When I lived in North Minneapolis I’d drive down a bit to a hole in the wall Chinese place. Literally only two small tables and four chairs in the place, as it was meant to be take-out, but when I walked there (@ 1.5 miles each way) I’d stay and eat.
Was driving across Canada once, from Duluth to Montreal. Got pulled over. The officer said something like “You see that bus back there? Maybe you don’t have to stop for school buses in America?” I sighed, and admitted I hadn’t seen it. He let me off with a warning.
To restore my shaken nerves, I stopped at a roadside diner and had some coffee and a slice of coconut cream pie. Damn, that was a good pie.
My favorite place to eat in Schenectady is Pizza King on Jay Street (right across from City Hall). They make some great pizza.
How very cool! I sure didn’t expect anyone to be familiar with my personal favorite hole in the wall!
Louis’ Lunch, New Haven. BYOK*
*Bring your own ketchup.
Mr. D’s on far West Diversey in Chicago.
An honest to God hole-in-the-wall, maybe seats 10, and everything is cheap and delicious!
Kiki’s Chicken, Sacramento Ca.
Little shack behind a self-serve car wash, next to the 7-11. Building looks like it would sell used auto transmission parts.
Great chicken wings and tenders. They got thai chili sauce that is highly addictive. One of the best chicken sandwiches ever. A fried chicken breast, crispy and juicy, great sauce and onion and lettuce.
And when you ask for your fries crispy, they come out crispy!
Jimbo’s Hamburger Place, in New York City, on First Avenue and 54th Street. Tiny little place, with maybe a dozen stools at the counter.
Excellent burgers. Lunch (a burger, any way you want it, with anything you want on it, plus fries and a soda) costs about a buck more than McDonald’s.
Chivito d’Oro, in Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC. Spectacular Uruguayan food.
Giovann’s NY Pizza in Sunnyvale. Just a simple pizza place, but man they made 'em good.
A Bite of Wyoming in East San Jose. Menu is just what you’d expect with a name like that. Awesome biscuits and gravy. They even have a mounted Jackalope head on the wall.
Kenta’s steaks, across the street from the Ramla near Iidabashi station in Tokyo. Great pan-seared steaks light cabbage salad and garlic fried potatoes, with Asahi super dry beer.
The best hole in the wall places around here are take-out counters operated by bigger restaurants, whether next door (Atilla’s) or up the street (Red Hot & Blue). Sadly, both the original Red Hot & Blue and its take-out counter have disappeared.
ETA: how could I forget Weenie Beenie?
That sounds a lot like the Snow White Drive In in the last town where I lived. Kid Rock even used it as backdrop for this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTCnno-3EGE
I second pulykamell’s pick of Eads. My local BBQ pick is a place called Kinfolks BBQ and Soulfood KINFOLKS SOULFOOD & BBQ, Smyrna - Menu, Prices & Restaurant Reviews - Tripadvisor Their smoked pork chops and chicken are to die for and they’re in a small, block building on a side street.
There’s a Thai/Lao place in the next town over that is owned by one of my former coworkers that really doesn’t look like much from the outside, but they absolutely know what they’re doing in the kitchen.
80 percent of the non chain resturants here are hole in the wall dives but my fave is crazy ottos diner which is a dive chain … but huge portions and its slipped a bit since the second owner went back to china to care for family but still great they even hold a world record or two
Poppies in SE Denver. Run down strip mall? check. Good food, and interesting ambiance. Old school nightclubish. I feel like Huggy Bear or Starsky will show up at any time. Not a hole in the wall, but only the locals seem to know it. Been there only 25 years, but seems much longer.
Last time I was there for brunch, they had the Bloddy Mary bar set up on their grand piano.
A lot of them in Mexico. Probably the best Mexico City style quesadillas was at a place we called Shit River Tacos. That wasn’t the official name, though, but it was right next to a sewage canal.
A memorable place really did have the name “Hamburguesas sin Microbios” – that was in Manzanillo.
Funny how I’ll go to holes in the wall in third world countries but not here at home.
Kinfolks sounds awesome and I will try it, but I going to need an address for the Thai/Lao place, Kthanxbye
DCnDC writes:
> There’s this little Mexican place near my house called La Fondita.
You’re talking about this place:
I’ve been there. It’s quite close to me also. Have you tried this place?:
But moving back to places nearer you, what do you think of La Taqueria Reyes, El Tapatio, La Sirenita, or La Placita?
I have not. Don’t get out to Columbia much anymore.
It’s my understanding La Fondita is related somehow to at least two of those, I think it might be La Sirenita and La Placita. Same family or something. I know they all used to share the same website at least.
Anyways, I’ve actually only been to La Fondita, even though all those others are actually closer to my house. I know that La Placita is packed all day every day. My Spanish is minimal to non-existent so I’m a bit intimidated to go in there. At least the people at La Fondita know me and know I always order the same thing.
I’ve never had any problems ordering at those places, despite the fact that my Spanish consists of just words like “taco”. Hey, why don’t we hold a Dopefest at one of those places? We haven’t had any Dopefests locally for quite a while.
