A Fun Review: Bolles Harboe Café, Monroe
Posted on 4 May 2007 under Reviews: Restaurants | 1 Comment
I’ll subtitle this one, “Two BlogsMonroe bloggers finally met, and the world didn’t end …”
Over on Not From Around Here, fellow BlogsMonroe blogger Jessika gave the Bolles Harbor Café quite a nice review. I’d driven by the place a couple times and it looked interesting. This morning there were five of us, and I convinced the rest that Jessika’s review was enough for me to want to take everyone there.
The Bolles Harbor Café is easier to get to than the directions Jessika originally found would lead you to believe. I know, I know, step 21 is a doozy … all you need do is follow LaPlaisance road east of I-75 (that’s exit 11) for about a mile, and at a curve that’s almost 90 degrees to the right, make sure to follow that curve a bit as the restaurant, designed as a quaint seaside building, will be directly in front of you. Make an immediate left turn to park.
Going inside we found even more “quaintness”. It’s rather comfortable in the dining room with an immense amount of marine memorabila. An old rowboat hangs from the ceiling, there are ancient military lifejackets draped over the ductwork, and framed photos and artwork abound, including a series of black & white photos from the launch of the doomed Edmund Fitzgerald. There’s even an old single two-footed water ski with a rear stabilizer, intended for slolam runs. It’s a great place to simply wander through for a bit as the room is similar to a marine museum on its own.
Of course, we were there for the food. Breakfast, that is. There are extensive Breakfast Offerings in the menu, from eggs and toast, to various omelets, Belgium Waffles, Dutch Baby Apple Pancakes (our server told us these take 30 minutes to make), Cheese Blintzes with Berries, even a Mexican omelet with onions, chorizo sausage, peppers, cheddar cheese, and a side of salsa.
Mary ordered pankcakes, while John ordered pancakes and extra crisp bacon. Caleb and David both had the Belgium Waffles, “with fresh berries and whipped cream”. That’s when the fun started. The server asked, “Oh, now you’re reading me the menu??” I mentioned I thought the Fisherman’s omelet, with sausage, ham, bacon & cheese, might actually have seafood in it, possibly crab. The server turned to me and said, “Honey, the only crab in this place is the one in the kitchen cooking the food”. Ok, she’s getting a nice tip … She explained it’s called a “Fisherman’s omelet” as the restaurant is located in a fishing community. Well, ok, I guess, if you say so, sure thing … so I ordered the fish-lacking Fisherman’s omelet anyway, even though I was hoping for one having crab …
A girl came in about then and sat at the table in the front-left corner. I didn’t think much of this till later when I got a better look at her.
Our server took special care in keeping our coffee mugs and water glasses filled. When Caleb asked for an orange juice, she asked if anyone else wanted some … because she had to freshly-squeeze it.
Ok, now things were starting to sound a bit different, a bit more “high-end”. Something was decidedly upscale here.
Looking at the menu a bit more, I found some interesting things. A Lake Erie Cherry Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing. “Frost Top” root beer. Fresh fruit smoothies of pineapple, bananas and strawberries. A Greek burger with fresh onions, olives and feta cheese. Penne Pasta Alfredo, Filet Mignon, Lamb Chops, and raviolis stuffed with Portabello mushrooms or lobster. Even a manicotti made from crepes filled with three cheeses and topped with a special tomato sauce.
So, who the heck’s this Silverio C. Corte who’s signed the menu? Is he the “crab in the kitchen”?
And why’s that girl in the corner suddenly looking familiar??
When Mary spotted “the crab in the kitchen”, he was wearing a white chef’s jacket and standard checks (those black-and-white checked pants a lot of chefs wear). The server filled us in that, yes, that was Silverio. His parents own the popular Detroit Beach Pizzaria, where Silverio learned to cook while growing up, and yes, he’s a full Chef.
That explained a lot.
The food came, and frankly, it was incredible. The entrées were on beautiful 12″ round heavy bone china platters emblazoned with the Bolles Harbor Café logo in blue in the center, with side dishes on 6″ versions of the same design. The 6″ pancakes were nice and thick, very fluffy, and the waffles were topped with fresh sliced strawberries and a huge mound of real whipped cream.
My omelet was an even yellow color without a single brown spot, which is something you’ll rarely see unless whoever cooked it is seriously paying attention to it. All the fillings were chopped small, exactly the same size, with a finely-shredded cheddar cheese. There was also a side of hash-browns, also finely shredded before being grilled perfectly.
All the food was amazingly good. The various flavors in the omelet were nicely balanced, and the hash browns only needed just a touch of salt. I asked around the table, and even John, our pickiest eater (the pickiest eater I’ve ever met) said, “I’d call this place highly recommended”.
That about said it all.
And the girl in the corner again looked familiar … and then she didn’t. I got up to write the URL for this blog for the server while the server went to get the Chef so he and I could meet. I glanced over at the girl in the corner one more time … and my mind solidly connected the face I was looking at with this picture. I excused myself to interrupt her reading, asked if her name was Jessika … and even though she’s Not From Around Here, there she was!
Jessika and I chatted for a bit just to get acquainted, and then Chef Silverio came out. In chatting with him for a few minutes, we found out his parents have owned the Detroit Beach Pizzaria for 42 years now, he had had just over three years as a cook in the Army, he carries a Culinary Degree from Monroe County Community College, and he also knows Chef Tad and Catherine from the Frog Leg Inn. He told us war stories from Vietnam from 1975, and about how he he ended up in the Galley of a Navy ship with a Chief that just didn’t like him.
Chef Silverio came across to me as quite a stong, confident Italian chef of the old-fashioned variety … who’s spent the past eight years creating a warm, comfortable diner with a wide-ranging menu of beautifully-made food. He’s the kind of guy who’s had a solid life as a detail-oriented cook as that’s how he seemed to be born to be.
I don’t care that Chef Silverio is ”the crab in the kitchen”. My family doesn’t care about that, and obviously Jessika doesn’t either. Frankly, I think the server likes the place that way.
Quite simply, as Jessika has already shown, Chef Silverio C. Conte’s Bolles Harbor Café is the kind of place you’ll want to go back to again and again. Oh, and meet up with friends there, too. It’s quite the comfortable place for that.
Jessika on Bolle’s Harbor Café
Posted on 30 April 2007 under Reviews: Restaurants | No Comments
Over on “Not From Around Here”, fellow BlogsMonroe blogger Jessika offers her review of a Mexican omelet at Bolle’s Harbor Café. It’s a good thing she didn’t follow the directions she’d originally gotten, or she might have been a bit more hungry …
World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2007
Posted on 25 April 2007 under Cookbooks, Reviews: Restaurants | 5 Comments
The UK’s Restaurant Magazine has released its listing of The S.Pelligrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants. While first place didn’t go to a restaurant in the U.S., Chef Thomas Keller has two restaurants in the top ten, including his French Laundry. An article in the online version of The Independent gives more information for each of the winners, including words from the critics. Finally, they also presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.
The French Laundry Cookbook has for a long time been on my list of amazing books to get.
Schmucker’s Restaurant
Posted on 17 January 2007 under Reviews: Restaurants | 1 Comment
Last night after having some auto work done, we were driving along Central Ave. in Toledo trying to figure out where we could throw some groceries down our necks. My first thought was Famous Dave’s on Monroe. As we got closer to Reynolds, Mary mentioned Dave’s Home-Cooked Foods on Reynolds, which we’d been wanting to try for a while. Not sure why, but we had Daves on the brain.
We drove by the old Schmucker’s Restaurant and I mentioned it was Mary Beth’s Money Saver this week on 101.5 The River. It wasn’t a block later that we decided to turn around and give it a shot.
The Frog Leg Inn Experience
Posted on 14 January 2007 under Reviews: Restaurants | 9 Comments
Sometimes the memories are all just a purple haze …
I’ve mentioned the Frog Leg Inn in Erie more than once, describing it as our favorite restaurant in Monroe County. Now that chef/owner Tad Cousino is commenting in this blog, you may think I’m simply biased towards them.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact is, the Frog Leg Inn became our favorite months before the Chef and I met and became friends a couple years ago.
Our first visit to the Frog Leg Inn was the result of a gift card someone had given us for our wedding in October of 2004. During that visit, service from our server, Sherry, was almost non-existant. Mary says that, since we were basically on our honeymoon, she really didn’t notice. But having worked in foodservice before, I noticed. However, Sherry had a good reason. I realized there was one woman at a nearby table who was, quite literally, demanding all of Sherry’s attention. And I mean, all of it! I felt sorry for Sherry for what she was having to tolerate. She’d get to us when the woman gave her a breather, but as soon as she’d do something for us, that woman would call her right back over.
The Elephant Bar
Posted on 17 December 2006 under Reviews: Restaurants | 1 Comment
Have you been down to the Westfield/Franklin Park Shopping Center in Toledo since they completed the addition last year? Have you walked through the new west entrance between Dick’s Sporting Goods and Talbot’s? In doing so, have you glanced at the Elephant Bar attached to the outside of that entrance and just kept walking?
Next time, don’t keep walking. Grab those massive, polished brass elephant-head-shaped handles, pull those doors open and go inside. It’s a real treat.
Mary and I did this today. We’d walked the entire mall, Christmas shopping along the way, window shopping the rest of the time. We were dog tired when we went outside this grey day and decided to make the left turn into the Elephant Bar.
The atmosphere is wonderful. The hostess seated us near the open kitchen, with its wonderful smells wafting over us, and gave us our menus. Ok, that’s a major menu! We knew it was going to take a while to decide.
Our server arrived and introduced herself as Emily. It became apparent early-on that she was like one of our favorite servers, Julie of the Frog Leg Inn in Erie. In a review in January 2006 when the Toledo Blade gave the Frog Leg Inn five stars, they also called Julie “spectacularly competent”. We tease her about that phrase as it’s so amazingly back-handed and we know she’s much better than that phrase implies. Emily at the Elephant Bar reminds us of Julie.
Emily brought us our raspberry iced teas, which were a nice blend of brewed tea and a raspberry purée, and gave us the time to go through the menu. So many great dishes there. We had a difficult time deciding among the Niu Niu Coconut Shrimp Skewers, the Oriental Chicken Salad, the Cashew Chicken Salad Sandwich, the Fresh Macadamia Nut Salmon, and the Fresh Fire Grilled Catfish with Tropical Fruit Salsa.
After seeing the amount of food on the plated dishes that were going by to other tables, Mary settled on a lunch portion of the Shrimp & Chicken Jambalaya. I chose the dinner portion of the Blackened Catfish with Shrimp Jambalaya.
While we waited for our food I strained to hear what was going on in the open kitchen a few feet away. Hardly anything there. No yelling, no calls of “Order up! [ding!]”, none of that open-diner-kitchen nonsense. I spotted the General Manager, laughing and chatting with employees. Servers and others staff always had a smile when they walked by the table. One gentleman server stopped twice to ask questions about the “geek” shirt I was wearing from Microsoft. Through it all, our teas were kept filled. A professional staff there.
It wasn’t too long before Emily brought our dishes, warning Mary that her plate might be too hot to touch, and left us to enjoy our meals.
Just the scoop of white rice on its own was quite good, being just moist enough to hold together at the right temperature. The jambalayas were superb! The shrimp was crunchy but hot, the vegetables crisp and flavorful, and the sauce had just the right amount of flavorful heat to it. Sitting on my jambalaya was a blackened catfish fillet, black and crispy at its edges, lightly blackened on both sides, and moist and flaky inside. Even the vegtables on the side of my plate were expertly cooked, with a great crunch to them and the flavor shining through.
We savoured each and every bite. This was good, honest food, cooked as far as necessary and then left alone, seasoned perfectly. We really enjoyed this meal.
Prices are quite reasonable. There are a large number of entrées that are less than $10. Mary’s lunch portion of the Shrimp & Chicken Jambalaya was $6.95, with an extra $1 added because it was a weekend. (A dinner portion of Mary’s meal is $11.95.) My dinner portion of the Blackened Catfish with Shrimp Jambalaya was $13.95 but there was quite a bit of food on the plate, so much that I didn’t finish the vegetables.
An interesting part of the menu is the Fresh Fish Of The Day. The server will tell you what this is (today it was Atlantic salmon) and it can be prepared one of five ways; tropical fruit salsa, teriyaki, basted in lemon herb, blackened, or with macadamia nut beurre blanc sauce. The fish is then served with the steamed white rice and sautéed vegetables.
I saw Emily once kneeling on the floor to get closer to some diners, apparently making them feel more comfortable, and later, helping other staff members sing a Happy Birthday ditty to another patron. Spectacularly competent indeed.
We’ll go back there again. If you go the the Westfield/Franklin Park Shopping Center, give the Elephant Bar a try. You’ll be glad you did.
‘Halo Everybody, Halo …’
Posted on 17 December 2006 under Reviews: Restaurants | No Comments
Yesterday for lunch, Mary had her first Halo Burger. Her description of it later was that it’s like a really good home-cooked burger.
What’s a Halo Burger? I’m glad you asked!
The Halo Burger location we went to yesterday is sorta my old stomping grounds, but not really. But Halo Burger and I go back even further than that. What might end up being more confusing is that I’ve, quite frankly, eaten probably a thousand or more Halo Burgers in my lifetime, while Mary’s only had one as of yesterday.
Ok, I’ll straighten this out for you …
Mary and I only met a couple years ago, on the internet. It was early 2004 that we started chatting, with our first date being that May. We were married that October, so we recently celebrated our 2nd anniversary.
Each of us has a previous 4 decades of history to acquaint the other with. For me, Halo Burger is a part of that.
I can remember, from back in the 1960s and 70s, my parents taking me into downtown Flint to do part of the weekly shopping, or to buy clothes at the big Montgomery Ward store. For lunch, they would either take us to the Halo Burger in the old Vernor’s building or, for more fun, the diner-car location on the east side. That one was always more fun because the old guy behind the counter was whacked. Nothing he ever said made sense, he was loud and rambunctious, calling me “ma’am”, asking me if I wanted anchovies on my burger, and other complete nonsense. The guy was a floor show all his own.
I’d always get the same thing: a quarter-pound deluxe hamburger with cheese and chopped green olives, an order of onion rings, and a Vernor’s cream-ale, which I could never figure out what it was made of. And why did the dressing on that burger taste so much better than mom’s?
In the 1970s the company took over the old IHOP building in my home town of Grand Blanc. Early 1980 found me in the dining room of that Vernor’s building downtown, chatting with Halo Burger’s HR gal, and the next week I was at the grill in the Grand Blanc location, learning what made a Halo Burger a Halo Burger, and how to make them that way each and every time. I worked there for 18 months or so, and still have a Halo Burger whenever an opportunity presents itself.
So, why do Halo Burgers taste like a really good home-cooked burger? Because, quite simply, that’s what they are. The quarter-pound burger out of the package isn’t a burger-shaped hunk of ground hamburger. It’s a small cylinder of a special mix of different cuts of ground beef, little more than an inch around and an inch high, packed by the fine folks at Otto W. Liebold. This is placed on the hot stainless steel grill and instantly flattened by the grill cook with a metal spatula. Turn them once, never more than that. The Holsum buns, which are a brand you can buy in grocery stores, are kept in warming drawers. Put the cheese on the bun’s bottom, the cooked burger on that, some Hellmann’s mayonnaise (mom uses only Miracle Whip, hence the flavor difference), the chopped green olives, and some lettuce and sliced tomato, and then the top of the bun.
Too simple, really, to taste that wonderful. I’m glad Mary likes them now, so I can have more of them once again!
And a cream ale? Fill a glass with cold Vernor’s (no ice!) and top it with at least 1/4″ of real cream. That’s it.
Again, too simple.
You’ll find Halo Burger locations in Fenton, Grand Blanc, Flint, and up on Birch Run Rd. at I-75. Try one! You can have them made any way you’d like, either as I described, or with ketchup, mustard, pickle, onion, or even sliced banana peppers.
Some time after I left Halo Burger, they closed the Grand Blanc location (it’s now a Starbuck’s in the front and a Ya-Ya’s Chicken in the rear), opening a newly-built location a few miles away, up on Hill Rd., just a mile west of Dixie Hwy. The store I worked at was #5, the new store adopted that moniker, and that’s where we ate yesterday afternoon.
My old stomping grounds. But not really.
Later yesterday evening, I drove Mary through downtown Flint for the first time, where she saw the circa 1920s Vernor’s building, still thriving as Halo Burger #1. (The diner-car location was demolished 20 years or so ago to make room for a parking lot for UofM Flint.) Even later, out at the Halo Burger at the intersection of Miller and Linden Roads, I picked us up a couple large cream ales for the long drive back to Luna Pier.
It’s nice to share.
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