Pete's BarBQ
I am so tired of killing ants that I’m almost afraid to go in the kitchen. Every morning and afternoon I’m greeted with a new swarm. I’ve started plugging possible ant holes with play dough. The other night eating dinner out seemed a reasonable delaying tactic. After Vida’s music class we walked over to Pete’s BarBQ. Every Wednesday evening after music class I’ve been tempted to go to Pete’s. You can smell the roasting chicken two blocks away. But, the sketch factor has weighed heavily on me every time we walk by. With cash in my pocket for a change (I’m certain they don’t take credit cards) I decided to brave it. Vida wanted to drive there but I told her she just had to walk to the ‘orange light on the corner’. It was really just a ‘don’t walk’ signal but the orange signs in front of Pete’s seemed to glow with its blinking light.
As we walked in I saw rows of chickens cooking with baked potatoes floating beneath their dripping fat. There were a couple large skewers of whole chickens standing to the side of the rotisserie waiting for their turn. Pete’s is really more a cafeteria than a barbeque place. Cooked chickens, whole turkey breast, roast beef, ribs and spaghetti with polish sausages on top were sharing a large steam table. Next to them were huge inserts of coleslaw, potato salad, three-bean and macaroni salad. Under ‘Pete’s’ glaring eyes I quickly tried to figure out how to order from the overhead menu. Vida saw the sausage and wanted a hot dog (without spaghetti). I ordered a half chicken accompanied by the baked potato and a small dish of macaroni salad swimming in a mayonnaise dressing with flecks of carrot. Pete asked if I wanted barbeque sauce on my chicken and then seemed to sneer when I asked for it on side thinking Vida would reject the chicken otherwise. I asked for ketchup for the hot dog only to hear ‘no ketchup only barbeque sauce’. I didn’t know how I was going to get Vida to eat the hotdog. The woman behind the counter buttered a cold French roll, handed us the food and took the money. We then sat at one of the battered brown tables.
Vida was so engaged with her orange soda that I couldn’t get her to more than look at the food. I thought it was my lucky day when she decided that she liked mustard after all and that she had been just ‘taking a break’ from it for a while. I was handed a grimy bottle of mustard from behind the counter and I reluctantly put some on half of the sausage. Vida took a few bites but had a hard time getting her mouth around the French roll. The chicken was delicious for the first few minutes until I started looking around and getting a little nervous about the hygiene of the place. A worker opened an aged refrigerator and was tossing around slabs of raw ribs. I took the cube of butter off of the baked potato and poured some delicious barbeque sauce on it. When Vida finally rejected the hot dog I ate the side with mustard in about 30 seconds flat. I got her to eat a few bites of chicken.
Pete’s largely caters to families and single men living in neighborhood residency hotels. I kind of enjoyed the experience as long as I didn’t look at the floor.
Restaurant Total: 166
Soluna
Vida wasn’t too excited about going to a holiday “work party” but I didn’t have any babysitting so I tried to get her as motivated for the event as possible. When I told her that there would be soda there she seemed on board. I didn’t know what kind of place Soluna was but I decided to take a chance. It turns out to be one of those faux hipster hangouts—no real hipster could afford the $23 prix fixe menu—complete with DJ.
We got there too early and Vida had already downed the soda before anybody else arrived. When other people started arriving I was compelled to make social conversation and buy drinks. Luckily a couple of child friendly co-workers spent some time allowing themselves to be entertained by Vida’s antics. She took off her boots and tried skating on the slick hardwood floors in her socks. We weren’t seated for dinner until 7:45 and she was hungry and tired.
The food was described as “California Cuisine” which means, in most middle of the road restaurants that the chef feels at liberty to play with ingredients without really understanding how to make them cohere into a dish. We had crab cakes that were passable mostly because the advertised wasabi wasn’t in evidence. We barely hung on for our entrees. Vida had steak and mashed potatoes that were unfortunately polluted with blue cheese. My chicken was chipotle flavored as advertised. Nothing was inedible but nothing was worth sticking around for. We ate a few bites before Vida threatened to fall asleep in my lap.
On the way to the car Vida got a sudden burst of energy. The Christmas lights trimming the trees throughout the Civic Center Plaza captivated her. The gnarled branches of these unusual trees were an intriguing foil for holiday decorations. Vida insisted on me chasing her around the trees for a while. I finally wrestled her into the car and she fell asleep almost immediately.
Restaurant Total: 165
