In June and July I made two real quick trips to try 6 or 7 places in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Guy has visited several places in New Jersey all over the place although most were in the northern areas of that state but he did make a quick stop on the southern Jersey Shore which is a doable drive from Virginia. I headed up to the Cape May area and at first I was thinking about taking the Lewes-Cape May Ferry, but after checking it out, the cost to take the ferry is a bit high and the savings in time was nil, because of the waiting time and ferry time, so I drove. It was about a 3 and a half hour drive and I reached Cape may on an early Tuesday morning. My first stop was "George's Place". It is a small cafe and was not too busy. they specialize in Greek cuisine but had nothing special for breakfast so the breakfast was pretty un-memorable. The cafe is clean and the staff pretty friendly, too. I got to meet the owner-chef and he was pretty nice. From Cape May I headed north and east to Wildwood, another coastal town. The drive was interesting, there are alot of islands and bridges with little toll booths at the top of the bridges for 25 cents. I arrived in Wildwood and headed to "Maui's Dog House" an outdoor restaurant. The shtick at Maui's is that everything is served in plastic dog bowls. I got a hot dog and their specialty side called "salty balls" which are small redskin potatoes served with melted butter. I talked to the owner as I waited for the food. he told me that the reason that Guy was not present at the filming was because of the huge crowd and one of the requirements is that the restaurant is closed during the filming, but that day they had over 1000 customers so they showed it as a emailers request, but during the filming Guy was just down the street and got toe meet the staff and sample the food. The owner then brought me a big (dog) bowl of their Hawaii Five-0 fires with Atomic Dip, and they were good, but the dip was waaaaay too spicy for me. I highly recommend Maui's. For dinner I went to Philadelphia to try the "Memphis Tap Room". This place looks really shady from the outside, but inside it is really nice and they serve a huge assortment on beers form a over the world on tap and some really good food. I got the fried pickle and a pork belly spinach salad, both were delicious, I highly recommend Memphis Tap Room. On the way home I had to stop on Pasyunk Avenue in Philly for the Cheesesteak Challenge and after twice trying both Pat's and Geno's Cheesesteak's I prefer Geno's!
A few weeks later I took an overnight trip to Pittsburgh to try the last three places that I had left to try in the Iron City. I also planned to go back to a few places to get my books signed. I flew in and after a brief airport visit with a friend that I had seen in almost 30 years (thanks Jamie, it was way too brief) I was headed to my first place. "Big Jim's in the Run", this roadhouse is in a small bedroom community east of the city and just down the street from a Russian Orthodox Church that was the home church of famed artist Andy Warhol. This popular place is a true neighborhood joint and although I was the first person there by the time I left the place was full. I got a very good fresh roast beef sandwich and watched the last launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. From there it was back into the city to another real neighborhood bar called "Nadines". This smoky bar is wonderful! As I walked in I was looked at suspiciously bu the regulars, especially the owner, Nadine. I sat at bar and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and started to chat with servers and cooks. I love the friendliness of the people and the welcome that they gave me as I chatted. Nadine came over and signed my book and had me sign her visitors book. They also gave me some free samples of their specials. If you go nowhere else in Pittsburgh go to Nadine's!
For dinner I headed to a small community called Coraopolis to a small places called "LoBello's Spaghetti House". As I sat down and looked around it sort of reminded me of the restaurant where Michael Corleone killed the cop in the movie "The Godfather". I got a small plate of cheese ravioli and it was great! It reminded me of my grandma's. I got to talk to the owner and he told me that due to the economy he was ready to close the business that his grandmother had opened 100 years before. He had made a career in the banking business and the downturn was not good for the restaurant, but after Guy's visit and the showing, saved the business! DDD really works!
My last day in Pittsburgh was spent going back to "Kelly O's" in the Penn Hills area of the city and also to a non-DDD place that is a Pittsburgh institution, 'Primanti Brothers" in the Strip District.
I headed home with my DDD count at 155!
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