Restaurants we loved

GOODENUFF

And when a bunch of them decided to take a cruise down University Avenue, it was like American Graffiti.

There is a dive bar in Phoenix that on random weekend days (probably not actually random) has a parking lot that would make any car fancier squee like a middle school girl. There's everything from a chopped up lowrider pickup (pretty sure its a '62 Ford F-100) to a kit roadster that looks like it was put together from every Dwight D Eisenhower era teenage musclehead's dream elements and is kind of an interesting nightmare. At a guess, each of those vehicles was lovingly put together by its owner. It's that kind of vibe.

Some of you Montecito guys shouldn't be touching a wrench.

@2much

Yeah, I have been to the Montecito one a couple of times.

It is such a different feeling than what it was like at Fuddruckers. To me, and this is my subjective feelings, the Montecito event is just a reason for a bunch of really rich old white guys to show off 'collections' that they take out of the Hangar (Car storage facility for those who do not know.) At Fuddruckers, it was a bunch of people who put elbow grease, worked on their own shit. This was the same on bike or car nights. I guess the Montecito crowd is more about showing trophies and the Fuddruckers crowd was much about showing what they did to make their _____ what it is. That is what I enjoy more.

Stop making trouble.

Just trying to help him find the car culture that surrounds him. :)

"Not arguing with you."

It's EA. Yes you are, you just don't know it. Yet.

:-)

Somehow, an Irving gas station by us became the site of a free car show/gathering on Thursdays. They are mostly classic muscle cars and some rat rods but will also have things ranging from Model Ts to hopped up Civics/Suburus/etc as well as some bikes. Though not a restaurant, they do have burgers, dogs, ice cream and of course other snacks. As I recall, they sometimes have food trucks too.

Only problem is that on nice Thursdays, the Mrs and I have a group of people we do motorcycle rides with to various ice cream places in the S. NH area. It's a mixed group or vanillas and LS people, and it's fun if you like to ride. Relative to our meeting spot, this place is kind of too close to get a decent ride in. Plus, I think it's only soft serve and ice cream bars and such. The Mrs would miss her bannana split fix ;-)

Not arguing with you.

There's also Cars and Coffee at Montecito's beautiful Manning Park. Saturdays 8 am.

Lots of cool cars in your 'hood.

Crap, I can't resist DB...

At Porky's there were a lot of restored classic cars- mostly 40's, 50's, 60's, but some Model As, Model Ts, etc. The big draw (for me) were the custom Hot Rods and the classic muscle cars- Chargers, Challengers, Mustangs.

All while stuffing your face with a Porky's burger (1/2 lb ground beef, grilled onions, mushrooms, green pepper, jalapenos, cheese, bacon, hickory BBQ sauce), and seasoned fries. Or onion rings. At a drive in.

The onliest thing missing was The Fonz on his Harley- and I'm not so sure about that.

@2much

Those are different. Those sound like 'events' whereas Fuddruckers was every weekend and relatively local.

As a kid and young adult.. in North Miami Beach we hung out at Coney Island on 163rd St.. and Figaro's Pizza next door.. watching the comedies like 3 stooges while eating pizza and drinking beer.. a much simpler time with friends

You just missed two of the biggest west coast car events. Pismo last weekend and Santa Maria the weekend before.

@DB

So for both nights it was classic cars? No motorcycles? No other cars?

The way it was at Fuddruckers in Lauderdale was the bikes were one night and it was NOT Harley's. It was all fast bikes. People would come up from Miami, down from West Palm for this meetup.

The other night with cars, it was also speed related, but you could see a 65 Mustang next to a Ferrari. You would not see a low-rider, or a Model T. But you would see worked on Civics, Subarus, etc.

For the bikes, after the 'hangout' people would either go home, or head out to US27 and 595 to race, head down to Krome to race, head down to South Beach to hang out, or go up to West Palm to . . . shit, I forgot the name of the area that they cleaned up and made it trendy.

The cars, generally went home except for the tuned Jap cars and they would go to US27 and 595 to race.

I miss those kind of hangouts. Unfortunately, here the only thing I get is on the 4th and it is parade of old cars - ranging from Model T's to ooooold mercedes.

Oh, hell yeah, Porky's!

That cars were great.

Porky's in St Paul. On Friday and Saturday nights it was a free classic car show.

I just remembered two places :)

I am not sure if this setup was national or not. In Fort Lauderdale, there used to be a place called Nathan's. Yes, the same as the hot dogs and that is what they served. But they were built like a precursor to Dave and Busters. This place was not small! One side of the facility was the food, the other side was entertainment. They had more games like skeeball than they did video games.

Another place, and this was about 3 blocks north, opened after Nathan's closed down, but Fuddruckers. Fuddruckers was the place to be on Friday or Saturday night if you were into motorcycles or cars. There are still some around, but the number has seriously dwindled.

Mitali East, an Indian restaurant on E. 6th St in NYC…a little hole in the wall, family run place with amazing food. Frequented probably 3 times a month during my NYC stint in the mid/late 80’s. As we say in NOLA, ain’t dare no more. In recent years, I’ve found a replacement in Bengal Tiger in midtown, which also has great food and is byob, but located up a narrow staircase from street level, misses on the cozy ambiance of Mitali’s below street level set-up. If anyone has any great recommendations for Indian in NYC, I’d love to hear them.

BT

"Steak & Ale" - good restaurant chain. I worked building the one in Charlotte, NC. Was great fun.
In Charlotte, "Little Italy". was on Central Ave. Sadly, closed. Family style Italian food. And very good!
Out towards UNCC, there was a hole in the wall bar "Sleezy Sadie McGee's". Served beer in mason jars, had the best bologna burgers. Hand sliced bologna, about 3/8s" thick, home made slaw and chili. Rounding it out - home made pickled eggs.
Every Wednesday night a "Jacked up '57 Chevy" contest. lol.

Hmm, not that I know of. There is a Mexican restaurant near me that serves it, but presumably it’s Mexican, not Peruvian, and I don’t like it. When we visited Costa Rica in January 2020, we enjoyed the fruit ceviche, so it’s not like we’re picky eaters. If you find one in our area, please LMK.

Scandle,

I never heard of cerviche til I Googled it.

Are there any Peruvian restaurants in the Milw or Chi areas?

Just around the corner from Rooftop Resort in Hollywood, FL is this amazing Peruvian restaurant. Their ceviche is the best we've ever had, bar none, and whenever we visited Rooftop we also hit up Pachamanka Authentic Peruvian Cuisine. The place is pretty casual so you don't have to get cleaned up much before dining.

Again as a kid.... there used to be an AYCE deep fried food place here. Not a buffet style- you'd get a plate of whatever sides and the 1st round of whatever you asked for, the server would come back and ask what else they could bring for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th.. Always hot out of the fryer. I forget the name (Hot Fish Shop?) and everything they served. I recall fish was the most popular choice but one of the options was frog legs.

That was my first experience with frog legs- I never knew frogs got that big. Learned that frog legs tasted like fishy chicken.

Later I learned alligator tasted like fishy chicken too. And then there was this one girl in college... Yeah, fishy chicken.

I never did find out what they did with the rest of the frog. Figured I'd see a bunch of frogs in wheel chairs rolling down the road on our way home.

GOODENUFF

Kind of like the The Bridgemann's La La Palooza

@DTH

laplagewadingriver. com

Still there :)

Not sure if the restaurant closed post pandemic or not. When lived in the Hamptons I would drive to Wading River to a restaurant call La Plage. They had a great chef, great service and meals that were exceptionally plated. Great wine, great dinner topped off with a nice walk on the beach at sunset closed out the evening.