Roger and Cindy's Ralston Corner Cafe - Review #16 - The last Oklahoma Review

Well it has been a long time since the last review and I apologize for that.  There have been 3 or 4 places in Ponca City, Agra, and the University Country Club in Stillwater that I should have written about, but never got done.  That would have put us at 20 or so overall on what has turned out to be quite a fun little adventure around north-central Oklahoma. I don't know that there is a better way to see what the people of a place are like than going into the one little restaurant in town and people watching.  My journey's with BJ have taken me to little towns I would have never thought of visiting, each with their own character or at least remnants of the character they once had. 

Today's final journey perhaps took us to our most unique stop in a small town (maybe former town) called Ralston located about an our northeast of Stillwater in farm country along the Arkansas River.  I town so isolated the closest grocery store was about 30 minutes away, closest walmart an hour away and no real gas station.  It is the definition of dying or dead, one street town with the only viable businesses being two small restaurants.  The bank, bar, and car dealership as well as a small number of other buildings that lack any remaining identification have long been closed and boarded up.

The restaurant though remained well intact and was actually far nicer than you would have ever expected.  It had a fantastic ambiance with walls covered in signs and other decor.  It was perhaps one of the nicer restaurants we've actually eaten in.  Amazingly it had a appeared to have a strong local (regular) customer base who the waitress all knew by name. People talked about their donkey's making noises, had large gaps in their teeth, but were all good folk who just seemed to enjoy life. 

 

The breakfast menu was the typical for an Oklahoma restaurant with good ole' American favorites, and on this morning I had the tried and true eggs overeasy, sausage, homemade fried potatoes and biscuits and gravy.....all of which were truly excellent.  BJ had a single, humongous pancake and two eggs over easy, both of which he said were excellent with the pancake being surprisingly good considering how big it was.

 

And overall.......

Food: 4.5 of 5 pancakes
Cost: $$ (out of 5 - more dollar signs = more expensive)
Overall: 5 of 5 cups of coffee

The coffee was very good and constantly refilled, always a necessary requirement.  The food was delicious and plentiful, the decor amazingly pleasant and the people watching definitely gets a plus rating.  As always BJ's company was great and it was a beautiful early morning drive through rural Oklahoma, a part of the country few ever see and even fewer appreciate.  It's these small, often dying towns that were part of what made this country great and now often all that's left is a facade of once existed. If you were driving through Ralston you would probably never consider stopping, with to many reminders of Deliverance, but if some day you do it's well worth stopping for a hearty, good old American breakfast!!!!  I could think of no better way to conclude the Oklahoma version of this blog, but that will not be the end.  On Monday I head back to central California where, once settled, David and I will continue the journey to those restaurants less seen!

The view from the restaurant down the one cross street.

View looking north out of town from the restaurant.  The river is jsut down that hill.

The view from the restaurant looking south out of town.  Say goodbye to BJ!

The drive home!

Freddie Paul's Steak House - Review #15

And we're back!

It's been a month since the last breakfast review due to BJ or I being out of town, and even more so having a new place to go to in a timely fashion.  At this point we've reviewed almost, if not all of the breakfast places in Stillwater and all the nearby neighboring towns.  So in order for us to try a new place the driving distances are at least 45 minutes to an hour each way and that requires time that we sadly often lack. That being said, we've been fortunate that in that the past couple of weeks one of Stillwater's steakhouses, Freddie Paul's, decided to open up shop for breakfast.  BJ and Mike tried it last week which I missed because I was sick, but they came away highly impressed so we decided to go again this week. 

So on this beautiful, crisp, Saturday morning we met at 7:30 to try something new, but local.  Compared to most of the places we've been trying, Freddie's takes it up a notch as far as ambiance with a bit of  more fine dining atmosphere typical of a steakhouse.  That comparison is especially true when comparing it to the tiny diner's like Shortcakes (which I've learned recently cut back on their portions), Jalopy's, Icehouse and their stripper friends and many of the others in which you sometimes wondered how they managed to pass the public health inspections (maybe there aren't any in rural Oklahoma???). The beauty of it though is that the nicer experience didn't mean a noticeable increase in prices as we all still paid an average of about $10 with tip.

I stuck with my usual combination that was presented in a much different fashion that they called the Southern Smother.  The Smother consisted of a biscuit base on top of which were 2 fried eggs, hashbrowns and sausage patties all smothered in homemade gravy. And what a unique and delicious taste it had, although I think they could probably get away with calling it the heart attack smother!   The one unfortunate part is that with this presentation it is impossible for me to critique each individual component, but as a whole it's fantastic.

The Southern Smother! You can't see much but a mountain of food covered in gravy.

BJ had an oldie but a goodie that he used to get at Mom's, and ordered a short stack of pancakes, two eggs over easy and a side of gravy.  Now you might ask what one would do with a side of gravy considering the other two components ordered.  Well, BJ has this interesting liking to put syrup and butter on his pancakes, then put the eggs on top those pancakes, and then cover the whole thing in gravy.  It's never failed to gather attention and this time our waitress watched in wonderment as he made this concoction, and said that it would be her story of the day.  If you think about it though it's not much different than what I had with biscuits being replaced by pancakes.  Whether you think it's a disgusting or great idea it is always at the very least a conversation starter!

Before the gravy was added!

Mike, however, might have gotten the best meal of the day by ordering a perfectly cooked ribeye steak, with hasbrowns with onions and eggs over easy. And wow did it look and smell good, and I think it will be my choice the next time we visit!  The best part is that it was only $11.99! So it was well worth the slightly extra cost.  

Ribeye, hasbrowns with onions and eggs!

And overall.......

Food: 5 of 5 pancakes
Cost: $$$ (out of 5 - more dollar signs = more expensive)
Overall: 5 of 5 cups of coffee

This very well may have been the most complete breakfast we've had in the 7 months we've been trying out new places.  The coffee was good and continually refilled.  The atmosphere was far above par compared to most places, and the food was delicious.  Some might say that the one draw back was that the service and food preparation time are a bit slow; however, one of the reasons we go to breakfast is for the camaraderie, conversation and relaxation and the slightly slower service allowed that to happen.  Several of the places we've gone have had your food to you so fast that it almost feels like a fast food joint which makes it difficult to have much of a conversation before you're done and ready to go.  All in all, i think the extra dollar or two is well worth all of that described above and all three of us would highly recommend it! 

Hopefully the new Jimmy's Egg's will open up here in Stilly soon and we'll have another local place to try out.

Until next time keep on eating breakfast!!

Belltown Pizza, downtown Seattle - Review #14

Top of the morning to everyone!  This week BJ, Greg and I ventured back to a restaurant (if you can call it that!) that we had previously blogged about in Review #2, The Ice House Bar, out on highway 51 east of Stillwater.  It still had it's fantastic ambiance of sitting around a smoke filled bar being served day old coffee by Bob, and some great people watching (and listening), but the food was about the same as before and there wasn't very much to expand on from the previous blog.  Plus it would be tough to top the stories we heard the first time about the local strippers!

Instead, I decided to write about a place I went for breakfast one Sunday morning when I was in Seattle for the ACVP conference a little under two months ago.  I have two great friends in Seattle, Laura and Cam, and Cam is a fantastic bartender who on Sunday mornings works at Belltown Pizza on 1st street in the Belltown section of downtown Seattle.  It was in the middle of football season and my 49ers (soon to be Super Bowl Champions!) were going to be on TV that Sunday morning so Cam told me to come down and join the regulars who come in every Sunday morning to watch the games.

The amazing pizza based breakfast menu!

 Now I know that pizza may seem like an odd thing to most people to have as a breakfast item, but these aren't your usual pizzas. These pizzas are different and quite amazing, and when joined by a fantastic freshly squeezed grapefruit and vodka cocktail, life just doesn't get any better!!

The Lombardi!

The names of the pizzas are named after football players, adding the perfect final touch and there is quite the variety. On that cold drizzly Sunday morning I had The Lombardi which is made with egg, italian sausage, green peppers, red onions, parmesan cheese and the house red sauce.  The 9 inch pizza is perfect if you're going to sit there for an entire 3 hours and watch a game, and the pizza was absolutely delicious!  I had never even thought about putting egg on a pizza, but I know believe it is one of the most fantastic creations ever invented. The blend of spice provided by the italian sausage blended with the egg and pepper was to die for while still maintaining that traditional pizza taste. It was a complete change from the typical Saturday morning breakfasts BJ and I usually have.

And overall.......

Food: 5 of 5 pancakes  (maybe pizzas in this case)
Cost: $$$ (out of 5 - more dollar signs = more expensive)
Overall: 5 of 5 cups of coffee

Maybe I'm rating it so highly because of it's uniqueness compared to what we typically have for breakfast, but this really was a first and one of a kind for me.  Combining the food with the cocktail, which would never happen in Oklahoma, with great company, football and ambiance made this a one of a kind and my first rating of 5 out of 5.  Although it was a bit more expensive than the typical breakfast, it was in Seattle rather than red dirt Oklahoma, and was without a doubt worth every penny!  If you are ever in Seattle on a Sunday, especially during football season it is definitely worth stopping in for a slice and say hi to Cam!

When I move back to Cali this coming summer I will definitely miss my Saturday morning breakfasts with BJ and seeing the little towns of Oklahoma, but I'm also looking forward to the diversity of restaurants that living in the suburban west coast offers that I think will really allow for some great blogs!  And yes, the blog will be continuing on at that point California style!

Until next time, keep on eating breakfast!

Freshly squeezed grapefruit and vodka cocktail!

The surrounding tv's and some of the regulars.

Jalopy's Drive-in - Review #13

Another Saturday and another breakfast!  Today we stayed local and went to Jalopy's Drive-in located about 3 miles away in the small town of Perkins, south of Stillwater. Since we stayed local today, we were joined by Mike and Greg which changed things up a bit.

Notice the automated ice machine to the left of the sign where you can purchase ice by the bucket!

Jalopy's definitely isn't much of an impressive site, with a blue metal roof and sign that appear to be dated by back the 60's or 70's.  For a long time I avoided trying it, but as we've learned on this breakfast tour, you can't judge a book by it's cover.  The parking lot is often full, especially in the mornings, and so about a month ago we tried it for the first time.  Unfortunately, I forgot to write it up; however, on the bright side that meant we got to go back again!

Similar to Grammy's that I wrote about in review #9, you order your food at the counter, and pour your own coffee.  The menu on the wall is hand written, and made for a great picture, but sadly the picture I took didn't come out.   Like the first time we were here there was a large table full of old white guys, that I think must have included every 70+ year old man in Perkins.  Another table had a single very large middle-aged guy  in overalls and a brown leather hat who had been there last time, and seemed to be the only person who could regularly get the staff to refill his coffee.  I wonder if it's because he couldn't get out of his chair to refill his coffee?

Greg's breakfast!

Today, BJ and I both had eggs over easy, pancakes and sausage.  Mike had bacon, hasbrowns, eggs over easy and toast, and Greg had eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy.  This was definitely one of the best breakfasts we have had.  The pancakes were soft, yet had a slight crispiness which was excellent, and the sausage was spicy.  And this one is for you Tamara, the eggs were excellent, probably the best I've had.  The egg whites were thick, and overall they were very light brown, and lightly crisped, yet by no means burned.  With just a touch of pepper added they were fantastic.   The coffee was also unlimited and good, with the only complaint being the lack of real cream.  Artificial dried cream just isn't the same. 

Those were some good eggs Tamara!

Probably the most unusual moment of the morning was when Greg ordered a glass of milk and they said they had to run and buy some before bringing him his glass about 10 minutes later!

And overall.......

Food: 4.5 of 5 pancakes
Cost: $$ (out of 5 - more dollar signs = more expensive)
Overall: 4.5 of 5 cups of coffee

Jalopy's really has been a great local find. The food is very good and the price of $5.99 for most breakfasts is tough to beat.  The atmosphere is pretty nice inside with pictures of lots of old cars, and the people watching is tough to beat out side of the Icehouse Bar (Review #2).  If they could just get some real cream the place would be almost perfect for a quick, good, local breakfast. 

Until next time, keep on eating breakfast!

Kelly's Cafe - Review #12

This week took us on our longest journey yet in search of a good breakfast, to the town of Crescent, approximately 45 minutes southwest of Stillwater.  The main problem we have been having is that at this point we have been to all the nearby restaurants and each week we are having to travel farther and farther.  Granted, I have two blogs from more local restaurants that I haven't written yet (Jalopy's in Perkins, and Katie's Diner in Guthrie) even though we've been there. Luckily both of those places were top notch so I personally don't have a problem going back to either restaurant again.

The one blinking stoplight in town.  Old bank building on the distant right that is now an antique shop.

Crescent is a tiny town in central Oklahoma on highway (or more like road) 74.  It is about 5 blocks long and 3 blocks wide, with highway 74 acting as Main St.  Once a prominent wheat and cattle town with a skyline of tall silos, but like so many other towns we've visited it is dying.  The majority of the shops on main st are boarded up with only a single restaurant, antique store, post office, gas station and the VFW still in operation.

The restaurant we went to was Kelly's cafe that was about a third to half full by the time we left, filled with locals.  BJ made the comment that it must have been a requirement for men to have beards in order to eat there as not a single guy had a smooth shaven face.  It was definitely where the locals came for breakfast, as multiple large groups seemed to be meeting for their weekly meal. 

The menu was small, but more than adequate with excellent prices.  Although the eggs, hashbrowns, biscuit and gravy with ribeye steak for $8.50 was tempting, I stuck to my usual and had sausage patties, eggs overeasy, hashbrowns with a biscuit and gravy, and BJ had the same. The sausage was excellent, flavorful and spicy.  The hashbrowns were good, but definitely would have been better if they were crispier.  In an effort to be more detailed with the egg quality, these were very good, but probably more on the less rather than well-cooked side for eggs overeasy.  The biscuit was good, definitely better than what we had a Red Rock last week, but the gravy lacked any sort of zestiness.  If they had put minced pieces of the sausage patties into the gravy then I think it could have been excellent. The coffee was very good and refilled consistently as it must be for breakfasts!

And overall.......

Food: 4 of 5 pancakes
Cost: $$ (out of 5 - more dollar signs = more expensive)
Overall: 4 of 5 cups of coffee

Kelly's Cafe was definitely an improvement over Red Rock Bakery last week, and it was good to get back to a more normal breakfast.  While there were definitely areas where the breakfast could be improved, it was very good and only needs one or two minor tweaks to make it great!  One of the best parts about this blog is trying new places each week and the travel that goes with it.  It was a perfect day for a drive and it is always fun to drive down the old farm roads to get our destination that hopefully has a great meal for us upon our arrival.  Until next week, keep on eating breakfast!

Red Rock Bakery - Review #11

Well it has been a month since the last post, and that is far to long.  We've actually been to a couple of places during that time and I've basically been to lazy to get them written up.  So either I will have to do it by memory or heaven forbid we'll just have to try them again.  Luckily they were pretty darn good places, Katie's Diner in Guthrie, Jalopy's in Perkins, and surprisingly pancakes and sausage at Applebee's for a Boy Scout fundraiser last Saturday!

This morning though we went to Red Rock Bakery in Stillwater which was a bit of a change of pace for us.  Traditionally Red Rock has only been a bakery in the mornings providing what some would say are the best donuts and pastries in town, but recently they've added a more significant breakfast menu that includes egg scrambles, sausage/bacon biscuits and the more traditional biscuits and gravy. Most of my experience has been going there for lunch though as they do excellent soup, salad and sandwiches, the highlight of which is the sandwich bread which is fresh, warm and phenomenal!

The outside with drive-thru window!

With a relatively limited no pastry breakfast menu BJ and I ended up getting the same thing, the Red Rock Scramble with Biscuits and Gravy, and coffee.  The Red Rock scramble is essentially scrambled eggs mixed with thickly diced deli ham and cheese.  Somewhat surprisingly it was the highlight of the meal.  While it wasn't great it did have a decent taste especially when topped with a little bit of pepper, but overall it was barely something to write home about.

The Red Rock Scramble.

I think we both expected the highlight to be the biscuits and gravy for two reasons.  The first was that they are what was recommended to me by some friends as being really good, and second we expected Red Rock to be able to make some killer biscuits since their forte` is baking.  Sadly we were both disappointed as the biscuits were soft, but extremely doughy and the gravy while decent lacked any kind of significant flavor or zestiness (is that a word??).

The oh so doughy biscuits and gravy!

The highlight was definitely the coffee because although you poured your own, you had 6 different flavors to choose from which was a really nice treat.  They also kept to the breakfast mantra of making the coffee unlimited which was a good choice on their part.

And overall.......

Food: 2.5 of 5 pancakes
Cost: $$$$ (out of 5 - more dollar signs = more expensive)
Overall: 2 of 5 cups of coffee

I think this was by far the  most disappointing breakfast we've had since we started the blog.  The food just wasn't all that impressive, and although the choice of coffee flavors attempted to save them it wasn't enough.  Also, the quality and quantity of food wasn't very good considering the almost $8 price.  I would much rather drive 15 miles out to the Smokey Pokey and get a real breakfast for $6 than do this again.  Sometimes a place should really just stick to what they are good at rather than try and expand their menu.  There definitely is no question that they have great pastries and that their sandwiches at lunch are top notch, but we wouldn't recommend Red Rock for their breakfast menu.

The beauty of this blog though is that we have to take the good with the bad, and it's really all about experimentation and trying new things.  Until next time, keep on eating breakfast!

Smokey Pokey - Review #10

Welcome back everybody to a long needed, and hopefully awaited addition of the Oklahoma Breakfast Beat!  I apologize for the lack of new breakfast material over the last month, it has been quite the whirlwind and I'm honestly not sure what happened to November.

To get us back on track, BJ and I were joined by Mike this morning and headed to the Smokey Pokey at the intersection of Highway 51 and I-35.  For lack of a better term, it isn't anymore than a pit stop along the side of the road that claims to have the largest Beer Barn in the state, and is basically a gas station with a restaurant attached.  If this place didn't exist, the area would be nothing more than THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!  I had heard a while back that the Smokey served breakfast, but it had taken a while for us to make it out that way to try it, and after trying it I'm quite sad it took us so long to get out there.

Sorry for the quality of the pic, I thought it came out better.

Known more for it's BBQ, none of us had particularly high expectations when we walked in at 8am this morning (yes, late for us!). The first thing that stood out was the prices, which for the supposed amount of food described on the menu was dirt cheap.  Only $5 for 2 eggs, sausage, hash browns, and toast.

Yes, BJ ate all this!

We all agreed that the hashbrowns were by far the best part of the meal, and probably the best ones we've had on our breakfast tour. The were crispy, but not overdone and had a great seasoning.  The sausage was very good with just enough spice and flavor.  I don't usually like ham very much, but I tried a piece of Mike's and it was excellent, at least as ham goes. BJ felt that his pancakes were average at best, though they looked promising at the beginning!  And as usual eggs are eggs, and toast is toast.

This was my amazing breakfast!

 And overall.......

Food: 4.5 of 5 pancakes
Cost: $ (out of 5)
Overall: 4.5 of 5 cups of coffee

Amazingly, and very surprisingly this may have been the best place we've been to yet when you factor in the cost.  The amount of quality food for the $$$ was pretty amazing and the hash browns were definitely far above almost everywhere else we've been. If I have time, I plan on blogging about some of the breakfasts I had during my recent trip to Seattle that included a smoked salmon eggs benedict.........very yummy!  If not, next week we'll continue our journey to find the best breakfast in Oklahoma!

Until next time keep on eating breakfast, and remember never to judge a book by it's cover!

The outside of the restaurant, on the left hand side in the picture below

The gas station/restaurant in all it's glory! Looking north in this picture, I-35 is just to the left.