Brian’s Restaurant & Sports Bar, Newnan, Georgia, May 31, 2017

Things have been a little crazy around the house this week and neither ConnieLou nor I remembered to take anything out of the freezer for supper.  Jenna was off with a friend and we had a couple of errands to run so we decided to grab something while we were out.  We went through our usual back-and-forth restaurant selection process before deciding on a destination.  One of these days I think I’m going to make one of these to speed the process along.

We finally settled on Brian’s Restaurant and Sports Bar.  We’ve been there once before and were fairly happy with it so we decided to give it another try.  As we pulled in we noticed that it was Trivia Night and we wondered if we’d be able to hear ourselves think much less have a conversation.  Fortunately there are two separate dining areas and we were in the quieter of the two.

I’ll have to admit that the sports bar concept is a bit lost on me.  I don’t watch a lot of sports on TV beyond the occasional Braves, Falcons or UGA football game and care absolutely nothing about hearing a bunch of talking heads drone on and on and on on the recap shows on ESPN and the like.  That said I wasn’t too interested on whatever was on the 16 or 18 flat screen TVs that graced the upper half of the dining room walls with one notable exception.  Two of the TVs were set on a music videos channel (not to be confused with MTV which formerly played music videos) and couple of B-52s videos from their very early days in Athens, Georgia came on and kept my attention for a few minutes.

But I digress…

Our server came by and took our drink order and after several minutes of careful contemplation and deliberation we placed our food orders.  ConnieLou went for the Steak Wrap and fries and I selected the meatball sub aka The Baller…don’t ya just love cute entrée names? and fried onion petals (think Bloomin’ Onion from Outback).

Our orders came surprisingly quick and we dug in.  The meatball sub was tasty.  Not the best I’ve ever had but far from the worst and I had no complaints about the onion petals.  ConnieLou wasn’t quite so happy with her Steak Wrap which she said came with too much lettuce (filler) and way too salty.  She decided she didn’t want to finish it and gave me the last couple of bites to try.  I was quite surprised about how salty it was.  It was salty to the point that if I were asked to describe the flavor of the meat I’d simply say ‘salt’.  There was no steak flavor to speak of.  On the flip side…the fries were quite good and appeared to be fresh cut which is a plus in my book.

So how did Brian’s rank on the Thumbs Scale?  We each gave them a thumb and a half.  My meal was solid but there was nothing to wow me enough to give it two thumbs.  ConnieLou said that she could have given hers two thumbs (bet it was because of the fries) if the meat hadn’t been so salty and if roll up had a bit less lettuce.  Maybe not the best overall impression but not problematic enough to prevent us from coming back down the road and trying their other offerings.

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Amici, Greensboro-Lake Oconee, Georgia, January 27, 2017

I have to make a trip out to a jobsite near Lake Oconee once a month for work. Most of the time I try to make the trip on a Friday because I get started early so I can finish up early and extend the weekend by a few hours. Last Friday was my day to make the trip and it also happened to be ConnieLou’s birthday. We usually celebrate birthdays by going out to eat with the girls but since Ashley is in school in Athens and Jenna is in St. Augustine and it wasn’t a long weekend for ether of them, getting all of us together at one time just wasn’t going to happen. We’d already planned to take a long weekend and go to St. Augustine next weekend so I suggested to ConnieLou that she take the day off, ride to my jobsite with me, and then we’d swing up to Athens to spend a little time and have dinner with Ashley.

Even though we were running a little behind because of having to make an unplanned side-trip to the office before heading to my jobsite, I was still finished with work by about 12:30 and it was time to find some lunch. We were going through our usual ‘where to eat’ debate when I remembered Amici, an eatery in the little shopping plaza near my jobsite. I’ve been there a few times before and knew it was good so I suggested it to ConnieLou. She thought it sounded pretty good so that’s where we ended up.

Amici is an ‘Italian café’ that wants to be a sports bar or a sports bar that wants to be an Italian café, depending on your perspective and there are seven locations generally situated in east-central Georgia . Their menu includes pizza, calzones, stromboli’s, pasta dishes and salads as well as burgers, sandwiches and wings.

We grabbed a table, checked out the menu and somehow both of us managed to order the Philly Cheese Sub (thinly sliced steak with onions, mushrooms, green peppers and provolone), fries and a Coke. We were there after the lunch crush and our orders were out quickly and piping hot. I don’t know that many would consider the sandwiches true Philly Cheese Steaks but they were darn good nonetheless. And the fries…well, the fries seemed to be fresh cut rather than frozen, which is always a good thing.

So how did Amici fare on the Thumbs Scale? We both gave them two thumbs-up for a total of four out of a possible four…no deductions for frozen fries here! I have to admit, I’ve eaten at this Amici location before. I’ve enjoyed their burgers and buffalo chicken sandwiches so I had a pretty good idea what was in store. Needless to say, we’ll be back.

If the Greensboro-Lake Oconee location isn’t convenient, try one of the other locations in Athens, Conyers, Covington, Madison, Milledgeville and Monroe.

Puccini’s Pizzaria, St. Augustine, Florida, June 25, 2016

How about another review from St. Augustine?

We headed to the beach for a little while Saturday morning before heading home.  Since we drove south down A1A along St. Augustine Beach the evening before, we decided to head north and check out the Vilano Beach area.  After we crossed the bridge over the Tolomato River we noticed a Publix store off top our right and a pizzeria sign at one end of the small strip shopping center.  We took it as a sign (literally and figuratively).

We found the beach park/beach access that we were looking for, parked and headed down to the beach with our towels and cooler.  ConnieLou spent some time soaking up some rays while Jenna and I splashed around in the water.  After having all the heat and sun we could stand during the heat of the day, we headed back to the city park at the beach access, rinsed off and changed from our swimsuits into travelin’ clothes.  Then it was off to find something for a late lunch.

We all remembered the pizzeria sign by the Publix so we decided to stop by and give it a look before deciding whether to look elsewhere.  Turns out it was a good thing we did.

When we pulled into the parking lot we discovered that the name of the restaurant was Puccini’s Pizzaria.  Pizzaria…what is it about the word pizzeria, combined with an Italian name that makes even a strip-center pizza joint sound much more enticing than say ‘Joe’s Pizza’?  We decided to give it a shot.

We walked in, sat down and enjoyed the AC while our server brought us menus and took our drink orders.  There was plenty to choose from on the menu but we kept things simple and ordered a medium meat lovers (ground beef, Italian sausage, ham and bacon) pizza.  Our pie came out in fairly short order and we dove in.  Either we were really hungry or the pizza was really good because we finished it off in fairly short order.

So how did Puccini’s fare on the Thumbs Scale?  Six out a possible six…easily.  Definitely a keeper.  Now we know two good pizza joints in St. Augustine.

Carmelo’s Pizzaria and Cousteau’s Waffle and Milkshake Bar, St. Augustine, Florida, November 13-14, 2015

We took a quick trip down to St. Augustine this past weekend so Jenna could visit Flagler College. We rolled into town Friday evening, checked into the hotel and set about finding something good for supper. We weren’t quite sure what we were in the mood for but we knew we didn’t want fast food. We also knew that we didn’t want anything from a restaurant that has a location near home. ConnieLou picked up one of those free tourist info/coupon books in the hotel lobby when we checked in so we took a look at it to see what we could find. We noticed fairly quickly that St. Augustine has no shortage of restaurants. For whatever reason I was drawn to the ad for a New York style pizza joint named Carmelo’s Pizzaria. It had good reviews on Yelp and was just a couple of blocks from the college.

One of the reviews we read mentioned that Carmelo’s was behind the gas station on the corner. Turns out that it’s not exactly behind the gas station but is attached to the gas station. OK, now don’t go getting the idea that this is a gas station dive…it’s not. It’s a nice sit-down pizzeria (there’s also a take-out side) that happens to be attached to a convenience store called Carmelo’s Market.

Rather than ordering a single pie to split we decided to order slices. Jenna ordered a slice of Meat Supreme, ConnieLou chose a slice pepperoni and I went with a slice of Meat Supreme and a slice of Hawaiian.

After driving for over six hours we really didn’t care if the pizza took a while to get to us…but it didn’t. It was served quickly and piping hot. So how was it? In a word, fantastic! We really couldn’t find anything to complain about.

So how did Carmelo’s fare on the Thumbs Scale? It easily scored six thumbs up. We seem to have a knack for finding good pizza. Every once in a while we find exceptional pizza and we all agreed that Carmelo’s probably fit somewhere in our Top 5. I suspect that if Jenna ends up attending Flagler, we’ll be visiting Carmelo’s again…and again…and again.

On Saturday morning we did the college tour and had a couple of hours to poke around town before we had to head back home. We found a few geocaches before I was informed that we needed to get milkshakes for nourishment for the long ride home.

ConnieLou pulled out a brochure that we got during the college tour that mentioned a shake shop called Cousteau’s Waffle and Milkshake Bar. We Googled up the address, plugged it into Google Maps (aren’t smart phones the handiest things?) and off we went.

A short walk through town brought us to Cousteau’s, which is a little hole-in-the-wall place. Once inside we saw that it was decorated with photos of Jaques C. himself and his underwater exploration teams and their equipment. Neat little place. Like I said, we were in the mood for milkshakes but they also served up Belgian waffles with ice cream and other toppings.

ConnieLou and I both ordered the Calypso which was described as “key lime pie in a milkshake” and consisted of vanilla ice cream with fresh Florida lime juice, graham cracker crumbs and topped with whipped cream. Jenna ordered the Pele Dos Santos which consisted of fresh bananas and Nutella mixed with vanilla ice cream.

OK, I’m a key lime pie fan and I’ve got to say that the description of the Calypso was right on the money. We decided to drink our shakes as we walked back to the car. Considering that we didn’t have all that far to walk and that our shakes had pretty much disappeared by the time that we made it to the car, it was obvious that they were pretty darn good.

So how did Cousteau’s rank on the Thumbs Scale? Another six thumbs…easily. Yep, we’ll be back there someday too.

Fabiano’s (Revisited), Newnan, Georgia, June 12, 2015

I’ve been meaning to write this entry up for a week. I haven’t been avoiding it as much as I’ve just been a slug and haven’t been motivated to just sit down and do it…until now. So here goes…

We spent the evening in downtown Newnan at the Wined-up Newnan wine tasting event. Once we made the complete circuit we realized we were hungry and decided to see if any of the restaurants around the Court Square were still open. Rednexican and the Redneck Gourmet had already closed their kitchens but Fabiano’s Pizza was still open. Our decision was made.

We walked in, grabbed a table and checked out the menu. As I mentioned in my previous entry, Fabiano’s is one of our favorite places in town so me, ConnieLou and Ashley already had a pretty good idea what we wanted. Ashley’s friend Austin was a first-timer so it took him a few more minutes to decide. The server took our orders and brought our drinks and we kicked back discussed the merits of the wines we had tasted earlier…deep and thoughtful conversation…or not.

This time around we stuck to the things that Fabiano’s does best. ConnieLou and I both had pizza, a couple of slices of groundbeef and pepperoni for me and a slice of Hawaiian for ConnieLou. Ashley and Austin chose the calzones, ground beef in Ashley’s and chicken and mushrooms in Austin’s.

Our orders arrived and the deep and thoughtful conversation died as we dug in. We may have been a little hungrier than we realized.

So how did Fabiano’s rank on the Thumbs Scale this time around? WE gave it a combined 7 ½ thumbs. Much better. For New York-style pizza, calzones, strombolis and hot sammichs Fabianos is by far the best in town.

Starting Fresh – Fabiano’s Pizza, Newnan Georgia, March 28, 2014

I got this wild hair to start a new blog. In past years, usually while on vacation, I started posting informal restaurant reviews on my old PopperBlog. The PopperBlog is gone now and rather than posting restaurant reviews on my Get Out! Blog, I simply created another. Hey, basic WordPress is free, so why not?!

So how’s this blog going to work and what will make it different from others? First of all, this won’t be a high falutin’ food blog. Anyone that’s read my other blogs knows this already. It’s simply going to be my opinions, thoughts and impressions and those of my family and even a few friends. For ratings we’ll use a simple ‘thumbs-up/thumbs-down system’ . Each person contributing to the rating gets two thumbs to vote with. Say for instance I’m eating by myself, two thumbs up is really good, two thumbs down really sucks and anything is possible in between.

For anyone expecting a new post every week and Nat Geo-quality photos, and food descriptions that involve ‘hints of whatever’, and a lot of description of ambiance and decor…you’re gonna be disappointed. Also, don’t expect reviews of national chain restaurants. One Longhorn’s location tastes pretty much like the next . Independent restaurants and some local chains will get my attention (yes, I’ll get to The Varsity sooner or later). If you’re simply expecting honest opinions, maybe a little humor and an occasional photo or two, then I hope you enjoy your time here.

So let’s get this party started…

I sort of hate to write this entry. Fabiano’s in Newnan is a favorite pizza joint of ours and has been for a few years now. After a bit of a crazy day at work and a general lack of energy to cook anything, we decided to Eat Out! I suggested Fabiano’s and the idea was readily accepted by Jenna and ConnieLou.

As expected on a Friday night, the place was pretty well filled but we lucked up and got a table right away. We ordered drinks, passed on appetizers and after a bit, ordered our food. Normally we all just order a couple of slices of pizza but this time we changed things up a bit. This time around ConnieLou ordered a slice of pizza and a house side salad, Jenna chose lasagna and a spinach side salad and me, I went with wings and fries.

ConnieLou and Jenna opted to get their salads ahead of the rest of their orders. Both salads disappeared along with the cups of dressing so I got the impression that they were pretty good. Since it’s really pretty hard to screw up a salad, let’s move on.

Some time later, meaning a lot later, the rest of our food arrived, piping hot and looking good and after the wait, we were filled with anticipation.

ConnieLou said her pizza was good as usual. Too bad we can’t just stop there. According to Jenna her lasagna was dry and with the exception of the sauce poured over the top, didn’t have a lot of flavor. As for my wings and fries…well… The wings, like the lasagna, just didn’t have a lot of flavor unless you were just looking for the flavor of fried chicken wings without much addition from the hot sauce or whatever flavoring they’re using. I also got the impression that they weren’t drained quite long enough after coming out of the fryer. Not my idea of good hot wings. As for the fries…there was nothing wrong with the fries but nothing special about them either.

Tonight’s service surprised us as much as the food. The long wait between the time we placed our orders and the time our food (even the salads) arrived was highly unusual, even for a busy Friday night. I probably could have overlooked the wait had our server not been seemingly trying to rush us along. I think tonight was the first time I’ve ever been offered a to-go cup of my beverage before I’d actually finished my meal. Again, highly unusual…we’ve never had bad service there that I recall.

So what was Fabiano’s thumbs rating? How about 2 ½ out of a possible six. Again, this really hurts since Fabiano’s has long been one of our favorite places to go. What’s the moral to this story? While trying new things is good, sometimes it’s best to stick with what a restaurant does best…in this case, pizza. Hey, one usually doesn’t go to Waffle House to order steak and a baked potato, right?