Ah, The Smoky Pig! in Ashland ... how fondly I remember it. And the building is still there. Could I buy it?
Carl's, however, in Fredericksburg, seems to have declined -- though on a recent visit there were more than a hundred people waiting in line or congregating on the cement slab in front of the joint -- perhaps Carl's has declined because it is now required to use "ice cream mix" -- rather than Carl's original legendary handmade formula that included grain alcohol. They have to use "ice cream mix" because they don't have a pasteurizer on the premises. I would have to rate Holy Cow! -- in Redhook, NY -- as a better product, and you get rather a lot more for your money.
On the other hand, Carl's is on the National Register of Historic Places, they're still using the same antique soft-serve machines they have always used, it's a local tradition, and I will always stop there every time I pass by Fredericksburg. Holy Cow's a bit more modern ... and a bit less fun. Menu's better, though -- or at least it has more choices. And more flavors.
I will say that the vanilla might be the only thing at Carl's I'd eat again. The chocolate is just the vanilla with Hershey's syrup added -- terrible! -- and the strawberry I never did like. The ingredients listed on the hardpack at Carl's are chemically frightenin -- but that's just ice cream mix for you!
In Charlottesville, The Riverside has (a) moved up on High Street (years ago) (which location was sold by "Buster" to Carroll Shifflett, a cousin to D.S. Shifflett and Trudy Shifflett, whom I used to know when they worked at J.W. Sieg, the Budweiser distributors) .... and meanwhile (b) "Buster" moved way up Rt. 29 near Hollymead to open The Riverside North in I forget what little shopping center; just about impossible to find; both are now primarily table service locations. The High Street shop was full of children and women the night I visited, and there were several (although thank God soundless) large flat screen tvs on the wall over the bar. I could not rate either one as much worth a visit.
Other than an excellent pizza I had at the Nordstrom Cafe in Short Pump on July 19, 2012, the last pizza I had worth eating in Richmond was at a Sicilian joint on Broad Street most of the way down to MCV; at least they cooked the pies then let them cool and reheated them slice by slice with stuff added, which is the proper way to do it if you want the crust to stay crispy until your slice is finished. Christian's Pizza (no relation), in Charlottesville, is also good and uses basically the same re-cooking technique. My children both think the Vita Nuova has better pizza -- certainly it's pretty good. The fried chicken had gone down at 7-Day (known to most newcomers as Foods of All Nations) -- or they weren't particular about carrying over the wing I ate from the day before; thus, it was unpalatably stale and dry. I hear The Wayside Takeout is still good, though it is presure-fried -- not skillet-fried and thus can't be quite so good as chicken fried in shortening (lard, preferably) with bacon drippings added for additional flavor. Or at least a mixture of lard and crisco. Alas, it has been closed since forever while they "re-educate the roads Fry's Spring. Eppy's, in Charlottesville, seemed reasonably good -- if one is in the neighborhood. It showed signs of promise and reasonably high food culture. And who doesn't love dumplings? Downtown Thai seemed good enough to revisit.
Answering my friend Ed Haile's question: Restaurants all taste the same because they mostly all use processed food. High rent is often a contributing factor; when the rent is too high it's difficult to make money; in a commercial location, because the rent and the percentage rent can make the profit margins very thin indeed. Or nonexistent.
Laving out all fast food palaces, would it make sense to sort out some of the grades of overall restaurant quality as follows:
Wonderful - worth a long drive
Terrific - worth a short drive
Pretty Good - consider if in the area
Good - adequate for locals, can be very popular
Fair - Visitors should maybe skip it, but it may be popular with budget conscious locals
Poor -
Terrible
The main question is always -- did you get what you paid for? Did you pay a reasonable price?
Keeping in mind that, going down the scale maybe some 5 percent of potential customers are able to distinguish between wonderful and terrific, 10 percent can distinguish between terrific and pretty good, maybe 30 percent can distinguish between good and pretty good, so maybe half of the potential audience will be quite happy with "good" grade, and many people will find something to like on the menu even at a restaurant I would rate only fair, poor or terrible:
So pursuit of the higher realms of culinary achievement in a commercial restaurant is likely to be a cost-INeffective hobby, with success much constrained by the rent.
Charlie Brown's is a pretty good steak house -- maybe a terrific steak house. For a chain, I mean. Certainly the lamb chops are terrific, the Caesar salad is pasasble, and the salad bar seems popular and above average for fresh.
Since most people can't tell the difference between terrific food and only fair food, the decor is an important factor in the impression most minds will take away.
The last Chinese restaurant I actually enjoyed fairly often was Full Kee on Horespen Road in Richmond. At least you could get a decent bowl of congee and pretty good dim sum, including braised chicken feet, on Saturday and Sunday. And the duck and the roast pork were both good. It's not quite worth a drive down from Tappahannock, and please note that I haven't been there since 1996. But it was a little more like the real Chinese food you might find in a big city Chinatown than the usual gamut from General T'so's Chicken to Chow Mein and Moo Shu Pork.
The Georgetown Vietnam would probably still be worth a long drive (if it is still there), but alas that means driving into DC, which is now Hellish for at least an hour when approached from any direction near's I could make out. It may have gone down, but I doubt it. And the place in Chinatown with two front doors (was one of them red?) and a double stoop was always better than just pretty good -- made me want to learn Chinese just so I could read the menu.. In Charlottesville, the Vietnamese place in McIntyre Plaza -- at the old Christian's location -- would not rate a return visit from me, though four of the five people I at with thought some of it was "pretty good."
Many people are like my friend David M., who had sinus problems that eliminated most of his sense of smell (and thus, most nuances of taste); others are more like my friend David Breeden, who didn't care much where he ate as long as (a) his wife Elizabeth was happy (she couldn't cook any better than Sis Coles -- and neither one of them could make a pan of ... rice, for example), (b) he could get a few drinks and (c) his wallet wasn't noticeably lighter going out the door.
Remember that it is possible to get a fair reputation as a pretty good home cook by being able to repeat the same six or seven dishes endlessly at dinner parties and serving a drinkable wine with dinner.
A big problem for restaurants is that most of the meat is pre-processed and portion controlled these days. The bigger problem, however iis that the beef is no longer hung long enough to develop any flavor or any tenderness -- unless it is dry-aged prime, which costs the earth. They used to hang ribs and loins and even sometimes chucks and rounds (from the legs) at Foods of All Nations, but now they can no longer get meat to hang. Tri-Tip is scarcely available on the East Coast, even up here in Yankee-land.
Even worse is the problem of tasteless vegetables; they've all been grown on land heavily anointed with pesticide and herbicide, so unless they are Certified Organic you are eating poison with your tasteless lettuce and your apples have been sprayed 28 times before harvest.
The best onion rings I ever ate were at the Ironmen Inn in Iowa City. My first job when I came in every night as a line cook was to make three huge bus pans full of partially cooked rings -- no pieces! -- fried to light golden brown. Someone else had made the batter earlier that day. Then they were finished to the right degree of done by the order. My second job was making at least a half gallon of Bearnaise sauce -- from scratch, with real butter. It went on the Steak Albert. Then I'd cut steaks and filet mignon awhile and run the trimmings through a grinder that actually chopped meat without making it taste like hamburger -- kind of a big robot-coupe. I might eat one of those or maybe a few of the larger trimming pieces grilled, with toast and Bearnaise sauce, and I might fry a few onion rings for myself just to be sure they were tasty enough to serve tonight ... no leftovers allowed! -- and after that I'd eat an apple to calm things down. Some people can resist Bearnaise sauce, but I never could. And then I'd start making cooked sauces: a seafood flavored veloute, a good brown sauce made from beef stock .... chicken gravy ... and after a while the rush would begin.
