…
..
.by Anura Guruge

Some Other Restaurant Related Posts:
1. Circle Restaurant, Epson — Mar. 2, 2013.
2. Red Arrow Diner, Manchester — Apr. 8, 2012.
3. Sea Bird, Wolfeboro — Dec. 10, 2012.
4. Giuseppe’s, Meredith — Oct. 11, 2012.

This year’s Mother’s Day plans had to be curtailed because it was ‘Clearlakes Chorale‘ concert weekend for Devanee (and don’t ask me why they would pick Mother’s Day weekend for their concerts). She had to be there before 1pm on Sunday and the concert wasn’t going to finish till about 4pm. Deanna and Teischan attended the Sunday concert, I having gone to the Saturday night performance. So, the plan was to meet at the new ‘Rusty Moose‘ in Alton, have a meal and then go plant shopping in Rochester for Deanna — that being the family tradition, Deanna getting plants for her garden boxes and flower beds for the Summer.

I got to the ‘Rusty Moose’ at 4:10pm as planned. It was CLOSED!

So, given that it was a beautiful day, we proceeded to Rochester via the back roads of New Durham finally ending up in Farmington. We made a truly serendipitous discovery: this amazing antique place, called the “Ol’ Shoe Store”. It was closed. It is only open Saturday’s from 10 to 4. We are going. I happen to notice the large moose and pulled in. We peeked in through the windows. They have a beautiful, wooden, carved nude that I would love to have. We are going to go there one of these Saturdays.

We stopped at Walmart to see if they had plants that met the needs. They did. We were there for a long time as we are wont to do. So it was past 6pm when we got out of there.

Deanna and kids were ravenous by then so we didn’t have time to venture far. We drove by the ‘new’ Mexican diner. Somehow seems incongruous to try and eat Mexican in NH in a gleaming, aluminum, classic 50s diner. The next eating place was the ‘Pink Cadillac’. For whatever reasons we had never been there before though we stop at the gas station, often.

We decided to give it a try. It wasn’t busy. Not counting the bar area they appear to have 4 separate rooms, two main ones on either side of the bar. One is bright, cheery, with new tables and packed with Coca-Cola memorabilia. The other is dark and dingy with some beat up tables (sporting signs saying that they are soon to be renovated). I guess we didn’t make the cut to make the better dining room. It was probably me. But we are glad they put us in the dingy room because we got an outstanding waitress. IF not for her this write up would be much different. She was the main redeeming point of that diner.

It was ‘OK’ and that is about as far as we can go. Funnily enough I was talking to somebody who had also eaten there recently and she said the same thing: ‘average, and that is about it’. Not in the same league as the ‘Red Arrow‘ or the ‘Circle Restaurant‘.

I wanted the steak. They had run out. Ended up with steak tips. I ordered appetizer triple, one of the items being the fried mushrooms. The mushrooms were cold! I substituted a small salad for my included potato for a $1 more and got 2 forkfuls of insipid greens. C’est la vie. We were not impressed. Doubt whether we will go there anytime soon. But, I am sure there are lost of folks in the Rochester area that have no issues with it. Good for them.