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It is what it is- loud, honky tonk atmosphere- the rolls are great- give you that, but its not a good/quality steak. Go for the beer/tvs and get something edible- sure it fits that bill.
One Last Texas Roadhouse in Roanoke all the others closed. It's the one up on top of the hill south of town.
Stewart will be great if our offense can stay ahead of the chains... which last happened on a consistent basis in 1999.
"that all 6-6 records are not created equal"- disagree- they pretty much are, and here is why. If we beat South Carolina, Miami and Florida State in 25... that's a damn good season right? well if those are 3 of your wins and you still go 6-6 that means you lost to some dogshit teams. So its the same as losing those 3 and having your best win by far be GT. meh. When you are 6-6 nothing is good or glamourous about it if you ended up there.
Golden Corral or those like it were prevalent but not any more. Only one in Northern Virginia now I think. Most of those other chains mentioned (Applebee's, TGI Fridays, etc) have greatly reduced their locations. Loudoun County seems to go through phases. Right now it's a chicken sandwich place phase. Like 8 new versions in our area at the moment.
I do miss Friendly's 5 Scoop Ice Cream sundae. Instead it's Froyo places that charge by weight. Family of four getting small cups costs as much as 5 or 6 full cartons of ice cream from the grocery store.
My local go to's are Joes Diner, Santinis, Buffalo Wing Factory, Velocity Wings, Miller's and McAlisters. A step up are the Great American Restaraunt Group and the Bungalow Lakehouse.
Too much froo froo places come to bougie LoCo to keep track of but almost all come with comparable price points.
Yes sir to this. I never get a grilled rib eye out as good as I make them, and the only brisket I will order that I don't make is in texas. Don't even talk to me about garbage like Outback and Texas Roadhouse- choice meat garbage and overcooked 90% of the time. Only reason to go to either is if they have a beer on draft you can't get elsewhere.
I worked at Hot Shoppes when it was not owned by marriott. It was a fredericksburg institution- had an old school soda counter and huge buffett- which kept them afloat. The place was relatively clean- even in the basement, etc. I think what killed it was simply competition- Central Park in Fredericksburg opened and literally every restaurant chain is in there- all of them.
The huge bigger than your head california style burrito was around (burrito bros) long before Chipotle... but they made it faster, cheaper at the time and more convenient. They broke huge when your other choice for fast mexican was taco bell using fake meat and extenders and child size burritos. They seized a vaccum big time.
In and Out still very affordable- half the price of 5 guys
Market research has proven the drive-thru is king now. There's a reason why there's a double drive-thru at McD's in most locations now. 70% drive thru business. When McD's pushes this info out there, there aren't many that will buck the trend and sink money into expensive real estate on the hope that families walk in. And if they do, it's difficult to keep it to under $100 for the family of 4 with rent and wages factored in.
Yep Five Guys quickly went down this rabbit hole. Burgers went from like $5-6 to $13-$15. All the other new one offs took note of it and here we are.
My air fryer makes better burgers than almost all of them and the one exception closed near me (BGR)
We always take two to go boxes of rolls home.
You mention something that you don't see much any more - AYCE fish on Friday's used to be a staple for local/regional restaurants around here. It was something I used to plan my week around. It seems like the fish Friday correlation has slowed down a bit in recent years, but I miss it. It was a good break from burgers, pizza, and Mexican.
Agreed on both counts. A lot of the issues on D last year appeared to be just subpar scheme and coaching, so hopeful a bit more competency in that regard will help. We made so many simple mistakes last year in all facets of the game that should be easy to identify and fix, but who knows if that will happen.
If the OL is improved, and I think it will be, there is some real hope for the offense to be an improvement from last year.
I feel like the defense is much more of an unknown, but hopefully Siefkis will be the boost we need to solidify that unit.
I worked at Ground Round(off-shoot from Howard Johnson's midwest.Northeast based but had a few locations in VA including Richmond and NoVa) in the early 90s-exactly the type place you describe...
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/restaurant-chain-ground-round-w...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_Round
American food,wide variety. popcorn or peanuts ,
Tuesday night "penny a pound for kids-eat for what they weighed-clown on those nights and Saturday afternoons and balloon for each kid; cartoons running on screens on the non-bar side.
AYCE(all you can eat) wings for $10(equivalent today prob about $18-20), AYCE flounder fillets Friday nights
Great steaks and ribs; excellent price to value, and large portions
Full bar for the adults, too
Claw game plus couple pinball machines
Great employee benefit was being able to buy food at cost to take home (e.g. full rack of baby back ribs for $4; 8 oz burgers or 6 oz boneless chicken breasts for 50 cents)
Closed in early 2000s-though a single store exists in Shrewsbury, MA that's trying to revive the experience https://www.groundround.com/
My seasickness comes in waves.
I grew up with local restaurants more than chains. Tony's Pizza, Camden's Restaurant and Bowling Alley, Champlain's, etc. But Friendly's and Newport Creamery were for special occasions, the food we could make at home. It was the ice creams and shakes that were the specials.
The guy in Virginia who does it is over by Suffolk. Father in law swears by it. Much less pain, very quick rehab. He had both knees done and was climbing a ladder the next week. The doctors were trying to hold him back. His hip replacement gave him more pain and issues than doing both knees at the same time. But I think the Jiffy Knee is the difference.
I would love to hear what your favorite options are, as I just moved to the area. (Heathsville, to be precise.) Since you mentioned Hardees, I'm assuming you're in Warsaw?
(At least I thought you've mentioned living in the NNK. I may be wrong though.)
I love Santinis and BWF. I would also add Glory Days as a cousin to the the Chilis/Applebees void that Fireman mentioned. It's pretty decent bar food, inexpensive, and a nice laidback vibe. The $5 jumbo margarita's on happy hour are hard to beat in this area.
The Wing Factory started to lose me a little bit when they tried to rebrand as "craft beer and craft wings". Personally, I liked it better when your feet stuck to the floor.