Category: Eateries

Greg’s Restaurant Warwick Rhode Island

On this particular day we were trying to visit a favorite haunt, Provisioners, but alas they were closed due to some technical difficulties so we wandered off to find a new place to get some good grub. That’s how we ended up at Gregg’s.

This place was weird. It had a parking lot the size of a small town and yet, only a tiny smattering of cars. As we walked in I was immediately enveloped by the smell of freshly chopped cucumbers which was odd considering the entrance had an extensive case of cakes and baked goods, not a salad bar.

Beyond this was the actual restaurant which screamed it was built in the 1970’s and never updated. I’m talking dark wood panels, a Madmen-like bar, and a radio that was blaring Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. And the patrons… let’s just say we were the only ones under the age of 70, no exagerations. It was an odd time of day so maybe this was just the early 3pm dinner crowd but I don’t think so because I was watching our waitor. He was youngish, covered in tatoos, but he spoke loudly and clearly, was attentive, and had a very specific sort of couteousness that I have only seen in people who work with the elderly. It’s not a bad thing, just telling.

The menu was a little intense. It was just pages and pages of options. I didn’t really want to like this place as it felt like the oldest and whitest establishment we’ve ever been, even beating Wright’s Chicken, but I’ll be damned if this place didn’t appear to have a fantastic choice of salads. Salads with seasonal berries, walnuts, and feta cheese. Salads that all were distinct. I don’t say this lightly as most restaurants seem to think a bowl of Iceburg lettuce with a couple cherry tomatoes is a complete salad.

I didn’t order a salad though, I ordered the apple walnut chicken wrap and it was great, especially for its modest price. Completely distracted me from all the TVs playing reruns of Friends on mute. I think this place may have had a heyday long ago, now its patrons come back because the quaility of the food never faded but once your main clientele are in their 70s and 80s… well, it’s at risk of becoming a memory. This was brought back to the forefront of my thoughts when we decided to bring a slice of cake home. I asked what the Old Hollywood Cake was, “A white cake with black frosting. A black and white cake.” Ah, yes, like the golden years of Hollywood…. when my grandmother was born…

We went with the lemon cake. I love lemons but usually dislike lemon flavored baked goods. This however was really moist, tasted like actual lemons, and was over all very pleasant. Now that I know they sell whole cakes from the case out front I’ll probably be back for birthdays and celebrations. Here’s hoping this place had a bustling dinner crowd after we left.

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Daily Planet – Burlington Vermont

After five and a half hours of driving we were early to the show we went to see so we wandered around a bit. Shockingly I found a place to parallel park and we ankled it the rest of the way. I let my companion find a nearby eatery. He chose The Daily Planet, probably in the hopes of bumping into Clarke Kent.

Vermont is soooo cute by the way. This was the only city I’ve ever been in where the scary dark alleys had not muggars and monsters but the echoing peeps of a gaggle of baby chickens. Most adorable dark alley EVER. And it was near the restaurant!

The Daily Planet was just as quirky as I expected it to be. It had one wall that was clearly a garage door, oodles of sarcastic artwork on the walls, a tin ceiling, and the doors in the bathroom stalls were old wooden shutters. This place was a weird hodgepodge of old timey nonsense. There was even a lava lamp next to our table.

If you haven’t already guessed this place was peak hipster including the bar, also very hipstery. The menu reflected the same with cutesy names for common comfort food and an odd smattering of the hoity toity. I was tired from the drive and nothing was speaking to me so I just ordered something I’ve literally never heard of – Buratta. You know, when all else fails have a moment of ADHD joy going for novelty. (Yes, I know this could have back fired. Thank you for your concern.)

My companion got the nachos, as if he were a normal person. The nachos were listed as an apatiser but this place was… more expensive than I would have liked. He also got the Mac n Cheese to share and really liked the nachos which he said stayed crunchy. I found the Mac n Cheese good but not out of this world. Reminded me of the Mac n Cheese I made in Home Ec class in high school. Still comforting.

And then there was the baratta which was very pretty. I will give it that. It was indeed two big blobs of cheese, with creamy centers and toast to eat it on. I was really digging the toast part wondering why it tasted so fantastic before realizing it was just buttered and I was apparently just delirious from travel. I did put the cheese on the toast… but the cheese was decorated with some sort of sweet sauce and a sprinkling of brightly yellow herbs. None of this was bad per se, it was just confusing. It was like having four or five different flavors and textures all having a battle in my mouth with no clear winner. I didn’t dislike it… though I was struggling to figure out if I liked it and I still have no answer.

So yeah… if you are looking for a quirky hipster bar to meet fellow weirdoes this place did look great for that… loved the ambiance.

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Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Flavor Graveyard – Waterbury Vermont

First I must say that of all the New England states Vermont is my favorite. Every time I visit I am stunned by how gorgeous it is and how many delightfully weird people live there. On this particular excursion I drove 5.5 hours from Rhode Island to see the irreverent comedy stylings of Lucy Darling. The show was well worth the drive. That night I slept under a tin roof while it rained and slept like a goddamn baby! Surrounded by mountains, forests, and farmland I didn’t want to leave but unfortunately we all have lives to get back to. That didn’t however mean we couldn’t make time for one little stop to poke around…. which ended up being the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory.

It was easy to find, using a highway “that closes in winter because there’s nowhere to put the snow.” The parking lot was… a weird winding Byzantine maze that made very little sense but right next to it was the infamous ice cream flavor graveyard.

I’ve seen photos before but for some reason I didn’t expect them to be real slate gravestones! They were all fenced in like a tiny family cemetery you’d find at the sight of an old farmhouse. But they were colorful and each had a pithy rhyme about their demise. It was so quintessentially Vermont for me, just leaning into the weird and whimsical. And there were people reading them all like we were. A fun moment for sure. Although many of these flavors sounded fantastic so I don’t know why they’ve been relegated to the flavor cemetery. Others…. well, let’s just say as much as I love sweet potato pie I’m not convinced that would have been a hit ice cream flavor.

We walked past a little playground towards the factory where there was a place to create tye dye T-shirts and to buy yourself an ice cream cone. Also a ticket booth for factory tours which on this day was only $6 a person! We would have done that if we weren’t on a time crunch. Instead we poked around the gift shop, grabbing a VW Bus shaped pin and leafing through the pages of two tell all exposes about fighting for the soul of the company. Ben and Jerry’s for a long time was a really good company to work for. They gave stocks to the people sewing their T-shirts and stood at the forefront of social justice… until they made the mistake of making a board of executives who threw these founding visionaries under a bus in favor of corporate greed. I’d be pissed too. Maybe even enough to write two books worth of greivancs.

Their T-shirts were really decent quality, the stretchy material T-shirts used to be made of and were quite cute but I was running low on funds and couldn’t afford the $30, instead opting for a pin to add to my overloved purse.

Someday I likely will come back to do a factory tour and probably buy a T-shirt and a book. All and all it was a cute little distraction for a bit.

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Wally’s Weiners at the Brewery – Newport Rhode Island

So, it’s been pointed out that I haven’t been giving Catching Marbles the love it deserves so today I decided to go back to how I started, going somewhere and then writing a blog entry on the same day. I know, crazy right? I have learned my lesson however. This is a task best managed with one easy destination, not four in a row after an ungodly amount of driving.

Today we found ourselves ovenless after losing the appliance in a bum poker game with the local cryptid gang known only as The Spooksters. Take as much of the previous statement as truth as your whimsical heart desires. Either way this seemed like the perfect excuse to try a new place to eat.

“Where are we going?”

“Wall-e’s.”

“Ooooo, I always wanted to be served by a trash robot.”

I mean no offense when I say this but this new eatery seemed to be situated in a warehouse which… kinda made me think I might actually luck out on the garbage picking robot helper. But alas, no. It’s a sports bar. How terribly mundane. It was pretty big with a nice outdoor patio and the usual industrial chic decorating style you’d expect. There were TVs on all sides airing the World Cup match – France v Senegal with 3-1.

Other than that the place was empty save for a teenager taking food orders and a bar tender taking drink orders. I wasn’t holding my breath but kept an open mind. I ended up ordering a honey-mustard chicken sandwhich and heavily taxing the garlic fries my companion ordered. He had a burger and a hotdog (I refuse to say weiner because I’m not 5 years old.) Our order came out in little cardboard baskets with plastic silverware. I raised an eyebrow.

And then… I was kinda shocked. Everything was really good! When my chicken sandwhich came out it was so tall I asked how I was supposed to get my mouth around it. I expected to hear someone giggle, “PHRASING!” But no, no one did. Instead the Universe stepped up and decided to double down. I bit into this monstrosity and my hands were immediately covered in s̶a̶n̶d̶w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶s̶p̶l̶o̶o̶g̶e̶ , specialty sauce. This didn’t feel like consent but it was delicious so I tried not to focus too much on how my hands were now sticky enough to climb up the wall like a gecko.

The garlic fries were well proportioned, actually tasted of garlic, and were a lot of fun. My companion was also impressed with both his hamburger and hot dog.

Somewhere in here this place started filling up with people. A bizarre mix of well to do Boomer men, a gaggle of 20 somethings, and the usual people you’d expect to see at a bar, any bar. The Boomers seemed to prefer the patio. No one was paying attention to the match on the TV. Not. One. So much for soccer I guess.

Anyway… twas good eating. And who knows maybe the bar was decent too. My autistic teatotalling ass would be a poor judge of that. I’m happy to be back home and away from the crowds.

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The Provisioner – North Kingston Rhode Island

Few things make me instantly happy like stumbling unexpectedly into a well maintained tank of bright and healthy aquarium fish. That’s what happened today after picking a new sandwhich joint to peruse.

I had no idea they’d have a big cichlid tank and honestly… I would have been happy just plopping myself down in front of it, but no, there was more to this place. The menu was eccentric – crazy names for a whole host of creative hot sandwiches. As well as some tempting sides. I ended up getting The Cabbie which was like a warm gyro with tzatsiki sauce. My companion got something with a heap of cured meats and a side of mac and cheese that I had no choice but to heavily tax. Hot, gooey, cheesy, deliciousness with a bit of a zestiness.

The staff were friendly, the food came out quickly and piping hot, everything was super fresh and goddamn delicious. Even the mac and cheese which didn’t look like much but had a bit more character than I expected when I bit into it. All and all I do believe we will be going back to this place.

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Chocolate World, Hershey Pennsylvania

It’s been a while since we broke out of New England but we did so last week for a few VERY BUSY days! The following two weeks will likely all be blog entries from said trip so enjoy as I milk this adventure to death. Our destination was North Carolina but that’s a hell of a drive so we decided to stop halfway through to get a chocolate fix and maybe a few giggles.

For some reason I had no idea Hershey Park was a theme park. I thought it was some sort of boring educational park… with chocolate (which if I’m honest makes everything better.) I was a little shocked to see a closed theme park with enough parking lots to cover a small town. The gift shop was open, I was being told. OKAY…

The gift shop was indeed open and full of people with their small children. It was a little weird… who comes all this way for a gift shop? Even myself was more here looking for a bathroom. I’m a creature of simple needs, what can I say? After we found the rest rooms we wandered back into the shops, plural. One had mugs and bric-a-bracs, the other chocolate. So much chocolate. And we had come at the right time of year as there was Easter candy marked down as well as other goodies including Reeses peanut butter cups the size of a child’s head for $5. And if that wasn’t enough there was a long line for people making their own peanut butter cup with whatever fillings they wanted kind of like a sundae bar. Those were expensive though and the line was more than I wanted to deal with. Instead I grabbed a Nutrageous which my companion told me was the best and a package of caramel chocolates which I had no idea Hershey even made. I was also surprised to learn they also owned Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers. It was fun finding weird flavors of all these things!

We did eventually find an educational display, wandered through it like it was the most fascinating thing on earth, and eventually ended up at a free ride! It was on moving ground… which… made for a very not graceful entrance on my part. Imagine a dog trying to stand in the car and that’s probably about as much balance I had as I plopped into the cart. We then got to ride through a fake factory and see the whole process of how chocolate was made, narrated by animatronic cows and various other critters. It was all very cutesy and I was a little embarrassed at points as it was making me dizzy. Christ, I can’t even handle toddler rides any more. This is getting ridiculous. Don’t age, it’s not fun! But by the end we were rewarded with a free bite size chocolate bar which I felt like I’d earned.

This was a fun little stop off with clean bathrooms! We got our fix of sweets and wandered out maybe half an hour later after peering through the gates to the closed theme park side of things. There’s few things as creepy as abandoned carnival rides without a soul in sight. I approve. Not sure how I’d feel about it if I were there during the season but eh. It was all good.

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Linda’s Diner – Narragansett Rhode Island

By now our search for places that serve breakfast to late risers was getting a little thin. We had to spread out a little bit, drive somewhat further to Narragansett. For whatever reason we hadn’t spent a lot of time in this town even though it was close by. All I knew about it was that this was where the famed Narragansett turkey breed was from. Laugh all you want but this is where the Pilgrims (or Puritans?) realized turkeys could be domesticated and eaten without having to go out hunting them. This was no small thing. A whole new species of livestock!

So did we eat turkey? No, I said we came here for breakfast not Thanksgiving. There were a few wild special options on the wall including a S’mores Pancake with marshmallow spread and chocolate. I decided not to court the diabetes demon today. Instead I looked at their choice of toast which included pecan and cranberry toast, and built a breakfast out from there. I had an omelet, home fries, and some pecan and walnut toast! I do not remember what my companion had and I sadly forgot to take a photo. The omelet was loaded with veggies just like I like. The potatoes were alright. The toast… was different and very thick but honestly, I wasn’t all that impressed by it. It was a lot like wheat bread with chunks. I’m not sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t really that. It wasn’t bad though… just a little odd. My feelings on this place were kind of lukewarm but I’m open to trying it again to see if maybe I just came on an off day for myself.

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Pasta Beach – Newport Rhode Island

On this particular night, several weeks ago, we were inundated with snow and there wasn’t exactly a lot of places to park. My companion chose a place he knew had a parking lot but when we got there we realized that it was for the building behind the restaurant and the parking was $30 an hour. I almost spit out a few teeth sputtering when I learned that. That also explained why the lot was nearly empty.

I hoped back into my trusty car and we nearly ripped off the bumper on the entrance to this parking lot which had a big old bump on a steep decline. Sometimes I hate having such a low slung car. I then went on to piss off traffic as I tried and failed at parallel parking before driving up the street and finding three open spots that allowed me just to slide in all cool-like. We walked back, me hoping the $30 parking wasn’t an inclination of how expensive the food would be because WHEW, that would be bad.

This place was bustling. There almost was nowhere to sit but we lucked out and got one of those tall tables for two next to a breezy door behind the fireplace. I looked around. Yuppies. So many yuppies. You know… college students and like-aged individuals who clearly were of the upper middle class and likely living on stipends from their parents or trust funds or whatever. Came with that weirdly tacky beach vibe decor. I raised an eyebrow. Maybe it was the bar. Maybe people came here to get too drunk to notice. But even that seemed unlikely. Though not my normal crowd everyone seemed to be behaving themselves.

We ordered a flatbread pizza and shared a side of potatoes. Both were OK. Just like the rest of this place. We weren’t displeased but not thrilled either. It was just the epitome of mediocre. I will say however if I were a college student who drank I’d probably be more enthusiastic about it.

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Big Mike’s Smokehouse BBQ – East Providence Rhode Island

I’m so backlogged on these on these entries I don’t even remember why we were in East Providence, but it must have been for something. ANYWAY. There was this lovely little BBQ place near the comedy club, so close in fact that one of their specials was named after it. We had come here looking for some BBQ food with signature sauces because why else? Sometimes you just know what you want (which is so nice compared to the usual of having no goddamn idea at all.)

As we walked in there was a few people there including a kid who I believe probably belonged to one of the staff who reminded me of my own childhood following my mother to the sweatshop. I know people these days tend to look down upon this, but I actually find it kind of heartwarming these institutions still exist especially in this cruel economy. I often feel like Americans have no idea what community is – it’s this, everyday people coming up with novel solutions and being able to rely on each other. On the tables were little ring toss games for the patrons. The TV was broadcasting trivia night questions being played in the bar side. I really liked the atmosphere of this place. It was warm and welcoming.

I ordered some sort of dark meat chicken with corn and a salad. My companion had chicken, pulled pork, mac n’ cheese, potato salad, and a piece of cornbread which I think was supposed to be on my plate? It ended up there in any event. I’m not going to lie the salad was underwhelming. A small tin of lettuce with some wilted cherry tomatoes but I can give this a pass since no one in their right mind comes to a smoke house for salad (I was just having a craving for greens.) The rest of the food though? Amazing. The chicken was moist, the signature sauces were delicious, and the cornbread… oh my god the cornbread. Best part of the whole damn thing. So crumbly and warm! My companion was also happy with his pulled pork. We both decided this hit the spot and was well worth checking it out.

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Yiayai’s Cafe – Newport Rhode Island

This was another one of those surprising finds. It was in a part of town (one of the touristy parts) that I rarely go to so neither one of us had any idea this place was here. Of course, it’s off season being across the beach in the dead of winter so I really enjoyed having it all to ourselves on this particular day, save for one patron who came in later and gushed about how great this place was. And it was!

The counter had some fresh baked pastries and baklava as we walked in. I made a mental note of this. Cravings. They just come out of nowhere sometimes. The woman running the place was very sweet and took our order. We were here for breakfast but the lunch menu seemed far more intriguing. I like to order different things wherever I go to feed my endless need for novelty (thank you ADHD!) and on this particular day I noticed she had an eggplant dish. I’d grown eggplant in my garden before but then realized I had no idea what to do with them. Perhaps today I could learn. I also ordered a side of spanakorizo in case the eggplant went sideways. My companion ordered the Souvlaki. Being on the touristy side of town this place was more expensive than we were accustomed to buuuut DAMN was the food good!

The eggplant pita was just perfect. The eggplant was roasted just right, wasn’t too mushy, wasn’t spongey. And the fresh warm pita it was on? Oooh, bread heaven! So even though this was a peculiar choice for even myself I really enjoyed it. And I also got to try my companion’s Souvlaki which oooooh, I would order that next time for sure! So good! But the best part funny enough was the side of spanakorizo. That was divine! I would have been happy with just a plate of that!

We didn’t really have the cash or the room in our stomachs for dessert but if it’s anything as good as the main menu I would love to try sometime. Maybe for a dessert date. Still eying that baklava. What a wonderful little place. There must be so many happy memories here.

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