner itself, I had what is called a Texas Burger, which consisted of two 4oz. beef patties served on a bun and covered with bacon, a very large helping of pulled pork, a very large helping of coleslaw, pepperjack cheese, half and half pickles, and covered in a texas style barbecue sauce, OH. MY. GOD. was this a dish made in heaven, I am a burger guy, I always have been and always will be, but I must tell you, this might be, with out a doubt, the greatest non-fast food/national chain burger, I have ever had. Seriously, it was so flavorful and juicy, like a burger should be, and all the stuff piled ontop of it, was just so many excellent flavors ontop of other amazing flavors, I almost didn't mind that I had to pay an extra three dollars for fries to go with it, and though i would have liked a bit bigger of a burger for almost $9.oo, the taste truly makes up for the very few short comings for this, I was seriously in heaven, and can not wait to go back for another one as soon as I can. My mother had a meat pizza, which was a light thin crust style pizza with bacon, pepperoni, hamburger, sausage and mozzarella and romano cheese, to say my mother enjoyed her pizza would be an understatement, when she was full and slid the plate my way to try it, she did so very regretfully, because she truly loved this pizza, though everything was properly cooked and tasted amazing together, I wish it had just alittle more sauce, in bites you barely had any at all, and in a pizza, you need your sauce, that aside though, it was still very excellent for what is almost twice the size of a pizza hut personal pan pizza, and alot more flavor packed inside. 

My Texas Burger with crispy double fried french fries

The Meat Pizza, a thin crusted bit of Italian goodness

We seriously enjoyed our meal here, and are already talking about going back again as soon as we can get a group together to do so. Which, really is the best sign of just how good this place is, and how good the food really is as well. And if you're ever in Boston's Back Bay, and need a place to eat, please, make your way to Kings, you'll truly enjoy your time, plus, they've got bowling, skeeball, pool and shuffleboard too, you can't go wrong with that. My only complaint, if there is one at all, is that there is a very strict dress code, no work boots or steel toe shoes, no overly baggy cloths, nothing to trampy for the girls, and afew other things, i get the point of it, but, I always feel abit sad about dress codes in general.

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Chris