Taste of Lincoln

I have to admit, without Kuhl’s downtown I have been without a good breakfast place.  Tina’s is good, but it just didn’t seem to have that throwback to the 50′s atmosphere I love.  But I think I may have found a new place, Cook’s Cafe.  A bit far from my North Lincoln home, but I knew immediately it had what I was looking for.  I was at least the youngest person there by 50%, and everyone seemed to have their own identity there.  Kind of a Breakfast Cheers.

I had a bowl of oatmeal and a side of cinnamon toast.  It was a perfect breakfast for me.  What I also liked was they keep their costs down.  Ever go to IHOP and look and your bank statement only to wonder, “How the hell did I spend $20 on pancakes!!!!”

I’ll be back.  In fact, I hope to become a regular.  I want the waitress to know how I like my coffee and to be alone while I read the paper.  I’m a grumpy old man in training and I think I just found my gym.

I got the evil stink eye from Buffmeat over the weekend for not sharing my kind of recent experience at Carmela’s.  So to remedy the situation, here are my two-cents worth:

Had salmon and thought it was done perfectly.  Grilled with good seasoning, it was served with garlic mashed potatoes and huge stalks of asparagus.  Felt it was fairly priced–I think $17–and the servings were generous.  My fellow diners at the table were all satisfied with the size of the plates and very complimentary on the food they ordered.

It was a girls night, so we all ordered a glass of wine and at the time of our visit, our waitress was fairly clueless about the wine selection.  My expectation was that she would be a little more up on what wine goes with what food, but it was pretty clear she was making a best guess.  Regardless, the wine selection had a nice variety of wines by the glass.  Waitress was helpful in suggesting we try the fruit and cheese plate as an appetizer.  I will say up front that I don’t like cheese.  Don’t like the taste, the texture and sometimes the smell.  I’ve gotten better over the years at trying to like it, but honestly, the less cheese the absolute better food is.  I was not thrilled that we had a cheese plate coming, but tried all of them but one that was bleu cheese (and frankly bleu cheese is just wrong–you’re eating MOLD!).  Really, really liked the cheeses sampled.  I believed there was an asiago, a parmesan, maybe a cream cheese option.

Journal Star just did a write up in their weekly reviews that provides more insight:  http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2008/08/18/living/gz/dining/doc48a4b12961965954557254.txt

Lovely piece on “Good Morning America” about the less than cleanly kitchens in restaurants.  Food for thought??? 

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5537444&page=1

This post should clear my karma from the Lazlo’s post–and thanks to Buffmeat for backing me up and sharing his less than stellar experience.

The Boy and I ventured out on Saturday night to the Blue Orchid.  I had heard a lot of good feedback about it, but was a little skeptical due to previous experiences with thai restaurants.  And, really, my only previous thai experience was at Thai Gardens on 12th and P, which left much to be desired.  But we were celebrating Boy’s impending birthday and wanted a nice place to eat and have drinks, so in 100-degree heat we went downtown. 

We arrived around 8pm and were told it would be a thirty minute wait with no reservation.  As expected, we headed to the bar to wait.  The bartender was exceptionally knowledgable about what vodka went best in a vodka tonic and the pinot grigio that we ordered.  I like a bartender that knows what he is talking about and can offer recommendations, so that started the experience off right for me. 

The wait only ended up being 15 minutes.  I really, really wanted pad thai noodles, but went with the Orchid Chicken–chicken with pineapple, green peppers, cashews and onions in a red chili paste sauce.  Boy went with sweet and sour stir fry.  Both meals were INCREDIBLE!  The experience was great all around and I can’t say enough good things about the Blue Orchid.  I hope readers of the blog will check them out.  It’s a unique place with an excellent environment for adults to gather.