The menu was posted on cafeteria-style reader boards. When my meal came, I was optimistic at first, but ultimately let down. First of all, the coffee was siphoned straight from that rancid underground lake we’re all so well acquainted with now. The potatoes were the one saving grace, in that they were tasty, but likely pre-frozen. I ordered the three-meat breakfast, and all three were a little worrisome. The bacon and the sausages came burnt and undercooked at the same time, and so did the toast.

Our server boasted about getting the bread from the Natural Bakery in the neighborhood, but if the N.B. saw how The Pit Stop was treating their product, they might ask for their name to be kept secret.

Back to the meats, the garlic sausage option was okay, but others complained that it tasted like soap. I didn’t feel like I wanted to use it to wash my hands anytime soon, but I could see how the comparison was made.

Given that the whole breakfast came to $4.50, it was a pretty cheap meal for a decent volume of food, but we’ve certainly had cheaper, and certainly had better. The restaurant’s “ambiance” is just as much an experience as the food, and the characters eating there will entertain, to be sure. However, while this is a decent place to go to if you’re just crawling out of the bar (or waiting for it to open), pick yourself up and go someplace else.

May 31 2008

The Pit Stop

in the Stock Exchange Hotel

1105 Arlington

The Pit Stop is located in the inimitable Teddy Bob’s, and shares T.B.’s charm completely. It’s like eating in a bar.

The Pit Stop is full of kitsch-not-kitsch: an old style sit-down Ms. Pacman game sits against the wall, illuminated by bare-bulb lighting. The booths are pretty nice and they have a banister separator in the middle of the room, but the gaudy yellow walls meet the brownest and flakey-est carpet ever, so much so that we overheard the server advising somebody else “don’t worry about the carpet” while coffee was cascading onto it. One aspect I certainly did not appreciate about the décor was the television on the wall. TV is not a substitute for ambiance.

Our server was classic.

Overly-kindly-past-middle-age woman with a mullet. In between cheerful exposition she will complain about the business or how much her feet hurt. (Going for the sympathy tip, are ya honey?) She sassed the regulars and received from them just as well. She really blended in well with the clientele, a mostly baseball cap-wearing crowd with many a moustache mixed in the bunch.