Pizza Hut Fail

I guess trying to compete with Little Caesars, Pizza Hut is offering $10, any size, any topping pizzas for take out. A couple of problems that make this a giant FAIL in my book are:

1. They are not hot and ready. You either have to order them ahead of time or wait fifteen to thirty minutes after you get there. Or both.

2. In their infinite wisdom Pizza Hut has decided that it is much more efficient to have a remote person take the order by phone and relay it to the store. Gee, what could go wrong.

After spending fifteen minutes on the phone trying to get a person who barely speaks English to understand what I want and where I want to pick it up, I find myself at the Pizza Hut cash register being told that no evidence of my order exists, that this happens all the time, and that I am welcome to wait fifteen to thirty minutes while they make it for me.

The best part was being 90% certain that I saw the guy behind the counter prepare my order and put it in the warmer. But I bet nobody put that together when they closed that night and it was still there.

Dempsey Bakery from a gluten free standpoint

Gluten Free.

A trip to Dempsey Bakery is like putting one foot in the past and the other in the future. The sign with its Established 2011 notation in combination with the red-and-white-checkered floor lend a retro feel. The white walls and sleek chairs foreshadow a modern gluten-free menu that provides a welcome leap forward for those of us who maintain a gluten-free lifestyle. How comforting is it to know that you can walk in, grab anything, and not have to worry whether you'll accidentally wander outside the bounds of a GF diet? Well, as many of you know, that can sometimes be as comforting as the smell of baking bread.

Never been here before? You'll be quickly adopted by a member of the extended Dempsey family. They will explain, recommend, and encourage you to taste. Since we agree that gluten-free food is made to be tasted, we get started immediately.

So what is there here to sample? Nicely displayed in open wood shelves are huge loaves of Everybody's Bread and White Bread. Baguettes fill a basket on the counter and are joined by Nana Bread, Pumpkin Bread, and Monkey Bread arranged in multiple levels. A bread slicer behind the counter means you can have uniform slices for sandwiches if you prefer.

In another area, freshly baked Hot Dog and Hamburger buns cool along with Wrye-Not Bread, small loaves of Herb Bread, and large White Rolls. Those all look pretty, but I just sampled the sweet, sticky Monkey bread so I'm primed for a Hot-Milk Cake sample which proves to be a gateway sweet. I'll soon consume a taste of the Brownie with mint-chocolate icing, a White Cupcake with delectable strawberry cream icing, a Snickerdoodle, some Nana Bread, and some other jelly-roll looking cake that was filled with icing instead of jelly. Oh yeah, I snuck in one more bite of Monkey Bread while waiting for a chunk of Baguette.

That may sound like a lot to you, but I didn't even ask for an Iced Shortbread Cookie, a Chocolate Cupcake, an Iced Chocolate Ho-Ho, an individual sized Strawberry Cheesecake or the Chocolate Rolled Cake.

In all that munching and comparing with my gluten-eating companion, the standouts were the icings and the Snickerdoodle cookie. The cookie was crunchy on the outside, had a bit of chewy on the inside, and its perfectly balanced flavors would rival a gluten filled version. We also enjoyed the Monkey Bread as evidenced by my inability to stay away from it.

Not as pleasing was the White Bread. While it had a high rise and a wonderful brown, crunchy crust, the inside left me with a slight aftertaste I did not like. I should note that if you were slathering it with some kind of spread or barbecue sauce, you probably wouldn't notice.

The white cupcake eaten by itself needed a bit more flavor. Perhaps a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla would suffice. The crumb was moist and dense as is often true of gluten-free cake. Luckily, the strawberry icing swirled on top was quite tasty.

The Nana Bread smelled wonderful and tasted good. The texture was toward the gummy side. Maybe reducing the tapioca starch, eliminating the xanthan gum, or adding a bit of almond flour would improve the texture.

One thing I can emphatically say about the Dempsey Bakery folks - they're generous with the samples. Another thing I can say is that it concerned me when a number of those samples were offered with a verbal disclaimer that something hadn't come out quite right today. This creates a quandary for me. I love the friendliness and enthusiasm the staff has for the products and the customers. I like it that they want to include us in the process, but only to a point.

When I'm standing in a bright and cheery space with bright and cheery people taking a few bright and cheery moments away from work, I really want to be handed something perfect or tasty enough that I don't care if it looks perfect without a lot of hoopla. My suggestion would be to deeply discount the "seconds" in a bin in the corner, or repurpose them into croutons to top your soup or take home to your Caesar salad.

Now let's put all the fallen bread and gummy pizza crust in the past, look forward to the yummy Snickerdoodles in our future, and be grateful that there is now a 100% gluten-free bakery in LIttle Rock.

Dempsey Bakery from a gluten eater's standpoint...

323 South Cross Street, Little Rock
501-375-2257

Bob Joe Circabellum, who will eat anything:

When my friend asked me if I had tried Dempsey Bakery I said no, even though it’s only a couple of blocks away from where I work all day. And I’m thinking maybe something about the “gluten free” designation had put me off. So when she said, “I’m gluten free, why don’t we go try it and write about it from the perspectives of gluten free versus non-gluten free diets,” I thought, that’s actually a pretty cool idea. Because, as she said, it’s either good or it’s not, right?

So we decided to have breakfast mid-morning today. Why not get a little bit of a few different things and see what we think.

First impression is how clean and bright it is as you come in. It’s a big room with red and white checkerboard tiled floors and red, white and stainless everywhere else. And it’s loud. If you’re a little over-the-hill and hard of hearing like me, that can be a problem. Not a very pleasant spot for a chat over coffee and pastries. They should probably soften some of the surfaces to alleviate that.

The baked items, though compared to rival bakeries are sparse, all looked wonderful. The breads have a beautiful brown crust, the cakes are cheerfully light looking and brilliantly iced. Baguettes, and rolls all appealingly lined up on their respective racks. But it strikes you as you stand to admire, there’s no overwhelming bakery smell. No aroma of yeast, no bread smell. And I guess maybe these breads just don’t smell the same, but even my gluten free friend suggested that maybe they bake a regular loaf each morning just to get the aroma.

“Have you been in before?” we were asked as we walked in. Let the sampling begin…
The proprietors seem eager to cut off small samples of any of the products, though the Mom cautioned us not to make a breakfast of them. So we tried bits of the monkey bread, the chocolate mint brownie, the baguette and the white bread. And we purchased a cupcake, a snickerdoodle cookie and a loaf of banana bread.

The chocolate mint brownie was as it should be. A somewhat chewy, chocolaty brownie with a refreshing mint icing. This would make a decent dessert, but not my idea of breakfast. The cake with citrus icing was quite good and I’d be tempted to take one of those to a party. The baguette was disappointing. It looked just like it should, but I guess you just can’t replicate the proper texture without gluten. Inside and out it looked perfect, but the texture was more like a crescent roll than a toothy French bread.

The cupcake was decent if just a little grainy, but the icings are top notch. The icing made the cake edible, but is so rich you just can’t have but a bite or two before you have to back away. The banana bread had the flavor down pat, but the texture was more like a gummy bear than a breakfast cake. Just too chewy. Not in a good way.

The bread, called everyone’s bread because they use that dough in all of the rolls, buns, specialty breads and who knows what else, is less than delightful. The crust has a good flavor, but inside is just not the flavor, texture or appearance of standard white sandwich bread. I could see Wonderbread Kids, nationwide, turning their noses up to this.

My gluten free friend and I agreed that the snickerdoodle cookie was the best thing we had there. Which begs the question, would I make this a regular stop? Despite the convenience, I’d have to say no. At sixteen dollars per loaf for bread, and nowhere near the quality I’d expect for that price, I think I’ll stick to Community Bakery and let the gluten-free folks keep this one.

The Cadron Creek Catfish House - A new favorite

Highway 65 North

Bee Branch, Arkansas (about 50 minutes from Little Rock)

Can you wax rhapsodic about a catfish house, or even use "rhapsodic" in the same sentence as "catfish house"? Especially a "restaurant" in which the diners, one guesses, haven't really felt the need to remove their camo caps since birth. And, the interior decor would charitably be described as "mid-modern warehouse." Yes, it's that kind of place.

For years, I had driven by the CCCH on my way to someplace else. And, just about every time I passed it, I thought to myself, "Hmmm, THAT looks interesting." I wish I had given in to the impulse earlier. I've been there two or three times now, and each time I've had an enjoyable meal of excellent catfish and been waited on by friendly country folks. It's about as "Arkansas" as it gets, in a good way.

The CCCH is only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m. There's no beer because it's in a dry county, and you can't bring your own with you. The ladies that cook the food get there at 7 a.m. each day, and then proceed to make everything from scratch.

Yep, you read that correctly. No frozen french fries or onion rings. No Sam's Club slaw. No canned baked beans. No pre-packaged BBQ ribs. They make everything there, and it tastes that way.

As Lewis Carroll might say, let's begin at the beginning. The CCCH is an all-you-can-eat buffet. Adults eat for $12, and those above age 62 eat for a dollar less. Soft drinks and tea are extra. My companion and I ate for roughly $27 before tip. Not great, but not bad, either. Because it IS an all-you-can-eat buffet, the size of the crowd is literally substantial. But, discussing obesity in the context of a catfish restaurant review seems to me to be poor form and humorless, particularly since I recall filling my plate up at least twice before putting down my fork. Finito, no mas!

Second, the food is good. This is a catfish place not haute cuisine, so those wanting creme brulée instead of banana pudding for dessert should look elsewhere. The food that they have, though, is uniformly tasty and fresh. I noticed a constant turnover of the items on the buffet, so they don't sit around getting soggy or overcooked. They have fresh salad fixings, cole slaw (in the KFC-vein — a bit sweet for me, but my companion liked it), fried okra, green tomato relish, and a lot of other stuff like that. All good. You'll have to excuse my lack of detail here, because I kept craning my neck (in a polite and gentlemanly fashion, of course) looking for the catfish. And, that nice elderly lady next to me inexplicably lost her balance as I gently brushed past her to the fillets. Sad.

They have fried frog legs, too. Tender and lightly battered, with no "fishy" pond taste. Delightful. The catfish comes in both fillets and center-cuts, and is uniformly excellent with a nice, mild, nutty catfish flavor and a perfectly fried crust. In a more perfect world, I might ask for a bit more spice in the batter (along the lines of Grandpa's with more pepper and garlic), but that really would be nit-picking. It's great just the way it is. On my second visit to the catfish section of the buffet, I asked one of the women where they get their fish. "Itta Bena, Mississippi," she replied. And, I thought once again, "Thank God for Mississippi."

Along with the very, very good catfish, the CCCH also has similarly wonderful hushpuppies in both plain and jalapeno varieties. I tried both (and why not?), and each was delicious. Not sweet or tart, either, but as the Baby Bear said, "Just right." I'll simply say that these Bee Branch women know how to make and cook hushpuppies, and leave it at that.

The service, as you might imagine, is folksy and nice. Drinks are refilled regularly without asking, and the women (I didn't see a single man in the kitchen or working the room) working there seem to genuinely want you to enjoy your meal. How old-fashioned! What are they thinking?? No surly waiters. No obvious greed. No "increasing value for shareholders"? I hardly knew what to make of the place — until I started eating, of course.

Now, a cautionary note: if you decide to stop in at the Cadron Creek Catfish House in Bee Branch and you make the trip from Little Rock, you will go through two well-known and notorious speed traps: Greenbrier, Arkansas, and Damascus, Arkansas. OBEY the speed limits in those two towns. In Greenbrier (just north of Conway), the speed limit drops from a posted 55 mph to 40 mph in town. And, in Damascus, it drops to 45 mph. Just do it. And, as you idle through those places, just be glad you don't live there and think about the tasty catfish waiting for you a few short miles ahead.

The Cadron Creek Catfish House has become a new favorite of mine. It's a long way to drive for a simple meal, but the drive itself can be a pleasant time to talk and look at the farm scenery. And, if you happen to be passing that way on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night and are feeling hungry, pinch yourself at your good fortune.

Unless, of course, you're craving creme brulée.

Redbone's

300 East Markham
Little Rock, Arkansas

Cajun food excites me. I like to cook it, I like to eat it, I like to be with my friends and eat it. It's a friendly food and delicious when prepared properly. That's why I enthusiastically chose Redbone's over the Flying Fish Friday night since I'd never tried it before.

A new restaurant, located in the old Flying Burrito space in the River Market, we'd heard that maybe they don't have all of the bugs worked out. But we weren't prepared for what we encountered.

The menu looked good with a selection of Po Boys and Cajun dishes including an alligator dish. I'm leery of alligator on a first date because it has to be fresh and perfectly prepared to be good at all, so I got the shrimp grits instead. My Bride got the roast beef po' boy and our companion got the pecan encrusted grouper.

We also ate the Oyster Rockefeller Stuffed Mushrooms and the Andouille Cheese dip appetizers. The Oyster dish was heavy on the mushrooms and light on the oysters, but tasty. The cheese dip was really good. I may start adding andouille to my cheese dip from now on! And it was about then that the sound check next door started...

A chest pounding, throbbing beat began to permeate the walls, vibrating everything from light fixtures to salt shakers and effectively cutting off all possibility of conversation. Did I mention that I like to be around friends when eating Cajun food? Curious, I wandered outside to peek in at the Rev Room next door. Mind you, it's only about seven o'clock and the door is locked but I can see the guys in there testing out their sound system. I reported back to the table and asked the waiter if it's this way every night? "Oh, no," he assured me. Somehow I didn't feel so reassured.

The food arrived shortly after that and turned out to be fairly stingy portions. The shrimp grits had some well prepared, juicy shrimp on them, but the grits and the sauce were very lackluster. I almost wondered if they had just spooned a couple of dollops of Rotel on top. Our companion remarked that he'd never had to cut fish with a knife before which I think explains the grouper adequately. My Bride said that her po' boy was good, but I noticed that she didn't eat any of the bread, choosing to pick the meat with her fingers.

The beer was cold, but the air conditioner seemed to have trouble keeping up so by the time we finished eating, between the sweating and the bouncing in our chairs from the sound check next door, we were more than ready to leave.

May give this place another try during lunch and hope that it's quieter and they have the kinks worked out...

Aug. 23 update: Arkansas Times review says that the owners had Hungry's Cafe from 1984 to 1993. I don't think this is correct, seems I remember Sherry K. starting it and owning it into the nineties. Is this possibly the guy that bought it from Sherry and ruined it? Hungry's went out of business not long after Sherry left. The article also mentions The Diner in Cabot. The Diner in Cabot was such a foodservice frozen food warmed up and schlepped on a plate that I didn't even bother to review it. This is all starting to make sense now as to how you can have such lackluster Cajun food when Cajun food is by design supposed to be exciting...

Lassis Inn – Where the buffalo … are fried.

518 East 27th Street, Little Rock, AR

501-372-8714

A friend suggested that we go to the Lassis Inn, and mentioned en route that the menu was, essentially, binary, i.e., you had your choice of either catfish or buffalo (fish). No burgers. No wings. Just fish. And, as frequent readers will know, I have a fondness for fried catfish that would put a smile on the face of the most hardened cardiologist. Sometimes, I wonder if crack isn’t really crystalized catfish. But, back to our story.

The Lassis Inn is in a small, nondescript wooden building adjacent to Interstate 30, south of Roosevelt Road. From what the waitress told me, it’s been in business in or around that location since 1905. The present owners have had it for, I think she said, 26 years. It’s cozy inside, and, indeed, the menu consists of … catfish and buffalo. You can choose between “fish and bread” only (you still get hushpuppies), or opt for a dinner, as I did, with cole slaw, fries and a slice of onion. Drinks include beer, tea and the usual Coke products, though they were out of tea (?) when we ate there.

I told the waitress that I had never been there before and asked her what I should order. “Big-boned buffalo,” she immediately answered. Having never had that before, I smiled and said, “OK.” My friend (who, ominously, had tasted buffalo before) ordered the catfish and bread plate. The food arrived quickly after our glasses with ice and canned drinks, and I got an extra “bone plate” to go with my buffalo. Good thinking.

My first bite was a little off-putting. OK, more than a little off-putting. Imagine what a river bottom probably tastes like and that’s buffalo. I mean, you’re right down there swimming through the muck and tasting the water. But, I discovered that, the more I ate, the more I liked it. (See how that sort of validates my fried-fish-as-narcotic theory?) The strong flavor of buffalo isn’t for everyone, so keep that in mind. The servings consist of fried sections of the flesh around the fish’s ribs, usually in chunks of two or three ribs. And, each section is about the size of a BBQ pork rib. The waitress also wasn’t kidding when she said “big-boned,” because the ribs were thin but roughly five to six inches in length. The flesh is white, not pink, and the corn meal coating that they use at Lassis is pleasantly flavorful.

The cole slaw and frozen fries were like the building – nondescript. The hushpuppies, though, were pretty tasty. Nicely fried, and neither sweet nor tart. But, my fascination with the buffalo probably overshadowed everything else. I tried a bite of my friend’s catfish, and it was very nice. Evidently farm-raised, as opposed to my down-home, river-caught fish, with a nice mild, nutty flavor.

Our total for two soft drinks, his catfish and bread plate, and my big-bone buffalo dinner was $23.93 before the tip. A tad high for my tastes, but I suppose worth it for my buffalo experience. And, I’m thinking that once is probably enough for me. Fun to try, but not a future staple of my diet. I can’t imagine ever thinking to myself, “Man, what I would give to have some big-boned buffalo right now.” But, that’s me, and you may have a different experience altogether.

As a postscript, in Googling buffalo fish, I discovered that it’s one of the common fresh-water fishes used to make Gefilte fish for Jewish holiday meals. As the goyem but gutte neshome Circa Bellum often says, “Who knew?”

McClard’s Bar-B-Que in Hot Springs – Fries. Fries. Fries. And expensive tamales.

505 Albert Pike Road, Hot Springs, AR

501-623-9665

I recently went to Hot Springs with a friend for the evening, and remembered that I used to like the homemade hot tamales from McClard’s BBQ. You can get them frozen to take home, so I decided to drop by and get a dozen for later. But, it had been many years since I had done that, and, as they say, times have changed.

As many of you know, McClard’s has been around a long, long time, and, to its credit, it’s still a family-owned operation. That, to me, is a feature that warrants its continued patronage, because I don’t like franchised restaurants. I’ve never been a huge fan of their version of Southern BBQ, but I have always liked their tamales despite their curious habit of serving them with BBQ beans heaped on top. What’s up with that?

When I went in the place, it had a distinctly Southern bus-station feel about it. And, that’s not bad. A smattering of locals were sitting around hunched over their plates of BBQ sandwiches, or huge tamales, or baskets of French fries. A quick word about those – they looked fabulous. Hand-cut, golden brown and glistening with oil, and two young children had plates of fries within reaching distance of me. I was just about to point at something out the window and distract them long enough to grab a handful when one of the kids said to the cashier, “Mom, can I have …?” Not a good time. But, I’ve got to go back and try them. They looked wonderful.

OK, so I have a $20 bill in my hand and I say, “I’d like a dozen frozen tamales to go, please.” (Of course, what else would you do with frozen tamales?) The cashier (now, another woman, not “Mom”) looked at a chart, smiled and said, “That’ll be $34.50” Huh?

No, no, you must have misunderstood me. I want the regular, edible hot tamales, not the ones minted in gold by the Aztecs. OK, I say, “How many can I get for $20?” “Six,” she said. (As Randy Newman once sang in “My Life is Good”: “Maybe my ears are clogged or somethin.’”) Nope, the hot tamales at McClard’s are a Republicanesque $3.50 each. The cashier was nice enough to spot me the difference, so I got six for $20. “You got a deal,” she whispered to me. Funny, I didn’t feel that way.

But, about the tamales. They’re handmade, wrapped in paper – not corn shucks – and tied at the ends with white twine. They’re also huge. Each one is seven inches long, an inch and three-quarters in diameter, and seven ounces in weight. (They’re tamales /they’re marital aids. Sorry, couldn’t resist.) They’re also quite good, with a spicy pork mixture and not too much masa surrounding the filling.

At McClard’s, they evidently serve them three ways: plain; with the aforementioned BBQ beans (just can’t get my head around that one); and with chili and cheese heaped on top. I saw a guy eating one of the latter versions, and it looked as though it would easily feed a family of four. But, Arkansans like big portions, as we know. And, based on his physique (a duffel-bag with legs?), I feel sure he polished it off.

I'm going to go back for a BBQ sandwich just to refresh my recollection as to why I wasn't impressed the other times I ate there. And, I'm definitely getting a big 'ole plate of fries to go with it. They really looked that good. Obviously, they know two things at McClard's: how to cook fries and price tamales.

The “new” Juanita’s in the River Market – Where you get a little for a lot.

614 President Clinton Blvd., Little Rock

501-372-1228

The “new” Juanita’s Café & Bar moved this summer from its long-time location on South Main Street to its new incarnation in the River Market. In a curious decision that may indicate where the restaurant owners think their best opportunities for profit lie, the restaurant is downstairs and the live music venue upstairs and a straight shot from the street.

The “old” Juanita’s went through many, many changes over the years, and seemed to have lost its way during that time. It went from Little Rock’s premier live music venue and a middle-of-the-road Tex-Mex restaurant to a middle-of-the-road live music venue and middle-of-the-road, but overpriced, Tex-Mex eatery. Not a good path.

The food at the new place is about what it was at the Main Street location. A friend of mine and I went today and I was very underwhelmed. I had the special (the inaptly-named “Fiesta plate” with taco, which used to be on the menu but was curiously absent even though it’s listed as Monday’s regular “special”). My friend had a single enchilada, rice and beans. We shared a cheese dip, chips and both had iced tea. Total tab before tip: $26.88.

Now friends, that seems a bit steep for what I estimated to be food costs that amounted to less than $3 for both of us. And, I think I’m being generous, at that. Tex-Mex food is some of the cheapest to prepare in the food biz, so I felt as though the “new” Juanita’s had successfully got into my pocket for way more than I got out of the deal. I know the recent heat has made me very cranky, but still …. This was greedy.

On top of all that, the service was poor. One guy seemed to be rushing around trying to do everything, while three others sort of stood back content to let him do it. Oh, yeah, one of these “bystanders” did manage to drop a tray of dishes on the floor, so I guess that was something. The only time our waiter was really attentive was when he quickly brought our bill to the table. Got to love that.

I don’t wish ill will on many folks, but I don’t see a rosy future for this new Juanita’s. The service is bad. The food is very mediocre. And, you get to pay a lot for the privilege of eating there. But, I’ve been wrong many times before. The continued, counter-intuitive success of the bilious Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro and its lowest-common-denominator approach to food service is a great example of my faulty judgment. So give that some thought, too.

Simply Najiyyah's Fish Boat & More - I'd like the Black Muslim burger, please.

2900 South University Ave., Little Rock

501.562.3474

For those of us who have read and/or read about Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, it made the prospect of dining at SNFB&M (hereinafter, "Fish Boat") very interesting. The owners are Black Muslims (black folks who belong to "muslim" organizations -- such as the Nation of Islam -- that may or may not be recognized by orthodox muslims) and extremely nice people. If you want scowling, sullen, working-at-being-menacing black folks (and who doesn't?), don't go to the Fish Boat -- they're not there. Based on a single visit, they seem to be quite ordinary people trying to run a business and please their customers. Enough of the sociology and on to the food.

Wish it had been a tad better. My dining companion had promoted it as "the best cheeseburger in Little Rock," and that, my friends, is what makes the world go 'round. Tastes are very subjective, and one man's cheeseburger from Valhalla is another's pretty good sandwich.

So, we both ordered cheeseburgers, which, by the way, are not on the menu. No matter. And, as we waited, he told me about the first time he went there and asked about a double-cheeseburger. "You don't want to do that," the waiter said. And, when his very large, regular cheeseburger arrived, he understood and appreciated the warning. I couldn't finish mine. My guess is that the meat would "dress out" at about a half-pound, because I noticed that it took two slices of American cheese to cover. Then, it's garnished with the usual toppings: lettuce, fresh tomato, onion, pickle, mayonnaise and mustard. The classic cheeseburger. My tab for a Dr. Pepper, cheeseburger and fries: $7.12 before tip.

It was tasty and very filling. Maybe not the best cheeseburger I've ever had, but good. The pre-fab, frozen fries were, well, what they always are. Seems like a place like the Fish Boat could slice a potato and fry it, but it's probably cheaper for them to buy the frozen variety.

I'll go back, but I'm going to try the catfish next time. I saw a few huge plates go by and they looked good. But I really need to find a catfish-eaters-12-step program to get into, and soon, so don't trust my judgment on this. They also do enormous catfish and tilapia po-boys. And, in retrospect, what were we thinking when we ordered cheeseburgers in a place called the "Fish Boat"? Obviously, we weren't.

The bottom line: the Fish Boat offers large portions of simple food, mainly fried. Not the greatest, but also not the worst by a large margin. If they served greens, yams and ribs along with the catfish, it would be a soul-food place. And, as I say that, I wish they did serve those things, because I love that stuff and they would probably prepare them very well. And, did I mention that they're nice people?