Daily Green

499 SE 2 St
Gainesville, FL 32601
(352) 226-8288
Mon-Sat 10:00-3:00

I've been meaning to go to The Daily Green, housed in the old Louis' Lunch building in Southeast Downtown, for a while now.    Fortunately, today's schedule lined up just perfectly with a delicious trip to this new lunch spot.   




One of the main things they do at Daily Green is waffle cones.  I know it sounds crazy, but they have a savory waffle cone that they serve meals in (they even have a gluten free cone option).  It seemed ridiculous at first, but ended up being a really convenient way to eat.  A friend got the meatballs, onions, and asiago cheese and I got the bar-b-q tempeh with crispy green tomatoes and gritlins (dehydrated grits and cheese balls).  Both were damn good.  I couldn't eat the broccoli slaw that was supposed to come with the tempeh, so I subbed out crispy green tomatoes.  I'm not certain, but I think they were dehydrated too and were excellent.  I was very impressed at the idea to dehydrate food instead of frying it.  It tasted just as crispy and delicious as if it were fried, but was much healthier.  

As I said, I felt a bit odd at first and was using a fork to eat out of the cone.  But after a few minutes, I had the whole thing in my hand just eating away.  I have to say that the waffle cone may be my new favorite form of food delivery.  A third friend got the bar-b-q pork in a collard green wrap with kale chips.  He says it was damn fine as well.  The collard wrap was an ingenious alternative for low carb eaters.  
 
The bottom line for this place is that they seem to have thought of everything for everyone.  Gluten free? Vegan? Low carb? Meat eater? Vegetarian?  They got you all covered.  I'm really glad to see good food being made in a fresh and interesting way.  I'm also happy to see investments being made in areas of downtown that need a little TLC.  There aren't many new restaurants that are impressive off the bat, but places like The Daily Green are certainly showing everyone else how it should be done. 

Sarkara Sweets

201 SE 2nd Ave #110
(Across from Maudes)

I've been curious about this place for a while.  The only reason I haven't gone yet is because nobody in America ever says "Hey guys, let's go out for cupcakes tonight!"  I just can't see myself in the middle of a workday or night on the town thinking that adding a cupcake to the mix is a good idea.  That's nothing against what they do, it's just reality.  Maybe I could see having one for a birthday or office party, but I can't see any other legit occasion to dig into a cupcake.

So, since we were celebrating my birthday last night, I decided it was time.  Much like the Japanese frozen yogurt fad, these cupcake shops seem to be sweeping the nation.  You can build your own cupcake or buy one of the pre-made flavors.  Since they had quite a spread of beautiful looking cakes, I stuck with the pre-destined flavors.  Between the members of our group, I'd say we tried at least 10 different flavors.  All of them were very unique and interesting: French Toast, Smores, Spicy Mocha, Raspberry Chocolate Chai, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, and so on.  Each was its own little work of art.

In reality, the cupcakes were SUPER sweet.  I think they could use half the sugar they're currently using and they'd still be sweet enough.  For me, the over the top sugar content really ruined the experience and most people in our party agreed.  I was happy to see that they had multiple gluten free options since my wife is GF.  After getting the gluten free chocolate cupcake, though, we wondered if if was supposed to be called "flavor free" because it didn't taste like anything but sugar (chocolate doesn't have gluten!).

All in all, I can see why people like this place.  It's cute, fun, and has beautiful cupcakes.  Personally, I just didn't think they were that good, and that's based solely on the sugar content.  I'm pretty sure I contracted type 2 diabetes and gave myself 3 cavities all while eating here.  Check it out for yourself.  I, however, will return to the "I don't see any need for a cupcake at this moment in life" category.





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Gator suyaki - the best Chinese around!

3830 SW 13th St
:(352) 377-4773

5 thumbs up!
 
It takes a big man to admit that he is wrong, and I am that big man.  But, whoah!  How wrong could I have possibly been?  I frequently rail against the sub-par Asian food options in this town only to see them decline even lower.  Bahn Thai was just passable to begin with and the new owners have driven it into the ground.  Same with Saigon Legend.  You know I hate Chopstix, and the former occupant of the place I'm writing about was previously shut down for serious health code violations.  The owner was even quoted as saying that Chinese food isn't compatible with American sanitary regulations.

So when someone told me that Gator Suyaki was excellent, I was naturally skeptical.

I tried it first at lunch with just one other person.  We were told to order the Eggplant with Garlic Sauce and the General Tao's Tofu.  Sweet lord-a-mercy they were both outstanding. 



The eggplant was phenomenal.  I've had dishes like this before, but none came close to the sultry, savory, seasoned wok flavor and rich aromatic garlic.  There were also a few bamboo shoots and some sort of black, thin mushroom.  We've been back several times since, and this dish is always a must have for the table. 



The General Tao's Tofu was equally good.  As it's Chinese food, the dishes don't come with anything that isn't listed in their title.  It was literally just tofu on a plate.  The tofu was expertly fried and glazed with a delicious sweet and slightly spicy sauce though.  I've had this one 3 or 4 more times since the first visit and none have matched the initial visit's preparation.  It's still a solid dish though.  Just be warned that you won't get any veggies with it.

Don't worry, because the menu abounds with options.  You literally need a bookmark for the damn thing.  There must be 500 items on it.  Most of the pure veggie options haven't been amazing, but the straw mushroom dish below was excellent.  It came served in a thick gravy like sauce (vegetarian warning, there is NO WAY these sauces are vegetarian). 

The best way to enjoy this place is to go with a large group.  We've tried so many things on the menu and haven't had to be stuck with a whole plate of one dish per person.  Sharing is the way to go.  Any of the chicken dishes come out like the one pictured below (Honey Garlic), fried to oblivion, but OH SO GOOD. 

The more adventurous people in your party can try the jelly fish salad (never available when we've gone), the stir fried pork stomach or tripe (both of which we tried to mixed reviews), or the pig ear.  The place seems as authentically Chinese as The Great Wall itself.  If you go on a weekend night, odds are you won't hear any language but Mandarin, as the majority of the patrons and almost all the workers are off the boat Chinese. 

Another wonderfully interesting item is the steamed bun.  They come in red bean paste and egg yolk flavors.  The egg yolk bun tastes pretty much like a twinkie.  Pretty ridiculous.

The food is excellent, the prices are great (about 10 bucks an entree), the portions hefty, and it appears to be extremely clean.

I strongly encourage all of you to eat here right away.  It's so damn good and it's been hiding right underneath our noses this whole time!












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Hiro has great Korean tacos

I tried all 3 of their styles, but the best was the Korean style with pickled onions and cabbage, Kimchi sour cream, and "Korean sauce." I had the lemongrass tofu which was excellent. Lightly and crisply fried up and delicious. This place is pretty fun when it comes to new takes on old classics.


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Worth the price and a whole lot more.

I know I haven't been writing much lately, and I certainly regret it.  I've never intended to be something that people in this town actually paid attention to, but somehow it happened.  I'm well aware that a few months of silence makes me quickly become obsolete to so many people who may have moved on to something else.  I've been extremely busy with my job, side projects, special interests, etc so I really haven't had much time to type up some new reviews.  Also, I've been eating out a WHOLE lot less.  The reasons are many.  First, I got bored of most places in town and lost interest in many old favorites.  I also have been trying to make as many health conscious decisions as possible, and unfortunately eating out is the first thing to change in that department.

I still eat at Flacos at least once a week.  I've also been pleased to add Tempo Bistro and Gator Suyaki to the top of my list of excellent places in town.  I've lost interest in The Top and The Jones and I just don't care enough to try out some of the newer places.

As a result of this change in my eating habits, I've come to the realization that where Gainesville really excels in the food department is in the raw materials.  We have excellent producers of honey, coffee, produce, milk, cheese, meat, baked goods, confections, chocolates, etc, etc.  If you want to make a meal, you can get some of the best raw ingredients around right in the ol' 352.

For several years now, we've been members of the Family Garden CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  We pay our farmer, Jordan, up front (usually in August or September), and then we get vegetables and fruit every week until about late May/early June.  Since the growing season in our region is SO long, we get stuff nearly year round.  Also, as the seasons change, he grows different crops that are appropriate for the weather/climate zone.  This means we don't get tomatoes in December, but we do get a constantly revolving assortment of fresh, seasonally appropriate variety. 

Jordan's produce is all organic, locally grown, and personally delivered to the Farmers' Market.  Also, it is always excellent.  The quality of the produce is unmatched.  If something is in season, you'll never regret the membership fee when you see your week's haul.  I've calculated that our weekly fee comes out to around 25 dollars (don't quote me on that, I'm terrible at math).  That's alot of money for vegetables...  or is it?  Before the CSA, I typically spent a good amount of our shopping budget on fresh fruit and veggies, but how did they get here?  Which came from California?  Which (unwittingly, as I never try to buy foreign produce if possible) came from Argentina or Chile?  How many fossil fuels and chemicals and other earth taxing ingredients went into their production?  Did this blueberry really pass through the Panama Canal to get to my plate?

So, it was with some irritation that I watched a random shopper tell Jordan he was selling his cucumbers for too much money.  Here's how the exchange went:

Shopper: How much are your cucumbers?
Jordan: 3 dollars for a basket (a basket had about 6 cukes)
Shopper: Are you kidding?  Publix has them for 1 dollar (never specified how many for a dollar)
Jordan: So go buy them at Publix.
Shopper: I was just saying, I thought you'd like to know that other people are selling for less.
Me (couldn't resist): Yeah, but he's the guy who grows these.  They're organic.  He grew them right over there (points vaguely to the west).
Shopper: Well, I don't care that they're organic
Me: Well that's only one of the reasons why they cost more.

People will always want to haggle.  They'll always try to score the best deal possible.  They'll even try to lend a hand and offer suggestions to help you improve your business from time to time.  But this guy was simply not attaching any value to food.  No value to farmers. No value to what should really be happening in the world of food production.

The fact that Jordan (with the help of his skilled staff and family) plants the seeds, tills the earth, waters, monitors, organically pest controls, covers with frost blankets, harvests, delivers, and then sells the food himself is worth something.  It's worth 3 dollars for 6 cucumbers.  In my opinion, it's worth a whole lot more than that.  But with guys like the above mentioned shopper, how can a small farmer compete with large corporations that can get you a cucumber from California for 1 dollar?  Hopefully with our support they can.

Go support some local food producers today!

 

(what our fridge looks like after a CSA pickup)

Hiro Asian Sandwich Bistro

Hiro Asian Sandwich Bistro
3841 SW Archer Rd

4 thumbs up

I've been excited to try this place out for a while now.  I heard that the owners of Bento opened a Vietnamese Bahn Mi Sandwich shop and wanted to experience something I'd only heard about before.  Also, as it's the folks at Bento, I'm pretty confident in the quality level going in.  I think Bento does a good job of what they do.  They're not the best pan asian place in the world, but they do a respectable job in a fashionable and youthful way.

Unfortunately, my iPhone just died, so I can't share the photos with you, but I'll try to describe the food as best as possible. 

First off, they have something called "shake fries."  I've been trying to eat healthier food lately, but since it was my first time here, I had to go all in.  The shake fries are simply french fries served in a wax paper bag.  You then add your own choice of seasonings from the spice bar to the bag and shake.  It's that simple.  There were probably a half dozen different choices from garlic salt to other unique blends of spices.  I don't know if they made this idea up or just borrowed it from somewhere else, but it was clever.  It makes the customer that much more involved in their eating experience. 

Next, if you're going here expecting traditional Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwiches, you're going to be let down.  Off the bat, the girl at the counter told me they're selling traditional American sandwiches with a slight Asian twist.  Rather than be discouraged, I actually had a realization.  We can't really expect legit Vietnamese Bahn Mi in this town.  I don't know why, because if it was good, we'd all eat there.  But simply stated, we can't.  All we can hope for instead is a place that serves food with a fun and worthwhile twist.  Instead of being disappointed, I decided to keep my mind open and hope that what I was about to eat would at least be interesting.

I ordered the chicken teriyaki sandwich.  It came with mushrooms and onions and was served on a warm french bread sub roll that was lightly buttered.  It was pretty darn good.   It didn't send my taste buds soaring through the rice paddies of Cambodia, but it was good and it was certainly different than the standard fare about town.  The place was clean and chic, the presentation was unique and top notch, and the food was good.  What more can we ask for?

I'll gladly return and sample more items off the menu and I suggest you do the same!

Loosey's Pub

Loosey's Pub

5 thumbs up

120 SW 1st Avenue: Downtown

I've been meaning to review Loosey's for some time now.  Not only have they managed to carve out their own unique niche in the over-saturated beer bar scene that has become downtown, but they've developed an excellent menu of high quality and beautifully presented pub food.  Unfortunately, my iPhone just died, so I can't share any photos here, but I'll do my best to describe their fare.

First of all, let me cover their beer selection.  They have a very respectable selection of bottled and draft beers with many monthly rotations coming in and out.  They feature only American beers, so if you want a Guinness, you're at the wrong place.  One of my particular favorites is the Blue Point Toasted Lager.

Next, let me be clear that if you're downtown and want a burger, you should go to Loosey's.  They easily have the best burger around and sell it as cheap as 5 bucks on some nights.  For a half pounder, you might even want to share it with someone.  Also, the number of toppings and condiments you can add are astounding!

I've also tried their blackened chicken tacos, which at $7.50 could easily feed two, and the fish and chips, which are great as well.

Loosey's also hosts live music many nights a week and have developed a solid reputation for treating bands really well.

You might not think of the Pub as a legitimate restaurant, but I can assure you it is.  When The Top has an hour wait and you're just dyin for a bite and a brew, get your ass too Loosey's, which is usually busy, but never so packed you can't get service right away. 

The Jones B Side

Currently unranked

When the folks at The Jones decided to rent out the seemingly destined to fail location at 203 SW 2nd Ave, I was somewhat concerned.  I feel like such a huge part of The Jones' charm is the intimate location on NE 23rd Ave, so I was worried that they'd lose some of the magic.  Certainly I'm in favor of a place growing beyond its humble beginnings.  I mean, success is a good thing, right?  I guess I was mostly concerned that they'd close the old location (which they have done for dinner).  Also, even though I believe if anyone can make a restaurant succeed in such an ill fated location, it's The Jones, it's still a horribly ill fated location. 

So, now that I've had four lunches and one dinner at B side, I felt obliged to write a review.   I'm including the explicit disclaimer, however, that I'm still waiting to formulate my final opinion.  The jury is still out so to speak.  I'm also cautious to be completely honest.  The reason being is because I love The Jones.  I don't want to say anything mean about it.  So, I'm going to do my very best to be honest, but tactful here (I'm guessing you can already see where this review is headed). 

I still have hope and confidence that B Side will end up being a pillar of the dining community, and here's why.  (I know this is going to end up being a backhanded compliment, but hear me out).  When the original Jones opened for breakfast and lunch, it wasn't that good.  The service was terrible and the food was just OK.  But they got their shit together and ended up being the best in town.  Then, they branched into the dinner arena.  Likewise, at first, the dinners weren't that good and the service wasn't much better.  Again, however, they ended up being my favorite restaurant in town by far.  I could eat any meal there multiple times a week and never get bored of it. 

So, the moral of the story was, it always worked out in the end for The Jones, it just took them time.

A while back, I started to hear many grumblings via the internet and the local grapevine that the owners felt the tiny kitchen seriously limited their quality and production at the old location.  The move to the bigger place would help them out with much needed space, equipment, and the overall quality level.  I could be nothing but hopeful.

As we all know, the move took place and the new location has been open for a few months now.  Despite having run a restaurant for many years, the new location didn't open without its share of difficulties.  Overall wait times were in the 1.5-2 hour range (for a table and food), the computer system would crash, forcing them to send diners elsewhere (not sure why computers are needed to cook food and accept currency), and the food was still trying to find its own identity.

Finally, the service started getting whipped into shape and the place started functioning as an efficient restaurant.  It was at this point that I decided to check it out.  My initial impression of the menu was "there isn't alot on this menu."  For both lunch and dinner, the menu seems a bit smaller than the old location.  This obviously makes me wonder about the gripe that the old kitchen was significantly limiting their production.  I also noticed that the menu was extremely similar to the old location but with a few tweaks to old favorites.  I had heard from reliable sources that the B Side menu was to be different than the East Side one.  I guess that didn't work out.  I don't honestly care, but when the new place is offering up my favorite sandwich from the old place (the Veg Out), don't change it.  It was great the way it was! 

Pictured above is The Veg Out and The Alice.  Both sandwiches originated at the old Jones.  I had half of each sandwich.  The Veg Out had some sort of sundried tomato aioli instead of the pesto veganaisse.  To me, this was an unfortunate change.  As I said above, the old Veg Out was my favorite sandwich.  Why change it?  They also forgot to put avocado on it and the bread was barely toasted.  The avocado issue was fixed pretty quickly, but the bread was very sad.  The Alice seemed to be the same as the old location and was pretty good.

I have also eaten the steak and egg sandwich which came with gruyere cheese and pickled onions.  I'm not sure if it was the cheese or the onions or the combination of both, but the whole sandwich had an overall unpleasant stinky/sour taste about it.  There was certainly at least one ingredient in the sandwich that was killing the whole thing for me.  If it was the pickled onions, I'm going to have to insist that people in town stop putting pickled vegetables on everything.  It's a very specific application!

Finally, we went for dinner.  I hadn't seen the dinner menu yet, as it's not included on the lunch menu, so I didn't know what to expect.  I always applauded the old Jones on having a very diverse menu with several healthy, vegetarian, and vegan options.  I also believed their chefs created some truly great food that wasn't what I otherwise call Gainesville Gourmet (fake fancy) or blatantly derivative of somewhere else.  You could really get an excellent meal at the old Jones.  So again, I was surprised to see the seemingly smaller dinner menu.  Prices were up a bit and the variety seemed reduced.  There were significantly fewer vegetarian/vegan friendly dishes as well.

Also, many old favorites from the old location were gone (with the old location closed for dinners now, those favorite meals won't be available anymore).  My dining partner chose the tempeh wellington and I chose the shrimp and grits.  I know that these items are a little out of the box, but we thought they looked pretty good and decided to give em a shot.  Both ended up being somewhat representative of a general theme.  I think the new Jones is trying to be The Top.  The Wellington recipe was nearly identical to one The Top has served for years.  Also, both dishes relied heavily on a cream sauce crutch, something The Top is notorious for.
 
The Wellington was fine and the shrimp and grits were tasty enough.  However, both meals left us with strong feelings of regret.  I don't mind eating a rich meal if I leave it feeling satisfied and full.  I don't like one that makes me feel like I just ate a whole box of butter.  Here it is 15 hours later and I'm still not hungry again.  I also feel like I needed an after dinner blood thinner.  You can actually see below how the grits were literally swimming in thick cream sauce.  Also, the shrimp were tiny.  The roasted vegetables that came with the Wellington were varying degrees of cooked.  Some were quite chewy and raw while others were more cooked through.  You can also see they're not winning any awards for the presentation.

 
The ambiance is OK.  Honestly, The Jones should be set in a simple setting.  If they went way over the top with the decor, it would be wrong.  I think they did a fine job fitting the place to their needs.  I'm not sure, however, why they have tables that could accommodate two football teams.  The inside and outside area each has a table that can seat 20+ people.  I'm sure it's handy when a big group comes in, but when you need to seat 40 people of varying size parties, they might not want to sit so close to strangers.  I know it's very European to do so, but we're not in Europe.  I also don't understand the outside tables that are at shin level of the 3-4 booths farthest from the door. 

If I had to sum up the new place in one sentence it would be this:  It's very similar to the old Jones, just not as good.  I feel like The Jones lost its independence somehow by moving downtown.  It's like they're trying to fit into the already established Downtown dinner scene by emulating others and not making their own point of view heard.  I'm even more broken-hearted that the old location is now closed for dinner.

To be honest, I really had a hard time deciding whether or not to write this.  I knew there would be no way it would come off not sounding negative.  If you've followed me for any period of time, you know how effusive my praise for the old Jones was.  I'd ALWAYS call them the best restaurant in town.  That's why I'm holding out hope that the new place can improve. 

I want the Jones B Side to succeed, and I think the easiest way for them to do it is by doing the exact same thing they did at the old location. 

Thanksgiving

While Thanksgiving is centered around being thankful for what we have in our lives, it might be the only holiday we Americans celebrate based solely around food.  Christmas has a dinner, but there are  gifts and Santa and trees and lights and the ever lengthening shopping season.  Halloween has candy, but also costumes and parties and trick or treating.  Fourth of July has a bar-b-q but it also has fireworks.  You get the idea. 

Every family has its own traditions and favorite recipes, some of which are nearly sacred.  In our family, for example, it would be sacrilege to alter the sweet potato casserole that we've had since I can remember.  These family food traditions are solidified even more after sharing a Thanksgiving at someone else's house.  I've spent one or two Thanksgivings with another family only to be left incredulously wondering how they hell they can call some plate of soupy bread "stuffing."  I've been left confused when a platter of lamb appeared instead of turkey.  Who they hell are they to challenge my traditional beliefs of what a Thanksgiving dinner should be?

In our family, the Thanksgiving spread always consists of the following: turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, butternut squash, green beans (or green bean casserole), jellied cranberry sauce, whole cranberry sauce, bread, apple pie, and pumpkin pie.  If one of these items is missing, we might have a mutiny on our hands.   
 
Since meeting my wife (who's a vegetarian) over 13 years ago, we've always toyed with the notion of having a turkey free dinner.  Honestly, the average butterball turkey you buy at Publix is never really that great.  And we're well aware of the problems inherent in factory farming a breed of bird that's breast muscles get so big it can't walk by the end of its life.  We wouldn't really miss it, would we?  

Finally, this year seemed to be the one.  It was Tuesday night and we didn't have a turkey on order.  It really seemed like we were going to take the plunge and finally go meatless for Thanksgiving.

Then, just when it felt like there was no turning back, we learned of Laughing Chicken Farm, an independent small farm in Trenton (27 miles west of Gainesville).  It's a husband and wife operation that started small and is constantly growing in popularity.  They have chickens and turkeys that they raise "the way God intended: with fresh grass, natural grains and minerals, and lots of sunshine."  They studied under the legendary Joel Salatin (look him up.  He's been featured in many back to the earth style books such as The Omnivore's Dilemma). 

As luck would have it, they had a few birds that were unclaimed by their pre-order list and farmers market buyers.  As a result, we drove nearly 60 miles round trip to buy this year's turkey.  The bird was butchered the day before and was being kept fresh on ice.  It had never been frozen.  We did zero preparation to it, and merely put it in the oven for the appropriate amount of time.  After four and a half hours, it came out incredibly perfect.  It was juicier and more savory than any other turkey I've ever had.  It actually tasted like we basted the whole thing in butter before cooking it.  In the past, I've never taken more than 2 or 3 small slices of turkey for my dinner, but this year, it was the star of my plate. 

Now, if you read my blog at all, you know I rarely eat meat, and I understand and respect the mentality of a "cruelty free" diet.  When it comes to a meal like Thanksgiving, though, I'm prepared to make an exception.  I'm even more confident in my choices when I support someone who is doing everything they can to make sure their animals lead happy, stress free lives. 

The reality is that eating meat is never going away.  I certainly appreciate someone's desire to eliminate meat and all the nasty byproducts and environmental detriments of the industry from their lives.  At the same time, a large movement has been growing that focuses on bringing food back to the farm and away from the factory setting.  A very small, independent mom and pop operation like Laughing Chicken is more than deserving of our support.  You can actually visit the farm and see how the animals are treated, witness their free ranging lives, and actually taste the difference in the meat. By giving people like the folks at Laughing Chicken our money instead of a huge conglomerate factory farm, we are encouraging more businesses to treat their animals in a humane way.  And in the end, I think that may be the most responsible choice of all. 

Sabore: A big budget movie with no plot

Sabore 
Address: Tioga Town Center: Suite 129, 13005 SW 1st Road, Newberry, FL 32669

Phone: (352) 332-2727 

2.5 thumbs up

From their website: Saboré [sa-bohr-ay] is a world-fusion restaurant featuring a variety of European, South American, Mediterranean and Asian inspired tastes. Saboré's namesake is from the word "sabor," meaning "flavor." Saboré's menu features mouth-watering dishes that takes guests on a trip around the world, highlighting exotic flavors and ingredients from countries such as Argentina, Japan, Spain and Italy.

 

In reality, Sabore is a BIG budget movie without any plot, storyline, or memorable characters.  Sure, it looks impressive.  The dining area is quite fancy.  And all in all, it's not really a bad restaurant.  It's just not a good restaurant.  Here's why.  It's yet another American take on all of those other worldly delicacies.  You can't accurately impersonate European or South American cuisine when you're getting your food from Sysco uber corporate food distributors.  The flavor of the ingredients is too far removed from the earth and the individual who harvested/prepared them.  On top of that, it's another Gainesville take on an American take of exotic delights.  It's even one more level removed.  

First up, we ordered some wine.  Let me give credit where it's due.  Their wine list is quite impressive and we were more than pleased with our Organic Italian Pinot Grigio and Organic Spanish Monastrell, both reasonably priced at 7 bucks a glass.  

Next was the Sabore House salad, sans bacon.  It was pretty good, but not really worth the 8 bucks it cost. It had a total of two cherry tomatoes, a few slivers of almonds, four slices of cucumber, a very few crumbles of Gorgonzola cheese, and a small handful of lettuce.  The salad dressing was a sesame vinaigrette that was tasty.  

 

Next, we sampled two items off their sharable small plates section of the menu.   We had the Goat Cheese Croquettes with guava sauce and the Fiocci with Pears (pasta purses stuffed with pears in a gorgonzola cream sauce).  I LOVE pasta purses with pears and gorgonzola.  I've had a nearly identical item at a few other restaurants, including Manuel's Vintage Room and have always loved them.  Sabores, unfortunately, were very plain.  They had little flavor and the cream sauce was very unimpressive.  It just tasted like white.  There were a few bits of gorgonzola with each that did help with the flavor, however without them, it was nearly flavorless.  

The croquettes were just as bland and unimpressive.  The tiny bit of guava sauce did help, but they lacked any real identity.  They just tasted extremely deep fried, thus prohibiting the flavor of the goat cheese to show through. 

After these items, I felt like I didn't need to spend 10 more dollars on another shared plate to get the full experience of this place.   I was confident I could predict exactly what each other menu item would taste like.  In the interests of being thorough, however, we did try two more items.  

The crunchy fish tacos were the best of anything else we tried.  They had mahi inside with cabbage, pico de gallo, and a garlic aioli sauce.  I did enjoy eating these, but they certainly reminded me of something I used to eat frequently in my college days. 

Finally, we closed the night out with sweet potato fries.  Expecting a plate of delicately thin and deliciously crispy fries, we got the following soggy blobs of sweet potato.  I can't understand how the chef could spend so much time stroking his own ego on their menu/website and then send these duds out.  The sauce was a creamy dill and Gorgonzola sauce.  The "fries" did have some nice seasoning on them and didn't actually taste bad, but they were hardly what we expected.

All in all, we enjoyed our dining experience enough to say the place wasn't that bad.  It just wasn't that good.  I can't honestly see myself ever returning, though.  I didn't dig into the meat heavy portion of the menu, but again, I felt that I didn't even need to in order to get a representative sample of the chef's repertoire.  

With tip, our meal ended up being 60 dollars, which was honestly less than I anticipated as we kept ordering more and more item.  

Bottom line: Sabore serves some really average food being held up with crutches made out of Gorgonzola. 

Tacos Locos food stand

Usually located between South 1st and 2nd Avenues on Main Street, and mostly only during peak downtown nights (weds thru saturday).

3 thumbs up

The Tacos Locos food truck has become a permanent fixture of downtown nightlife over the past year and change.  Let's face it.  Everyone can go for a late-night taco, especially after a few drinks, and these guys capitalize on that market big time.  I've tried 3 things off their menu over the past few months and am finally weighing in.

First off, much like Burrito Brothers, it's not terribly authentic tex-mex street food.  But that's not the worst thing in the world.  I sampled their nachos with cheese (which of course was delicious), the shredded chicken taco (which wasn't so great), and their spicy beef taco (which was good but a bit unusual).

The nachos with cheese sauce was pretty awesome.  I believe they made their own cheese sauce, and I thought it was quite tasty.

The shredded chicken wasn't very flavorful and the toppings didn't wow me.  The iceberg lettuce was soggy and a bit of a bummer.  I would have much preferred the reliable crunch of cabbage on there. 

The spicy beef was much better, but it didn't taste terribly authentic.  It almost tasted like a beef stew taco.  It wasn't bad though, and I enjoyed it.

I think the truck is a much needed addition to late night food offerings downtown, and the tacos are pretty good overall. You can certainly get a better street taco from Pelican Brothers if they're serving them that night, but you really won't be bummed to have chosen Tacos Locos.  I think a few little changes would make them much better (more sauces, better seasoning of the chicken and beef, crunchier cabbage instead of lettuce).  But overall, it's pretty good. 

Bev's Better Burgers (Alachua & High Springs)

230 Main Street : Alachua
639 Northeast Santa Fe Boulevard : High Springs

Four thumbs up

If you've ever driven to the springs or passed through downtown Alachua, odds are you've seen Bev's Better Burgers.  We recently took a day trip to Ichetucknee Springs State Park and hit up Bev's on the way home.

Immediately, we wondered what made these burgers better.  Were they better than they used to be?  Were the old ones inferior somehow?  Or were they just better than the competition?  We'd soon find out.  While there, we sampled a range of their menu and enjoyed their "what the fuck do you want?" style service.

I ordered a cheeseburger and small fry.  The cheeseburger didn't look too pretty, but it was pretty good.  I'd say it was certainly a better burger than what I remember of fast food joints (I haven't had a Burger King/McDonalds/Wendy's burger in as long as I can remember).  The fries were good too.  They were like McDonald's, but soggier.  When the girl at the window barked "you want that all the way?" I said yes not knowing what that meant.  Apparently "all the way" doesn't include pickles, which I would have liked.  I figure "all the way" should be more than lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayo.  But it wasn't.
 
Other people in our party tried the jalapeno poppers, which could have been called the deep fried death balls.  They were cream cheese and jalapeno pieces, battered and deep fried.  I highly doubt they made them themselves, but they were pretty offensive.

Overall, I and everyone in the group did enjoy the meal here.  The burger was smaller and provided much less remorse than a Whopper, but had similar characteristics.  Obviously, it wasn't healthy, and the people working there had some of the worst attitudes this side of the county jail mess hall, but it was a fun little stupid meal after a long day at the springs.

Back to School!!!

Even though it's been nearly 10 years since I've finished grad school, I cannot avoid the back to school vibe that hits this town this time of year.  None of us can.  Traffic picks up considerably, movie theaters are more crowded, and our beloved restaurants feel a surge of new life as dollar after student dollar begins to flow again.  If you're new to town and just discovering this blog, I hope I can help you.  If you're a long time reader (we almost have 20,000 views!!) I hope you continue to read.  So, in the spirit of getting back to the books, I'm going to do a handy reference local restaurant guide for you. 

Breakfast
Best: Karol and Bill's Plaza Diner.  This place is excellent.  It's everything you'd want out of a greasy spoon diner and more.  I love this place to death.  They also do lunch. Review here. 
Best: The Jones. Equally excellent but for different reasons.  Review here.

Lunch
Best: Flaco's.  Easily one of my favorite restaurants in town.  Great for lunch, dinner, or late night grub.  Excellent Cuban food.  Review here.
Worst: Gelato Company.  Just bad food.  Review here. 

Sushi!
Best: Fuji Sushi.  Hands down the best in town.  Review here.

Overrated: Dragonfly.  Overpriced, underwhelming, aimed at 19 year old sorority girls on their birthdays.  Review here
Worst: Ichiban (I'm sure there are worse places that I'd dare not try, but this place passes itself off as two legitimate restaurants).   Review here

Mexican/Tex-Mex
Best:  El Indio.  Some menu items aren't great, but easily the best in town.  Review here
Honorable Mention: Burrito Brothers. I like this place.  Not terribly authentic, but authentically Gainesville Review
Overrated: Las Margaritas.  I believe Mexican food should be eaten out of a bag, not off a plate.  That being said, Las Margs is OK, but I've had just as many blah experiences here as good ones.  I have not checked out the new location yet, but assume it's the same food.  Review here
Worst: Boca Fiesta.  I could submit Boca Fiesta as worst restaurant in the world and it would come close to winning.  I have no idea why this place is so popular. The food is terrible, the staff unsanitary, and the service slower than molasses.  Review here

Pizza
Best: Blue Highway (Micanopy or Tioga locations).  This is some of the best pizza I've had anywhere, and I'm picky as hell about pizza.  They make a damn good pie.  Review here
Overrated: Satchel's.  I love the vibe of the place and they make good salads, but the only explanation I can come up with for people who love this place (and there are TONS of them) is that they've never actually eaten pizza before.  Review here
Worst: Everywhere else.  I've never seen a town with such terrible pizza options

Pan-Asian
This is a tough category.  There are some REALLY bad Pan-Asian restaurants in town.  Some were so bad that they got shut down by the health inspectors.  I'll do my best to rattle off a few of each genre here:
Chinese Worst: Chopstix.  This restaurant is terrible.  People love it.  Again, my only explanation is that these people have never been to any sort of restaurant in their life before.  Review here
Thai Worst: Tim's Thai.  Easily the worst restaurant in the world.  Review here
Vietnamese Worst: Pho Hanoi.  Some of the saddest food I've ever seen.  Review here.
Vietnamese Worst: Bagels and Noodles.  Just as bad as it sounds. Review here
Chinese Worst: Mr. Han's.  Clearly a front for illegal exotic marine life and opium.  Review here.
Decent: Liquid Ginger.  This place is OK.  It takes forever to get your food, but it's really not bad.   Review here.
Decent: Saigon Legend.  I haven't been here since they moved locations.  Their ingredients are usually pretty cheap, but somehow, their food is always pretty good. (I somehow have never reviewed this place)
Unfortunate: Bahn Thai.  This place used to be pretty good.  It was in a seedy location and was always sketchy/dirty feeling, but they made good food.  It was far from the best Thai I've ever had, but it did the trick.  They recently changed owners and the quality has steadily plummeted.  Review here

American
Best: The Jones.  With a new location opening downtown, I'm excited to see what the good folks at the Jones are going to bring us next.   Review here.
Honorable Mention: The Top.  I don't go here much anymore, but it's always been a reputable source of solid food, good atmosphere, and a great bar.  Review here.
Worst: The Lunchbox.  This place sucks.  I've actually reviewed it multiple times, as I wanted to give it a fighting chance, but it has always sucked.  Review here.

Indian
Best: Indian Cuisine.  Great food.  Very slow service, especially during peak dinner hours.    It's not uncommon to be there for 2 hours for dinner.  Reivew here.
Best: Kabab House. Great, fast food.  Really like this place.  Don't be scared by the interior decorations.  Review here.
Worst: Taste of India.  This place is super gross.  I bought a bag of naan to go from here, and when the owner took the first bag out of the cooler, he deliberately put it back and took another one from the back (as it was clearly the oldest).  Needless to say, it had mold all over it.  (No review).

Late Night Munchies

Best: Pelican Brothers Food Truck.  Typically parked outside High Dive (Formerly Double Down/Common Grounds) late at night.  Excellent food.  These guys are upping the local food ante all out of a truck.  Review here.
Best: Hot dog cart on corner of SW 1st Ave and SW 1st St.  Great dogs.  Perfect late night eats.  Review here.

Dessert
Best: Karma Cream.  This place epitomizes what is great about Gainesville.  Locally owned and operated, artisan vegan baking (trust me, you won't care that it's vegan because it's excellent), and organic ice cream and vegan ice cream.  Review here.
Best: Mochi.  Another local success story.  Operated by the owners of Bento, this place is just great.  Japanese Frozen Yogurt is big these days, and no one does it better than Mochi, in my opinion. Review here.

Food Shopping
Best: Wards Supermarket.  A fantastic grocery store.  Locally owned and operated.  Review here.
Best: Dorn's Liquors.  I love this place.  Great beer, liquor, cheese, chocolate, and specialty items.  Review here.
Best: Uppercrust Bakery.  A truly European experience right in GVL.  Excellent breads, pastries, wines, cheeses, and other specialty items.  Review here.
Best: Wine and Cheese Gallery.  I'm not so in love with the attached restaurant, Panache, but I do love this cozy little wine store downtown.  They also have a great happy hour on Fridays.  Review here.

Bars
Best: Depending on what you're looking for, Gainesville probably has a bar/club for you.  Right now, for me, the best is The Bull.  It's laid back with a sophisticated, yet small selection of great beer and wine.  I prefer when the owners hand select 30 different beers for me to choose from rather than having 400 choices.  Review here (note they no longer serve food)
Best: Durty Nelly's.  This place has the best college-town bar vibe of any other bar in town.  It's somehow perfectly blends a representative sample of every population group.
Best: High Dive.  Formerly Double Down and Common Grounds.  It's the premier live music venue in town.  Plus, the porch is a great place to grab a laid back beer and bump into friends. 
Honorable Mention: Stubbies. Face it, they brought good beer to town.  Based on their efforts, the local distributors kicked their beer lists into hyper drive.  They also serve German food.  I find it a tad sterile and the bartenders can be a bit snooty about the beer, but it's really a well stocked bar.

   
Finally, I want to review how I rate a place.  I use a 5 thumb system.  I'm going to start using graphics to help explain


5 thumbs up : Excellent! Love it! Eat here multiple times a week!
4 thumbs up : Very Good! Not quite perfect. Eat here one-two times a month.
3 thumbs up : Good. It does the job and nothing to really complain about. Eat here only when you're in the area and can't think of anywhere else.
2 thumbs up : Not bad. I would think about trying somewhere else first if I had the choice. Eat here rarely.
1 thumb up : Meh. It's calories. I would definitely try to eat somewhere else if I had a choice.
0 thumbs up : Not worth my time. They're not even trying.
(skip 1-4 thumbs down, because at this point, who really cares?)
5 thumbs down : Terrible

 
 

Relish

 Relish Burgers Downtown (Next to the Starbucks by the Hippodrome)
1.5 thumbs up

We always need restaurants downtown, especially for a quick bite to eat.  Relish recently opened up in the old Quizno's location and I figured I'd give it a shot.  It's a burger joint by the people who do Pita Pit.  It's pretty much trying to do the exact same thing as Five Guys, but they don't do it as well. 

In all honesty, I'm not a big burger guy so I know I'm not the ideal judge of this place.  However, I do know what a good burger tastes like.  I got the dude below with all sorts of trimmings (ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, and cheese).  Despite all the doctoring up, it didn't have much flavor. 

All in all, if you're downtown and really need a quick burger, stop in and give it a try.  It's not bad, but really nothing special.  If you have more time for lunch, however, I'd go get that burger somewhere else, for sure. 

The incredible villages and countryside of Provence

The mountaintop village of Bonnieux

While this post isn't strictly food based, I wanted to provide an account of an amazing day of travel.  If I wasn't such a homebody with a real job and pets and responsibilities, I could fancy myself as a travel writer.  I imagine I'd be cooler than Rick Steves (not too hard), but maybe fall short of Anthony Bourdain in adventurousness.  After all, no one really needs another travel guide on Europe.  It's been done to death.  But this is my blog and I'm going to write about what I damn well please!  So, without further ado, let's get going.

Provence is famously known for its quaint villages and pastoral landscapes.  We certainly intended to explore it as much as possible, but it wasn't until we rented a car in Marseille that the plan really came into fruition.  As I explained in my last entry, I made a last minute decision to rent a car in order to properly enjoy the region.  However, it certainly came at a significant and unplanned cost.  Looking to maximize the return on our investment, we decided that several drives across the French countryside were in order.  After experiencing the sights, sounds, smells, and flavors that we did, I can easily say that every last eurocent of the rental paid off.    

Our original car-less plan was to visit the smaller cities of Avignon, Arles, Aix en Provence, and a few others that easily connected to Marseille by train.  Once we had the car, however, we realized that the true Provencial experience lay in the small villages peppered across the countryside.  After trying to piece together a route from our not so great Rick Steve's guidebook, we promptly gave up and asked our B&B host, Mauro, for his advice.
 
From Marseille, we headed towards Aix en Provence.  During this day, we didn't stop in Aix, but did spend some time there the day before.  The reason I bring it up now is to share the beauty of the Patisserie with you.  Aix was a gleamingly beautiful, charming little city featuring countless food spots.  We were barely in town a few minutes before we found the above delights.  English is scarcely spoken in this part of the country, so we had to try our crude French to get these.  While the woman at the Patisserie was friendly enough, she wasn't going to give us much help when it came to the language barrier.  We had to point and dig deep for any descriptive french words we knew: chocolat, blanche, frese, frambois, and so on.  The French pastry shops were similar to the Italians in that they sold bite size portions of most of their offerings for very reasonable prices.  The above box cost us about 5 euro and tasted even better than it looks. 

Lourmarin

After passing Aix, we went to the village of Lourmarin.  We were pretty hungry, so we set out looking for lunch.  Finding a quaint square that housed half a dozen restaurants with ample outdoor seating, we tried to find one to suit our fancy.  Picking a restaurant in a situation like this is tough for several reasons.  First off, we're pretty hungry and not thinking clearly as a result.  Also, aside from menu prices and the overall vibe of the restaurant, there is little else to help you decide which one to choose.  The square was packed with people eating lunch, and every single one of them was French.  All the menus were exclusively in French and you didn't hear a word of English being spoken anywhere.  Having already gotten over my apprehension about being immersed in a different culture and language, I actually quite enjoyed the confusion.

The restaurant we settled on served omelets.  We figured that we hadn't had eggs the entire time we were in Europe, and imagined that French omelets kicked ass.  We were absolutely right.  Above is mine, which had Roquefort cheese and came with a salad (all the salads we had in France had a dijon based dressing).  The cheese was so perfectly rich and flavorful with the eggs.  The omelet appeared to be a bit overcooked, but didn't have that stinky overcooked egg smell or taste.  It was perfectly light and fluffy and was probably one of the best omelets I've ever had.

After strolling through the market again, we returned to the convertible to head towards our next destination, Roussillon.  As we climbed the mountain ahead of us, we realized we were going to pass through an unexpected village, Bonnieux.  As with Lourmarin, Bonnieux was extremely charming, but was much  smaller.  It was situated atop the mountain we were climbing and just as we began our descent, it revealed a series of roadside cafes overlooking the entire valley.

View from the top of Bonnieux

I'm not sure that any photographer could do this view justice.  The outdoor seats of the mountain top cafe were literally hanging off the side of the road, granting their occupants an incredible view of the village as it faded into the patchwork quilted farmland below.  Realizing we couldn't just drive past, we quickly stopped, bought two bottles of Orangina, and enjoyed the view for a while. 

Realizing we might not get tired of the view any time soon, we forced ourselves to move on to Roussillon.  This particular village is known for the ochre in the surrounding soil.  Hundreds of years ago, the locals would mine the ochre and sell it around the world as an orange dye.

The famous ochre of Roussillon

While we certainly enjoyed an hour long mild hike through the ochre forest, we came for more important things: ice cream.  One of the regional delights that was universally outstanding was pink grapefruit sorbet.  It was exceptionally refreshing.  We also tried lavender glace (ice cream), as neither of us had ever eaten anything with lavender flavor before.  Both were excellent.  

 As we drove across the valley, we noticed that food was everywhere.  Whether it was olives growing in one of the villages or cherries on one of the many farms, the bounty of Provence was omnipresent. 

Cherry Farm

Olive tree in Roussillon

Lavender just about to bloom

Quite possibly the most famous natural wonder of Provence's is the lavender.  We certainly saw it blooming, but it was still a few weeks away from the famous purple countrysides that we've seen in post cards.  Nonetheless, as we drove around, the air was fragrant with the sweetness of these tiny purple flowers.  What struck me the most was how mild and delicate the smell was.  Typically lavender products are very strong scented, but the flowers were subtle and sweet.    

Gordes (the mountain in the far distance is where Bonnieux was situated)

Finally, we ascended the mountain at the other end of the valley to arrive at Gordes, a medieval looking castle village.  By this point of the day, we were a bit tired, but still wanted to explore what seemed like a set out of Lord of the Rings.  The village was the quietest of the several we'd visited during the day, but stores were still open.  We hit up yet another patisserie for what I determined to be the best item of the entire trip: a pistachio eclair.  It was unreal.  The flavor was powerful yet light, the filling was rich yet fluffy, and the pastry was savory yet airy and flaky.  It was superb. We also bought a loaf of french bread for 50 eurocents.  What a bargain!  Finally, we hit up a little grocery/specialty store for the items you read about in last post's picnic #2.  All the shops in this town really seemed to be run by young people trying to keep classic French traditions alive. 

Pistachio Eclair.  Perfection

We still had about an hour and a half drive back to Marseille, but we could hardly care less about it.  The sun was setting slowly as we drove our root beer brown convertible across the lavender scented countryside.  A large portion of the trip ended up taking us along a less scenic and hardly romantic highway, but we didn't care.  We left the roof of the convertible down as we sped at 130 kilometers per hour (approximately 500 miles per hour by my estimated conversion).  As we approached Marseille, the airport appeared on our right.  The mountainous highway was elevated significantly above the runway and we were able to watch planes take off, yet remain below us for a few moments until they took their passengers far away from the paradise that we just discovered.  I knew we'd be on one of those planes in two days time, but put the thought out of my mind as I remembered the bags of produce and wine and cheese and bread and pastries that we had in the back of the car.  The road trip may have been ending, but the feast was about to begin.

Le Petit Jardin (our B&B) at night.