Eats & Treats in NY and OH

While on a (mostly) southern states road trip traveling from New Hampshire to Florida, we're sampling foods along the way. It's part of the road trip fun for us. Here's where we recently dined in NY and OH.

We are both diner fans from years of living in NJ, known as The Diner Capital of the World. Our home state was also home to the the largest diner maker in the world, the Jerry O’Mahony Diner Company, which produced over 2,000 diners from 1917 to the early 1950s.

So, when we spotted a highway billboard sign for the Eveready Diner which said "as featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network" we opted to give it try  The exit was coming up within a few minutes and we were ready for a lunch stop by early afternoon.

Stepping inside this eatery was like entering a 1950s time warp with its classic retro styling, large upholstered booth seat, and shiny chrome throughout. I didn't photograph the interiors as a lot of other folks were dining at the same time as ourselves.

The food menu (left above) had some fun menu titles like "Bring My Baby Back Ribs" and "Hound Dog" hot dog. It was a busy place when we visited, but service was good and the food came out quickly. Baked goods are done "in house" and the "New York style" cheesecake looked wonderful in the above dessert menu, but we restrained ourselves from having dessert (this time).

It was a busy place when we visited, but service was good and the food came out quickly. Grenville enjoyed one of his diner favorites, pastrami on rye with coleslaw on the side. I tried the eggplant panini which came with one of my favorite sides, sweet potato fries, and (yeah) no "up" charge. The first (original) Everyday Diner is in Hyde Park, NY. If we've ever in that area, we'll try that one as well.

Our first dining experience after arriving in OH was at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, formerly known as Cheddar's Casual Cafe. It was also a first in that we had never dined in one and this first one in the Dayton area opened in 2016 at the Cornerstone of Centerville, a recently developed restaurant and lodgings complex, also where our hotel was located.

It's hard to see in this photo but within the restaurant's name is the date 1979 which is when it was founded by Aubrey Good and Doug Rogers in Arlington, TX. The chain is now headquartered in Irving, TX, and as of 2018 with over 170 locations in 28 states. There's none (yet) in New England.The interior of Cheddar's is unique with giant sweeping fans made of bamboo in a central area. There's also a very large aquarium separating the bar from the rest of the restaurant and it's a popular viewing spot for children. 

Few chain restaurants have much of a reputation for making menu from "scratch." Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen differs from competitors and promotes itself by its the claim that it uses “simple, honest, natural ingredients” and “scratch-made recipes, handcrafted with care and time.” 

Cheddar’s features traditional and modern American fare. One of the appetizers was Homemade Onion Rings, which are a personal favorite that I've been known to try at many places we've dined. Cheddar's did not disappoint and Yes I shared with Grenville.

Meat loaf is one of Grenville's favorite comfort foods and it's become his personal standard to judge eateries by when it's listed on their menu. He declared that the Cheddar's offering was "pretty good but a bit on the spicy side." The House Smoked Baby Back Ribs was my choice. They're advertised as being "slow-smoked for a minimum of four hours" and were "fall-off-the-bone" good. The side of mac and cheese while not the best (pasta was overdone) was thankfully a small portion and very cheesy.

Since we were celebrating our 1st date anniversary (details in an upcoming post) and the start of our road trip, we ordered dessert — a decadent chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream which we shared. We were glad that we didn't order two separate desserts as this one was quite enough for two (or more).

Bagger Dave's Burger Tavern was also within waking distance of our Centerville, OH, hotel. This tavern restaurant chain was founded in 2008 by Michael Ansley in Berkley, MI.  Most locations were in Michigan and Indiana; two opened in OH over the past 3 years. 

On its website, the unusual company name is explained: Bagger was selected for no special reason, other than it sounded good with Dave which is in memory of Ansley’s late father-in-law. Tavern was added to celebrate a local place serving fresh food.

The restaurant features “build-your-own” and signature prime-rib burgers, hand-cut fries, soups, salads, and 10 craft-beer taps. Its slogan is “Different kinds of burgers, different kinds of beer.” 

As noted above, I'm an onion rings fanatic, so we gave tried them here, but I neglected to take a photo, probably because they didn't compare to ones we enjoyed two nights earlier. We ordered the "signature burgers" — Grilled Pastrami Burger (Grenville) and Crispy Cheese Bacon Burger for me, but skipped the buns and opted for a bed of lettuce. (We tried to "save" some calories after the lackluster onion rings.) We agreed there was nothing unique about this burger chain that would compel us to try it again. We’ve had better burgers at a favorite (non-chain) eatery back home in Nashua, NH.

Thanks, as always, for virtually traveling along with us. We've been reading and appreciating all your comments. Our days are spent on the road touring and eves are spent posting about our adventures. Blog reading may fall behind, but I'll catch up as time allows.