searching for a gem

Saturday morning while Dorothy and I were out yard sale-ing, we stopped at a little cafe that we had not noticed before. We're always searching for a new place to eat. This place looked a little run down, but in the past we've found excellent food at some quite humble appearing establishments. From the outside this one looked, well, it was tottering on the verge of ramshackle. We went inside hoping that this would prove to be a gustatory rough diamond. An attempt had been made to create a country cottage ambiance, without success. There were crumbs on the floor from previous customers and the booth upholstery had been repaired with duct tape. I think shabby chic was the style they were aiming for, but Okie abandon is what they achieved. Dorothy didn't say anything so I didn't either, after all, she's the expert and I use her as my culinary canary in the mine shaft. If she thinks it's ok then it's ok with me.

The place was called Ma's Eatery. Ma must have called in sick that day and left the business to her two vengeful step-children. The coffee was not hot. I like my coffee hot. I could see the coffee machine from where I was sitting and its red light was on so I would assume it could generate some heat. When the waitress came around to refill our cups it didn't raise the temperature of my coffee by a degree.

I had biscuits and gravy. That was a mistake that I make often. No one makes biscuits and gravy like Dorothy's. It was tasteless. I had to put salt on it and then put too much. Dorothy had a western omelet. The cook had burned one side and disguised it by simply flipping in over, presumably thinking that Dorothy wouldn't notice. The black part was visible soon enough, though, as Dorothy began to eat.

We didn't get in an uproar. The two step-children didn't look like they would be receptive to constructive criticism. We simply paid our bill and left. But, we did cross that place off the list of restaurants we'll be frequenting.