This is a blog of my five-week exploration of culinary experiences in North Carolina. Baaswell Sheep is accompanying me and offering his own commentary on the trip, although he refuses to go into any place that serves lamb chops.
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We returned to Amélie's one more time, this time to get a taste of the old days with a Croque Monsieur sandwich (that's a fancy ham-and-cheese), with the spinach-asparagus-leek soup and another caramel salted brownie torte (I wanted to try the garden stew, but they were out today). It was quite enjoyable, and in spite of asking for a glass for our thé glacé, they put it in a to-go cup, but I just kept that as a souvenir. We won't be back to Amélie's again this trip, but hopefully someday ... someday.
Downtown Matthews, NC
As my companion and I have an affinity for smaller towns, we ventured fifteen miles east to Matthews to see what it was like. Unfortunately, my companion took a nasty fall on an odd double-step curb and skinned up his wrist, elbow, and knee, but he'll live, thank goodness – otherwise, I'd be in a lot of trouble. I include a couple of his pictures of the town below to try to make his fall worthwhile (he was taking the picture on the right when he fell).
So, we wanted to give this place a try - any place that lists its major menu items in big lettering on the windows is usually a good place to eat. Unfortunately, we got up to the door and found that they'd closed early due to "staffing issues". Well, it looked like a nice place – guess we'll never know. EDIT: Turns out this is part of a multi-state chain of diners, so not the mom-and-pop place we thought it was going to be, but it would have been interesting to have tried it. Unfortunately, none of the other North Carolina locations are close to the path we'll be on this trip.
With Metro Diner closed, we wandered around the shopping center and found a Mod Pizza. We'd never been to one before, so we gave it a try. With 6" pizzas, the portion size is just right for us, and the style reminds my companion of Uncle Madio's Pizza Joint, which we used to visit a lot until the locations near us closed up in the late 2010s. The staff at this Mod Pizza were extremely nice and helpful and the food was great, too, with real lemonade to boot.
Please note that all restaurant and product names are used simply for referential purposes and links provided as a courtesy. Reviews are the sole opinions of the reviewer: no restaurant has paid to be listed here, and no restaurant is being explicitly endorsed. In other words, go out there, try them all, and form your own opinions!
We returned to Amélie's one more time, this time to get a taste of the old days with a Croque Monsieur sandwich (that's a fancy ham-and-cheese), with the spinach-asparagus-leek soup and another caramel salted brownie torte (I wanted to try the garden stew, but they were out today). It was quite enjoyable, and in spite of asking for a glass for our thé glacé, they put it in a to-go cup, but I just kept that as a souvenir. We won't be back to Amélie's again this trip, but hopefully someday ... someday.
