Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Tryout Tuesday: Day and Night

Last Tuesday morning, before going to vote, Foodgoat and I had an impromptu Tryout Tuesday breakfast at Eat at Joe's. It's a tiny neighborhood greasy spoon tucked away in a strip mall down the street. The waitresses seem to know all the customers by name and walk around with a pencil behind their ears and a coffee pot in one hand. That's my big pile o' blueberry pancakes and side of hash browns, and that's a patty melt that Foodgoat's digging into at 9 in the morning. Definitely one of the most filling breakfasts we've had in a long time (usually we just settle for coffee), though it hardly prepared us for the heartbreak which was to come later that night. Clearly, these were more hopeful and optimistic times.

It's a nice place. The food is plain but comforting, and the atmosphere is as down-home and right-neighborly as it gets.

In contrast, yesterday's Tryout Tuesday meal was a dinner affair. Foodgoat agonized over the decision, but after driving around in circles for a while, we ended up at Arrabiata's, a Mayfield Heights Italian place favored by Foodgoat's relatives. Just in the nick of time too: we managed to catch their Early Bird menu. In this case, the early bird gets great, big, fat worm: you get soup, salad, side of linguini marinara, beverage, an endless basket of warm bread, AND your choice of a wide variety of tasty Italian entrees, all on a white tablecloth and with attentive, excellent service, for a mere $10 a person. All just for showing up before 6:30. No wonder the place was packed!

Here's Foodgoat in the mood lighting (why disturb it with flash photography?) with his Chicken Marsala (which he give a thumbs up!).
And this is my cheese ravioli, which was hot, cheesy and delicious, just the way I like it. The portions were almost just the right size, maybe just a little bit too big, though I won't complain: we managed to eat every last bit (plus two extra bread refills ... I never turn down free bread).

Definitely worth a repeat visit :)

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