Deeg’s Place (Evansburg Country Kitchen)

3839 Germantown Pike, Evansburg, PA 19426

In our neverending quest to find a good place for breakfast on the weekend, we finally were able to go here. I say finally, because we had had two aborted attempts to eat breakfast when there was not a free space in the parking lot.

This, to us, boded well.

Not so much.

The atmosphere is basic — nothing horrible, but nothing attractive; the TV blaring Saturday morning cartoons is a nice touch, if you like that sort of thing — the busgirl seemed to while I waited for coffee. Otherwise, the service was fine — generally attentive, and our orders were correct.

Rick had scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and potatoes, which were strangely sweet; I think we finally agreed that they had drenched the poor things in Old Bay, which didn’t really result in anything I’d want to have again. I had the two-two-two, which were two decent but strangely glossy pancakes, two scrambled eggs, one piece of nice sausage, and two strips of bacon that were burnt and would have still tasted strange were they cooked properly. Deeg’s is apparently not so good with math, and only barely better with cooking: apparently I’m missing something because that full parking lot we encountered on previous occasions means someone thinks Deeg’s is something special, even if I don’t agree.

Sidewalk Cafe

MarketPlace at Collegeville Shopping Center, Collegeville, PA

 

As I have said on many occasions, location is almost everything when it comes to restaurants. A good location can generate those walk-ins and drive-bys who become regular customers. A bad one can guarantee that you are never noticed. Further, your restaurant should reflect its location: we just saw an ad that the local indoor go-cart track now has Indian cuisine! Seriously? 

 

I also am saddened by restaurants that lack an identity or sort of have an identity but don’t seem willing to go all the way with it.

 

This of course leads me to Sidewalk Cafe, the latest entry in the Collegeville dining scene, such as it is. First, it’s in the Marketplace, which is set back from the road, and unless you’re really looking, there is no way you would have any idea the Sidewalk Cafe exists. It actually is just a couple of doors down from the recently reviewed Tortugas, which has proven that a restaurant can succeed there. However, Tortugas is part of a mini-chain, so the owners were likely able to be more patient with the growth of Tortugas; further, Tortugas is the only Mexican place in a 15-minute radius, so they likely had an easier time getting customers.

 

We were the first customers of the morning; we almost didn’t go in at 8:30 because the Open sign wasn’t lit up, but noticed other lights on and the hours posted them being open at 8. Let’s deal with the hours shall we?

 

Tuesday-Wednesday: 8a-4p

Thursday-Saturday: 8a-8:30p

Sunday: 8a-2p

 

Wow, ok. You really don’t know what you want to do, do you? Listen, if you’re going to be a breakfast and lunch place, that’s awesome: just close at 2 and be done with it. No one will eat there between 2 and 4. But, then you’re going to go ahead and try for dinner on weekends. Um, good luck with that. Here are some dinner menu items from the menu we grabbed on the way out:

 

Stuffed Chicken Breast $14.95

Salmon $12.95

Grilled Steak $13.95

 

(BTW, we had two different menus, with mine being cheaper and less extensive; we can assume then that they are still working out some menu issues, but also not bothering to hide those menu issues from customers)

 

OK, I’m going to assume that the dinner menu goes into more detail, but I’m also not sure about that. Regardless, the price point seems way off considering that the interior is composed of metal chairs, tile floors, and several paint ‘techniques,’ including a drop ceiling painted to resemble the sky. Also, the sleep-inducing piano music (are we on the sidewalk outside John Tesh’s house?) doesn’t help. The sidewalk effect is achieved indoors by having an entire wall with two windows and a door and an awning (this is indoors, mind you, so the panes of glass are replaced with mirrors). Ironically, the Sidewalk Cafe does not actually have seating on the real sidewalk outside of it. 

 

So, what other identity might Sidewalk Cafe be playing with? Well, their tagline appears to be “Eat Well — Be Well.” OK, healthy, good food? Or high quality food? And, indeed, for breakfast they had a ‘lite-bite sandwich’ and organic multigrain pancakes. They also offer breads from the fabulous Le Bus Bakery. Their lunch offerings also feature a burger made from organic beef and they have a seitan sandwich. Here’s my issue though: if you’re going to go in this direction, then go this direction. But, the rest of the breakfast and lunch menus are pedestrian, diner fare. I actually think that a high quality breakfast/lunch place that featured creative breakfasts and sandwiches might fare well in this area (I’ll review Nudy’s soon), but Sidewalk Cafe only peeks in that directions. Without a hook, I think this place probably has until the end of the year, if that.

 

It’s actually too bad because what we had was good. The home fries were well-cooked, though not remarkably seasoned. The scrambled eggs were a little harder than I’d like, but still nice (and definitely preferable to runny). The bacon was quite good and the bread wonderful. The service was good enough, as were the prices for breakfast (aided by a coupon).

 

Here’s the thing though: there’s really not quite enough for me to come back really. I certainly wouldn’t consider dinner. I might consider lunch or breakfast, but the place is a little depressing and a veggie burger for $7.50 doesn’t exactly scream great bargain to me. As with any restaurant that wasn’t evil to me, I wish them luck, but I think they may be stuck with a location and concept that don’t work very well.

Patti Jean’s Diner

1968 W. Main St., Jeffersonville, PA

In our never-ending quest for weekend breakfast spots, we decided to try out this place in the slightly hardscrabble no-man’s land between Norristown and Collegeville.

Food-wise, it was largely acceptable: the bacon was a tad too crispy and the eggs a little too dry, but the potatoes were a good balance of crispy and not. The service was good overall, and the prices very reasonable.

Nothing to disparage really, but nothing to write home about either.

However, the menu is really the star of this place. That is, apparently Patti Jean let the world’s worst editor at her menu, because it is a never-ending source of typo fun (somehow, the takeout menu was largely saved from this). We’re not just talking misplaced commas or apostrophes, though there are plenty of those. No, we’re talking, major misspellings, including ‘omlet’ and ’scarple’. There seems to be a problem with spuds, as you can get either ‘patato skins’ or ‘mushed potatoes.’ I know ampersands can be confusing, but to replace them with percentage signs seems counterproductive, especially when it becomes a ‘egg cheese % meat sandwich’ — not exactly appetizing. Nor, frankly, is my favorite typo dish: the ‘fish filled sandwich.’ I suppose it’s better than a fish filler sandwich, but neither are good.

So, if you’d like some typo humor and decent enough food, do go to Patti Jean’s.

Collegeville Diner

290 Main Street, Collegeville, PA

http://www.collegevillediner.com/

When we first moved to Collegeville, there was a Pizza Hut on the corner. Sadly to some, I love me some Pizza Hut, but we didn’t go often. So, when the Collegeville Diner rose from the rubble of the PH, we were pleased, though we didn’t see the absolute need for another diner, since they seem to be everywhere in this area. Within ten minutes, there are probably half a dozen places we could go for our weekend morning breakfast, the time we’re most likely to go to a diner.

However, the Collegeville Diner has pleasantly surprised us. Beyond breakfast, they offer good food at decent prices — and service is quick. Breakfast though is what we normally go there for, and so:

We each got the #1 — your basic two egg breakfast with coffee and (a thimble of) juice included, all for less than $5. The eggs were quite good: the scrambled ones weren’t soupy nor rock hard, and the over easy were good, so Rick said. The bacon is good quality as well — enough crisp that they can stand on their own, but not burnt. Also, the home fries walk that difficult line of crisp/tender well — with enough crunchy bits to keep me satisfied.

So, Collegeville Diner will remain a standby for breakfast — and any other time we need a place where anyone can find anything to eat.

Ray’s

14 E. Germantown Pike, East Norriton, PA 19401

http://eatatrays.com/

“Classic” diners appeal to me, in some strange way. It’s not like I was alive during the 50s to get the whole sock hop, sharing milk shake, checkerboard floor, going steady vibe. However, these places often are friendly and do what they do well. For a few years now, I’d wanted to go to Ray’s, in part, because it is always packed. My first trip was no different: we stood in line for a bit for a table, and the line soon extended out of the door. Part of the reason for the line was there just being a lot of people there; the other part of the reason was this woman:

She seemed to be confused much of the time, and was, in general, just not a very efficient or effective hostess.

However, once we were seated, I was glad I got such a plumb seat in plain view of this:

Because, you know, what says retro diner like a Jamie Kennedy send-up of breakdancing?

There is a soda fountain part of the restaurant that looked cute:

So, all is not lost.

As noted, it was very busy, and the service was just OK. My bottomless mug o’ coffee did in fact have a bottom at times, and the food was a little slow getting to us. Rick got eggs and turkey sausage and I got a combo meal that was bacon and eggs and a stack of pancakes . No, I didn’t eat all of it.

Overall, the food was just fine. The helping of bacon was good, but the quality was uneven–some crispy, some soggy, some lean, some fatty. The potatoes were underdone–I need some crisp there, and there was very little. The pancakes were nice, but the syrup was unwieldy and uninteresting. Rick’s breakfast was also ho-hum.

Now, dependable, nothing outstanding diner food would be great to have, were the prices were not a bit too high–I think the total ran over $20, and it just didn’t warrant that expense. Maybe they’re paying for the neon bills or something. I don’t know; I think I’d try Jem up the road over Ray’s again, neon and all.

Lacroix

The Rittenhouse Hotel

210 West Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA, 19103

http://www.lacroixrestaurant.com/

There are few things better than brunch, and I’m not talking about just dining “things”: I mean, in general, brunch is one of my favorite things in life. It features food, lots of it, friends and family, lolling about: what more could one ask for? I have experienced many fine brunches in my lifetime, starting as a child when church was actually more a pre-brunch activity than an actual destination: like I had to do penance to the brunch gods (yes, going to hell, blah blah fishcakes). Among my favorites as a child were Arnie’s and the Seahorse (sadly defunct). In grad school, economics dictated a rest, but of late, I’ve had some fabulous ones, including the infamous Sterling Brunch in Vegas (about which there will probably be a “fond remembrance” post), and some bad ones (I’m talking to you, Coleman; seriously, don’t go there–it’s a total rip-off).

However, there is really nothing to compare to the Sunday Brunch at Lacroix at the Rittenhouse. It has become almost my life’s mission to turn people on to this place, and everyone I have recommended it to–all of whom first blanched at the sticker price of over $50–have thanked me to the point of embarrassment.

For our third visit, we went with Roland, Philip, and Mike to celebrate the holidays and pig out.

So, Lacroix is a great restaurant in its own right, but they don’t turn their brunch into a cash cow by skimping on quality and just providing quantity. They do both, and do it well.

So, just to set the stage, the room overlooks Rittenhouse Square, and is decorated plushly but modernly in green hues and dark wood. For brunch, the restaurant is given over to presentation. When you enter, you come upon a long table featuring cold dishes, at the end of which sits the raw bar. Once you can tear yourself away from that round, you are escorted into the kitchen, where the hot dishes are located, as well as the chocolate fountain and liquid nitrogen station (oh, don’t worry, we’ll get there). If you have room, the dessert table (ahem, “Garden Table”) awaits:

OK, enough with the setup. By the way, what follows is not for the faint of heart.

Plate #1

(Clockwise from bottom left: salmon crudo, fennel condiment; foie gras ganache; Parmesan “puff,” anchovy, roasted garlic; caramel green apple soda (off plate); unsure; California roll; BBQ eel roll; caviar; spiced baked apple panzanetta)

OK, obviously the star for me here was the puff. The foie gras ganache was, if possible, not foie gras-y enough for us, though I thought it was delightful nonetheless. Here’s the thing about this place: often I will be bowled away just by the very idea of the stuff they came up with. The ganache was like that. The panzanella was very good as well.

Plate #2 (sorry for blurriness; it’s the excitement of it all)

(Clockwise from bottom right: warm chickpea soup, homemade pitas; pulled beef hot pockets; smoked sturgeon salad, potato, horseradish vinaigrette; caviar; “chips and dip” (basically a homemade guacamole))

Yeah, so, going in, who would have thunk that a simple warm chickpea soup would be in the running for best of show? Wow. This little soup (oh, and are you noticing the fabulousness of the portions? Perfection) had us all losing our eyes in the backs of their sockets. It was perfectly smooth, tasting of the most wonderful chickpeas with hints of the expected spices: it was just amazing. We were licking the teacups.

Plate #3 (note, we are not even out of the cold dishes)

(Clockwise from bottom left: chilled spaghetti squash salad, truffle, sunchoke (my second time with this ingredient: the first was a soup at Majolica (see links on right) that was amazing. I may need to try my hand at sunchokes. Yeah, right.), cranberry; warm chickpea soup (everyone is shocked: the first thing anyone said when someone else returned from the cold table was, “are there still chickpea soups?”); crispy potatoes, escargot fricassee; coddled quail eggs with homemade mustard, smoked trout roe.)

Well, obviously there is the soup. However, the potato and escargot number was really quite nice. The potato was nice and light and balanced the earthiness of the escargot well. The spaghetti squash salad was not that memorable, but I loved the consistency of it, and the very idea.

Plate #4 (actually Philip’s because I forgot to photograph my final cold plate because I was beginning to enter a food coma.)

The key thing to mention here is on the bottom: the polenta fries. They had been constantly missing whenever I went up (an oddity, as they are usually quite good about keeping things in stock on the tables), but I finally snagged one and knew why: crispy yet soft, the fry was topped with homemade “ketchup” (God knows why they used scare quotes), which reminded you of potato fries, but balanced nicely with the polenta’s flavor. It was great.

Plate #5 (Hot Stuff!)

(Clockwise from top left: Niman Ranch smoked bacon; unsure: might be a crab cake; rabbit leg paella; unsure: might be sweet potato; Guinness braised beef short rib; center: poached organic eggs, lobster and leeks)

First, the bacon. One of my first websites reviewed brunches, and I had a separate rating for bacon. I love bacon. I own bacon salt. This is some damn fine bacon. The paella was fine; the poached eggs were awfully good (and isn’t that thing they’re in just the dickens? Lacroix has the best containers. Given the restaurant’s ridiculous use of them, we decided that we are going to open a ramekin-only restaurant. Don’t we need this?); the ribs were ridiculous: almost literally melt in your mouth. God they were good.

Plate #whatever

(Clockwise from bottom: bacon (natch); handmade sausage dumplings, truffled white beans; roasted duck breast with cherry compote; axis venison loin au poivre, huckleberry gin jus (well, sure: I make that every Sunday); savory Tuscan bread pudding with fontina and asiago cheese; brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts; pumpkin seed pancakes with pumpkin butter)

Yeah, this might have been the best plate. The meats were ridiculous: so tender, so creative, so complex. The bread pudding? Seriously? My God. It put sweet bread puddings to shame, kicking them while they were down, asking them who their daddy was. I don’t know if I have had brussels sprouts more than a couple of times in my life, and if they are half as good as these, I’ve been missing out big time. The pancakes were just pumpkin-y enough, and would you look at the color of that pumpkin butter?

Plate #mmmfffmfmfmmf (me trying to keep going with a mouth and stomach stuffed; sorry again for the focus)

(clockwise from bottom: gratin of potato, lemon, and roasted hazelnuts; food of the gods; belgian waffle with fresh mixed berries)

The gratin had an amazing flavor combination: the lemon was just barely there, but added a wonderful acidity to the pedestrian potato, and the crunch of the hazelnuts were awfully welcome. It was an inspired dish.

Plate #I really should stop…oh, but there’s dessert!

(clockwise from top right: rice crispy treat dipped in the 5-foot tall chocolate fountain; vanilla ice cream with raspberry coulis; milk chocolate malt foam with banana gelee)

Yeah, so the liquid nitrogen station. Here’s what happens. The pastry chef at the station loads a dollop of the foam, tops it with the banana gelee, and then encloses the gelee with another dollop of foam. She then opens the vat of liquid nitrogen and plunges the orb into it. What comes out is this quick-frozen though not hard concoction. Is it worth all of the trouble? Probably not (it was good, but not life-altering), but the theater!

Plate #Must stop eating can’t focus

(orange poppyseed cake with sour cream frosting; coffee pot de creme)

Both were excellent. Frankly, I can’t remember. The food coma was in full effect.

We started at 11, right when they open; we left at 2:45. I had umpteen glasses of water, cups of coffee, trips to the bathroom; I also got the wine duet with a lovely glass of bubbly (Marquis de la Tour) and a glass of a 2004 Chateau Saint-Suplice Bordeaux.

I can’t tell you what it all cost; whatever it was was worth it ($100? maybe more?). Oh, I haven’t mentioned service. Our waiter was sort of odd (like he was nervous, though he’d obviously worked there a while), but the service overall was impeccable: attentive, but not cloying; knowledgeable and respectful–they didn’t once glare at us for our gluttony.

So, yeah. You have to go if you are the area. At some point, we will probably try the other Philadelphia brunch standby, the Fountain, but it’s hard to say no to another trip to Lacroix.

Michael’s

709 Bethlehem Pike, Montgomeryville, PA 18936

OK, so this place is definitely on the chicken-fried side of things. In our never-ending quest for good breakfast places (of which there are surprisingly few), we came across this place as we were in the area. This area is in fact not close to Stonesthrow, but actually closer to Rick’s work and the Montgomeryville Mall.

Just to give you a sense of the era in which this place was last remodeled, this was above us:

In case you can’t tell, that’s a skylight. Ringed in neon. There was a lot of neon, not all of it working.

Let’s cut to the chase. We both had bacon and eggs–mine scrambled and Rick’s over easy, as is his latest wont:

Really, perfectly fine. The eggs were cooked well, the bacon crispy yet not burnt, and the hash browns adequately crispy. So, despite the surroundings and propensity for running into coworkers, Michael’s will service need we breakfast in that area.