Taqueria Garibaldi in San Antonio: Simple Tex-Mex Done Right!

I was on vacation in San Antonio, so I know very little about Taqueria Garibaldi, 5299 Walzem Road.  If you Google the name, there are several establishments with the same name throughout the southwest, but they don't appear connected-- it may be one of those common commercial names for a particular type of business, like La Posada for hotels or China Garden for restaurants. If my ignorance offends you, let me antagonize you some more by asking this question: Why is Mexican food so much better in San Antonio than in Indianapolis? 

I mean, there are Hispanic folks running most of the Mexican places in Indy, and I see Hispanic people eating in them, but why are Indy's joints so freaking cookie-cutter similar, and why don't they make food with the same rich flavor as in SA?  We had Mexican food 4 times the week we were there (because SA has so many other culinary options as well): twice from small taquerias, one finer-dining restaurant, and one large local fast-food chain.  All of them were better than any I've had in Indy, with the exception of maybe El Sol de Tala on Washington Street and in Union Station, both of which (I think) are closed now.  

I wonder if perhaps the places in Indy are more constrained by having to serve healthier food and eschew some of the tastier traditional ingredients, like lard, maybe?  Whatever it is that makes it better in SA, Taqueria Garibaldi has it.  It's a simple little free-standing building on the edge of a row of strip malls, and it has an Old-World kind of appearance with a tree-shaded outdoor dining area for the rare occasions the temperature drops below 90 degrees (this was not one of those days).  It may have even been a former Taco Bell that's been remodeled and had heavy carved Mexican style furniture and décor added.  The Little Woman and I had breakfast there-- I think she had breakfast tacos and I had the Garibaldi Omelet with refried beans on the side.  Both were DEEEEElicious:  the beans, especially, had a rich, smoky flavor that I've never experienced in Indy, where the beans and rice are usually very, very bland and seem to be an afterthought.  The crowning glory for this $$ guy is the prices at Taqueria Garibaldi were in the LOW $ category.  iINCREIBLE!

Whit's Inn Revisited, and Revisited, and Revisited....

I just wanted to update my review of Whit's Inn at 1020  N. US31 in Whiteland, IN from a couple of years ago just in case someone might still read it....  Whit's is not the place it once was: it's much, much better.  Mr. Profanity is gone, and whether he was the owner or just a regular customer, his influence on Whit's constituents has dissipated.  It is now owned by Tim Whitaker (the original owner) and the Clark brothers, sharp guys who have upgraded the décor, including an overhead door that opens out onto a nice new outdoor patio, which works great when the weather is nice and/or they have live music, which is pretty often.  Their pub grub is very good and they regularly have events involving barbecue smokers and other special items. The drink prices are decent and those, too, are subject to frequent specials. Disclaimer: I repeated "revisited" so much in the title above because we are semi-regulars there now.

Whit's is in Johnson County, so smoking is still allowed, although their ventilation seems to keep the clouds away to some degree.  Bars and profanity always seem to go hand-in-hand, but at Whit's it is no longer the spectator sport it once was, and that's a GOOD thing, D*MMIT!

We're BACK, BABY! -- The Bracken Store & Ice House

It was pointed out to me that I haven't posted anything here for quite a while. I've been writing little capsule reviews on Trip Advisor, Facebook, and Google Maps, but those aren't really worth the effort because they fade into history quite quickly, so screw 'em!

Anyway, The Little Woman and I stumbled on The Bracken Store & Ice House (apparently known to locals simply as "The Bracken") just before heading to the airport to leave San Antonio, or we would have visited more than once while we were there, we liked it so much (sorry to take all the suspense out of it for ya,  I'm not on House Hunters, y'know).  Our hosts there had spoken quite highly of the place, but we hadn't been looking for it, just taking a ride to see a little bit of the area before leaving, but then VOILA! there it was, a tumble-down little building that looks like one on the set of every Western movie you've ever seen.  Bracken is a dusty little town on the northeast edge of the San Antonio area that grew up around the railroad, and indeed there was a BNSF locomotive idling across the street.  I half-expected the train crew to be inside the business, but if they were they must have been hiding in the back room because there were just 2 older gentlemen and the beertender in sight inside.

Inside is a clean, cozy, and nicely air-conditioned space (a fantastic find on a 100-degree day) with a large bar with taps for 5 or 6 kinds of draft beer, behind which was a huge array of beverage coolers that contained almost every brand of bottle beer you could ever want, and wine, too! (No booze, though.)  The beertender was a handsome woman whose good looks belied her real age, and she gave us fast and friendly service.  There were maybe 4 TVs and one pool table with a comfy row of old theatre seats for the players, sharing space with an ancient pinball-like baseball machine that takes quarters.  Out back there is large rear patio that is partly covered, where they have live music 3 or 4 nightss a week. On those nights there is a food truck there, too, which I'm told sells some killer grub. Sundays they also have Chicken Sh*t Bingo, a cage with the floor marked off into squares and a live chicken that picks the squares by, well, see the title of the game.  All in all this place is freakin' GEM that we would be in often if we lived nearby, and if you get tired of it you can walk over to the Hangin' Tree Saloon next door and play shuffleboard, or go bowling at the alleys across the street where the old dance hall used to be.  !Vamanos!

Milktooth: Hard to Not Like

We hit Milktooth, 534 Virginia Avenue for a late breakfast on a Saturday.  It is NOT in a strip mall (PRAISE THE LORD!) but in what used to be an auto repair garage.  It is very nicely decorated inside, and they have a few outdoor tables, too.  The place has a kind of hipster/yuppie kind of vibe, and being the more plebeian working-class guy I consider myself to be, I didn't want to like it.  The parking lot is kind of small (there is street parking out on Virginia) but luckily we were able to navigate past all the Subaru Crosstreks and Mercedes G420s and find a space for our Dodge.  And that is almost the last negative thing I can say about the place:  Despite being busy, they seated us promptly, waited on us promptly, and brought our food much sooner than "promptly".  I had the Red Coarse-ground Appalachian Grits with Bacon ($9) and TLW had a Pecan Sticky Bun ($7). I had coffee, of which they had several blends available ($3 to $5).  Everything was very, very good... what there was of it.  My bowl of grits was smaller than any cereal bowl we have at home, although it was garnished with a fair amount of green onions (or were they chives?) and the bits of applewood bacon were thick cut and delicious.  The Pecan Sticky Bun was smaller than your average Cinnabon but was almost as thick and had a nice amount of pecans.  It was baked perfectly, was very tasty, and was almost worth the $7.  The coffee was excellent, too.  All in all it was very tasty, so I guess I can recommend you eat there... and if you're still hungry when you leave, you can always go down the block to The Peppy Grill for a heaping mess of greasy spoon diner food.... Thus sayeth the Old Fat Guy!

The NY Slice: DON'T Fagedaboutit!

The NY Slice, 5564 Madison Avenue just south of Epler, began its existence as a food truck in 2011, of which there are now two.  There is a (fairly) new owner, and since local health regulations require food trucks to have a fixed base kitchen of operations, it appears he has decided the kitchen might as well be a restaurant unto itself, and YAHOO, am I glad he did, because I seem to almost never be near a food truck when one's open.  The store's website says the owner is a CIA-trained (Culinary Institute of America, I think, not Central Intelligence Agency, although the site doesn't really specify which.  Hmm....) chef who previously operated Eh! Formaggio, a small short-lived pizza parlor on the northwest side of Indy that I really liked but only got to visit once before it closed.

The store is on one end of a tiny, incredibly ancient strip mall with no name, but the place is very clean and neat, with a tiny "dining room" that holds about 6 tiny two-person tables.  You order at a tiny counter from a menu posted on the wall.  In true food truck fashion the pizza menu is rather simple, although it does also have a selection of sandwiches, calzones, and salads.  A basic slice is $3.29 plus 59 cents per additional topping, and it definitely ain't tiny.

Not sure when I'd be allowed to visit again (The Little Woman and I are supposed to be losing weight), I opted for a whole pizza: They have only 16" and 20" pies, the former starting at $15.79 with $1.59 for each additional topping.  We love what most places call a Supreme, so by the time I was done reciting our desired 9 toppings it cost $29 and change.  Oooh, but it was WORTH it!  The aroma that filled the car was indescribably mouth-watering, and when the box was opened it was a fragrant thing of beauty. I've never actually been to NYC to experience the real NY style of pie, but there was an elderly gent with an actual New York accent who came in while I was waiting, and he told the counter girl theirs was the best Brooklyn-style pizza he'd ever had outside The City.  The crust is thin and toasty on the outside without being hard, perfect for folding your slices in half, New York style, if you want.  The pie is not as cheesy as Eh!'s was, but the sauce makes up for it, incredibly fragrant and filled with Italian flavor and not vaguely sweet like the more traditional pies at Vito Provolone's, my go-to favorite up till now. I could go on and on about how good it is, but you've probably already stopped reading by this point, so just GO AND EAT AND BE DELIGHTED!  www.thenyslice.com  

Gold Coffee and Pancake House: A Solid Performance

Gold Coffee and Pancake House, 80-something S. Emerson in the strip mall across the street from the new super-Kroger at Emerson & County Line Road, is a nice little breakfast and lunch-only place but nothing special, decor-wise:  dark wood booths and tables, pictures of breakfast dishes on the wall, etc.  The food, however, is where GC&P shines.  Our favorite pancakes are Denny's newest buttermilk ones, but these are as good if not just a little better. They were a little more done, browned at the edges, and yet they had a light and fluffy middle.  They were just sweet enough to be interesting, too. I could go on at length about the hash browns (but will try not to!), since I seem to be obsessed with the obscure peripherals of a meal, like drinks and sides.  A nicely brewed iced tea, for instance, is a wonderful thing, and hash browns prepared to my liking, like these, are a rare delicacy.  Most places (including Waffle House, dangit) give you what looks like a small pile of wet noodles; they hardly brown them at all, probably to save time, I guess.  But Gold's were nicely browned as if they'd spread them out on the griddle and flipped 'em a couple of times so that there was some crispy goodness in every bite.  The scrambled eggs were perfectly moist and tasty, too.  The service was fast and friendly, and the prices were very reasonable, so for breakfast or lunch I would gladly ditch the Metro Diner.  C'est Magnifique! 

Larrison's Diner: Old-School Cool

As you can tell, we've eaten at a lot of small-town restaurants with widely varying experiences, and it's not just the food that makes a place memorable.  There's that one really odd place, for example, in Markle (or was it Markleville?) that smelled like a musty old library because they actually sold old books and antique kitsch items as well as food.  It may be the name, like Come 'N Git It! in Martinsville, or it may be the wide variety of food (also Come 'N Git It!)  

With Larrison's Diner, located on the far, far, south side of Indy in Seymour, Indiana, it's hard to articulate exactly why I like it so much. The food's decent for sure, but the menu is just the basic breakfast, burgers, and sandwiches.  Their space in a couple of old storefronts in a building downtown is clean and simple but nothing fancy, with a row of booths, a row of 2-person tables, a lunch counter with stools and a menu board up on the wall, and two small dining rooms in the back.  I think it's that it is somehow just so, so COMFORTABLE overall.  The food ain't bad, either!