Flip Side – Easton

This month for “Eating with the Revs” we ventured over to Easton and ate at the new Flip Side Burgers. Flip Side offers gourmet, grass fed burgers – I guess it’s good that the cow I’m eating was a healthy vegetarian since I am obviously not! When you think of it, this makes you a vegetarian-once-removed every time you eat one of these big juicy burgers.

Most of us enjoyed our lunch. Claude got the Chili-Pepper Burger and declared it, “Spicy hot and delicious!” Brian got the Black & Bleu Burger and thought whatever they did with the onions made this burger very good. “It was the right mixture with the bleu cheese without being over-bearing.” I got Shawn’s Burger – because how can you beat a burger with bacon and a fried egg right on it? Yum!

The only one disappointed was Pastor Steve who got the Chicken Chopped Cob Salad – but hey, HE ORDERED A SALAD AT A BURGER PLACE! I say it serves him right! He says next time he’ll get a burger. It wasn’t that the salad was bad, just plain. Except for the avocado, it was basically lettuce and chicken – none of the regular “cob kinda stuff.”

Flip Side is supposed to have great milkshakes too. None of us got one, but the strawberry cheesecake shake supposedly has a huge piece of cheesecake sticking up out of the middle of it. We would have gotten it, but were afraid it’d be hard to suck through the straw.

The atmosphere is cool! The menus are interesting. All-in-all, we thought it was a winner! It’s got great burgers in a trendy cool kind of atmosphere. Check it out and let us know what you think (especially if you get one of those milkshakes!)

Wholly Joe’s – 1182 East Powell Rd, Lewis Center

Pastors Steve & Brian begged off due to ministry or sickness or something – so Claude and I (Jay) decided it only took 2 guys to eat a hot dog and took off up the road to WHOLLY JOE’S CHICAGO EATERY. Hot dogs, Sausage & Beef sandwiches – do I need to say more??? The first thing I did was tell Claude that if he ordered a salad I was going to slap him!

Wholly Joe’s is open for lunch Tuesday to Sunday – so don’t bother coming on a Monday. If you come at dinner time they also have Chicago style, deep dish pizzas (Yum!), but we were there for lunch. Claude got the Italian Sausage sandwich with mustard and sweet onions. Other than what he kept dripping on his shirt, he ate every bite. He also went with the onion rings which was a definite winner – a plentiful serving, crispy and not greasy. Everything was 2 thumbs up according to Pastor Claude!

I (Jay) went with the “Wholly Joe” Beef sandwich (Chicago-style lean beef sliced thin and cooked in natural juices), with sweet peppers and grilled onions. I also had it “dipped” which is the way real Chicago-ians eat it (They dip the whole sandwich in the juice so it comes out soggy and “slap your Grandmother” tasty! Delicious!!!)

Perhaps the BEST aspect was that their soda fountains boasted BOTH Pepsi & Coke products. Genius! I’m not sure why other restaurants don’t follow suit. As a result I was able to drink my Diet Pepsi out of a Coca-Cola cup. Ironic, huh?

All in all it was a most enjoyable pastors lunch sans Steve and Brian. Maybe we’ll let them come along NEXT time.

A Hometown Favorite…City Bar-B-Que

This month we made the L-O-N-G trek to City Barbeque (distance 1.2 miles from our front door to theirs, though we did have to stop at Speedway along the way for a restroom break!) Actually, Claude had an important “pastor-type” meeting to get back to and so we put off going to the cool, exotic place Brian had picked out until next month (Stay tuned!) If I sound bitter it’s because the other guys never want to go to the places I pick – although in fairness, I do tend to lean to the dirty dumps and dives kind of joints.

 Anyway, Claude & Brian both had the beef brisket sandwich.  Really, how can you go wrong with this = it’s brisket, it’s City Barbeque – Enough said! (“Wonderful” was the only word Claude kept uttering between bites.)  Steve got the pulled chicken sandwich – which he enjoyed, though he was a bit disparaging about the size of the lunch-portion. Brian is particularly fond of City Barbeque because it is one of the few places where you can still get hushpuppies (other than the Buster Brown Shoe Store).

 I went off-road and ordered a side of green beans, cornbread, and a basket of fried pickles. Being a Jesus-loving kind of guy I offered to share my fried pickles and it was accepted by all with varying responses.  Let me put it this way: I doubt Steve & Brian will be ordering them again soon. But, Claude and I really enjoyed them! I realize fried pickles are an acquired taste, but City Barbeque has great ones! Only 5-bucks for a big ole’ basket of them. The dipping sauce is creamy and just the right amount of spicy.  Plus, at City Barbeque the pickles are slices rather than spears. This means the fried-cornmeal-to-pickle ratio goes way up! YUM!

 So next time you eat out – stick with an old favorite and hit City BBQ! Get a basket of fried pickles, maybe some hushpuppies – but avoid the lunch-sized portion sandwich.

Lunch @ Tava Turkish Grill

By Pastor Jay

If you’ve been to Chipotle or Piada – you’ve got the concept:

The staff of Tava

assembly line food right in front of you except this time it’s Turkish! I’m truthfully not sure what Turkish food is – even after having been there. Basically, it’s all Mediterranean: Greek, Persian, Egyptian, Turkish, you name it!

Pastors Steve, Brian and Claude thought it was wonderful; I thought it was falafel! (Well – maybe not that bad, just nothing all that special! Pastor Steve felt the olives were essential and maybe that’s the problem since I’m not a big olive fan. (I’m not even a little olive fan – Mostly I’m pretty negative toward the whole olive population!)

Basically you decide if you want a salad, a rice bowl, or a Lavash (think Pita bread) and then what kind of meat you want in it. We all went with lamb (Hey – it’s Turkish, Why get chicken? We could’ve eaten at KFC if we wanted chicken!). Then you determine what other toppings you want with it: olives, lettuce, cucumbers, Feta or Mozzarella cheese, Tabbouleh Salad, Tzatziki Sauce, etc. I got a salad and basically it tasted like a salad from anywhere else with a little lamb thrown on top. Everyone else got the rice bowl with beans too and seemed to like that a lot more.

The best thing was the Turkish bread – hot and tasty and a bargain at only a buck! You dipped it in some sort of olive oil – yum! Pastor Brian went on and on about the Babaganoush – but truthfully I think he just likes saying “Babaganoush.” We didn’t get any humas or the deserts so I don’t know what to say about any of them except they looked good. How can you mess up baklava?

(from Pastor Brian) The atmosphere is very much clean and simple — white walls and ceilings (very Greek) with tiles floors and nice wood tables and benches. The kitchen was clean and seemed to be constantly being cleaned — always good if you’re eating there! The staff was friendly and seemed pleased to help us figure out all the ins and outs of food we were unfamiliar with.

All in all – it was a nice change of pace, a chance to be “ethnic” without having to stretch too far (a bonus for Pastor Steve who thinks of Max & Erma’s as “out there”), and a nice place to go with some of your friends (or a bunch of old pastors in our case).

Lunch @ Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace!

We decided to make a practice out of going to lunch together semi-often. Seeing that I like to go to new and different places (emphasis on DIFFERENT), we thought we’d put a place on our site to talk about where we go. This month Brian chose DIRTY FRANK’S, located at 248 S 4^th Street – You gotta love going downtown for lunch (except for the $4 to park!)

Anyway, I (Jay) loved it. I went with Lara’s Pittsburgh Princess – there’s just something about having slaw & fries right on your hot dog – Yum! I paid the 75 cents up charge and got a brat instead of a hot dog – plus I had mine on lettuce instead of a bun. I had to eat it with a knife & fork, but it was well worth it.

Steve was just mediocre on the place – but that might be because he ordered a Cowgirl Carmen – coney sauce, cheddar cheese, & crushed Fritos on his hot dog. He said it was fine for lunch – but not for dinner, but what do you expect – He ordered a CowGIRL?

Brian & Claude ordered both a West Virginia (coney sauce, slaw & onions – just like we ate ‘em where I grew up!) Brian also had Amy’s Big Boston Dog – baked beans, onions, & cheddar cheese. Claude also had the Real Man Hot Dog – coney sauce, sauerkraut, brown mustard, & onions. I think he was influenced in this choice because he was feeling a little insecure that day, but he left feeling very much like a real man! The two best according to Brian and Claude were the Big Boston and the Real Man — Brian liked the baked beans and Claude enjoyed the Sauerkraut over the slaw.

All in all – reviews were mostly average. It’s a fun place…crowded…cool drawings on the wall AND interesting characters working there. I’m not sure I’d plan it for your next anniversary dinner, but I think it’s a fun place to go – and they’re open daily from 11am to 2:30am.