Mark Walton Comedy
 
 Kristen Becker and I went on a road trip to participate in the Boston Comedy Festival. We represented Buffalo well, met some people, and saw some interesting things. One of which was three homeless gentlemen sleeping inside of a bank, by the atm.

During the road trip we devised a system for finding a great restaurant when you are out of town. It started when we were driving around Gloucester (pronounced Glouster), a place famous for being where “The Perfect Storm” was filmed, and where 17 high school girls made a pact to get pregnant at the same time. Kristen and I were taking a romantic drive along the north shore, looking for a place to get some food. We started judging places based on how they looked, we passed a pub type place that was trying too hard to look like an Applebees, and we passed a few seafood places that either looked like they were trying too hard to look like they were fancy, or trying too hard to look like they weren’t. Then Kristen remembered a place she had eaten before called the Causeway Restaurant.

We pull in and the place is small and looks a little dirty. The food was excellent though, I had their clam chowder, it was one of the best I ever had. For my meal I had grilled swordfish tips, with a baked potato and squash that was cooked with enough brown sugar that it could be considered candied. I realized that day why swordfish grow a giant weapon on their head, it’s because they are fucking delicious. The swordfish meal was only $11.


Kristen ordered the shrimp scampi over pasta, and it looked like she got about 3 lbs of food. She ate until she was full and it didn’t look like she even started. It was at this time that the hypothesis was born, that a small dirty looking restaurant with cars in the parking lot will have the best food at a reasonable price.

We then tested this hypothesis on the way home, when we stopped off in Weedsport NY. After circling the town we spotted Arnold’s Family Restaurant, a small place that looked a little dirty outside, but had about 8 cars in the lot at 4pm.

Kristen ended up getting a french dip that had so much moist roast beef that it was falling out, mashed potatoes, and a side salad with their homemade Italian dressing. I had a great homemade meatloaf slathered in gravy, The gravy had bacon in it, bacon. I also had the mashed potatoes, and some really soft green beans. Our total bill was under $20.

Granted the sample population isn’t large enough, or varied enough geographically to prove the hypothesis true, I am believing it. I suggest if you want to find the best food on the road, find a small place that looks a little dirty, but has a decent number of cars in it, and you most likely will be at the restaurant where most of the locals go for good food at a reasonable price.

 


Comments


Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply