30 Minutes @ Saul Good & two hours w/ Julie & Julia

The answer is proximity. If you were to ask me why we ate dinner @ Saul Good. That and we'd never tried it before. We'd never tried it before because it looked eh. Not bad, just eh. Which could be worse. The late 80s/early 90s soundtrack inside was our first confirmation of said EH. The overenthusiastic manager/owner elicited a barely stifled grimace on Susannah's face. She's obviously not ready for poker.

We were seated and told about half-priced house wines & half-priced desserts. The waitress told us her name and that she'd be "helping us out tonight" which I supposed is better than the tried-true & trite "taking care of us tonight." She again mentioned the half-priced stuff. Got it.

The menu of pizzas, burgers, sandwiches et al looked so run of the mill, my eyes glazed over. That is, until I spied Chicken & Waffles. With dark meat. Sold. But I had order mine with the syrup on the side. I don't enjoy my fried chicken adulterated with syrup, gravy or anything else. Susannah ordered a chicken Caeser salad (which came w/ a poached chicken option though she opted for grilled).

We glanced around the space & sized up the decor and decided that they'd must've been going for "whimsical" & "eclectic" but couldn't quite go through with it. The variety of mirrors along the wall seemed a foray into something interesting but the rest of the place kinda petered out. Black, boring & blasting Poison.

My chicken & waffles looks great as fried chicken & waffles ought to. The sprinkling of scallions were the only veg on the plate, which I regretted briefly. The chicken was crisp & way underseasoned. Bites were inconsistent, a few moist and tender, most a little dry. Then I noticed that the "dark meat" consisted of unidentifiable chunks of thigh meat held together by their mutual batter. No bones. Susannah's Caeser was unremarkable though I did steal a few bites to balance out my protein/carb dinner. The waitress checks on us. Yes, everything's fine. Doesn't anyone answer otherwise? The owner checks on us, asks me if I've ever had chicken & waffles before. "Yes, but I was expecting a thigh & drumstick or something, not just random pieces of dark meat." He asks me where I've had it before & I tell him New York (though I'd be hard pressed to remember where exactly). He tells me THIS is how it's made authentically. I few minutes of post-meal googling was inconclusive. The waitress checks on us again.

As I'm finishing the last third of my plate (the waffles & syrup were also unremarkable but did hit the spot), the waitress scoops up Susannah's plate & asks us about dessert. I HATE THAT. Loathe it. I know she's not saying "get the fuck out so I can turn this table," it's just the way she and 98% of the servers in this town are trained. Ask about drinks & appetizers as soon as you sit down, pile the courses one on top of the next, clear while diners are still eating & push dessert. And bring the check (which she did when we turned down dessert). Sad thing is that she was not a bad server in this town. This level of hamfisted rush service is de rigueur in this 2-star town.

Ultimately, Saul Good is simply an unnecessary restaurant. It neither uplifts or degrades the level of cuisin in Lexington. It's simply another place to eat a club sandwich.

As for Julie & Julia, it was thoroughly better than the book (which I happened upon randomly looking for something to read in the library of the last cruiseship we took). There was much less of the author, whose experience I enjoyed reading but whose personality/character I wasn't too hot on, and much more on Julia's formative years as a budding foodie & cookbook author. Meryl Streep was effortlessly amazing, inhabiting the character of Julia Child but I have to agree with Susannah that Stanley Tucci's Paul Child was the understated backbone of the movie (and Julia's life).

And yes, this blog entry is inspired by the movie, the book and the nagging fear that I'll never amount to anything. More to come about food. I promise.