treats

Tuesday’s Treats #117

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Michie Tavern (aka The Ordinary at Michie Tavern)

Location: Charlottesville, VA

This is the most intriguing restaurant I’ve been to in a long while! If you are looking for an experience, as well as, good, home-cooked, country food, you won’t want to miss this!

From the original log cabin entrance looking upon the beautiful roaring fire and hearth to the colonial dressed wait staff to the tin cups and plates on which you eat, you will immediate feel as if you have just stepped back in time. This place was incredible!

The food is incredible with choices of Southern fried chicken, hickory smoked pulled pork, and marinated baked chicken, black eyed peas, green beans, mashed potatoes, stewed tomatoes, baby beets (not really my fave), Cole slaw, biscuits and cornbread. This is all-you-can-eat; so, don’t be shy to ask for a little more. You’re gonna want to! The beverages of choice are good ol’ Southern Sweet tea, old fashion Root beer, coffee, old fashion Nehi orange soda and several others. Don’t miss dessert with homemade peach cobbler, Cookie sundaes and and root beer or orange dream floats (see pic above).

Upon entering, it will appear the seating capacity is small; however, don’t be fooled. There’s plenty of seating to the left of the buffet line, and they even have a covered patio if you prefer a little fresh air. Once you fill yourself full, don’t miss the gift shop just outside the Tavern, and the short museum tour upstairs is worth the few extra bucks. (Self guided, too. Those are my favorites. 😉) The gift shop is full of unique, colonial and Virginia-specific items. I could spend hours in there, as well as, in the General Store locates across the parking lot. It’s located in the old grist mill.

I love stuff like this, and I hope you will, too. I always feel like I walk away from an experience like this with a little deeper richness to my life, and I hope my character has deepened as well. Hope you will enjoy!

PS. Don’t be thrown off when you go to their website to find more information. I’m not sure if they are working on it, or if they simply chose the simple approach. You might feel as if you’ve clicked on the wrong link; however, I assure you, it’s the right one. Just click on the pics at the top for more pictures, and click on Dining to get to other options and the Menu. (Or just click on the links I’ve given you here! Lol!)

Tuesday’s Treats #116

/ The WheatandTares / 3 Comments

D’Armoyed

Location: Kiev, Ukraine

This place was really cool in atmosphere. It seems to be pretty new, and I couldn’t find a lot of info on line, but it’s well worth the visit.

The waiter knew just a bit of English, but they did have an English menu, and we were eating with Ukrainians; so, ordering was not a problem. The food was delicious, and the presentation was exquisite.

The Borsch, grilled chicken, potatoes with fried mushrooms and the Greek salad were all delicious. Our party also ordered other salads, dumplings, and some type of potato fritters (See pic), and everything was absolutely scrumptious! My favorite was probably the Borsch and the potatoes, but I think I kind of made those items my “food staples of choice” while in Ukraine! Lol. Hat chicken was amazing also, tasted like it came right out of the smoker!

Next time, we visit Kiev, this will be on the places to eat! They don’t have a website, but there is a Facebook page.

Tuesday’s Treats #111

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Papa Jack’s Country Kitchen

Location: Flowery Branch, Ga

We’ve been to Papa Jack’s twice. The atmosphere is comfy and homey-like. They’ve just recently moved to a new location in Flowery Branch. Everything is nice and clean, free of clutter, trash and that time-layed grease to which many local restaurants fall victim.

The food on the first visit was amazing. We got veggies, salad bar, burgers and chicken fingers. Everything was delicious. They have a great salad bar, and all menu items are served fresh and cafeteria style. There are mostly tables and chairs for seating, but a few booths are available in the first room. They have great southern sweet tea, and the wait staff have a true Southern hospitality charm.

Our second visit was not as great as the first, but I’m hoping maybe it was just the time of day. Sometimes, cafeteria style restaurants can get hit with the “overheated, sitting too long” menu items. So, we’ll probably try them again, and I’ve been told by many to try their breakfast on Saturdays. They say the biscuits and the pancakes are to die for! Hmmm, I think I’m getting hungry. Maybe I’ll try them this weekend…

Here’s the website for the updated location and daily specials.

Tuesday’s Treats #110

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Luna’s

Location: Gainesville, Ga

Luna’s is great for a nice, romantic lunch or dinner, business meeting or any family gathering. It is white tablecloths and assorted silverware type settings; so, choose accordingly, but I do believe you’d enjoy it. My husband and I went here for lunch, and although, we don’t exactly start the day thinking, “oh, we’ll go have a romantic lunch date today,” we were on a lunch date, and we did feel romantic!

As you can tell from the pics, the presentation is beautiful. (The first pic above is the oil dip for the delicious bread they bring before the meal.) The shrimp and grits were amazing, and the burger was incredible! The key lime pie was absolutely delicious. It tastes a lot like the key lime we get at our favorite restaurant in Florida, and I think might know where they get it. 😉

The waiter was great and the restaurant was almost empty; so, we felt like we had the place to ourselves. We really enjoyed our lunch and will be back.

Luna’s

Tuesday’s Treats #109

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Nose Dive

Location: Greenville, SC

This place definitely has the urban cafe feel with its large, open air windows and cafe style seating. Their “subtitle” is fitting, “Urban Comfort Food.”

Honestly, had I read the menu before I took my two teenage sons here, I might would have chosen a different place, not because of the atmosphere. We were definitely intrigued. At first glance the menu didn’t have many, what I would call, “comfort foods” listed; however, they did have burgers and fries. So, that’s what we ordered, and we were so glad we did! They are delicious!! I also ordered Jasmine Rice, just because I’d like to taste it. It was another winner!

Next time we’re in Greenville, we will definitely stop by Nose Dive.

Tuesday’s Treats #107

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Midway Cafe

Location: Islamorada Key, Florida

Midway is a great little Coffeeshop located midway between Miami and Key West.

Tuesday’s Treats #103

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Cafe Intermezzo

Location: Atlanta, Ga

This place is so cool! The atmosphere is different than the Coffeeshop I visited a few weeks back. It’s more of a “cafe” venue, but that definitely doesn’t take away from the enjoyable surroundings.

The desserts are amazing, and the coffee is so strong, it might get up and walk out on you 😂, but everything is delicious! They have a plethora of desserts from which to choose, and they have actual meals to order, as well, but we’ve only had coffee and desserts.

We ordered the apple pie and cherry pie ala mode. I had the Coccoloccino with white chocolate added. Oh. My. Word. Delicious!! The others in our party had the s’mores cheesecake, black coffee, and another non-alcoholic coffee, but I don’t remember the name, and I can’t find the coffee menu on the website. (Yes, they have a food menu and a coffee/beverage menu that’s like a book!)

The noise of the place was surprising a good him at about 10:30 pm on a Wednesday night, but it wasn’t overpowering. It was a comfortable atmosphere for our party of 7 to chat and fellowship for a while.

The special things around the cafe are what is so intriguing. They add special touches within each room to give it character. Like right near the bar area, just in the wall, three or four gold racks had been placed and a few newspapers were hanging. Coming from the restrooms, there were two huge mirrors placed on either side of the wall; so, when you stood there, it was as if your person went on forever. My son called it the infinity mirrors. Near the end of this post, I will post a pic that I rarely ever do for restaurants. I will post you a picture of the bathroom! They were so cool! They have the old fashioned, wood grain, Barclay Victorian style toilets. It looks like it’s right out of the scene in Godfather II. The ceilings had copper tile, and the time and attention they put into ever detail shows.

They have several locations within the Atlanta area. We had been to the Peachtree Street location many years ago and loved it. This might, we were at the Ashford-Dunwoody Road location. For more information, check out their website here.

Tuesday’s Treats #102

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Saltgrass Steakhouse

Location: Pensacola, Fl

This place is amazing. The atmosphere makes you feel like you just stepped into a true Texas Roadhouse (not the restaurant chain), and the steaks don’t disappoint! Which I suppose is pretty good; since, they have 67 locations and only 14 of them are outside the state of Texas! Haha.

Check out their website for locations and menu items.

Tuesday’s Treats #101

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DePalma’s Italian Cafe

Location: Dacula, Ga

We have been to the location in Athens years ago, but this was our first visit to the new Dacula location. The atmosphere is really cool, and the staff is friendly.

We ordered breadsticks, Caesar salad, chicken Alfredo, lasagna and pizza for our part of five. We were sure we’d have to-go boxes to take home; yet, these were all items we wanted to try.

They, also, brought “house bread” tot he table before the meal; so, we had plenty of bread and carbs! Ha ha. The house bread was homemade Italian, served with a olive oil/balsamic dish to dip. The balsamic definitely has a tangy kick, but it was delicious. I could have eaten the whole plate as my meal.

The breadsticks can be made with meatballs and opinions or spinach and onions, but we just opted for cheese. These were fresh made and delicious as well. As I mentioned before, this was a lot of bread; so, I was trying to moderate myself. The Caesar salad came just in Time, and it was scrumptious. The dressing was just right, and the romaine was crispy and fresh and the Parmesan just right.

Next came out meal that we didn’t think we’d finish because of all we had already enjoyed. My husband and son split the pizza. It was half pepperoni and half sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and green peppers. As far as pizzas go, I do like a little thicker crust, but it was tasty and definitely worth ordering again. Our oldest and his girl had chicken fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli, and they said each of theirs was good. I had the lunch lasagna (with the salad), and although, it was definitely a different kind of lasagna than I’m used to, with its spinach, ricotta cheese and a small bit of meat all topped with bread crumbs, it was still delicious. Surprisingly, I ate the whole serving.

Yes, we did have a bit of leftovers, but not as much as I expected. I’d have to say, I have a few other favorite italian restaurants, but this one is pretty good. We’ll probably be back again.

To find out more, you can check them out online.

Tuesday’s Treats #100

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Roost

Location: Greenville, SC

This is a great lunch venue right in the heart of downtown Greenville. It has a great atmosphere and friendly staff. The menu is a bit limited, but what they have is delicious. Our crowd got burgers and fries, chicken fingers and the salad bar. The burgers were great. The chicken fingers were tasty; although, the breading was a little too thick and crunchy.

The salad bar is absolutely filling and amazing. Everything is fresh and delightful from the three choices of greens, two cheeses, a plethora of other veggies, bacon, cranberries, and croutons, etc. The dressings appear to be homemade, and that’s just the start. Included in the bar are two soups and three choices of flatbread pizza. The soup I chose was tomato basil bisque: scrumptious. They also had vegetable beef. The flatbreads were plain cheese, fresh pepperoni, and spinach and mozzarella. The cheese was more like cheese bread. The pepperoni was very tasty, and if you like spinach on your pizza, I’d say you’d probably like this one, too. I wasn’t much a fan, but it’s not really my preference.

If you’re ever planning to stay in downtown Greenville, check out the Hyatt, connected right next door, and adjacent to that is Kilwins. You can go there for dessert!😉 Roost does serve breakfast and dinner as well; so, it’s incredibly convenient to have this right next door to your hotel, and the NOMA square, in which it is housed, is really cool. Here is their website to find out more.