B-Town Bites dines at B-Town Diner, and it doesn't bite!

Whew! I just spent some highly focused time learning how to get pictures from my old camera onto my new computer! It's a good thing my brain (and the rest of me) are plentifully filled from my B-Town diner dinner.

This diner that boasts "24/7 Home Cookin'" is on North Walnut Street, in the same block as Black Mercantile and the Brothers bar. It's a doorway that took me a second look to find. I haven't spent a lot of time in this area for the last thirty years... no more bar life for me since then, and it is right across the street from the Bluebird. "24/7" must mean some great late night business, especially since the demise of the downtown Waffle House. Well now that it is thoroughly established that I am ANCIENT, here goes....

Once you find the door, there are a couple of easy steps or a ramp to enter, yay! for accessibility. Inside there are plenty of tables at floor level and booths one step up. We were immediately greeted by Tanner (based on our receipt - I did not miss the "Hi, I'm Tanner, let me sit down with you and tell you all my secrets while I am your server" greeting that seems to be standard these days). We picked a booth and he came right over for a drink order. I was on water tonight, having been fully caffeinated earlier, and K ordered a Pepsi, so it's a Pepsi product place. We needed to wait for our third party member and we examined the menu and chatted. Tanner let us alone, but was attentive when G arrived and got her drink order and didn't balk at her "plain hot water" (I was tempted to make fun of her a little bit). You know I have issues, though.... when he delivered her drink, he held it by the edges of the cup, not the handle... and even G, (who does not have my issues!) felt the need to wipe the edges a little bit. SERVERS, seriously, you handle money and dirty dishes and credit cards, don't hold glasses and cups by the parts people drink from!!   

We ordered dinner with about 17 extra requests.... I'm no bun, no apples, dressing on the side, high maintenance. I am happy to report that even the request to have no apples on my salad, but have them served on the side. so G could eat them was respected. I didn't ask about cross contamination, except to ensure the salads were made fresh and that the apples wouldn't be "picked off" an existing salad, but I feel like reasonable requests would probably be honored. Readers, lemme know so others with food preferences or sensitivities can get a good grip on that. It was hard to make a choice because the menu is appealing, offering breakfast, sandwiches, and entrees "hot plates" all the time. I had heard that B-Town Diner has great pancakes, but there were so many offerings we passed them up this time. There seem to be several dishes available that would suit vegetarians, didn't check super well for vegans, but the menu is online at their site, so you can check before you go.

My I-have-to-wash-my-hands-now-because-I touched-the-menu visit to the bathrooms followed. The Diner has two bathrooms, both marked unisex, and both seemed large enough for a wheelchair or walker to enter. There is still a throw-back that one has a urinal and the other has a baby changing table, but with the unisex signage at least the Diner isn't enforcing gender roles. I am all for unisex or non-gendered bathrooms and the Diner seems friendly that way. Both appeared clean and well stocked as far as towels, soap, tp....

I am glad I went to dinner with friends with whom I had a lot to talk about.... the food took half an hour to arrive. When it came the salad looked huge, great and fresh, and the hot food seemed hot, except the fries. I know it's hard to time fries when there are lots of dishes served, but they really seemed like they were dropped too soon and had spent significant cooling time. Even lukewarm they tasted good. I'd like to try them when fresh!  Between the three of us we ordered: fish and chips, zucchini potato pancakes, a bacon cheeseburger (no bun), and the cranberry pecan salad (apples on the side). It was a lot of food, and even though I ordered the salad instead of the fries with the burger I didn't even touch it, but packed it up for tomorrow's lunch. While we were eating and chatting some more Tanner was attentive at filling our drinks and bringing some little bits and pieces as requested. K had ordered a side of the macaroni and cheese and it didn't make it out until the end of the meal. He admitted he had forgotten to put it on the original order and gave it at no charge. The fish of the fish and chips looked like it might have been frozen breaded fillets... The menu says home cookin' and I know that doesn't always mean the same thing it used to, but those sure didn't look like freshly breaded fish to me. Also that was the ugliest presentation... a plain plate with three brown fish fillets and brown fries... a lemon wedge, a dollop of tartar sauce, an orange slice, or even some parsley would have really improved that. The presentation of the zucchini potato pancakes wasn't any better, but the colorful plate helped a little bit.

As we wound down realizing we weren't going to eat everything Tanner was quick to bring boxes as requested. I am looking forward to that salad for lunch tomorrow!

I need to note that I chose to visit B-Town Diner this week because it is spring break for I.U. Tonight we had no trouble finding parking, even though we had to pay, even the garage that has three free hours at times needed payment tonight. There was no wait for seating, but I wonder that a usual Thursday night as classes are winding down for the week is probably much busier. There was even what looked like a band bus parked over at the Bluebird tonight, but not the usual crowd milling around downtown on a not-too-cold evening. It seems like on a slow night like this the food would come more quickly, and the fries would have been able to be well attended and be hot. I understand that when I.U. is not in session normally a lot of employees are also gone and businesses often run low on crew. It should be remembered though that even non-students try to frequent downtown eateries and local businesses and deserve hot fries.

All in all, we did enjoy the diner. They could definitely improve timing and presentation. I'd like to try it again and get those pancakes. I guess the semester will be over in a few weeks and we might get there again.

 This was my bunless burger. It usually would come with fries, but I asked to substitute the salad. That kind of harmed the usual presentation, I guess, but this just seems wrong.

 This is the fish and chips, again with the presentation, and I wonder about that fish, even though G said it tasted okay.

 This is the zucchini potatoe (oh look, my fingers typed a Dan Quayle potatoe, I think I will just leave that for atmosphere) pancakes. Really tasty, served with applesauce and/or sour cream. A nice new thing to try!

         

       The cranberry pecan salad, sans apples, Nice and fresh and def huge, could be an entree or served family style to the entire table as a side. 

 This is my burger up close, NICE real bacon, sliced thick, and real cheddar.                         

 The apples from the salad served on the side by request. They looked super fresh, plentiful, and bright. Unfortunately, I cannot taste them :( and G took them home for later.

Mother Bear's, a Bloomington Classic.

Several years ago my sister started a food blog, Pechin's Pizza of the week. She came to visit me in Bloomington and we ate at, and she reviewed, the original Mother Bear's Pizza, near the Indiana University campus. One of her first reviews was the original Mother Bear's Pizza.  See her review here,

Well, just like every town, Bloomington changes and grows and new restaurants pop up, mostly chains. A new old restaurant popped up on the swiftly growing west side of town, a side that some students hardly know exists! Mother Bear's recently opened a new location in a building that had housed a chain rib joint that didn't make it. Just off the west side of Indiana State Road 37, which is now under construction to be part of Hwy 69, a straight shot between Indy and Evansville; adjoining the parking lot of a Kohl's store is where Mama Bear made a new home.

We went on a chilly Friday night, when LOTS pf people decided pizza sounded good. It had been a day when around 4:00 I sent a message to my roommate asking about dinner plans...REALLY hoping she wanted to eat out, no matter how many leftovers were festering in our fridge! I had a peanut butter flavored cardboard, um, I mean fiber bar to make it through the rest of my workday and yay! When she responded she said she was still craving that deep dish pizza she'd mentioned last week, so Mother Bear's it was. We had a couple of "life" tasks to do first, so headed to the Pizza den about 6:30, to find ourselves signing up for an hour long wait. There were LOTS of people waiting, if I recall correctly, probably fifty or sixty people. We were given a little buzzer thingy and sat down in an entry way on a wooden bench to wait. Lots of people chose to come in and get carry out, and I had noted two parking spaces near the door for carry out customers, so that might be a good option if you can't handle the wait and don't care about missing the dining-in experience.

As we walked through to our seats I realized there was no hope that my usual request to not be seated near children was possible. 80% of the tables were families or large groups with children. Once seated it took several minutes before our server appeared. She took a drink order and because we had waited so long for her we were ready to order it all. We were really hungry and excited about our dinner so we ordered our drinks, fried mushrooms, garlic bread with sauce, and our deep-dish pizza!

It took quite awhile for the drinks to arrive.... but when they did, YAY! 32 oz glasses of Pepsi products (note, the menu limits refills to one because of the size), a nice glass of Stella Artois, (from a tap beer list of at least ten brands!), and the cutest little 6 oz carafe of a red wine ever!

Not too long after the drinks arrived, the mushrooms came out. We hadn't looked too carefully at the description and didn't realize we were going to get big slices of fried Portobello. We even called the server back, thinking we had received the wrong dish, but realized before we made really big fools of ourselves! The pizza arrived and our server promised they were checking on the garlic bread. Another staff member arrived and apologized and stated, "Garlic bread shouldn't take twenty minutes!" and promised to give a discount on our check ! Very nice service there! we probably wouldn't have made a fuss, but it is nice that the wait was recognized and compensated a little bit!

The food... oh the food was delicious! The pizza was perfectly baked with browned and crispy edges and generous cheese. I might have preferred a double layer of pepperoni, because I like the fattening stuff the best, of course. The sauce was deep and rich and the perfect complement to the crust. Yum. The garlic bread was also delicious but I was able to limit myself to one piece so I could justify another piece of pizza. We had ordered a parmesan peppercorn dressing as a dip for the mushrooms and it was also great with the garlic bread. I am not usually a fan of deep dish pizza, but I am glad the roommate introduced me to Mother Bear's deep dish.

I have some mild OCD tendencies and one of my "things" is that I have to wash my hands after I touch the menu, I had to weave my way back through the dining area to the restroom near the front door. I noticed there was a lot of paper towels on the floor near the overflowing trash cans.... as noted, the place was super busy, but a front of house staff member could have taken a five minute check and taken care of that. There was ample parking, with overflow to the Kohl's lot, The seating in the dining area was comfortable, with choices of padded booths and tables, the atmosphere was noisy, because of the crowds, but fun, with the genesis of the graffiti walls echoing the original store, and nice art all around, I hope it is by local artists.

I noticed a sign for an outside seating area and I noticed table ads for a weekday lunch special for $5.95. I'm definitely willing to go back when it is warmer and NOT so busy and try those out.

Photos by Meg Prince.

Welcome!

Welcome to my food blog!

I live in Bloomington, Indiana, best known as home to Indiana University, especially Indiana Hoosiers basketball.

Bloomington is the real "Small Town," and is home to people who represent a unique blend of cultures.  The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is known world-wide as a top music school. Academic disciplines also bring scholars from around the world.

Bloomington was the launchpad for Cook Medical, a manufacturer of pioneering medical devices. Other companies in the medical and pharmaceutical industries have clustered in Bloomington and some of the surrounding small towns, so engineers and researchers who design, and factory workers who manufacture the precision life-saving products add more variety to the multi-cultural population on and near campus.

The Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center is found on quiet grounds on the southeast side of town as well as other Buddhist monasteries and temples. Tibetan culture runs deep as the brother of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his family live and work here.

So many diverse restaurants in Bloomington make it a foodie hotspot , known for "restaurant row" on 4th street with cuisine from around the world, as well as locally owned cafes and eateries with hometown flavor.

Here, I plan to visit, dine and review a variety of dining experiences. I've never had a very adventurous palate and I hope to do a lot of experimenting and learning as I go. C'mon! Let's eat!