El Papalote Taco & Grill
http://www.elpapalote.com/

OK, it's not necessarily a small-town mom & pop restaurant, but it IS the first one in the United States. That makes it unique to San Antonio and thus (loosely) meets my prerequisites to be included on this blog.

Now that I have used my circuitous logic (WTF is that?) to justify this review, let's talk about windmills.

This is right in front of the restaurant. Yes, Virginia, it's a windmill. Cool! Makes it easy to spot from the highway (or the access road, if you didn't miss the exit...)



They immediately brought some awesomely spiced chips and a variety of sauces (and some little limes, too. How quaint.) Unfortunately, two of the three sauces were green. I don't do green. Ugh. Wife says they were spicy. Too bad. I like spicy, but not green. Who the hell would make food green, anyway? Isn't that Mr. Yuck's color? And brocolli? Gross.

The red sauce was excellent, and the pico in the 4th bowl was great too. Unfortunately, I had to share the pico. What a rip.

Below is the sandwich I ordered. It came with fries. About fries - normally just a quickly-forgotten side dish, they don't often get much attention. However, I am a french fry nut. If my fries come cold or lukewarm, there will be blood. Oh yes there will be blood.

These fries were piping hot (btw, how does one "pipe" hot?) and awesome. This was a good thing. There was no blood.

I forget what the sandwich was called, but I know what it tasted like. AWESOME! Fajita steak, some random kind of cheese (I don't know...swiss?), and onion rings. Killer. I tried to be frugal and just eat half of it and save the other half for later, but...

My wife had a different sandwich, but it looked outwardly the same (different innards). Not gonna waste your time with a pic. If you'd like to know what her sandwich looked like, gaze lovingly upon the picture of my sandwich above. Remember? I said they looked the same...

She said her sandwich was awesome, also.

Great service. I like that. In fact, we had 4 different people hit up our table on separate occasions when they saw we were in need of something. I REALLY like that.

We got out of there for less than twenty bucks for the two of us.

Go eat there before they become an Evil Corporate Beast. Your tummy will thank you (and your love handles might enjoy it too)

Artificial food is expensive. Nothing makes a steak as efficiently as a cow

Well, if you were planning to join me at Cafeggio's (see previous posts) coffee shop, don't bother.

They have, like so many other small businesses, succumbed to the economy.

I'm a little sad, because it was a nice place to sit, relax, have something to eat or drink, and surf the 'net. Even more importantly, I knew my money was supporting a LOCAL business.

I'm also sad because just down the street are tons of cars parked at or in the drive-thru of that corporate beast, Starbuck's.

HEY JERKWADS! ARE YOU HAPPY?

Folks, there are more mom and pop, locally-owned coffee shops in San Antonio. Why not get off your lazy asses, find them, and buy THEIR products, instead of giving your money to an uncaring corporate behemoth?

It's a rhetorical question.

Go.

Now.

Tell me where you find them. I'll visit them myself and post about 'em here

So both of my regular readers will know.





Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

Follow up on the previous post about Leticia's Mexican Restaurant.

We went back for dinner today after a brief workout at the gym (right next door - how convenient is that?)

Anyhoo, turns out that they have a pretty good Happy Hour special. EVERY DAY from 5 to 9 p.m. you can get two FREE margaritas with a meal. Now I don't drink, but you can bet I had to drive my wife home after dinner!

Here's some pics of our dinner with my $0.02 for each.

This is the back wall of the dining area. Very nicely done. The whole restaurant has a very cozy, family atmosphere. The human head in the pic was our waitress. Very friendly and super-attentive.

Then came the salsa. Oh man, I loved this stuff, as you'll see later. It's just a little too spicy for my wife, which was perfect for me - cuz I got to eat it all!

One of my wife's two margarita's. She said they were good. I couldn't tell ya. I don't drink 'em. Guess who's hand that is in the picture! (If you said, "Why, good Sir, that must be your wife's hand", then you win! But why would you talk like that?)

My wife had the "Mexican Plate". Which consists of a bunch of stuff that she said was really good. She told me what was on her plate, but I didn't pay much attention (did I mention we are married?)


Before you ask...No, the Mexican Plate didn't come with two bowls of beans. The other bowl of beans came with my plate. I don't eat beans. *Yuck* So my wife not only gets her beans, she gets mine too. Can't understand why someone would eat beans. As I said earlier *Yuck*.

Ah, and here we have MY plate. I ordered the beef fajitas. Man, it was killer. The picture is a little fuzzy, thanks to my generic camera phone, but take my word for it: presentation was mmmm, and the food was delicious. Well except the guacamole. Yet another YUCK item. After this pic was taken, the green goo (as I like to call it) joined my bowl of beans on my wife's plate.

She assures me that the beans and the guacamole were very good.

Note the extra bowl of salsa. Mmmmmmm good! I finished the first bowl and the waitress promptly replaced it.

We got out of there for less than 20 bucks.

Go eat there. Support a mom and pop restaurant!

Leticias Mexican Restaurant
20330 Huebner Rd


Couldn't find a website. Forgot to take pictures.

However, the food was great!

The price was very affordable.

And the staff was more than professional; they were friendly.

Been there twice for dinner and once for breakfast.

All three trips were well worth it.

That's it for today's (or this week's, or this month's) restaurant review.





If we aren’t supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

A repeat visit today.

Went to Marioli Meals to Gourmet again. (Remember the italics? Remember why they're there?)

I had this

That's a Berry Good Salad. And it was very good. That's a hunk of smoked salmon on the right side of the plate, wrapped around a gooey cream cheese lookin' mixture. I liked it. Had some strawberries in the salad too. You can't go wrong with strawberries.

And I had this to drink

It's non-alcoholic and it's called Sangria Senorial. There's a couple accent marks in the name. Don't know where they go. Don't care.

It tasted funny. Not like, rotten bad puke your guts up and get an antibiotic shot in the ass funny...just kinda yucky funny. Won't have it again.


OK, I promise the next review will be for a different restaurant. Maybe something Mexican. That is, if I can find a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio.






If white wine goes with fish, do white grapes go with sushi?

If you live in San Antonio

Or any big city for that matter

You may have noticed the rapid destruction

Of traditional "Mom and Pop" businesses

By the big box

Evil

Punk-ass

Corporate entities such as

Wal-Mart

Starbuck's

etc.

I am a nerd (my daughter typed that, not me. She's so cute.)

Who enjoys supporting

Small businesses

Family-owned businesses

What an old prof used to call

"The backbone of American business."

Anyway this isn't going to turn into a rant about how Big Business sucks

(It does)

Or how Big Business doesn't give a whit about you or your neighborhood

(It doesn't)

Or how the American small business really has no voice in Congress

(Senators are expensive, after all).

No this post is about a little Mom & Pop coffee shop that I really love

That is in danger of going under

Due to the economy

Due to a a Starbuck's just down the street

And due to a bunch of lazy-ass San Antonians who prefer their corporate coffee shop to have a drive-thru.

The name of the coffee shop is

Cafeggio Coffee Shop

Here's the website: http://www.cafeggio.com/

Go there (to the website)

And then

Go there (to the coffee shop).

Yes they have wi-fi

Yes they have good coffee.

What they don't have is an

Evil

Corporate

Destroy-All-Who-Stand-Against-Us

Mentality.

They'll make you a panini

And a great cup of coffee

And even a fruit smoothie.

And you won't feel rushed.

And even more importantly to me

After a few visits

They will remember you.

THAT is this old man's definition of customer service.

So fellow San Antonians

Stop lamenting about how our city is losing its small town feel.

Get off your whiny asses

Skip the corporate coffee joints

That sit on every corner in this city

And come on over to Cafeggio's.

If you see me here typing away on my blog

I'll buy you lunch.

(ed note: Since there are only two people on this planet who actually read my blog, and one of them lives in another state, I don't think the free lunch offer is a big danger to my wallet.)

I DARE YOU TO STEP OUT OF YOUR DAILY ROUTINE AND WALK AWAY FROM THE NORM!






All cats have the same name. It’s pronounced exactly like the sound of a can opener.

Ok.

I'm back.

Hooray.

The name of the restaurant is

Marioli Meals to Gourmet

Note that I have italicized

The "Meals to Go" portion of the name.

I'll leave it to the reader to puzzle out why.

(Um, you're the reader

Puzzle it out)

Anyway, the food is great

The price is VERY reasonable.

'Nuff said.

Oh wait.

I was encouraged to put pictures in my restaurant reviews.

For those who learn better by sight

Than by, you know, learning in a normal way.

So here's a picture

That I hope

Really enhances this restaurant review

From the list of things NOT to say when pulled over by the police: "How long is this going to take? Your wife is expecting me."

The next installment of

JIMBOB'S SAN ANTONIO RESTAURANT REVIEW

is currently on hold...

I forgot the name of the restaurant.

Rather than spend valuable time searching the Internet trying to find it

I'm just going to go eat lunch there.

More later...after lunch...and maybe after a nap.

(ed note: this was the first of a flurry of posts about restaurants in the San Antonio area. It led to the creation of this blog as a spin-off of my original blog.)


WTF?

Is it time already for my semi-annual blog post?

Wow

Time flies.


Ok

Let's talk about food.

And let's call it

*drumroll*


(If you didn't hear the drumroll, adjust your speakers)

(If you still don't hear it, keep adjusting your speakers

While the rest of us laugh at you)


By the way

Is drumroll one word

Or two?

Go figure it out yerself (www.dictionary.com)

Cuz I ain't yer little bitch.


Anyhoo, back to

The food

Ready now?

Ok

Let's call it

Wait for it

Wait for it

JIMBOB'S SAN ANTONIO RESTAURANT REVIEW

Ok

Here goes:

I ate at Aldaco's on Stone Oak this weekend.

The food was great

But it was overpriced.

Thank you.





From the list of things things you don’t want to hear during your surgery: "What’s this doing here?"