State Street's 50's Grill

Review
State Street Grill is definitely bigger than it looks.  Not only was I surprised upon entering to see it bigger than I expected it to be, but I also found that the menu was bigger than expected as well.  I've driven past here several times and wanted to stop by but for whatever reason didn't make it until now.  I'm glad I stopped.


Although I've always wanted to come, it wasn't until some friends of mine dropped by and really enjoyed it that I decided to give it a try.  According to them, this place makes the best onion rings they've had (and they know onion rings).  With a review such as that, I couldn't wait another week to stop by.


I arrived after the dinner traffic and ended up having the entire place to myself (which was nice).  They have two flat screen TVs on the corners near the entrance for their guests to watch while dining (and I was able to choose what I wanted to watch).  The whole setup has a 50's car shop ambiance but clearly was designed to be a grill.  I really like their theme; it is a small place (which I think is fitting for a grill), but it feels (to some degree) like you've gone back in time to when things were a bit smaller and more personable.  I really like the design; it suits the place well.


For my order I went with the Boston which is their version of a pastrami burger.  I also ordered their onion rings and topped it off with a brownie a la mode.  You can order different kinds of cheeses on it; I went with the swiss cheese.  As soon as I placed my order, the grill fired up and the burger was cooking.  These burgers are made fresh so it took a little bit to make it, but it was worth the wait.  The pastrami on the burger seems thicker than normal and really has some good seasoning on it.  The bun looks rather scary (I thought it was doughy when it first came out) but it was well cooked, very soft and went well with the sandwich.  I don't mind a greasy sandwich (I know some do) and this sandwich is very greasy but I think it really enhanced the flavor.


The onion rings were really good.  Fair warning -- they are more batter than onion and greasy as well, but I enjoyed them.  Even though they were greasy they weren't soggy which is something I really appreciated (I'm not a fan of soggy fries or onion rings).  The fry sauce has extra flavors in it and goes well with the onion ring.


As for the brownie a al mode, I thought it was excellent.  The brownie itself isn't something that I would like just by itself but it combines very well with the ice cream and chocolate syrup.  They put the brownie in the microwave before adding on the ice cream and syrup so when it was served the soft ice cream melted over the brownie and tasted really good.  I prefer my ice cream soft and just starting to melt -- I think that kind has the best flavor.  And their ice cream is served soft.


In general I really liked this place.  Some of the lunch crew has eaten here as well and enjoyed it, too.  Can't wait to try it again!


Cost and Big John Rating
$9.48 = Boston Buger Combo (including fries and drink) + 0.50 for the onion rings instead of fries
$2.47 = Brownie A la mode (with combo meal; $3.47 without)
Ambiance = 9
Quality = 9
Service = 9
Taste = 9
Price Rating = 9.0
Big John Rating = 9.0


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CheeZSteak: We Put the Z in Cheez Whiz

Review
After seeing my friend's sandwich and reading his blog post (shown here), I decided I have to give it a try.  And I wasn't disappointed.  Located in a high-turnover area (this is the third or fourth business I've seen at this exact location in the past few years), this small Cheese steak shop looks to stay here the longest.  Not only do they sell a mean Cheese steak, but it is also fairly well priced.


I am a Philly purist.  I'm not one who likes a lot of toppings on my Philly; all I'm looking for is just the basics of a Philly and this provides that.  For those who aren't a purist, it does offer other toppings as well (such as banana peppers, green peppers, etc).  It does cost $1.50 extra for three toppings on a foot long, but if you like extra toppings they do provide that.  They also offer different kinds of cheeses such as Provolone and American cheese.


As I mentioned, I just like a simple Philly.  For my Philly, I ordered the Cheese Whiz Philly.  to prepare it, they grill up rib eye steak, add in some onions, grill them together until well cooked, take a bun, put the cheese whiz on the bun, add in the steak and onions, then finish it off with extra cheese whiz on top.  Man, that's good!  I'm not a person who likes a dry sandwich which could happen to a Philly if not careful; however, the cheese whiz makes the sandwich very moist and very good.  The meat is tender and well grilled; the onions are big enough to make themselves known but aren't in the way.  I really like the combination presented as I worked my way through the sandwich.  The bun as well is very soft and doesn't get in the way of the sandwich's meat.  I've had three of these sandwiches this past week alone.  Even though this is a rather big sandwich, I always feel like it wasn't enough.  It's just that good.


The fries, on the other hand, are a different story.  They were rather soggy and didn't taste that good.  But if you don't want fries they also sell chips as well.


I am very excited to see a great Philly Cheese steak shop next to where I work.  I believe I have a new favorite hang out spot, one I hope to frequent often.


Cost and Big John Review
$8.49 = Philly Cheese steak (with cheese whiz and no tax)
$2.69 = Fries and a drink combo (without tax)
The rest are for the Cheese Whiz Philly only:
Quality = 9
Taste = 9
Ambiance = 8
Service = 8
Price Rating = 8.5
Big John Rating = 8.4


Notable URLs

The Coupe de Wing Coop

Review

When I first decided to review this particular location, I thought I'd review this one separately from the other Wing Coop.  However, I don't know if it has to do with a difference in location, difference in chefs, or if they've made some significant changes all together recently, but my experience at this location was completely different than my experience at their other location.  During the entire meal we kept contrasting the two and came up with several significant changes.

Apart from this location being harder to find (it's behind a Blockbuster and isn't as easily seen from the main road as the other location), the store itself appears to be a bit bigger.  Like the other store, this one keeps to an extreme sports theme ideal for a wing environment.  Other than that and the names of the sauces, almost everything else is different.  This one feels a bit bigger than the other one (not huge, but bigger) -- I didn't feel nearly as claustrophobic in this one as the other one.  I felt that the customer service was better (it seems that they had a little more experience under their belts than the other location) and they let us try their sauces to help us make up our minds.

Left - Honey Habanero, Right - Raspberry Chipotle

This time we went with their raspberry chipotle, honey habanero, tiger teriyaki, and confucius.  We also mixed things up a bit by ordering some deep fried and others grilled.  We really enjoyed the deep fried wings -- they were cooked perfectly.  They had a crisp outer layer and the inside was well cooked. The grilled ones had a good flavor to them, but we prefer the crispy wing rather than the grilled.  However, because we like the flavor of the grilled we'll try to see if we can't combine both (deep fried first and then grilled).

The amount of sauce we had this time was excellent.  Our wings were well covered, dripping with sauce and there was still quite a bit in our container.  It seemed a lot thicker than last time as well.  The raspberry chipotle had a great flavor to it that the blue cheese nicely complimented.  Surprisingly, this had a sweetness to it that I wasn't expecting; it was by far our favorite today and the one we talked about on our drive back to work.  The honey habanero was good but not as good.  Last time we really enjoyed the confucious and were looking forward to it again today; however, this time it lacked taste.  Maybe our taste buds were fried from the spicy wings, but it tasted like a grilled chicken wing and not a confucious wing.  Perhaps ordering it grilled instead of fried caused the taste to differ than last time, but it lacked the ginger flavor (or any flavor) that we enjoyed.  As for the grilled tiger teriyaki, I really liked it -- but I also like teriyaki wings.  However, this isn't for everyone as the connotation of a buffalo wing is spice and not necessarily teriyaki.  But I thought it was good.

Although I did enjoy my last experience, I really enjoyed this one.  Like I said, I don't know if it's the location, the chef, or if a change has happened in general, but this was a really good set of wings.  I wonder if I can talk my coworkers into taking a longer lunch again to go there?  If it's the same crew as last time, I don't think it'll be too hard.

Cost and Big John Rating

$10.99 = 12 wings (without tax)

Service = 8

Quality = 9

Ambiance = 9

Taste = 8

Price Rating = 8.2

Big John Rating = 8.2

URLs

The Parlor of Pizza

Review

We came here expecting Pier 49 only to see that it was gone and something else had taken its place.  Considering the lunch crew's craving for pizza, we decided to give The Parlor a chance. From the outside it appears to be a small location (which Pier 49 was as well), but you can't judge a book by the cover.  The inside is relatively small as well, but it fits the theme of a parlor.


Once inside we went to the counter and were greeted by the owner who took our orders, cooked our meal, and waited on our table.  Keeping to the Pier 49 tradition, the main selling point for our group was the all-you-can-eat pizza which included a salad and a drink.  Getting the all-you-can-eat pizza worked out really well since it allowed us to try a few pizzas we normally wouldn't have ordered otherwise and found out that we really liked.  Our hostess really bent over backwards to make sure we were satisfied and allowed us to choose which pizzas she would put in for the all-you-can-eat menu.  Because of that we were able to sample quite a few different pizzas.


The combination pizza was exactly as I like it -- with so many toppings that the cheese was barely visible.  The toppings were great, the crust was good, and with so many toppings blending together it tasted great.  For the toppings they typically put on large slices of everything (such as ham, pineapple, etc).  The barbecue pizza was sweet, but not overpowering.  The real key to a barbecue pizza is to allow for some sweetness while not making it so sweet you can't finish more than one slice.  This one kept a good balance of sweetness and tasted great.


There were a few other pizzas we tried, but much to my surprise the margarita pizza was one of my favorites.  As I've mentioned before my favorite topping is a wide variety of toppings and, in addition, I'm not the type of person to think that a pizza containing mostly tomato chunks is a good pizza.  This, on the other hand, was really good.  The cheese was creamy, the sun dried tomatoes added some intense flavor when combined with the cheese and the basil.  She also cooked a strawberry dessert pizza for us with fresh chunks of strawberry.  By this time I was already very full from the rest of the pizza, but just the smell alone started to make me hungry again.  If it wasn't so full I would have had a second one.


Overall I was rather impressed with this place and the fact that it was all-you-can-eat pizza at a very reasonable price.  There have been a lot of changes on Center Street as of late.  The burned-down tabernacle isn't the only empty building on Center.  With the loss of Pier 49, Los Hermanos (still vacant), Stumpys, and who knows whatever other businesses on that street, Center Street is in a time of transition.  With all the businesses coming and going this is definitely one that deserves to stick around for a while.  Not only did they have great customer service, but they also have pizza worth coming back for.


Cost and Big John Rating
$7.99 = Pizza, drink, and salad without tax (lunch special)
Service = 9
Taste = 8
Quality = 8
Ambiance = 7
Price Rating = 8.0
Big John Rating = 8.1


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