Leaving Shreveport Louisiana on Tuesday the 6th of November I decided that I was not quite done with our little adventure and because you usually get kicked out of your hotel room about 11am or noon I asked Stephanie if she wanted to stretch our normal less than 2-hour drive back to East Texas into a little extended trip running thru Longview, Mineola, Grand Saline, and Van Texas on the way 'home'. Sure, ok...but let's eat some of those yummy rolls from Ralph and Kacoo's because I am starving!
Longview - after a little shopping trip to a Lifeway Christian Book Store and The Cooks Nook (where I bought one of those cheap $5 dollar waffle fries cutters! Who doesn't love waffle fries? Especially when you can make them yourself...) We saw a place sitting off of the road a bit called The Butcher Shop & Bakery. Inside they had fresh baked goods, bread, and a fresh meat counter to order your own cuts of meat...then you could move on over to the extensive menu of steaks, burgers, and BBQ and order food to eat in the Restaurant which had nice seating. Kinda like that 'Logan's Steak House' interior decorator style. We ordered a turkey burger because of Stephanie's beef allergy (prior post pt.2). Stephanie was skeptical because they were always dry and tasteless, or of an undesirable texture that cooked ground turkey sometimes has...but it was good, had a slight crunch because of that high temp sear on flat-top grills using butter or oil when they started cooking the patty. Remember Burger Chef? (Google it, because it may have been before your time) Burger chef used to have a 'fixins bar' for dressing up your burger, The Butcher Shop has an extensive one of these with different cheeses, jalapenos, sautéed onions...etc. Tasty.
Mineola - we took a nice little stroll around town and tried to visit two places, the La Waffaleta (which was closed) and the East Texas Burger Company where the inside was old country style nostalgia of pictures and papers of a bygone era with frames over booths of napkins signed with personalized 'thank you's' and notes over the years of their existence. The menu was painted on chalkboards mounted high on the walls to make it easy for you to order at the register (and then they brought it out to you, sometimes the cook would even bring it out to you himself!). Here we enjoyed some sweet potato pies and Stephanie had to restrain herself from ordering the Peanut Butter Pie. Eating just a little at every stop sometimes doesn't really allow you to get hungry and we don't like eating till were miserable.
Grand Saline - couldn't really find anything that caught our eye, a Sonic, a Bodacious BBQ...nothing really of note. Not saying there isn't anything, just we didn't know about it or see it while traveling thru. What they are known for is salt, salt mines, a tiny salt museum made out of salt bricks/blocks (?). Later while leaving and on the outskirts of town, I found a Morton Salt factory/mine (what do you call it?). Hopefully, I can later go back and get a tour, note to self.
Van - good ole Van Texas! Home of the Dinner Bell & Hubcap Burgers! And Stephanie swears the pies are excellent as well. We have ate here before but we just stopped in so Stephanie could get a slice of pie and I could take a picture of the Restaurant and the Mural on the side of the wall. Inside is like a big box, the ceiling is tight fit sheetrock/drywall decor with dots of dark-colored screws that are holding them up...everything else seems to be that light country-style wood color and grain. A small plate dispatch rectangle hole (framed in the same wood) where all your dishes come out of the kitchen and a possible 50+ seating arrangement that may find yourself seated with folks you don't know during lunch and dinner. They have all kinds of stuff on the menu, including a Philly-style sandwich made of chicken (which Stephanie got last time), a Hubcap Burger (about as round as your head), waffles, BLT (I can recommend this for the bacon crispness and good taste), Mexican breakfast burrito's, or was it omelet?...anyways quite a diverse menu. Not a good choice for multiple eats before a cholesterol check at the doctor's but tasty all the same.
Join me next time as I wrap it all up and deliver it ala carte. (which, for the French impaired -including me- means: from the menu)
