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Tio Wally Eats America: German Haus Restaurant

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is at German Haus in Camp Douglas, Wisconsin.

Greetings from Camp Douglas, Wisconsin!
N 43° 55.165’  W 090° 15.577’  Elev. 934 ft.

The crew of the SS Me So Hungry was starving and completely exhausted when we finally pulled off Interstate 90/94 at Exit 55 in Camp Douglas. I didn’t really want to drive quite that far that day but, because of a screwed up schedule, had little choice.

I was passing through Madison when I remembered I’d stopped years ago at a German restaurant located in a picturesque Bavarian-style building.

On that visit I had Jaeger Shnitzel, a breaded pork steak smothered in a reddish (paprika?) mushroom gravy. Even though it had been over ten years, I remembered it was delicious. The other thing that was really memorable were these little cooked carrot medallions on the salad bar that were really sweet and tasty; I think they called them Golden Pennies or some such. Hoping it was still in existence I slogged on and, thankfully, it was still there in all of its Cuckoo-clock grandeur.

That night’s special was Pork Wiener Shnitzel that came with soup and salad bar. I was too tired to pay attention and can’t remember what it cost but I think it was around $12.

One of the soups was an incredibly hearty and meaty Vegetable Beef. I’d forgotten that the soups here are really good. Evidently they’re homemade by the owner, Rolf, a spry and friendly 77-year-old I met while I was waiting. It was kind of weird because I was waiting in the bar for my to-go order and he kind of came out of nowhere and asked me how I was doing. Here’s a friendly old man, I thought. “He’s the owner,” the bartendress told me. “He’s here every day.”

The salad bar was also pretty good. One of the unusual things on it was a ground chicken salad concoction the consistency of firm Malt-O-Meal®. There was also a bean-and-pasta salad that was interesting. But alas, there were no Golden Pennies. Wah! Still, I filled the to-go box with about two pounds of goodies.

While I was waiting for my entree a woman came in and ordered a Bloody Mary. What caught my attention about it was (as it turns out) a curiously Wisconsin thing. Years ago I broke down in Wisconsin and went to the restaurant next-door to the motel where I was staying. It happened to be Happy Hour and I was beached, so I went in the bar and ordered a Bloody Mary. But instead of the “normal” celery stalk and green olives for garnish, it came with a dill pickle wedge and pickled brussel sprouts. While it was really delicious and a great combination it was, to say the least, a surprise. Though they didn’t have pickled brussel sprouts at German Haus, they garnished it with a dill pickle wedge and did the other “odd” Wisconsin Bloody Mary thing: Serve it with a beer chaser. Go figure? But don’t argue: It’s goooood!

When my entree came I took the meal back to the land yacht, ate the soup, and … promptly fell asleep.

Luckily, the Pork Wiener Shnitzel, which was about the size of your foot and came with Spaetzle and a couple of rolls, turned out to be surprisingly good cold. It came with a little thangy of creamed horseradish, which wasn’t a bad combination. But what it really needed was some of that great mushroom gravy that the Jaeger Shnitzel comes with; the only difference between the Pork Wiener Shnitzel and the Jaeger Shnitzel is the mushroom gravy and about $7. (If you’re wondering, plain old Wiener Shnitzel is veal.)

Despite the fact that I crashed and burned before eating the meal it was all good cold, and the leftover Pork Wiener Shnitzel was extremely tender made for a great sandwich. …Verdammt! If only I had some German hot, sweet mustard!!

And so we roll.

Target Bluff German Haus Restaurant, 208 State Road 12/16, Camp Douglas, WI 54618
(608) 427-6542

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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Tio Wally Eats America: Galena, Missouri II

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Galena, Missouri.

Greetings from Galena, Missouri!
N 36° 47.079’  W 093° 30.350’  Elev. 885 ft.

The crew of the SS Me So Hungry took a few days off and, once again, took great pleasure in abusing the gracious hospitality of the Duke of Earl, his über-cool wife, 14-year-old grandson and, of course, the dogs. The weather was picture-postcard perfect, balmy days with negligible humidity and cool nights. As always, the crew had a very cool time and I got to do some cool things.

The first thing I did was go visit Bob. Bob is the local egg man, goo goo ga joob. The last time I was here Bob didn’t have any eggs because it was too damn hot and the chickens were molting. At first I thought he said they were melting. “No,” said Bob, “they’re molting. Chickens don’t lay when they’re molting.” Thankfully this time he had eggs.

Bob sells a dozen farm-fresh organic eggs for $1.50. A buck fifty! That ain’t cool. They used to be a buck. Using my eighth-grade “new” math, that’s a 50% price hike — over 4¢ per egg!! Goo goo ga jeez, Bob. Do I look like I’m made of money?

Since the farm-fresh organic eggs were so pricey, I had Bob give me a free tour of his operation. Bob not only keeps (what I suspect to be) designer chickens (that lay grossly overpriced organic designer eggs), he breeds pheasants, ducks, parakeets, finches, cockatiels and the occasional turkey, which he mostly sells at the swap meet.

Bob knows birds. One of the pheasants he breeds requires a special license because it’s not native to Missouri; they ain’t no Hillbilly birds. Still, they are very beautiful, very cool, but I can’t remember what they’re called. I do know they are not of the Ring-necked variety, though he raises those, too.

While there, Bob told me so much cool stuff about the birds that I wished I’d had a tape recorder. I’m one of those “The art of memory is knowing what to forget” guys, so I forget everything. I did remember a couple of things that were pretty cool though:

For instance, Bob wants to know whenever somebody gets a red spot on a yolk. “Because they’re fertile?” No, says Bob, it has nothing to do with it being fertile. The red spot is created before the egg is fully formed, a result of the chicken being frightened by something. Thus, if a lot of red spots start showing up in the expensive yolks of his grossly overpriced farm-fresh organic eggs, it means there’s a predator he doesn’t know about scaring the crap out of the hens. Cool, huh?

He also taught me how to sex a chicken. I thought you looked at their rear end or something. No, says Bob, the easy way to do it is to look at the shape of their wing. A rooster’s feathers will be long all the way out the wing, whereas a hen’s will look almost like a cutaway. This allows the rooster to almost take flight, moving fast to protect his territory and, hopefully take on all comers. Too cool, huh?

The other cool to-do hereabouts was the Grand Opening — which I missed (not cool) — of my friend Debbi Cool’s cool restaurant in downtown Galena. It’s called The Cool Place Cafe, and is located so downtown that you can hit every major government building and notable Stone County institution with a rock … if you had a Ernest T. Bass-worthy hillbilly arm and the requisite inclination.

It’s open 7 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays, with a daily special. The Duke and I went and I ordered biscuits and gravy. I happen to know Deb makes really great biscuits. “No!” she said. “We quit serving breakfast at 11.” Not cool. Despite my arguing time zones with her she failed to budge. However, she did give me a to-go container of gravy she had saved for me, which was pretty cool.

We ended up having the day’s special, Chili and Grill Cheese ($5.25), and that was pretty cool. Great chili (“I was gonna call it Butch’s chili because I got the recipe from him,” Debbi said) and a pepper jack grilled cheese on (I think) rye bread. Really good and a cool deal, too.

The next day I went in and got that days’ special — Chicken and Homemade Noodles w/roll and cake ($5.50) — and it was really, really good, too. Plus, I learned a couple of cool things: Debbi will serve you seconds if you’re still hungry, and you get a free piece of cake on Wednesdays and Fridays with the special.

She had some other really cool touches, I thought. I loved the glass plates and such, mostly because they look cool and I don’t have to carry them. Also, a super-cool touch was that she had whole black pepper and, especially cool, sea salt with garlic grinders at the table. Cool.

I’ve known Deb for over 40 years and she pisses me off. First, she refuses to age properly, which ain’t cool. She makes me look older than I am. Secondly, in 40 years I have won — and I’ve tallied them with exacting measure — exactly 0 [zero] arguments with her during that time. And that’s cool, but she doesn’t have to remind me. I mean, that ain’t cool.

I’ve also known her husband forever. He is the son of Jack and Jo Cool. Dig that: His mom was Jo Cool! He tells a cool story about asking his dad about being harangued about his last name when he was a kid. Evidently, Jack never heard any jokes or puns about his last name because “cool” hadn’t yet taken on the meaning it has since, I suspect, the late ‘50s. The punch line is that a classmate of Jack Cool’s was named Jack Frost, and it was Jack Frost who took the ribbing.

All in all the land yacht’s crew had a pretty cool shore leave in Galena … despite the extraordinarily high cost of farm-fresh organic eggs. Ah, but what the hell, it’s all cool. Heck, a gaggle of Canada Geese even made a backyard visit. And that, too, is always cool.

And so we roll.

The Cool Place Cafe, 107 Main Street, Galena, MO  417.357.0440

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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Tio Wally Eats America: Bear River Valley Country Store

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Buford, WY and Corrine, UT.

Greetings from Corinne, Utah
N 41° 33.356’  W 112° 07.647’  Elev. 4207 ft.

I find myself today at the Bear River Valley Country Store (2780 N 4800 W), a Convenience store attached to a Farm and Ranch store, or vice-versa, attached to a gas station/truck stop. If the address seems sort of like a geographic position, it’s because it is, of sorts.

Here in Utah, there is a rather large religious *cult that’s very prolific at breeding and building things. When they laid out their towns, all the roads were laid out in a grid and numbered with Temple Square in Salt Lake City as the focal point. Thus, if you follow the addresses and streets in a descending order you’ll end up running right smack dab into it.

It certainly makes it easy to find places, especially for  my evil twin Skippy, crack lead navigator of the SS Me So Hungry. “It must be, uh, that way?” he’s wont to say. Often.

On the way here, I made a stop in Buford, Wyoming (I-80 Exit 325, Population 1, Elevation 8000). Billed as the Nation’s Smallest Town, I wanted to get a postcard and, hopefully, meet its sole resident.

I went into the Buford Trading Post and asked the only person in there, ominously, “Are you ‘The One’?” “No,” the guy says, obviously bored to death by this tiresome query, “he’ll be here in about an hour.” And so was my near-brush with “The One.”

Are you detecting a religious theme here yet? Well, so I bought this pastrami and pepper jack cheese sandwich ($5.25) at the Bear River Valley Country Store and “Oh. My. God.” It was huge! Being more loudmouth than big-mouthed, I was wondering how I was going to eat it. While not as intimidating as, say, one of those mile-high sandwiches they make at the Jewish delis, it was a pretty scary sandwich, especially considering it was made by a shiksa.

I hadn’t had pastrami in a long time and this stuff was really good. I suspect it was probably made by Boarshead or some other quality deli-meat maker. I got it on a Hoagie roll, with extra meat (which I discovered later she didn’t charge me the extra dollar for), mayo and deli mustard. Just to make it more awesome, it came with crisp green leaf lettuce, ripe(!) tomato, and crisp red onion. Good God, y’all!

Included in the price was a delightfully crunchy pickle spear and a choice of macaroni or potato salad, or chips. I got the potato salad, which tasted suspiciously, deliciously homemade.

Truly a quality pastrami sandwich, whether made in New York City or the wilds of Utah. And who’d of thought of finding one here? What a deal!

Meanwhile back at Temple Square stands a statue of the Angel Moroni holding a trumpet. Facing a hotel across the street, it is rumored that the statue will come to life and blow his horn, heralding the Second Coming. The joke hereabouts is that should a Second Coming ever occur it will be marked not so much by a heavenly trumpet herald but rather by Moroni blowing copius amounts of pigeon shit all over the Hotel Utah.

And so we roll.

*Being a Pastafarian, I think all religions are cults. For a succinct, accurate history of this one watch the South Park episode “All About Mormons”. If you want more song and dance with your history, go see “The Book Of Mormon”, now playing on Broadway. If you’d rather read it than see it get Jon Krakauer’s “Under The Banner Of Heaven”.

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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Tio Wally Eats America: Uncle Joe’s Deli

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is at Uncle Joe’s in Ina, Illinois.

Greeting from Ina, Illinois
N 38° 54.639’W 088° 54.639’  Elev. 391’Is it pronounced eye-na, ee-na or in-a? I’m not sure-a. I should’ve asked-a. Oh well-a.Besides how to pronounce the name of this place I’m facing quite a dilemma of where to eat today. Across the street, inside the Love’s truck stop, is a McDouche’s. On this side of the street, inside the Marathon, is Uncle Joe’s Deli. Hmm. Decisions, decisions. Best to first weigh each of their most obvious attributes before deciding.

McDouche’s consistently has really good coffee (which I can get at the senior price). It also has Big Mac sauce. The rest of its fare, however, is pretty much overpriced crap. I don’t think they even fry burgers on-site anymore, which may explain the rise of PBF (Push-Button Finger) Syndrome amongst its workers, slaving away in front of a preprogrammed, industrial-grade microwave oven day in and day out and all. Pushing the button, waiting for the beep.

On the other hand, here on the clown-free side of the street it has a decidedly less corporate, cookie-cutter feel. Indeed, Uncle Joe’s Deli (I-57 Exit 83) has a couple of funky reader boards with mis-spaced letters advertising its wares, like fried bologna. Seeing that, I’m thinking perhaps McDouche’s is not “my kind of place”® after all.

Uncle Joe’s Deli is obviously very proud of its Famous Fried Bologna. That’s why it has not one but two neon signs beckoning the hungry towards its famous fried goodness. I figured that since they went to the expense of neon Fried Bologna signs, as well as the marked dearth of fried bologna sandwiches on the planet, I’d bite and order one. After all, when was the last time I had a fried bologna sandwich, much less a famous one?

The sandwich ($3.49) consisted of a 3/8”-thick slab of bologna, fried on a little, itty-bitty griddle just big enough to get somebody kicked out of a college dorm; they had a matching itty-bitty deep fat fryer in the … kitchen, just big enough to get some dormie banned from campus for life. It was served on a choice of white or caramel-colored white (wheat) bread, with iceberg lettuce, a slice of tomato, and choice of condiments. I got it on the (healthier!) wheat bread, with mayo and mustard. Whether it was because it was just really good or I was just really hungry, the famous fried bologna sandwich was actually kind of awesome. In fact, now I wish I would’ve paid the $1.25 for extra meat.

Sure, it was a little overpriced but, hey, where else am I going to find a fried bologna sandwich, much less a famous one? Certainly not across the street in the evil clown’s lair; just more proof of McDouche’s complete lack of soul.

I also got a large smoked pork sandwich ($4.69). Served on a large hamburger bun, they piled the meat up about an inch-and-a-half high. Uncle Joe’s has five different homemade barbecue sauces to choose from. I tried them all and opted for the Hot & Spicy. It was slightly sweet with a nice tang to it, but certainly not “hot”, and it complimented the juicy smoked pork perfectly. Tasty, tasty.

And in keeping with the funky, both sandwiches were wrapped in plain, thin butcher’s paper. No expensive, throwaway designer packaging for Uncle Joe.

Now that I’ve had a truly soul-satisfying health-food meal, I’m going across the street to get a couple of senior coffees (25¢ to 75¢ each, depending on location) and refill my travel mug. “I’m lovin’ it.”®

And so we roll.

Uncle Joe’s Deli - Interstate 57. Exit 83. Ina, IL 62846
Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.
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Sapp Bros Coffee Tower

Tio Wally sent me this cool photo of Sapp Bros in Omaha. He’s gonna eventually write about it!

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Tio Wally Eats America: Jerry & Sal’s

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is at Jerry & Sal’s in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

Greetings from Hanover, Pennsylvania
N 39° 48.602’  W 076° 56.6333’  Elev. 609’

It’s Little League World Series time! As a result, the SS Me So Hungry’s crew is on a night-driving schedule so that, if they can stay awake, they won’t miss a game. But because the land yacht is equipped with an electronic log, there’s very little cheating that can be done as far as movement of the vessel. That’s when the illustrious crew gets creative; actually we consult certain GPS features and cast our fate to the wind.

And so it was today. I don’t know why but whenever I’m in the Northeast I jones for Hot Italian Sausage and Peppers. And tonight my jones was exacerbated by extreme fatigue, hunger and a need to watch the games.

I love good Hot Italian Sausage. But it’s hard to find really good ones. The best I’ve ever had is from Spencer’s Fresh Market, a small San Luis Obispo County, California grocery chain. They make their own complete line of sausages, although many of them are a little too designer-foofy for my taste. Besides, if you’ve got Hot Italian what do you need any other kind for?

So I fired up the GPS and called the nearest place on the list in hopes they’d deliver to a land yacht. You’d be surprised at the number of places that won’t deliver to a land yacht because it has no actual physical address. Credit cards, begging and pleading will not change their “policy.”

(Hell, you can’t even order after-hours at many McDouche’s or Jack In The Cracks unless you go through the drive-thru. While there are ways to get around it sometimes, mostly through the kindess of strangers, it’s pretty freakin’ annoying because it’s so breathtakingly stupid. Can’t they see a land yacht won’t fit in their puny-assed drive-thru!?! Morons.It’s made all the more so when you’re starving. Hell, I’ve been so pissed off by company-policy adhering twits that I’ve been tempted to go ahead and drive through. Unfortunantely some people, who shall remain nameless, frown on massive property damage claims. Go figure.)

So tonight I called the first place on the list, La Cucina  (496 Eisenhower Drive) and quizzed Armando. Yes, they deliver. And yes, they make sausage and peppers. Score! But no, not tonight. Turned out La Cucina is moving 500 feet to another building and Armando only answered the phone becuase he thought “it was one of his guys.” But all hope was not lost, he said. There was another place nearby that delivered that was “in the family.” Did he have the phone number? “Well, let me see,” he says, and puts me on hold. A minute later he apologetically admits that the place was in such disarray that he can’t find it.

Thankfully a noted graphic-artist friend on the other side of the country found the number on the InterTubes for Jerry & Sal’s Pizza  (1155 Carlisle St.). I called them and found that J&S makes an Italian Sausage and Peppers sub. But I want pasta, too. In short, they made me a special order of S&Ps with extra sausage. The sausage was really good, if only it had been of the “hot” variety. But that wasn’t somethng red pepper flakes couldn’t fix. Moreover, the pasta was cooked perfectly.

It came with a really refreshing salad of Romaine lettuce and Roma tomato, with the house balsamic viniagrete dressing. and some crusty Italian bread. That bread was so good it deserved to be dipped in a really fine olive oil.

Total cost: $11.61; free delivery with $9 minimum though I tipped the delivery guy $5. I figured they made my night so I’d make his. Hopefully it started a never-ending chain reaction.

And so we roll.

Jerry & Sal’s Pizza - N Hanover Mall. Hanover, PA 17331

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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Tio Wally Eats America: Ryan’s Family Buffet

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is at Ryan’s in Effingham, Illinois.

Greetings from Effingham, Illinois
N 39° 08.466’  W 088° 33.435’  Elev. 669’

Although I can’t really eat all that much, I try to go to all-you-can-eat buffets whenever possible. Not only do I enjoy the variety, it gives me an opportunity to power down on vegetables.

I usually go to a Ryan’s weekdays between 1-3 p.m. when I can because, for some reason, during the day the good folks there think I look and/or smell like a senior citizen, thus I get the senior lunch. It costs about $6.50 and includes a drink.

Being a weekend, and because I’m on a night-driving schedule for the next two weeks to allow watching the Little League World Series on my satellite TV, I went for dinner and, lo and behold, the fountain-of-youth effect kicked in again and I had to pay full fare.

This particular Ryan’s (1102 Avenue of Mid America) is pretty popular with the land-yacht crowd. It’s easy-in/easy-out, and there are a number of truck stops and a Merchant of Death (WalMart) nearby. This allows truck drivers to get a lot of things accomplished in a short period of time, which is very important due to Department of Transportation (DOT) Hours of Service regulations.

Ryan’’s always has some sort of promotion going on in addition to their regular fare. Lately it’s been Shrimp 5 Ways; butterfly, buffalo, popcorn, coconut and shrimp scampi, which is actually a sautéed shrimp and pasta affair.

I went for the butterfly and coconut shrimp, which was good but nothing to write a message in a bottle about. I also had some fried chicken — drumsticks so I can read while I eat — which is always really, really good.

One of Ryan’s signature things is fresh-from-the-oven yeast rolls. They serve them while they’re still warm with Sunnyland Honey Spread™, a mock honey-butter that’s quite good. These puppies are fluffy, golden brown and highly addictive. That’s why I only have them bring me one.

As for vegetables, I had some baked beans, steamed cabbage and fire-roasted yellow squash., While the squash was a bit undercooked (Ryan’s always undercooks its squash, broccoli and cauliflower, which always bears mushy) it was quite tasty yet crunchy. I also had a spinach, spring mix and beet salad with a raspberry vinaigrette, also quite tasty.

Something I hadn’t seen or noticed before that was a real standout was a bean salad that consisted of black-eyed peas, baby lima, white, pinto and red beans. Unlike a three-bean salad, it wasn’t at all vinegary yet still slightly sweet. Better still, the beans were crunchy. Great flavor, great texture. a little hill of beans that really amounted to something.

All Ryan’s have an in-house bakery and a decent selection of desserts. They also all have soft-serve ice cream. But some of them also have hand-scooped, hard-pack ice cream, and this was one of them. In addition to the regular fare (chocolate chip cookie dough, strawberry, and orange sherbet) they always have a wild-card flavor. Today’s was black walnut. Boy, was that good.

All in all not a bad meal for about $10.

And so we roll.

Ryan’s - 1102 Ave of Mid America. Effingham, IL 62401

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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Tio Wally Eats America: Johnson’s Corner

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is at Johnson’s Corner in Johnstown, Colorado.

Greeting from Johnstown, Colorado!
N 40° 21.777’  W 104° 58.908’  Elev. 4976’

When I was growing up my Mom used to say that if you wanted good food go to a truck stop. Well, it’s a myth. The truth is that the truckers eat there for one simple reason: They can park! Thus, the number of trucks at a truck stop has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the food but rather the size of the parking lot.

As a rule, if you want to find good food ferreted out by truckers, look for trucks parked in unlikely places. It usually turns out that the greater the effort they expended to park, the better the food.

But there are truly notable exceptions. And since it was just a few miles out of my way I decided to go have lunch at Johnson’s Corner (2842 SE Frontage Rd.).

I hadn’t been here for eight years or so. I used to stop here all the time as the food was always really good and fairly reasonably priced. I also liked the fact that it was such a funky, clean-but-rundown place. It had so much class that you had to sit in the well-worn “ass-dentations” in the seats of the booths just right to get comfortable.

It turned out the food was as good as ever but, much to my dismay, they remodeled a couple of years ago and got rid of all the funk. And it was funky.

Originally built in 1952, Johnson’s Corner was a landmark place as it was located in the middle of nowhere roughly halfway between Denver and Cheyenne. A couple of years later the Interstate was built and, voila, instant gold mine. Of course, it also helped that there was nothing else around.

They’re supposedly most famous for their homemade cinnamon rolls. As I’m not a cinnamon-roll fan I’ve never had one. But you can’t miss them when they serve them: they measure (conservatively) 6-inches square and about 4-inches high. They could be fairly characterized as “big.”

But what’s really good there, and often overlooked, I think, is the soups. They’re all made from scratch and now they have a cook who’s rather inventive, according to the waitress. I kind of had to agree.

I got Chili Blanca with my meal. They called it a soup but it wasn’t soupy at all. It was made with white beans, chicken and some sort of chili pepper; judging by the color and flavor I’m thinking it was those real long semi-hot banana peppers, definitely not jalapeño. Needless to say, it was really, really good, flavorful with enough bite to make it interesting.

For the entree I ordered Meatloaf ($11.99 w/tax) and, although I was technically a little early for them, a baked potato. I’d had the meatloaf before and remembered really liking it, and wasn’t disappointed this time. It has big pieces of onion and bell pepper in it and, I think, stewed tomatoes. It was good and it was a lot. Two meals!

While all of their food is really good, another standout meal there is their Roast Beef. Why they call it “roast beef” is beyond me as it’s actually shredded pot roast, piled high on white bread, with brown gravy. And if you get mashed potatoes with it they serve them old school: A scoop of smashed taters on a piece of white bread smothered in gravy. Seriously, how can you go wrong with starch on starch smothered in gravy thickened with starch?

Though I didn’t order any, they also have great desserts, especially the pies. Everything is made in-house from scratch and the portions are extremely generous.

I guess this place has been featured on the Travel Channel, Food Network, et al. Nevertheless, I highly recommend Johnson’s Corner. Although it’s not as funky/charming as it used to be, the food is still great. And the view of the Rockies ain’t bad either.

And so we roll.

Johnson’s Corner - 2842 SE Frontage Road. Johnstown, CO 80534

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.