Quick Takes
Quick Takes VI - Little Joe's Pizza Still Great
I often lament the lack of good deep dish, let alone true Chicago style pizza in Knoxville. Even so, when we want pizza, Little Joe’s is always there to serve up a great thin (almost cracker) crust pizza
We ate there last night and it was great. We ordered our usual - a large pepperoni $ sausage and an adult portion of the mastaccioli past with meat sauce. The bread sticks were fresh and tasty, as was the pasta.
When Little Joe’s is on their A game, and they were last night, their pizza is awesome. The sausage feels and tastes homemade.
Can’t wait till we eat there again.
Quick Takes V - Taco Bell on Lovell Road
No, I’m not punking you. Those who know me know that, with almost no exceptions, I avoid eating at chain restaurants as much as possible, and fast food chains especially. I’ve often had a granola bar or a couple tablespoons full of peanut butter out of the jar (you do it too) instead of getting even quick food at McDonald’s or similar places.
But these days I have a men’s group that meets at church on Thursday afternoons. I have no time to stop for dinner at a sit-down restaurant on the way to the meeting, so I started grabbing whatever was on the right-hand side of the road near church. I tried something different each week, and only once until I stopped at the Taco Bell on Lovell Road.
Was the food there spectacular? Not really. Don’t get me wrong - it’s OK, but it isn’t something I’d choose to eat if I weren’t in a rush. In fact, the food there is no different than the food at the Taco Bell past church on Kingston Pike, which I tried the week before when I couldn’t decide on a place until I’d driven past my destination.
You know why I’ve eaten at the Taco Bell on Lovell Road every Thursday for the last several weeks and why I’ll keep eating dinner there for the forseeable future? Because the lady who works behind the counter there is nice and friendly and remembers me from the last time I came in. She’s practically overflowing with cheerful friendliness - and that’s pretty rare in fast food employees. Given a choice, which I have, I choose to keep eating at a place where I know I’ll get to exchange a few words with somebody who obviously cares about not only projecting a positive, happy attitude, but seems glad I walked in the door.
So yeah, I eat a fast food dinner once a week. If you’re curious about what I have, and I don’t take pictures of it because who wants to see pictures of fast food, I have a Chicken Quesadilla and 2 Grilled Steak Soft Tacos. And they’re not bad.
Quick Takes IV - It’s All So Yummy Still a Favorite
My wife did something she almost never does yesterday. She stayed home sick because she was sick, not because our son was. So when I was bringing The Boy home from daycare, I asked if she wanted me to bring food home or pick her up to go get some, and she said pick her up.
I asked if she wanted to to go It’s All So Yummy, one of our favorite places, and get some soup, and she said that sounded great. They serve comfort food and delicious homemade (albeit in large quantities) ice cream at It’s All So Yummy, so I couldn’t think of a better place to eat.
The Boy got his usual - Fried Bologna & American Cheese. My wife got a cup of Chicken Soup and a half Deli Sandwich. I noticed a soup I hadn’t seen before, the Buffalo Chicken Chili, was given a taste of it, and ordered a cup of it and the Cuban sandwich.
The sandwich was great, as usual. The chili was outstanding - very hearty with a big kick to it. I may just order a bowl of it next time as my meal.
We can’t go to It’s All So Yummy without getting ice cream. This is where my pal Phillip can feel free to give me a hard time since ice cream definitely doesn’t fit my goal of losing weight. The Boy ordered a kid’s scoop of Oreo icecream in a bow. Rachael got a scoop of Oreo in a Waffle Cone. I ordered a scoop of Salted Caramel in a Waffle Cone.
When Kim, the owner, saw that I’d ordered the Salted Caramel, she asked if I wanted sea salt on it. I wasn’t sure but I said yes, and I’m glad I did. I’ve had it without sea salt before, but it’s definitely even more awesome with it.
Another happy trip to It’s All So Yummy in the books. If you’re in Knoxville and you haven’t tried it, you’re really missing something.
Quick Takes III - Five Points Pizza and More
We made an overnight trip to Nashville recently to attend my nephew’s birthday party, so we were able to enjoy an afternoon and evening to ourselves while The Boy got to have fun with his cousin and grandparents. First, we saw Jurassic World, which both my wife and I agreed was far better than we expected to to be based on the more recent installments in the Jurassic series. After walking around the seemingly endless Opry Mills mall, we reviewed the pizza recommendations from my friends on Facebook and decided to try Five Points Pizza, and I’m glad we did.
Several of the reviews mentioned this place is regularly packed, and since this was a Saturday night, we headed over at what we felt was an early time, about 4:30 PM, and still had to wait about 15 minutes for a table to open up. We were seated at a high 2-top near the bar. Normally I offer to wait for the next table since I find perching on a tall chair hurts my knees, but this table was off to the side by itself, whereas all of the other tables were far too close to their neighbors for my comfort, so I made the best of it.
Our server, a young man, was great. He took our drink orders and got us a full order of Garlic Knots. The garlic knots were very good, with or without the marina sauce. Next time I might ask them to skip the marinara and give us just a bit more olive oil.
Five Points has a very large selection of beer on draft, in bottles, and cans, and they also had several varieties of hard cider. I had two bottles - a Crispin Pear and Original Sin Elderberry. Both were very good, and I found the Crispin Pear to be a perfect cooldown drink on this extremely hot day.
For our pizza, we ordered an 18" half and half. Rachael created her how half with pepperoni, meatball, red onions, and green peppers. Our server thought about that for a second and heartily approved. I decided to go with one of the standard pizzas on the printed menu, although I don’t see it on the website, so I’m not sure if it was a limited time special or a new addition. My half had a habanero cream sauce, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, and bacon. This was NY style pizza and while my wife commented that it may have done better to be taken out of the oven a minute sooner so the crust was less crisp, we both really liked it. Her DIY half was excellent, as I used a slice from it to take a break from the intense heat of the habanero cream sauce on mine. My half was amazing, and while I had to admit it was perhaps not the best choice for a super hot day, I’d order it again in a heartbeat.
I was thrilled with the recommendation for Five Points Pizza, and after we hit a couple of the other pizza spots on our list, I will gladly return.
The Pied Piper Creamery
We asked our server at Five Points Pizza if there was somewhere nearby where we could get some good ice cream and he directed us to The Pied Piper Creamery around the corner and up the street a bit. We walked over and enjoyed some good, if not awesome, ice cream. It’s the best ice cream I’ve had in Nashville, but I wouldn’t pick it over our Knoxville favorite, It’s All So Yummy Cafe. We each got the 4 scoop sampler at Pied Piper. My favorite was the Peanut Butter? I Hardly Knew Her, and my least favorite was the Some Like it Hot, mainly since it was too heavy on the cinnamon and not enough on the cayenne pepper.
I Dream of Weenie
We were stuffed after pizza and ice cream, so I just admired this place from afar. But the thought of a hot dog-selling food truck run out of a VW microbus is too hard to resist, so I’ll be visiting it on a trip to Nashville soon.
Quick Takes II - It’s All About It’s All So Yummy
We continue to have great experiences at It’s All So Yummy, so this edition of Quick Takes is all about our favorite sandwich & ice cream spot.
We recently attended the Rocky Top BBQ Festival. While there, sampled BBQ from a restaurant in NC which was average, and some from Atlanta, which was good. We also got to hear some good local music and walk around in the heat with a 3 year old who was overdue for a nap. We knew the folks from It’s All So Yummy would be at the festival, so we saved visiting them for ice cream for last, hoping it would both taste good (it did, of course) and improve The Boy’s attitude. As you can tell from this picture, it did not.
Earlier this week my wife’s family trickled in for a sort of family reunion / Father’s day visit. Her sister and brother-in-law from Orlando arrived a day before everyone else and we took them out to the newer Sweet P’s downtown, which was very disappointing, but that’s a story for another time. After the BBQ, we decided to take them to It’s All So Yummy for some ice cream. They were out of Butter Pecan, which was both disappointing and confusing to me since, as far as I’m concerned, if it isn’t Butter Pecan, it isn’t ice cream. Still, I’d seen pictures of the Watermelon Chip on Instagram, so I figured I’d try it. Here’s where the confusion comes in. Because I don’t eat anything but Butter Pecan if I can help it, I don’t walk around thinking, “Wow, these two great ice cream flavors, while amazing by themselves, would suck if mixed together.” So when I saw they had a Caramel with Chocolate-covered Bacon flavor, I decided a scoop of that would go nicely with my scoop of Watermelon Chip. I was wrong. Delicious apart, weird together. I’ll keep brightly colored flavors separate from now on!
On Friday, June 19, It’s All So Yummy ran a one day special for a sandwich they called the Wacon, which was a grilled cheese sandwich with waffles for bread, with the whole sandwich wrapped in 10 slices of bacon. I’d seen pictures of it on Instagram and Facebook, and I heard it was on WBIR earlier this week when the owner, Kim, did one of her regular spots there. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get one of these since we had family in and our dinner plans were already locked in for Friday night, and my brother-in-law had to leave town no later than noon that day to make it to a wedding. So I solved the conundrum by taking a half day off work, sent Kim a text message to let her know I’d be there at 11AM when they opened, and since she’s just awesome that way, she had 2 Wacon’s ready for me and Gus when we showed up.
I begrudgingly shared a bit of this beauty with my wife. Gus wimped out and only ate half of his and sliced up the other half to share with family at my house. This sandwich was sinfully decadent - an awesome mixture of sweet and savory. If it ever returns as a special, I’ll order it again. Gus told me that if he had a place like It’s All So Yummy near his house, he’d eat there all the time since he’s a huge fan of grilled cheese and tomato soup.
And here’s a final pic just to commemorate why we love It’s All So Yummy so much. We had dinner at our Saturday spot, Mario’s, but The Boy had said earlier that he really wanted a milkshake. So we obliged him. We ordered him a Birthday Cake (his favorite flavor of ice cream) milkshake. That’s off screen in this pic, as he decided he wanted some of Rachael’s Caramel Candy Bar ice cream. I had Butter Pecan, of course. It was all yummy.
Quick Takes I
Blackhorse Pub & Brewery
We had dinner at Blackhorse on a Friday night recently and one of the specials was a Mahi Mahi dish served over pasta. The cream sauce was good, the pasta was plain but well-cooked, and the fish itself was light and flaky. I’d order it again.
Burger Republic
I visited Franklin, TN on business and, after a truly terrible meal at a local barbecue place that I will review when I get some emotional distance from the experience, my coworker and I decided to find some good dessert. I flicked through some options on Urbanspoon and selected Burger Republic after reading some reviews of its milkshakes. I’m glad we stopped there because the Nutella shake was outstanding, even if it was just vanilla ice cream, nutella, and chocolate sauce. Looking forward to returning to Tator Tot Fondue.
Chick-fil-A
On that same business trip we stopped at Chick-fil-A for breakfast on the way back home. I was finally able to try something several people had recommended - the Chick-n-Minis. These were nothing short of delightful - a chicken nugget inside a piping hot roll. I’ll admit to having two orders of 4.
A Tale of Two Receipts
It was the best of dining experiences, it was the worst of dining experiences. Ok, it wasn’t the worst, but it was quite disappointing.
Tomato Head
We recently had dinner at Tomato Head in Bearden. We like Tomato Head, but hadn’t eaten there in a while. I’ve always considered Tomato Head to be a nice, if slightly expensive, place where I can get a good meal made with good ingredients. After seeing the new menu and paying too much money for too little food, I have to remove the word “slightly” from my previous characterization. I regret not taking any pictures of our dishes during this visit, but I’ll try to describe what we were served in words. First, here’s the receipt for our meal:
Our total was $38.24. That’s a bit more than we normally pay for a regular dinner, but it was especially surprising given the tiny portions of our adult meals. That’s the real problem I have with Tomato Head here - it seems like they’ve not only raised their prices, they decreased the quantity of food as well.
We had no issue with the meal we order for our son, the Simon Plate. At $5.50, it may be more expensive than kids meals elsewhere, especially given that it doesn’t include a drink, but he loves it - especially when my wife combines the penne pasta and broccoli to make “pasta trees."
My wife’s dish was $11.25, and that included a Small Sandwich Special and a Side Salad substituted for the normal side - chips and salsa. To get an idea of how small this sandwich was, picture a slice of Wonder Bread, and mentally trim a quarter inch from it all the way around. Now cut that slice in half diagonally. That single slice of bread is what was used to make my wife’s sandwich, with maybe half an inch worth of meat or whatever came on the salad in between. My wife said the sandwich was good, but if she’d known by “small” Tomato Head really meant a “half” sandwich, she would have ordered the “large” and presumably gotten a full sandwich. Her side salad was similarly tiny - maybe a half cup worth.
I ordered the Chicken Burrito, and I’ll admit, it tasted great - as it should have for $13.25. But it was also tiny. I’m not a burrito connoisseur by any means, but I am sometimes cajoled into eating at a Moe’s or Chipotle for lunch. What I can tell you is that the burrito I was served for $13.25 at Tomato Head was roughly half the size of what I am served at Chipotle, for roughly twice the price. Was the Tomato Head burrito better than a Moe’s burrito? Absolutely. Was it better than a Chipotle burrito? Not really, especially considering I paid twice as much for less food.
A key takeaway from this experience was that my wife and I left hungry - to the point that we took our son for some ice cream elsewhere.
Blackhorse
I’m going to contrast our experience at Tomato Head with one the very next night at Blackhorse Pub & Brewery. Blackhorse is one of our favorite places to eat, and it is our regular Friday night spot for dinner. Here’s our receipt for that meal:
The total alone might not suggest that big a difference - $36.03 versus the previous night’s $38.24. But let me explain what we got for our 36 dollars. First, though, understand we didn’t intend for this to be a comparison when we ordered - we just ate whatever sounded good.
Our son’s meal was a little cheaper, but it was also just a couple of sliders and a bowl of fruit. Not as healthy or varied as the Simon Plate, maybe, but he’s a toddler - we’re happy when he eats.
We ordered two appetizers that night. I arrived early, so I ordered a side of the Sweet Potato Fries. They’re awesome and for $2.95, probably the best appetizer you can get in Knoxville for the money. When my wife and son arrived, we agreed we’d like some of the Chips & Beer Cheese. A bit more expensive at $7.75, but Blackhorse’s beer cheese is amazing and the chips are warm and tasty.
I can’t pass up the soup of the day at Blackhorse on Friday, so I ordered a bowl of their Cheeseburger soup, which cost me $4.50. There are nights when I eat nothing but this soup and some sweet potato fries.
My wife and I decided to share a meal that night, so we ordered the Pub Club sandwich. It cost $8.95 and came with a side item, so I ordered Mac & Cheese. We couldn’t even finish all the sandwich, although I made a sizeable dent in the mac & cheese. The Pub Club is a double-decker sandwich, and I’d say it was roughly four times the size of the tiny sandwich at Tomato Head, and that’s not counting the extra slice of bread.
A key takeaway from our Blackhorse experience is that we left more than satisfied and couldn’t have eaten ice cream after if we’d tried.
So What?
Good question. Am I saying Tomato Head is a terrible place? Heck no - I like their food. They make some amazing cupcakes that I really shouldn’t eat again and their Warm Bacon Salad is outstanding. But at some point in the not too distant past, they crossed into “just not worth it” territory. We eat out a lot, and with our son getting bigger and eating more, I can’t justify paying too much money for too little food. So Tomato Head is no longer on our list for eating out.