The Corners

Just because I did not write in my blog yesterday does not mean I didn't eat. I ate. I just didn't cook what I ate. Lately on Friday afternoons, the wife and I have been going out for supper. Yesterday, we ventured down to the Four Corners, a pretty cool gaggle of shops in the old established Lindley Park neighborhood at the intersection of Elam and Walker in Greensboro. The Corners consists of: The Lindley Park Filling Station, a former gas station and relatively new restaurant in town. Across the road from it is Sticks and Stones Clay Oven Pizza and Jerry Key's Barber Shop, where I get my hair cut about once a month whether it needs it or not.

On the other side is Wahoo's Tavern and The Walker Bar, where you can buy a Jello shot for a reasonable price. Beer is only sold in cans at the Walker Bar, and the wife, being a great aficionado of what she classifies as dive bars, loves it. Next to it is the Suds & Duds, a little local bar with a laundromat attached to it.

Across the road is The Bestway grocery store, a small neighborhood grocer with an excellent beer selection, and then there is the Blind Tiger, a popular local-music venue where I played open mic a few times, much to the delight of those in attendance. Finally, Fishbones sits on the corner. These local neighborhood places are kind of small and usually busy, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights, and if you don't get there early, you will have to stand inside the door and wait for a table.

So yesterday, it was the wife's turn to decide on the location for our Friday Supper, and she chose the Filling Station. It was an excellent choice, and I can see that a lot of thought has been given to the details of this place. For example, all of the menu items are named after a street in the neighborhood, and I like that. We arrived a little before five and found a nice little table for two by the window so we could watch the goings-on. Somehow, the wife always gets the best seat for people-watching, and I am relegated to looking at the wall and those few people seated in the corner.

On tap, Lee, the waitress, poured India Pale Ale from my favorite the Brooklyn Brewery, so we drank a nice aperitif. I tried looking around, but swiveling my head backwards is kind of awkward, so I just sat and sipped my ale and we chatted about the choices on the menu. The wife does not like to decide the appetizer, and yesterday she should have because I chose the buffalo shrimp. I loved it, but it was too spicy for her. How was I to know? It was perfect for me and cooked perfectly for my taste. The lightly breaded shrimp were deep-fried before being coated with a hot-sauce mixture. Very good. On the way home, though, as we talked about the meal, the wife mentioned that if she never ate that buffalo shrimp again, it would be okay. I was thinking just the opposite--that I would like to eat it at least once a month--but imagine a husband and wife having conflicting opinions about things. Unheard of.

That done, our entrees were soon arriving. Janet ordered the Sylvan Road, a blue-cheese burger cooked medium and fries. I have tried, but I just cannot get on board with blue cheese. The burger was outstanding otherwise, and the fries were hot and crispy like they should be. My dinner was a cup of French-onion soup and a turkey sandwich on a croissant with a thinly sliced Granny Smith apple and a bit of what they called honey-walnut cream cheese. Very nice. The only critique I could possibly have is that the crouton of the soup might have been toasted first to avoid some mushiness, and the ample cheese that dripped down the side of the cup might have browned a bit. But it was quite tasty, as well, and I would not hesitate to order it again.

Dessert was ridiculous. They called it a fried apple cheesecake, and it was composed of an apple- cream-cheese mixture inside of some kind of pastry, then fried and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar with a little caramel sauce crisscrossed on top. Good Lord. Four tines out of five, if I was rating things. Now I am going to enjoy the morning outside by taking these hounds for a walk.