Max F.'s Profile

Garden's Pizza is my new go-to spot for dinner after a hard day on the job at Go Go Philly Movers (shameless plug acknowledged). Their pizza never fails to fill and fulfill and their wings are pretty good too. I ordered potato skins last night and got entire halves of potatoes loaded with meat and cheese; they were practically a meal in themselves.

The store itself is modest and clean and the staff is relatively quiet. Order time is pretty standard for pizza places; I usually wait 15 minutes for an order. Sometimes I'll go to pick up my order a little early and play some Police Trainer (an arcade shooter) while I wait. There's also a retro, Atari-like arcade game there that I haven't yet tried. Garden's is a pizza place worth keepin' around.

The Waffle House in Glen Allen has a fun third-shift crew. I arrived around 11 pm with a compadre after moving a guy from Philly to Richmond and we filled up on breakfast before a late drive back. Our waitress was friendly and though we were the only patrons of the hour, the kitchen crew and the waitress' boyfriend nearby gabbed lively and made us laugh. My food was delicious, especially the coffee which was brewed fresh for us and the bacon that I ordered chewy (regular customers order it "limp" and my "chewy" comment sounded foreign). The restaurant seemed clean, including the bathrooms, and our waitress served us promptly. For all the so-so reviews I've heard, this place really impressed me. Look out, IHOP, the Waffle House might be my new favorite breakfast franchise.

Took a little bit to find the place in the alley-way (York Lane) between Oglethorpe and York Road. A couple chalk boards at the ends of the block point to Walls' BBQ, but they're not hard to miss. Once you find the block, though, you'll notice Walls' when you see the humungous aloe plant growing out front.

One sign over the front counter summed up the service - "The smile you send comes back to you." I was so hungry that I had trouble mustering much of a smile, but a little bit went a long way. The moment my family and I stepped in the door, the owner offered to take the empty soda cans we brought to recycle. She sat us right next to the big fan under the air conditioner so we could enjoy our meal without sweating through it. They ran out of a couple sides, but gave us samples of others to make sure we got what tasted good. By the end, we were so tickled that we bought dinner to take home and got some complimentary crab.

I'm no barbecue connoisseur, but for what it's worth, I very much enjoyed what I ate. I ordered the chopped pork, collard greens and candied yams. The pork and yams matched well, but the greens kinda put me overboard on vinegar next to the vinegar-based hot sauce. The sweet tea was the sweetest I've ever tasted. I also got to try the crab, which melted in my mouth, and the chicken, which was tender and moist. The piece de resistance, the red velvet cake, had soft, almost unnaturally red cake and a dense, rich frosting.

All in all, Walls' alone was worth our trip to Savannah.

I spent an hour and $10 in Koch's Deli and walked out full without taking a bite of my Special K sandwich. I sampled hot ham, corned beef, pickles, and provolone, garlic and horseradish cheeses while browsing the vast collection of customer photos, celebrity autographs and raving reviews from the decades since the deli established. Their hoagies have never failed to stretch to two meals and preserve well unlike many Wawa hoagies whose salvage turned to sogginess. Worth every dollar!

I would like to start by confirming every positive review of the grits. No more than a minute after I entered the store, I was offered a sample cup of grits. Dennis P summed it up nicely: "It didn't need butter (though it was supplied), it didn't need salt, it didn't need anything; it was absolute perfection." The only thing I could have used to better enjoy the grits was a bigger stomach.

Don't be confused by the sign, "Pinky's NY Café," as the lease prohibits them from changing their sign until 2010. The sign hangs directly between two stores, and Buttercup is on the left.

I ordered the vegetarian omelette, complete with green peppers, onions, tomatoes, spinach, broccoli and mushrooms. Additionally, the platter included a heaping serving of grits (alternatively hash browns) and my choice of white, wheat, rye, raisin or challah toast (which I learned is a sweet Jewish bread that they also use to make French toast). For $6.37 after tax, my stomach was filled (and I couldn't finish my grits).

FM 104.5 played softly in the eatery as an upbeat, diverse sonic wallpaper in the pink-and-brick café. Buttercup doesn't yet have its own wi-fi, but I was successfully able to connect to what I think was UPenn's Graduate Hospital's guest network at the expense of my name and email address. One of the owners said they're considering free wi-fi for the future.

If for any reason you visit South Street west of all the commotion, make sure you eat at Buttercup Café. You can thank me later.