This Cracker Hated The Barrel!
November 6, 2025
There’s this old adage that has forever rang true to me. “First time, shame on you, second time, shame on me.”
Enter Cracker Barrel. This is one of those shame on me moments. I’m currently seeing my mom, who is in hospice, which in itself is painful enough, but then you add an excruciating trip through the culinary gates of hell called Cracker Barrel, I believe I must have committed some mortal sin that carved a path to what they consider a foyer.
If every exploited nation that produced useless Tchotchkes were to take a gigantic dump at the same time, all of these consumer feces would have landed smack dab in the lobby of The Barrel.
The lobby was a horrid labyrinth of isles chock full of shit no one needs, a cacophony of keyboards playing music that would make baby Jesus ears bleed rivers of blood and a tsunami of olfactory aromas where you could literally smell fried food and sandlewood at the same time.
Just trying to navigate our way to put our name in for a seat triggered my afib. I’ve seen Japanese subway cram videos that were less claustrophobic than a Cracker Barrel lobby. My head was spinning.
The entire seating procedures were culled straight from a Six Flags business model. Replete with a PA system, we heard our name unfortunately called, which blasted out from a speaker and proceeded to navigate past a horde of ravenous groups of people that should have sworn off this establishment years ago.
The noise level was deafening with screaming kids, food chomping parents, and staff that had to yell over everyone to just do their jobs. It was like being in a wind tunnel.
Speaking of the staff. I genuinely felt for them. Dealing with people that treated them like paid slaves, unruly kids, and huge groups of people wanting everything immediately, every one of them had the appearance of someone that had every ounce of their soul drained from bodies. I actually felt guilty ordering, but we needed to see this through.
I ordered the fried chicken, and my wife ordered over easy eggs with pancakes, and our friend ordered biscuits and gravy.
It’s painfully obvious these places only goal is to stuff asses into seats but as a chef, what I saw coming out of the kitchen resembled every short cut you could take to handle the greed they displayed by over seating this place.
Every item we had besides my wife’s eggs was pre made and then reheated. Reheated pancakes, my chicken was luke warm, and the sides were all slop and serve.
My friends biscuit gravy was so gelatinous that her spoon stood straight up in the serving cup. I looked at her and said, “Are they mad at you? We finally took our last edible bites and begged for the check. Another bizarre moment is when you have to pay. You are once again forced to endure their hellish gift shop to line up in front of a row of kiosks to pay for your “meal.”
It would be easy enough to just pay and leave but the staff is required under penalty of the business end of a cattle prod to bombard you with merchandise questions about if you want to buy any of their garbage on their shelves. My wife almost lost her shit on that poor soul taking our money, but to her credit, she kept her composure as we sprinted to our car.
Yeah, lets not boycott Cracker Barrel for their shameless peddling of foreign produced garbage, the glaring culinary sins committed, or their obvious seating missteps but instead lets boycott them because they changed their fucking logo. We are so cooked as a country, I swear to God. In the fifteen years of contributing to this blog, I’ve never written a negative review about food, but this shame on me experience warranted it. Full fucking stop. Never, ever again
The Only Tavern We Support
September 7, 2025
I realize Bucks County has a ways to go to achieve what other areas of the country have gained culinary. It’s rural, sparsely populated, and isn’t pushing envelopes we’ve been used to.
I get it. If you are going to serve food that pleases the common working man, you have to do it right. It has to be consistent, and above all, it has to taste good.
In the last couple of years, we’ve been loyal patrons at The Gardenville Hotel. A historic mid seventeenth century former hotel. With ties to the Revolutionary War, it is a wonderful tavern that serves really good American fare.
We only just recently started going there. One reason is I was already a chef at a Doylestown Tavern call The Farmhouse. We really had no reason to venture out to any other taverns because my wife loved my cooking, and I became acquainted with many regulars who were an integral part of my social life. Plus, other taverns in the area couldn’t touch our quality of the food.
After leaving The Farmhouse in 2023, we struggled to find a decent place for a burger or wings. We lived just down the hill from Gardenville and thought of the place as a drinking establishment vs. a full service restaurant.
One afternoon, we decided on drinks at Gardenville and wandered in. The bar was funky and old. Deer heads all over the walls, various pictures on the walls, many showcasing the owner’s fishing jaunts, and we immediately felt at home.
The servers, who have been there years, provide some of the friendliest and attentive service we’ve ever experienced.
Since we now go at least twice a week, they anticipate our needs immediately. It’s a rarity to find places like this in our area. Most of the Taverns just don’t care enough to go the extra mile. This place blows most local Taverns away.
We highly suggest their wings, the burgers are excellent as well as amazing fish and chips and turkey anything. It isn’t cheap, but nothing really is post pandemic. We only sit at the tables in the bar. That’s where the fun really is. The dining room is More suited for families and older folks. We like the buzz the bar provides.
The Gardenville Burger
Our Wedding Anniversary Trip To Easton Pennsylvania
August 30, 2025
We’ve been to Easton a number of times. It reminds me of old cities that still have their architectural charm like Cincinnati and Wheeling West Virginia. Both cities are surrounded by hills and turn of the century buildings.
We’ve never stayed overnight before and usually just visit their marketplace, which I wrote about earlier on this blog.
My wife surprised me by booking us a suite at the Grand Eastonian Hotel. They’ve turned a 1927 hotel into condominiums and reservable rooms and suites. Our suite was gorgeous with a balcony looking over the city and also has a heated salt water pool that was amazing.
Home
Surprisingly, the restaurant we made reservations with was directly across the street called Kabinett, which is named after a German style of wine. The meal and service were great. They have an enormous wine list as well. We do suggest sticking with noshing on a variety of apps. My steak, which was $59, came out a bit under done and wasn’t hot. They quickly remedied it, but we liked our apps much more.
https://www.kabinettwinebar.com/
We had a cocktail at a lounge two doors up that played great 60’s r&b that featured some excellent cocktails called Presley’s.
I highly recommend Easton Pennsylvania. If you are seeking a city, feel like New York but want more accessibility and a slower pace, this is a great town to visit.
There’s Only One Restaurant At The Shore
August 15, 2025
I’ve never really been a fan of the Jersey shore. I’ve lived on the West Coast for almost two decades. We enjoyed the solitude of dozens of empty beaches in northern California that gave us peace and solitude.
The Jersey shore always seemed to be the antithesis of this to me. Crammed beaches and boardwalks, tons of kids, strollers, and families, which is probably extremely fun and exciting to them but I prefer the comfort of empty beaches, dive bars and small eateries that we encountered in the bay area.
Now that I’ve gotten that off of my chest, I wanted to share an experience that my wife and I discovered as a fluke at the entry point to the Garden State Parkway, aka the Jersey shore. It’s called Seabright, which is just mile from the Atlantic Highlands. The Highlands is pretty basic place. Airbnb’s, some pedestrian restaurants, a couple of bars, and a vista of New York City
We chose the area because it’s less than two hours from our home and it’s relatively affordable compared to places like Ocean City or Wildwood. It’s perfect for us.
We’ve dined at a few places which were underwhelming yet expensive. Considering we are both in the restaurant industry, we tend to be more critical of our dining experience versus the casual diner.
As we searched for the diamond in the rough, we took a chance on a place on the Jersey shore jetty called ironically 2nd Jetty.
When we pulled up to the place and into the parking lot, we both said wtf? From the outside, it looked like a run-down tiki bar connected to a clam company. PERFECT!
We both committed and wandered in. The interior was a gaudy nautical themed dining room with huge booths and fishing decor on the walls, and we immediately felt at home.
The staff is young, funky, and seemed to love working there. The kitchen resembled the staff from the movie “Waiting,” which I highly encourage watching if you’ve ever worked in a restaurant before.
The core menu hasn’t changed in years. As a chef, I understand why. The chef creates an extensive fresh feature menu that consists of at least five items that the staff have memorized perfectly that even regulars wouldn’t be fatigued by.
Their cocktail and wine menu are both top-notch. The core menu offers a variety of shellfish, raw fish, and small appetizers that have both Asian and Caribbean influences. This is a win/win for us.
We decided on some starters to begin our journey. The Careless Navigator consists of six local clams and oysters and six jumbo shrimp. They literally get their clams from the adjacent business connected to the restaurant. The oysters were local as well. Small, succulent, and delicious. We loathe those gigantic, cow tongue sized oysters that litter many east coast menus. The shrimp were huge and fresh, and everything came with traditional cocktail sauce and mignonet. Amazing.
We continued our culinary journey with the poke of the day. Cubed yellow fin tuna over rice with a wadabi aioli, wakame, scallions, and rice chips. Again, outstanding.
Our final appetizer was the daily crudo. Sliced tuna belly over cucumber with yuzu, sweet soy and aioli with micro sprouts. Delicious.
We decided on our two core menu favorites. The mussels with a coconut curry broth with crostini. The portion was huge! The broth was balanced and had a great umami flavor.
My choice is the popular pan seared Corvina that was served over a “Risotto style” potato-bacon chowder topped with a quinnelle of spiced apple. I get it every time we dine there.
I highly recommend this joint. You can even “buy a round for the kitchen” if you like, and by watching the staff, they will literally give the kitchen that round why they cook you meal.
Finally, 2nd Jetty is seasonal. They usually close not much past Labor day and reopen around March, so visit soon! You won’t be disappointed.
Home
There’s Only One Italian Restaurant That Qualifies
August 3, 2025
When the word “Quakertown” comes to mind, great food isn’t immediately associated with that town. It’s not a culinary juggernaut by any sense of the word.
My brother-in-law urged us to try this tiny BYOB years ago, and to this day, we can’t go anywhere else, but La Campagna. It’s a hidden gem in the woods of Nockamixon State Park, which appears to be in a used to be office building. There is absolutely nothing fancy about the place. It’s simple in design, but the food is out of this world.
Mussels, Caesar salad, and Bruschetta are rop notch. My wife gets the Frutti di Mare with clams, mussels, shrimp, and cod in a white wine sauce and I opt for the Ripieno which is a stuffed chicken breast, breaded and pan fried on a bed of risotto. Amazing! Their desserts are made in-house, and the staff are beyond friendly!
Easton Marketplace
August 3, 2025
We love taking the trip up River Rd from Point Pleasant to Easton Pennsylvania. Easton is a charming little town east of New York City, with turn of the century buildings, great eateries, and a great and diverse population.
We’ve been to the Easton Market a few times, and I wanted to highlight a few vendors that are absolutely killing it with originally, execution and consistency.
First is More Than Q Barbeque. We decided to get the meat platter for 2 ($42), which is 3-4 meats, 2 sides, all the toppings, which included pickled onions, cucumbers, and jalapeños with two slaws and cornbread. We decided on sausage, brisket, and ribs with sides of Carolina BBQ sauce. The flavors were amazing, and the sauce had a wonderful vinegar flavor to it. Not sweet.
The next spot we tried is Mr. Lee’s Noodles, which is a ramen joint from the folks from Bolete. We tried the BBQ pork ramen ($18). Really great Umami flavor from the Dashi broth and a great, balanced meal.
Finally, we stopped by Cluck-n-Chuck for a dozen amazing east coast oysters ($36) and a fried Gochujang chicken thigh sandwich with fries ($16). The oysters were served with a shiitake mignonet and kimchi with two hot sauces. It’s really great stuff. This, by the way, was on two separate trips. I didn’t want to give the impression that we ate all of this on one visit!
If you are ever in the Easton area, I urge you to try the Marketplace. It has a great mix of vendors.
Easton Public Market
Sushi, It’s Not Just Fish and Rice
March 8, 2025
I’ve not always been a fan of this culinary delight. In fact, I didn’t try it until I was in my mid thirties. My wife, then girlfriend literally had to force me to try it. My initial first bite wasn’t anything special. She eased me into the meal like slipping on a pair of new shoes. A simple California roll. I was a cook at corporate restaurant at the time, we lived in Oakland and I wanted to evolve past my previous love for traditional dishes like Cincinnati chili, Goetta and White Castles.
The meal immediately changed me. We discovered a few local haunts that where we became progressively more ambitious with our choices. One great but now defunct restaurant was Drunken Sushi in Oakland. A tiny joint that served up some amazing food that was reasonably priced but very creative and really consistent.
We enjoyed other restaurants in both San Francisco, one being Sushi Ran which earned a Michelin star. We only were able to visit once but man, the level of excellence was unmatched. We found equally great sushi restaurants in Portland Oregon as well.
Fast forward to 2016, and we found ourselves moving to my wife’s hometown of Doylestown Pennsylvania. It’s a small borough of roughly 8,000 residents about an hour north east of Philadelphia. At the time, I was a chef at a small tavern in town, there was only one sushi restaurant but it had the reputation for a singles bar and we were more focused on finding a place that focused on executing great meals versus pick up lines. I spoke to a regular at my tavern who suggested Hachi in Chalfont. He highly recommended them and claimed it was the best sushi he’s ever had. We thought, why not? It was fifteen minutes away, a BYOB and saw the menu and headed over.
Hachi is located in a drab strip mall that featured your basic grocery store, a few small restaurants and that was about it. From looking at the outside of the place, you’d think it would feature a buffet, gaudy decorations and subpar food. Then we stepped into the restaurant. We were immediately taken back by the amazing decor, the sushi bar was gorgeous, walls adorned with dried grape vines once teeming with grapes and trendy, upbeat lounge music. We felt like we had been whisked back to San Francisco.
I’ve mentioned this restaurant in an earlier blog post, but I wanted to add updated photos that I’ve collected over the eight years of dining there. There combination platters are spectacular. Their specialty rolls are some of the best we’ve had outside of San Francisco and the service is always excellent. We are always treated with a complimentary appetizer by the chefs, the continue to impress.
We find that eating early is the best option. They fill up quickly and what was once a not so infamous restaurant has now become a huge hit in the area. It gets packed and very loud. I hope you enjoy the photos.
https://www.hachichalfont.com/
Tales From an Urban Chef 