Lisa's Cafe

Cathy and I have been eating breakfast at Lisa's Cafe in Palmyra pretty regularly for the last several months.  Almost from day one we knew it would be a place we would enjoy eating at, and we knew we wanted to try dinner there at some point, and recently we were able too.

When you go for breakfast, at least when we do, you are able to seat yourself.  This is both a good thing and a bad thing for new comers.  Cathy and I picked a table for two in the back corner.  When we sat down we did notice the place mats they had there, what we didn't know is they have the breakfast menu on the back side of it.  The good thing is our waitress showed us without making us feel like an idiot.  We also found out that they server each guest a small piece of cinnamon bread.  They are like the cinnamon sticks you can get from Pizza Hut.

Over the months of breakfast we've eaten there we've always been happy with it, although we've only tried a small portion of the breakfast menu.  The main things we've ordered are the creamed chipped beef, the steak and eggs, and pancakes usually with bacon.  I've had creamed chipped beef at several restaurants, and I can say Lisa's is one of the best I've had.  It has a beefier/meatier taste then most.  When you order it you can get it over either toast or the home fries.  I usually do the toast, Cathy gets her's over the home fries, either way is a good choice.

When it comes to steak and eggs I am a very picky person, and not everywhere can get it right, but Lisa's can.  I always order my steaks well done, and most places can't get this right.  Usually the steak is either dried out or burnt or both, but again not at Lisa's.  When I get my steaks they are always done the way I like inside, with no pink, and not dry, and never burnt.  When I order scrambled eggs, I always ask for them well done as well, I can't eat eggs that are runny.  Some restaurants don't have a clue what I mean when I ask for my eggs well done.  Others act like they know what I mean, but when I get the eggs they are wrong, but not at Lisa's.  Everything I've ordered my eggs well done they have come out pretty much perfect for me.

With the pancakes and bacon, there isn't much places can do wrong.  Most places that I've ordered pancakes they are good, and Lisa's is no exception to this.  They are thick fluffy pancakes that are filling.  I usually get an order of two pancakes and bacon, and for me this is more than filling.

This brings me up to our visit for dinner.  We stopped in on a Thursday evening, and were seated right away.  Like with all of our breakfast visits we got quick friendly service.  After a few minutes to look over the menu Cathy decided on the Grilled Citrus Salmon, which she said she liked.  I chose the Grilled Smothered Chopped Steak, which I also liked.  I ordered it well done, like I do all my steaks, and just like the breakfast ones it came out cooked to where there was no pink, and it wasn't dried out or burnt.  About the only thing I didn't eat from my order were the mushrooms, but anyone who knows me knows I don't like mushrooms.  I usually get them on my food if it comes with it, and pick them off.  Then if Cathy wants any of them she can eat them.  For desert Cathy orders a slice of Key Lime Pie which again she liked, and I ordered a slice of Cherry Pie, which I liked.  One thing I can say is the size of the slices of pie were worth the price.

One of the things I haven't mentioned about Lisa's Cafe yet is their chip reward program.  With this program you get a chip every time your order is more then $20.  You can then cash in from one to ten chips at a time depending on what reward you feel would best benefit you.  With what Cathy and I had saved up we were able to get a meal that was over $40 for less than $20 after all the chip discounts were taken off.  It made eating there even more worth the money.

So Lisa's Cafe is a place that Cathy and I will continue to eat.  It is a place we will recommend to any friends and family who are looking for a nice place to eat.  And if you are reading this and you are looking for a place to eat that has a nice friendly, almost family, atmosphere, then I highly suggest you eat at Lisa's Cafe.

Fabio & Joe's

As most of my readers know Cathy & I eat a lot at Fabio & Joe's, the local Italian pizza shop. One of the biggest reasons we eat there so much is because its across the street from our apartment. With this review I’m going to cover our visits for probably the last six months to year. Most will be just a general over view, but some more recent ones will be specific.

When Fabio & Joe took over a few years ago we started going back. One of the first things we noticed was they treated you almost like you were part of the family. The quality of the food also improved greatly from the previous owner, so for several years now we've been loyal customers. But about six months to a year ago that started to change. When we'd go in there was an Italian guy working there that treated us like dirt. It honestly felt like he felt we weren't worth his time. Although the food hadn't change, the service was causing us to eat there less and less. It got to the point where we would only go in if we needed something quick and had no other choice.

Eventually we noticed that the guy who was treating us so bad wasn't there so we started going back a little more. But within the last two months we've had some experiences that really started turning us off to Fabio & Joe's. The first one we called in an ordered for two dinners. I can't remember off hand what Cathy ordered, but I ordered spaghetti & meatballs. When I opened it I found there were no meatballs. Cathy called over, and they treated us like we were lying. After a little arguing Cathy finally got the owner to agree yo let her walk back over for the meatballs. Now I understand people try to con businesses, but you can't argue like that.

The next two times we were in we had issues with either the food or the service. The first time we ordered salads. The salads themselves were like a normal salad, but we got the cold shoulder from the employees, including the owner. The next time we were in we ordered a pizza, half mushroom half pepperoni. We, it was more like 3/4 pepperoni and 1/4 mushroom. Plus like the previous time we weren't treated the best.

The last time we were will probably be the last time for a while. It started with the call to place the order. The person who took the order either wasn't listening or something. I know they put in a new register, with a new ordering system, so I gave them the benefit that that was the issue. What we ordered were two baked zitti dinners made with a little extra sauce. I asked for ranch dressing for the one salad, and french for the other. After asking me again, then repeating it, I thought it would be right. When I went over for the food she kept trying to insist I also ordered a turkey sub, which I didn't. Then the one making subs snapped "well what did you want in that bag." so I told him what my order should have been, and he snapped "that's what's it the bag." I picked up a two liter of soda, and waited for her to tell me the total. When she did it was almost $4.00 more than what I figured, so I double checked what she charged me for, and found out the prices went up, but the menus weren't changed. When I got home, the first thing we noticed was we both were given ranch dressing. Then we looked at the size of the salads to see they were only about half the normal size. When I started eating my zitti I found it was over cooked, I didn't ask Cathy about hers, but it was probably the same. But after all that we found something a few days later. Since I didn't use the ranch cups, I put them on the fridge. A few days later Cathy took one to use as a vegetable dip, and found there was a hair in it, so I’m really glad I didn't plan on using it for my salad.

A possible answer to the problem is he could be getting burned out. When he opened the restaurant it was him and his wife. Now they have two children and she spends most of her time home with them while he's at the restaurant. So I’m not sure if he has lost his passion for the restaurant or not, but he has to change or he will lose a lot more business then Cathy and I.

Pet Lover Vs. Pet Owner

Are you a pet lover or just a pet owner? Most pet owners, who aren't pet lovers, can't seem to understand the concept of your pet being like a child to you. As most of my readers probably saw on facebook, our female ferret passed away and I'm quickly finding out that most of my coworkers are only pet owners, if even that.

Many of my readers have children, so think of how you feel when they get sick or injured. This is how I feel when one of my pets gets sick or injured. Now I'll admit it may not be quite the same when a pet passes away as it is when a child passes away, but its definitely close. A pet lover truly morns the loss, and never forgets the pet. Pet owners may morn the loss, but they quickly get over it, and generally forget the pet as well.

I took the day off work to get her taken care of. People just don't understand why I would have to do that. Well for one thing we planned on getting her cremated. So this meant getting a hold of our vet to arrange dropping her off. And since our vet, like most vets, doesn't open until 7:00 or later, it makes it hard to go into work at 6:00 and still be able to call.

Then i was asked why I didn't go into work late. Well for one I was upset from the loss, so you really wouldn't have wanted me at work. I would have been too distracted. Also no one answered the phone at the vet until after 8:00, so until in got her taken care of and got home it was after 9:00. So it would have been 10:00 or later til I got to work, so i would have only had a half shift. And again i would have been so distracted they probably would have sent me home early.

But very few of my coworkers understand this, since most aren't even pet owners, and the ones who are aren't pet lovers. So to the readers who are pet lovers, you'll fully understand what I’m talking about. For the ones who are just pet owners, you'll probably never understand what I’m talking about.

 ------
An update to this post.  I have had this in my drafts since the day after Ginger passed away.  Since then we do have her remains back along with a nice card from the place that does the cremation and also from our vet.

The customer's always right... Wrong

I think whoever came up with the phrase "The customer is always right"
has never worked with the general public for any real time. As most
of my readers know I work for McDonalds. I one day I see tons of
examples of the customer being wrong. In some cases we don't have to
tell them, but often we do. I figured going through a few would make a
good blog post.

One of the most recent examples would be a customer I just had come
through drive thru. He ordered two hotcakes, two hashbrowns, and two
sausage patties. I was nice/smart enough to ring in the hotcakes &
sausage platter to save him some money. His total came to $10.79. As
he pulled away I heard him grumbling about the price. When he reached
my window he told me his order is never more then eight something. So
I read his order back to him. He informed me the reason it higher was
because I put the hotcakes & sausage in together, and they should be
separate. So I did some quick math and told him it would come to
$10.76 before tax. He told me to do it that way to save him a few
cents. Again I informed him that was the pretax amount and it would
be more after tax. So then he asked about the prices, and when I said
$2.00 for the hashbrowns he said "well there's the problem, I didn't
want four hashbrowns." So I explained the fact that our hashbrowns
are $1.00 each. He argued that every other time he's come through
they were two for $1.00, and wouldn't believe me that ours have been
$1.00 each for about two years now. By this time a manager came back
to see what the hold up was, and she had to reexplain everything to
him again. So that's one example of a customer who was wrong.

Another example is our change over from breakfast to lunch. Unlike
most McDonalds we switch to lunch at 11:00am instead of 10:30am. I
hear a lot of arguments on this. I think my favorite one is "I was
here yesterday at this time and got lunch." the normal repy I like to
give is, "I'm sorry this location has served breakfast till 11:00 for
at least the past ten years." Some people change their story, others
keep arguing. Then you have the ones who after being told we're still
on breakfast, start ordering lunch items anyway. I've had a customer
go through about fifteen different lunch items already. It really
makes you wonder if they are seriously that unintelligent or if its a
joke, or if they think arguing will get them lunch.

Another example would be the customers who order specials that aren't
at this McDonalds, or food that isn't sold by McDonalds. A good
example right now is various restaurants, excluding McDonalds as far
as I know, are running their fish sandwiches two for some amount. Now
we keep getting people who order two fish sandwiches and when they
aren't the lower price they argue. Then you have to explain that
they are thinking of a different restaurant. Or you have the ones who
order a fish sandwiche on friday and expect it to only be $1.00
because they saw an ad for McDonalds in philadelphia and assume
everywhere has it. But one of the best ones i've seen was the girl
that came in and ordered a frosty. Now anyone who knows fast food
restaurants knows that McDonalds doesn't sell frosties, but she
started by arguing that when she was here last year we sold them.
When I tried explaining to her that its Wendy's that sells frosties
she argued that all the McDonalds in her area sells them.

So you see there are many areas where the customer is really wrong,
but good customer service says you should just smile and make them
think they're right even when wrong...

Saturday routine

As my friends and family on facebook probably know Cathy and I have a
Saturday routine we usually do. About the only time we don't is when
Cathy has to work, or on the rare occasions when something else comes
up. Although it can be very tiring, its usually a fun day.
It starts out at 4:00am when we get up to do our paper routes.
Although I really hate getting up that early, it really helps with
doing the rest of our Saturday routine. Depending on how long the
papers take we either go home for a short break or head straight for
breakfast.

Several months back, after a bad experience at a different
restaurant, we decided to try Lisa's Café in Palmyra. I can say it
was one of the best decision we've made for breakfast. In the time
we've been eating, we've decided on some usual breakfast meals. On our
most recent trip I got their pancakes with sausage, and Cathy got
their creamed chipped beef.

The pancakes are always thick fluffy pancakes that really fill you
up. They also don't require a lot of butter and syrup to make them
taste good. With the sausage you get four breakfast links. I really
feel its worth the money. The creamed chipped beef comes served over
either home fries or toast. Unlike most restaurants theirs has a
really meaty flavor. The home fries are lightly grilled. Of all the
times we've eaten there we've never been disappointed.

After breakfast we usually have some time to kill. Some weeks we do
some grocery shopping, others, w just come home. Around 10 we head up
to ZooAmerica to visit with the animals. How long we spend there
really depends on the weather, and how busy the zoo is. There are
always animals we make it a point to stop and talk to. Among them are
Marbles the owl, Butch and Sally the black bears, and of course Dakota
Custer and Sioux the wolves.

After ZooAmerica we stop by Bruno's Old Style Hoagies in Palmyra for
a late lunch or early dinner. Again just like Lisa's we have usuals,
but don't always get them. The last time we stopped in I got their
turkey and ham. Although they suggest the numbers a certain way, they
will customize them for you. They have this one listed as a "diablo"
which means its a hot sub. Instead I got mine with the tavern ham and
smoked turkey, and Swiss cheese on a soft roll. Cathy got an Italian
sub on a soft roll, with American cheese. Just like Lisa's Café we
are always happy with what we get.

After lunch/dinner we usually don't plan anything unless the Bears
are playing at home. If that's the case then we head up to the Giant
Center for a night of hockey. I know to a lot of people this may
sound like a boring day, but we enjoy it.

Chicken McWraps

  McDonalds just recently started some new "premium" chicken wraps, so
over the last few days I've tried them. My first thought is they are
trying to compete with places like Subway, but I really don't think
they are as good as Subway's.  I figure I'll go through the wraps in
the order I tried them. I'll first describe what they should come as'
then how I ordered them, and lastly how I got it, and my thoughts.
    The first one I tried was the chicken & bacon McWrap. They all
come either grilled or crispy. This one has the chicken, bacon,
shredded cheddar jack cheese, tomatoes, spring mix lettuce, shredded
lettuce, creamy garlic sauce, and they all come on a 10 inch steamed
tortilla. The only change I made to this one was no tomatoes, and
surprisingly I actually got it that way. One of the first things I
noticed was the fact that the bacon was really limp, and I'm one who
likes bacon more on the crispy side. I'm not sure if it was just the
fact that someone didn't cook our bacon right, or if the steamed
tortilla made it limp. As for the taste, it works fairly well the way
it is. My biggest thing is I could barely taste the garlic sauce. So
assuming it had the correct amount on it, I would suggest getting
extra added.
    The second one I tried was the chicken & ranch McWrap. This one
has tomatoes, cucumbers, spring mix, shredded lettuce, cheddar jack
cheese, seasoned rice vinegar, and buttermilk ranch. For this one I
ordered it with no tomatoes or cucumbers, and again I was surprised to
get it the way I ordered it. Again the flavors seemed to work well
together. Again assuming it as made correctly I think the vinegar was
a little overpowering, ad the ranch was too faint. For my tastes I
would suggest either light or no vinegar, and a little extra ranch.
    I tried the sweet chili McWrap last. This one usually comes with
cucumbers, spring mix, shredded lettuce, cheddar jack cheese, sweet
chili sauce, and the creamy garlic sauce. For this one I ordered it
with no cucumbers, and light sweet chili sauce. Unfortunately this one
they really messed up. What I got was the wrap with the cucumbers on
it, what appeared to be extra sweet chili sauce, and bacon which
doesn't even come on it, and I didn't ask for. So now its really hard
for me to say how it would have tasted if it would have been made
correctly. For me the cucumbers just doesn't work on it. Again the
bacon was too limp, so I really think its the steamed tortilla causing
this. The sweet chili sauce was way overpowering, this is the main
reason I asked for it with light sweet chili. And I couldn't taste the
garlic sauce at all. If I ever order this one again, I'll have to
definitely ask for it the way I originally did, and I think it will
taste a lot better.
    Overall if you are looking for a healthier option at McDonalds, I
would suggest any of these wraps grilled. Or for just a different
choice I would suggest the crispy version.  I think the changes I
suggested would make them taste better, but if you like any of the
items I removed, then try the wraps with them on. So surprisingly I am
suggesting people eat at McDonalds, and even at the location I work
at.

Back to blogging

As the few followers i have can tell i haven't been on my blog in a while again.  This is mainly die to my laziness.  The days I actually have time to type a post i just don't feel like sitting down to type it.   I hope to change that with this post today.  I have several ideas for some blog posts.

One of the easiest things to blog about is work.  i can post about some of our "intelligent" customers,  or about some of my "intelligent" coworkers.  Of course this can also include some of the "intelligent" mistakes i make in a day.  This alone could make for some interesting blog posts.

Another idea is a "foodie" type blog.  I figure between the few times we eat out, and the free meals I get at work this could give me some posts too.  Although the ones from food gotten at work will probably sound pretty much the same.

Then of course I'll have just the general ideas that come into my head.  I'm sure from time to time this will bring me some interesting posts.  So to my few readers stay tuned for some more posts, and help spread the word.  I feel the more reader/followers i get the more motivated i'll be to post.