Lindy's Diner - 22

Date: 10/30

Restaurant: Lindy's Diner       
Address: 19 Gilbo Ave.   
City: Keene   

Web site: www.lindysdiner.com    

Breakfast Hours: All day       


Potatoes *
Kind: Home Fries
Same old story. Undercooked and no crisp.
      
   
Toast ****
Kind: Multigrain and Cinnamon Raisin   
Homemade? Yes
       

Bacon ****
Sven had ordered bacon, but it didn't arrive with his meal (see SVEN'S TAKE). After I pointed out to our server that his meal was not what he ordered, she offered to bring some bacon. Sven said no thanks, what he had was fine. A few minutes later she brought a plate over saying she felt guilty for placing the wrong order and wanted us to have it. I have to say, it was pretty good bacon and I, personally, am glad she brought it.
    


Muffin **
Kind: Blueberry   
Homemade? Yes
Artificial tasting and dry. It looked to have been baked in a corn bread pan, which gave it an odd shape, which I didn't have a problem with, but Sven did. I think that by this point Sven had a problem with everything, which I can't really blame him for. (see SVEN'S TAKE)
  
   
SERVER RECOMMENDATION
She was so unpleasant (see SVEN'S TAKE) that I think we were both scared to ask if she had any recommendations.

What is that under those eggs? Bacon? Do you see any bacon?

      
   
SVEN'S BREAKFAST ** Ordered 2 Eggs Over Easy, Bacon, Multigrain Toast and Baked Beans.
Got 2 eggs OE on top of hash, small amount of home fries, raisin toast, baked beans and no bacon. He rated the food as follows: Potatoes * Beans ** Eggs *** It wasn't a good morning at Lindy's.

OLGA'S BREAKFAST *** Broccoli and Cheddar Omelet with onions, home fries and multigrain toast.
Not much to say. Frozen broccoli, and not much of it. Lots of onions and plenty of cheese. It was average. Potatoes...blech, but that's par for the course.

SERVICE
(See Sven's Take)        
    
   

DECOR ****
(See Sven's Take)   
    
   
CLEANLINESS  ***   
    
   
NOTES
Menu said best coffee in town. Can't agree with that since Prime Roast is right around the corner, but for diner coffee it was actually pretty good.

SVEN'S TAKE
Worst. Service. Ever. Several folks had asked us over the past half-year whether or not we had eaten at Lindy's Diner in Keene. Truth is, we both had eaten there prior to the start of our NH Breakfast Blog; but neither of us really had much good to say about it. But it IS a diner -- complete with a straight-from-the-fifties art deco roof and retro table-mount jukeboxes in every booth -- so off we went to give it another try.

We went in feeling happy, after perusing the well-kept curbside garden and taking note of the cool metal sculptures made by Alstead's Bob Taylor. For those of you who don't know his work, Sven and Olga highly recommend a drive through the hills of Alstead, where you can see a great number of his life-size whimsical animals tucked into various dooryards and roadsides. Seeing one of his easily identifiable cranes standing in the garden at Lindy's, with the tendrils of a vine climbing up it's slender rusted body, was a great way to start the morning.

Unfortunately, that is where it ended. When we entered the diner, we were not greeted by anyone, and had to eventually show ourselves to a table. After a long wait, the waitress came over and literally yelled at me as I tried to lift the sugar container to make her table-washing easier. She came back a minute later and threw two menus on the table -- impressive aim, I might add, since she was standing about 4 feet away when she tossed them. When she came back to take our order, she yelled at me again for asking if the whole wheat toast was homemade. No kidding. Yelled at me. Apparently it is a known fact that the raisin and multigrain toast ARE homemade, and the wheat and white toast aren't.

Incidentally, I get it that waitresses in diners can sometimes be a little rude. That's part of the schtick, and some waitresses can get away with it because it is all in fun. That wasn't the case here, though. This waitress just sucked.

After that, it wasn't really that surprising that she brought out the wrong food -- wrong toast, no bacon, big pile of hash that we had never ordered. In fairness, she tried to make up for it by sweetening up a little, but by that point the event was past saving. The food was adequate, but definitely not worth the hassle.

End analysis? Zero stars. Not planning to go back.

Country Kitchen - 21

Date: 10/23

Restaurant: Country Kitchen   
Address: 339 Sunapee St.
City: Newport
Phone: 863-7881
        
   
Potatoes ***
Kind: Deep fried home fries. No matter how good they are, we can't give deep fried breakfast potatoes anything higher than a 3. It just isn't right. Breakfast potatoes shouldn't be dunked in oil, they should be grilled, right next to your eggs and bacon, until they are cooked through and the edges are crisp. These were not that, they were fried, but for fried, they were pretty good. Seemed to be fresh cut with some skin still on and I got a taste of dirt with one of mine.

Muffin *****
Kind: Low-fat Apple, Carrot & Raisin   
Homemade? Yes
Delicious. We had it grilled. This was a very flavorful (cinnamon and allspice we think) muffin that was super moist and held together well. They didn't do a good job of cutting it in half evenly, thankfully Sven is a nice guy and made sure I had an extra bite off the big half. 
    
   

SERVER RECOMMENDATION
Our server didn't really seem too thrilled about anything. She did say that the pancakes and omelets were really good, but I think only because she didn't know what else to say.        
   

Country Special. Mmmm...french fries for breakfast!

SVEN'S CHOICE **** Country Special
English muffin topped with sausage patties, poached eggs and sausage gravy. Served with home fries. It was pretty much a heart attack on a plate. Sven said it was good, but not as good as the sausage gravy at Blackwater Junction.

Mini Omelet. Not so mini.

OLGA'S CHOICE **** Mini Veggie Omelet w/home fries and biscuit
At Country Kitchen you have a choice of omelet size, regular or mini. The mini is made with 3 eggs and the regular is 5! Three was enough for me, especially because it was stuffed with mushrooms, onions, peppers, broccoli and cheddar cheese. I substituted a homemade biscuit for toast and kind of wish I hadn't. The biscuit was quite large, but also pretty dry. Dryer than your average biscuit that is. I can see how it would have been fine covered in sausage gravy, but even with lots of butter and jam, it was hard to swallow. The omelet was perfectly cooked and quite good.

SERVICE ***
Our server didn't seem very happy. Kind of grumpy actually. She did her job, but didn't add anything to our experience.

DECOR **
At first glance we gave the decor a 3, but after looking around a bit we dropped it down to a 2. The coolest thing about the place was the double curve counter. Other than that the place looked pretty dated with no character.   
    
   
CLEANLINESS **
The place definitely could have been cleaner!   
    
   
NOTES
When we arrived at 7:30 am, there were 23 cars in the parking lot. That says something! Well, it says that either the place is really good, or it's the only place for miles around. I think both reasons are feasible. This place is not afraid of substitutions on the their menu. There is even a list of possible substitution. Homemade toast is available for extra. Big breakfast menu.

SVEN'S TAKE
The Country Kitchen doesn't exactly feel like a well kept secret . . . more like a solidly-above average eatery with an invariably big crowd. Truth is, every time I've eaten there, it felt like I was escorted to the last available table, and if it had been any more crowded I would have had to wait. That's usually the result of good eats; and the Country Kitchen mostly lives up to that reputation. The one standout item was the low fat muffin -- easily one of the best baked goods we've had on the endeavor. I found myself very suspicious that it wasn't really low fat, because nothing low fat could be that good. Most of the other items were just adequate . . . solid, tasty, and pretty much forgotten by mid day.    
    
    
    
    
    
   
   

Murray's - 20

Date: 10/9

Restaurant: Murray's   
Address: 14 Westminster Street   
City: Walpole   
Phone: 603-756-3426

Breakfast Hours: All day       

Sven had a gig on the Green Mountain Flyer this past Saturday so we headed out early and somewhat local. If you are looking for a good, inexpensive, local place, where the cook makes it just the way you want, then Murray's is the place! We were definitely pleased and are a little bit sad that we won't be able to eat breakfast there again for quite a while, but no ones says we can't go there for lunch!
   
   
Potatoes ****
Kind: Home fries.
Sven requested the potatoes to be well done. And guess what folks, that's how we got them! YAY! Guess there is a first time for everything! Sven said he had a few that weren't fully cooked through and I actually thought they could have used a little more grease. I can't believe I am saying that, and it could have been due to the extra cooking or even the kind of potato, maybe, but I found them to be a little bit dry. Other than that, they were good. Nice crispy edges. We were both finally happy with our breakfast potatoes!

Ahhh...crispy edges!

   
Toast ****
Kind: Rye   
Homemade? No
       

SERVER RECOMMENDATION
The server didn't have much in the way of recommendations. She did recommend the Monte Cristo, but it seemed she was only doing that because it was on the Specials Board.        
   

SVEN'S BREAKFAST **** Big Omelet
Sven is giving this a STRONG 4. Cooked just right and loaded with sausage, red onions, fresh mushrooms (which were cooked perfectly), tomatoes, green peppers and cheddar cheese. Came with toast and had to order the side of potatoes.

OLGA'S BREAKFAST **** Egg McMurray
The standard breakfast sandwich: fried egg with bacon and cheese on an english muffin. It was as good of a breakfast sandwich as I have had anywhere. It was warm, the cheese was good and melty, and the bacon was cooked perfectly. Both of our breakfasts were served with a small slice of watermelon, which was a really nice touch and a great way to end the meal. 

SERVICE ***** 
The service was excellent. Our server was on top of things and took care of our every need. The cook (who we later found out, is also the owner) was very personable and spent a few minutes talking baseball with Sven before we left.        
    
   

DECOR ***
Small, cozy and charming with counter seating, as well as, a number of tables. An assortment of paintings and photographs covered the walls and we both really liked the floor to ceiling window that made up the front wall of the restaurant.
    
       
      
NOTES
A nice small town kind of place that seemed to have some regular clientele of local older folks (at least at 6:45 on a Saturday morning). Although there weren't a lot of breakfast specials on the board, there were some lunch specials listed and they all looked really good.

SVEN'S TAKE
Walpole, NH -- as opposed to North Walpole, NH or Walpole, MA -- is by and large a white collar town. The Walpole Grocery sells gluten-free organic flour; the Walpole Tavern sells $10 burgers and craft-brewed beer; and the local chocolatier has branch stores in Manhattan and Cambridge. Now don't get me wrong. Sven and Olga love that stuff, too; but it is hardly the spot I would go to find a salt-of-the-earth diner.

That's why it is especially surprising, and nice, to duck into Murray's Diner, right next to the aforementioned Tavern. This past weekend the diner was already showing signs of local life at 6:30 AM when we ducked in and grabbed a seat at the counter. The fixed stools at the counter were half full; and the half-dozen or so tables were filling up quick. Nevertheless, we were greeted quickly by the owner with a couple of cups of coffee, before he headed off into the mostly-visible kitchen to get back to his principal duties. Murray's has a comfortable, lived-in feel, with no signs of pretension. The walls show the clear signs that this place is part of the fabric of the community -- lots of fliers announcing local events, photos, and such. Turns out (as we later learned) that it HAS been part of the fabric of the local scene for about 30 years, with the same owner/cook manning the grill for the whole ride.

In 30 years, Tom Murray has learned a bit about cooking breakfast. That much was clear. My omelet was outstanding, with a lot of flavor inside. And the potatoes were great. Not the best I ever had, but certainly the best I have had in a long while on this quest for the perfect NH breakfast. When I struck up a conversation (completely coincidental) with Tom at a party later that night, he was the first to say that he wasn't cooking with his best potatoes. "I like to cook with Canadians, but right now I can't get them, so I'm using Eastern shore potatoes," he said, before launching into a monologue about the merits of different spuds. Sweet! Here's a guy who knows potatoes. I can't wait to get back there when he's got his best taters on the grill.

Sven and Olga in the News:

The only thing we love more than breakfast is seeing our name in lights. Well, not really. We love breakfast more. Nevertheless, it was pretty cool to open up the Keene Sentinel daily newspaper on October 5 and see an article about Sven and Olga's exploits. Thanks to crackerjack reporter Sherry Hughes for breaking the story and sending well over 100 hits to our site on day one! Better yet, the picture she ran of us is one of my favorites.

The Red Arrow Diner - 19

Date: 9/25/10

Restaurant: Red Arrow Diner   
Address: 63 Union Square   
City: Milford   
Phone: 249-9222

Web site: www.redarrowdiner.com   

Breakfast Hours: 24/7       

The day after Sven and I went to the Red Arrow Diner a friend of mine took me out for a belated birthday brunch. If you are ever in the Greenfield, MA area and are looking for some really good food, check out Hope & Olive. Out-of-this-world delicious! Well, thanks to Sarah and Hope & Olive, I was able to forget about my food experience at the Red Arrow.

Eggs **
Underdone. 
       
   
Potatoes *
Kind: Home Fries
Terrible. No seasoning of any kind. Way underdone even after Sven requested that they be cooked well done. Why doesn't anyone get it? It is baffling.   
   
Toast *
Kind: Sven - Cinnamon Raisin, Olga - Wheat   
Homemade? No
Tasted as though it had been pre-toasted and then just sat around waiting for someone to order it. The slices were tiny, cold, dry (even though it had been buttered) and kind of spongy.
  
   
SERVER RECOMMENDATION
Our server wasn't very helpful with recommendations. All she did was point out the "Queen's" breakfast, which basically consisted of eggs, meat, pancakes or french toast, potatoes... that kind of thing.   

Red Arrow Omelet w/some sort of "cheese" sauce.

SVEN'S BREAKFAST * Red Arrow Omelet w/Pan Fries and Toast
The omelet consisted of ham (which was pretty good...oven-cooked, not canned), mushrooms (fresh), onions, green peppers, tomatoes and cheddar. The omelet came with a "cheese" sauce on the top. We aren't sure if this is what they were calling the "cheddar". It was kind of gross. Basically it just wasn't good.

Veggie Hashbrown Special = blah

OLGA'S BREAKFAST ** Veggie Hashbrown Special with 2 Eggs and Toast
The hasbrowns were undercooked. There were a few crispy pieces, but not many. The vegetables were decent and it was blanketed with cheddar. Real cheese, not the sauce like on Sven's. The eggs, which I ordered over-easy, were underdone. The toast was horrible. There was absolutely no flavor to the meal. I kept adding more and more salt, hoping for just a little bit of flavor to hit my tongue.

SERVICE ****
Other than having to ask twice for water (a big pet peeve of mine) they got the job done.

DECOR ****
The outside of the diner was really cool looking. The inside would have been much better if were able to see beyond all the marketing graphics. It seemed too commercial, which took away from the uniqueness of a diner.
   
NOTES
It was busy, lively place. The was quite a bit of franchise and merchandise promotion, which along with all the graphics, and the bad food left us feeling pretty disappointed about the place. However, we were SO happy to be having breakfast together, that it just didn't matter!

SVEN'S TAKE    

So, Olga and I went to the Red Arrow Diner — did you know you can buy a franchise for this place? The diner used to be a real authentic local place to eat, and then it was purchased by the original Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, NH as the first franchise expansion. Apparently this place is frequented by Adam Sandler, and you can actually get a franchise. The menu looked enticing, especially the part where they tell you that you can get a franchise. I guess anyone can eat here, and you can just purchase a plate of eggs and potatoes and bacon; but if you want to get a whole restaurant out of the deal, they are more than willing to sell you a franchise. The food sucked, but I hear the franchise opportunity is really amazing. Our breakfast was a little more expensive than I would have expected from a local place, but not as expensive as buying the whole franchise. Do you think all of this talk about franchise opportunities is annoying? So did Sven and Olga.    
    
    
    
    
   

Shyrl's Diner - 18

Date: 9/4/10

Restaurant: Shyrl's Diner  
Address: 31 Main Street  
City: West Lebanon  
Phone: 298-6918

It's been a little bit since we ate at Shyrl's. Sven and I took off for Swan's Island, ME before I was able to post our most recent breakfast. Our breakfast at Shyrl's was pretty memorable, so hopefully I will be able to do it justice here.

After a couple weeks of being able to order whatever we wanted, it was kind of funny that we both were sort of in the mood for a "standard". So  this week we were back to our old routine. It was kind of nice.

STANDARD - 2 eggs OE, potatoes, bacon, toast

Eggs *****
Perfect.         
  

Potatoes ***
Kind: Homefries. These are getting a strong 3. Some of them were actually crisp! Came with optional onions. They were cooked, but not mushy. These potatoes were alright! Thought about giving them a higher rating because of the awful potatoes we have had thus far, but I had to remind Sven that we needed to hold on to our standards. The day we find potatoes that are a 5... well, we may just have to quit after that.        


Toast *****
Kind: Wheat  
Homemade? Yes.
It was only 10¢ more for homemade toast, which just seems silly to me, but man, look at that toast! It was a beautiful thing... thick, crispy on the outside and fluffy.
      

Bacon **
Overdone. A couple bites were chewy, but the rest was dry and crunchy.
  
 
  
SERVER RECOMMENDATION
We asked our server what her favorite breakfast was and what she recommended. She told us she didn't eat breakfast and just read the specials off the "specials board" which we could read quite clearly from where we were sitting.
  

SPECIAL **** Banana Bread French Toast w/2 Bacon and 2 Sausage
Great flavor that lingered. The portion was the perfect size. The greatest part was that a pint-size container of REAL maple syrup was placed on the table at no extra charge. No dinky little cup of syrup...I think I used half of that pint!

SERVICE ***
We are giving our server a 2 for personality and a 4 for service. She got the job done, but had absolutely no spunk.  
     
      
DECOR ****  
A definite breakfast place with counter seating as well as tables. The walls were bead board painted brown with yellow and green accents. There were framed, cross stitched trite sayings, photos of older women and pictures of flowers on the walls. There were a number of vases of fake flowers around as well.
      
    
  
NOTES
Not sure if it was our arrival at such and early hour, but the place was filled with elderly folk. The place was busy the whole time we were there and I noticed a few tables of younger people on our way out. There was a broad age range of the folks working there. Some seemed to have a bit of spunk, but we didn't get to experience that first hand.

SVEN'S TAKE    
    
    
    
    
    
 

Peterborough Diner - 17

Date: 8/28/10

Restaurant: Peterborough Diner   
Address: 10 Depot St.   
City: Peterborough   
Phone: 603-924-6710

Web site: www.peterboroughdiner.com   

Breakfast Hours: 6-noon M-F, 7-8 Sat & Sun.       

Potatoes *
Kind: Home fries. Horrible. Seriously, look at this...

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but they were crunchy. Not from being sufficiently cooked on the griddle, but because they were raw! I would like to say that it is starting to get humorous that NO ONE can cook good home fries, but really, this isn't a laughing matter.
       
Toast ****
Kind: Multigrain   
Homemade? N
Even though this bread was not homemade, it was pretty great. It was thick cut, nicely toasted and big. It was way too big for the breakfast sandwich, so I ate one slice with the sandwich stuff and one slice with strawberry jam. I would have to say that the toast was the best part of the breakfast. 

       
Bacon *
Overdone and dry. There was zero moisture, not a speck of grease. He thinks it was either cooked in the microwave (to death) or it spent the night in a food dehydrator.
   
SERVER RECOMMENDATION
Omelets and breakfast sandwiches.

      
   
SVEN'S BREAKFAST: *, **, ***   1,2,3 (1 egg, 2 bacon, 3 french toast)
See "Sven's Take" below.

OLGA'S BREAKFAST *** Breakfast Sandwich
One egg over medium on multigrain bread with cheddar and sausage. The bread was great, the egg was fine, the sausage was decent. The bread was big enough to accommodate two eggs and it would have been better if the cheese had been fully melted. The potatoes... well you already know about the potatoes.

SERVICE ***
Our server was sweet. She was a little flustered at first due to a broken juice machine. We were the first ones to arrive, right at opening, and even though she was trying to deal with the juice problem she was able to answer, or find out answers, to our questions. She definitely put forth a good effort.        
    
   

DECOR ****
This was a great classic diner car. Photos of old cars hung on the walls. It wasn't quite as decked out at the Tumble Inn, but it was pretty great. I large outdoor seating area gives the place even more curb appeal!    


NOTES
The place was pretty quiet, but it was pretty early. The people who did show up while we were there were mostly old men who seemed to be regulars of the place.

SVEN'S TAKE
This is just the kind of place I love to eat at. According to their website, the core of the restaurant is a 1950 Worcester Lunch Car, in a very groovy dark green and cream color scheme. It sits right in the center of Peterborough, with a big parking lot, and about a dozen picnic tables available for outside dining. In typical New England fashion, the years have brought more than a few additions to the place. Case in point: walk through the kitchen and say "Hi" to the cook on your way to the boat-like bathrooms jutting out into the back parking lot.

The food here (and the service) were just OK; but honestly it didn't detract much from the experience. I ordered up the appropriately named "1-2-3" --"appropriately" not because it included 1 egg, 2 pieces of bacon, and 3 pieces of French toast; but rather because the bacon earned 1 star, the egg got a generous 2 stars, and the French toast got a middle-of-the-road 3 stars. The bacon was something: easily taking the title for the driest bacon I have had in the past decade. In fact, I felt a little like an archaeologist handling a delicate old fossil as I tried to gingerly lift the bacon and move it towards my mouth without having it fall apart under its own weight. The one egg I had was comically tiny, but good nonetheless. The French toast was actually awesome, with plenty of cinnamon and a generous helping of maple syrup. It might have been worth 4 stars, but I docked it for the cold plate it was served on (and cold syrup, to boot); and frankly just to deliver some poetic justice.

While eating there, I was reminded of a story from my college days. I want to caution that this story has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the Peterborough Diner, other than the fact that they had an out-of-order Vitality Juice machine. Long ago and in a different state, I had a friend who worked in the cafeteria at Boston College. While he was working there, they began to have trouble with the Vitality Juice machine delivering less and less flow. They cleaned it, looked at it, did some standard maintenance to it, but couldn't figure out what was  wrong with it. So they called in the Vitality Juice man. He came in, took the machine apart, and came to a filter screen that was only accessible by taking the machine apart. All the juice flows through that screen. That screen had become completely, entirely clogged with . . . hold your breath . . . dead cockroaches. No kidding. And what is worse is that my friend reported they were meticulous about cleaning the counters every night with bleach. By his estimation it was one of the cleaner kitchens he had worked in. In any event, suffice it to say that I don't drink Vitality Juice or any other cafeteria juice for that matter. So I wasn't too disappointed that the Peterborough Diner's machine was on the fritz.