Dining in the Country

Due to multiple other tugs on the feeder’s time (like a beer festival to work), we are finally going to be able to leave Jackson with a few observations about dining there…

Somehow, genes must have transmitted, as both FOJ’s are fond of good food and dining.  Of course TE being in St. Louis has many good options to choose from on every level from bistros to out and out fine dining places.  However, with TY’s move away from St. Louis to the more rural location a couple of hours south, his options are not quite as varied and searching for a good meal provides a challenge.  Since her job and his studies generated odd hours they do “eat out” quite a bit.  Cape Girardeau (home to the college) has every chain place known to man, but also some local places nearby, although they are mostly aimed at struggling college students with not a lot of cash to spend on meals.  Hence, the pizza place where we got our nice pizza the first night.  Jackson, which is a few miles (and a few years) away from Cape offers even fewer opportunities.  But FOJTY has covered a lot of highway finding places.  Really alert readers will remember we dined there one time at a place called Ray’s which turned out a pretty good meal.

Anyway the night of graduation day we all went out to a place in the country (which I could never find again, even with GPS) called the Gordonville Grill, not surprisingly in the little town of Gordonville.

They had eaten there a couple of times and found it to be comfortable and reasonable food.  They do not take reservations, but allow you to “call ahead” to get your name on the list.  We did that for a 7:00 arrival time.  There were many vehicles in the parking lot, probably evenly split between cars and pickups reflecting the rural setting, and a lot of people standing around.  Unfortunately, Missouri still allows smoking in the bar, so we stayed clear of that and just checked in and were told “about 15 minutes’.  Well, twenty five minutes and two Schlafly draft beers later we were finally seated in a little corner booth.  The place is comfy and reflects the old timey setting

The menu leans heavily toward beef with prime rib, several cuts and sizes of steaks, but throws in a few other choices like their famous fried catfish.  The place was quite busy, so our server was a bit harried (and threw “you guys” like popcorn), but she was earnest.  The first words were the famous “can I get an appetizer started for ya?” followed by I’m….  Anyway we demurred and just gave her a drink order.   After some time to converse we decided on a couple of appetizers anyway (our party was six) consisting of skewered shrimp and their famous fried gouda. 

The shrimp weren’t bad, but the cheese was kind of bland which I guess one should expect with Gouda.  Eventually we ordered a prime rib, three steaks, a chicken dish, and a cob salad.  With the beef you have to pick sides, so I took onion rings and the house salad with blue cheese.  Speeding along here, the salad was imminently forgettable kind of an amalgam of finely chopped greens, cherry tomatoes, grated cheese, and dressing that tasted more like ranch than blue which could have been because she sort of forgot who had what.  Fast forward my rib eye steak arrived. Kind of a brown on white study…

The meat was fairly tasty, and cooked close to medium rare.  Why they serve texas toast anymore I don’t know.  Others were pleased with their entrees.   We eschewed dessert because we all decided to go to

Andy’s Frozen Custard for dessert, a little place over in “the Cape”.  That was really fun.  Lots of choices to pick from, including “concretes” (which may have been “borrowed” from the famous Ted Drewes dish up the road).  You make your selections then join the crowd.

After the long day of graduation, steak and hot fudge sundae, I was ready for bed.

Next morning we had another local experience, breakfast at

A little storefront again out somewhere.   Some research by FOJTY put it on his list for places for breakfast.  Our wonderful local farm to table place we went last time had given up, so we tried this place.   They featured a buffet

With all sorts of breakfast items, including sausage gravy for biscuits, real country stuff

FOJTY took full advantage

The food quite fine for breakfast and the place sort of reminded us of “Linda’s” here in the Park with a reasonable facsimile of her in charge.  I especially enjoyed the bacon.  Pork Fat Rules!! As we were leaving they were setting up one of those chocolate fountain things to dip strawberries, pretzels, and marshmallows in.  

Since it was mother’s day there were several family groups with cute little girls in their best dresses to share food and fun with Mommy..  really sweet.

Which brings me back to my always pointing out that food is always secondary when spending time with family.  Okay, so the steak was a little tough, service spotty, the buffet was in the hall.  Who the hell cares when you’re with your sons… THAT is what is important in my life.  Many thanks to FOJTY for finding places to share.. it is always fun to see what’s “out there”.  Quite enjoyable.  We'll be back!!  We left Jackson a proud couple of parents.  Having both sons there for a while was memorable..

Next day we journeyed up to FOJTE’s backyard.  Tomorrow’ edition. More food stuff.   Hopefully that will wrap up the trip and we can get back to exciting things like the progress on the Cracker Barrel!!

DFD