Ethan H.'s Profile

Well off the beaten path, Foxworthy's Maple Syrup is well worth the visit.

Not only do they have tons of home-made maple syrup, you can also buy home-made jams and jellies, baked goods, sassafras tea and even recipe books. In late February/early March, you'll even see the family processing its own maple syrup in the traditional manner, right down to the genuine, wood-fired evaporation pans.

And while you're there, make sure to ask about Archie Foxworthy -- a Parke County Hoosier legend who founded the farm decades ago. Unfortunately, Archie passed away. But his family farm and his legend live on!

Note: The farm is sometimes calls the "Meri-Arch Farm". Also, it's now run by a man named "Kevin Smith" (Archie's grandson, I think) -- so if you have to look it up or ask around, those are two additional search-terms that might come in handy.

But let's face it, if you get lost looking for it, rest assured that Parke County, Indiana is just about one of the best places I know for discovering unexplored treasures. There's a lot to see in Parke County. And Foxworthy's farm is a wonderful place to start.

I've been to this place, and it wasn't bad. Nothing great. But not terrible either.

But that's why I think it's such a pity that they've added so many fake reviews to their yelp page!

Yes, you heard me. Fake.

C'mon! Five new reviews, all in the space of a couple days, and all by people with no other reviews, no yelp friends, no yelp pictures, and really no evidence whatsoever of any other yelping? Oh, and they're all five stars, but with little in the way of specifics or even much enthusiasm.

There are other fishy things, too. Take the 'polished' look of the pictures and the more-complete-than-I've-ever-seen restaurant information. Check it out for yourself ... the yelp page, that is.

As for the place? Well, as I said, they get a second star because they're not bad. But I wouldn't trust these people as far as I could throw Machu Picchu. And with so many other fine spots to choose from, I probably wouldn't come back either.

Okay, I'm not really a BBQ aficionado, just a true admirer. But I've admired some of the best. And Bulldog Barbecue wasn't up to my not-so-discriminating standards.

The real problem is that, despite the name, there's really nothing barbecue about it!

The pulled pork had a texture that made it seem more boiled than smoked. Really, it wasn't dry -- the standard critique for lackluster pulled pork -- it was soggy! Soggy enough that the near-complete lack of flavor was only a secondary concern.

Same too with the ribs. Sure, they were tender and fell off the bone. But they were a soft kind of tender, boiled to a colorless, texture-less mass of something that resembled (bland) pulled pork that hadn't yet been pulled. If it was dry rubbed, I can't begin to imagine what it was rubbed with -- certainly nothing with perceptible flavor and certainly nothing that would give it that satisfying, caramelized crust that barbecue ribs are supposed to have.

Does anyone know:
Does this place actually have a barbecue grill? Do they actually smoke things? In short, do they actually have or do anything that makes barbecue barbecue, I mean, other than the name itself and a menu that promises things like "ribs" and "pulled pork"?

Interesting enough, the sauce wasn't bad ... but it wasn't really a barbecue sauce either. It was vaguely reminiscent of that sticky Sweet-n-Sour sauce you get in an Americanized Chinese restaurant -- you know, that clear-orangy-honey-colored stuff that comes in the little plastic packet? That's why it's funny -- and really a bit mysterious -- that when I asked for hot sauce -- really, I was desperate for flavor of any kind -- they brought me a squeeze-bottle of Sriracha! Turns out that, mixed in with a little of their own unintentionally-Asian contraption, my table-side mix was actually pretty good.

Oh yes, and then there's the beer.
And then there's the bartender who served it.
Other than a small and standard array of uninteresting lagers and wheats, they had a couple beers I'd never hear of -- "Monk in the Trunk" and "Blue Point Lager". Neither was anything to write home about. But what really irked me was the bartender -- the one for whom the restaurant's uniform (a tee-shirt emblazoned with the slogan "Nice rack") was but bitter irony. I asked her where the beer was from. She didn't know. I asked her if "Blue Point" was the name of the beer or the name of the brewery. She didn't know that either. She told me, unhelpfully, that "if she had a computer and the internet, she could tell me." And she told me, incredibly, that she was the most beer-knowledgeable person there -- and thus, that there'd be no point in asking around.

And of course, in a way, she was right:
There was no point in asking around. And that's because I don't plan to come back anyway.

For the first half of my life, this was the other pizza shop. For us Bay Harbor/Surfside kids, Steve's set the standard. But the North Shore/Normandie Isle kids swore by this place instead. They weren't wrong to do so. Flora's, as it was then called, made a quality pie. But we thought Steve's was better. And now, way too long after my exodus from the city, I've returned to cast a final verdict.

Steve's wins.

Look, I really wanted to love Flora's too. Pizza shops are more like your children than your spouse ... you can have and equally love more than just one at a time. But Flora's was a prodigal child, one that fell in with a trendy crowd, changed its name ("Upper East Side Pizza"? Really?), and didn't develop to its full potential.

A couple things irked me.

First, let's face it -- grease and salt are part of what make pizza good. But just like too much water, essential for life, can flood villages or drown people, salt and grease at these levels can kill an otherwise admirable pizza. And Upper East Side Pizza, a Y2K incarnation of Flora's, had just a little too much of both.

Also -- and this bugs me because, really, it should be easy to avoid -- they did something I really hate. Pizza toppings should be cooked into the pizza, not laid on top before the final firing. The latter is a poor man's imitation, a work around designed to turn a cheese template into whatever has just been ordered. And UESP did just that.

Too bad.

For the longest time, I was waiting to review this place ... waiting to see if there was a way to review a place without giving it any stars. Sadly, there isn't. And this rating is therefore a bit generous.

Kudos to my fellow yelpers. You yelped this place accurately, leaving my only regret that I didn't consult the oracle before stopping in.

It's funny (or sad): This place has all the makings of a really great find. And initial inspection of that plump, gorgeous burger on tasty ciabatta showed real promise. But the burger (ordered "medium rare") was anything but. Not horrible, really. But such a disappointment.

Worse yet was the beer, which competes admirably for top honors in the all-important selection-to-not-worth-selecting ratio. Ten or so taps (wheat, fruit and lager heavy), and not a one really worth drinking.

The service was as friendly as it was incompetent ... and boy was it friendly.

But perhaps the most frustrating thing was the completely incomprehensible menu. I mean, I literally couldn't figure out what was what. You kind of have to see it for yourself. But then again, don't bother.

This is more of a place-holder review -- putting the place 'on the map' and hoping that others will check it out. I ended up here quite by chance the other day (heading to Triton Brewing Company only to find that I arrived an hour before it opened. So I stopped in at Audrey's to have a coffee and pass the time.). That said, I think Audrey's Place has great potential and I really liked it.

I had the coffee and macadamia cheesecake. Both were wonderful. I'm not really a coffee gourmand, but my friend is, and it certainly met her high standards (for coffee).

And the place seems to do a lot more than coffee. The menu featured burgers, bagels and lox, you name it. Anyway, I hope to return soon, try something else, and update this review.

But in the meantime, I see great potential in this place -- for breakfast, brunch, lunch or even as a stop for a Triton Brewing pre-party. I hope others like it as well.

Great coffee.
Great pizza.
Even a tiny selection of great beverages (including an Alaskan pear cider that I really liked).

This is definitely a place worth returning to.

I liked this place ... a lot.

The wings were absolutely fantastic!!! The best BBQ wings I've ever had. And the ribs aren't far behind.

And the staff, from the server to the owner, are as hospitable as the wings are good.

The pulled pork, though not bad, wasn't exceptional. A little dry and not very interesting. But trust me, if you go for the wings and ribs, you really can't go wrong.

Great food
Great beer
Great 'look'
Great 'feel'
and a pretty interesting history, too.

What more could you ask for ... except that there be a place like this in every town!