Alas, I have heard that this Charlie Brown's Steakhouse location has closed (3/15/2012).
Little Red and I have probably eaten at Charlie Brown's Steakhouse in Hillsboro, New Jersey more often than we have eaten anywhere else over the last six months. I think we ate there more often than we did at Eng's in Kingston, New York, where we ate frequently while my mother was dying. The Hillsboro Charlie Brown's is on the way to Ten Acre, a Christian Science retirement care facility in Princeton, New Jersey.
There is also a Charlie Brown's in Fishkill, N.Y., which is in the Hudson Valley, and I am more than halfway willing to believe that the Charlie Brown's experience would be pretty much the same at any of their locations. You can find one near you on their website. It's a very well-managed business. And the frozen Margaritas look great!
The people at Charlie Brown's are just very nice to you. For example, we went out to lunch there one Saturday after a snow storm. The parking lot had been plowed, the walkways seemed clear. But the path to the back side door that we usually go in with Mama's wheelchair was a bit dicey -- it had been plowed too narrow. So we couuldn't get a wheelchair up the handicap ramp. No problem, we just went in the front door. When Bob, who appeared to be the manager in charge asked us why we didn't use the back, we said it had been plowed too narrow. We sat down and had the usual better than pretty good lunch.
After a while Bob came back and told us he had shoveled the side walkway a bit wider. Evidently they had a new plow man who didn't quite understand the handicap requirements. We thought that was really more than just nice of him -- we thought it beyond the call of duty.
Charlie Brown's menu is solid though a bit middle of the road, but the main point is everything is good. The steaks are especially good, and Little Red likes the salad bar -- perhaps because the choice of olives is limited to canned black olives. Unappealing for the olive lover, but then -- Little Red loathes olives.
Little Red also likes Charlie Brown's Ribs more than I do; Charlie Brown's ribs might pass muster with anyone who has not yet made a point of visiting The Blue Ribbon Barbecue in West Newton, Massachusetts. but for me, it seems doubtful that Charlie Brown's ribs will win any prizes -- too sweet, perhaps not cooked ina proper smoker? -- So maybe they could get The Blue Ribbon to give them some lessons? And if they'd start smoking the ribs properly, maybe they could get smoked brisket on the menu?
But even though it is a chain, it is an extremely well-managed chain and Charlie Brown's main aim seems to be customers so happy they will come back again and again fairly often. In line with that they'll bend the rules a bit -- within reason. For example, When I asked if the chicken fingers on their Steak Medallions and Chicken Fingers platter could possibly be dished up Buffalo Wings style, and could I have a small pot of their excellent blue cheese dressing , they were happy to oblige. And for my second rack of lamb, I asked for an extra pot of the demiglace sauce -- no problem! I think that combo should have been on the new menu. Their executive chef, Philip Butler, put on thirty four new menu choices recently, and I believe Buffalo Chicken Fingers and Steak Medallions would have been a sure winner.
This last trip we stopped on the way home to check out the new menu items. Parmesan Crusted Triple Chop Rack of Lamb -- $22.00? -- as I remember. Comes with a good Caesar Salad (always good), garlic mashed potatoes and onion frizzles, and a pot of red wine demi-glace. The chops were done properly medium rare (pink and warm in the center), they were frenched very nicely, and ... this was more than terrific:
Charlie Brown's Parmesan Crusted Triple Chop Rack of Lamb is the new gold standard for lamb chops.
I think would have liked more of a hint of rosemary dusted onto the crust, and I would just mention that the crust was at its best when blackened. On a subsequent visit, another person's lamb racks seemed tough or maybe a bit overdone.
Three Large Portions of Lamb Rack -- this was really almost more than I could eat, though I gave Little Red half of one of them. It brought back some really fond memories of the lamb roasts I used to help preside over with my friend John Ruvalds, who used to be a physics professor at the University of Virginia. Those were whole-lamb affairs with a cute little beastie turning on the motorized stainless steel spit John's physics students and colleagues had made up for him. The last whole lambs I cooked -- in 1983? -- cost about ninety dollars.
I'd like to work for Charlie Brown's but -- I haven't worked in the restaurant business (neither as manager nor as chef) since I was a line cook at The Ironmen Inn in Iowa City, back when I was writing the first few words of beloved Gravely while I was attending the "famous" Iowa Writers Workshop. So it goes.
