A Taste of Flint

Stealing A Taste of Wine, and Flint

2009-12-18T21:52:00.003-05:00

By Emma Davis

Flint, Mich. - 501 Bar and Grill is hosting a monthly wine tasting event called Wine Thieves. The event costs $25 and is from 3 – 6 pm on the fourth Sunday of every month. 501 Chef Luis Fernandes selects the wine and prepares the food menu.

Around 25 people were in attendance on Nov 22. The crowd mixed and mingled in the 501 conference room as servers opened bottles of wine and filled the buffet table.

“I was here for the first one last month,” said Mark Miltich, Swartz Creek resident, “and it’s a great little crowd. Luis’s food is always great.”

Five wines were available for tasting from Bogle Vineyards. They included Pinot Noir, Petite Sirah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Old Vine Zinfandel.

"It's a nice activity on a Sunday afternoon," said Ron Krueger, Food Writer for The Flint Journal. "The food is really good, the wines are quite nice, it's enjoyable."

When it comes to conducting the wine tasting, Fernandes says he likes to do his "a little different" than usual.

"I don't stand there and explain the wine...they choose their own," said Fernandes. "They can sit back and enjoy each other's company, and they can talk about things other someone lecturing them on wine."

Amongst the food choices were samplings like Lobster Quesadillas, Shrimp Dumplings and Grilled Beef Tenderloin Tips. There were also a variety of assorted cheeses, fruits, and vegetables, including green beans and white asparagus.

"I always wanna do cheeses, I always wanna do vegetables, I always wanna do fruit," said Chef Fernandes, who has been cooking in the area since 1987 and is originally from Macau, China. "I kind of float different things out here for people to try."

Some of the foods are also available on 501's restaurant menu, including Lamb Chops, the different cheeses and spreads, and the shrimp dumplings and desserts.

"I don't do food pairings," said Fernandes. "Some places do the food pairing, but I like them to just sit back and relax."

"There's lots of variety, wonderful lamb rib chops - that's the highlight for me and my girlfriend," said Krueger. "The only thing so far that I thought didn't work with the wine was a little syrup that was on the Ahi Tuna that was spicy and it clashed with the wine."

"There's things [being served] that are spicier to be paired," said Fernandes, "But I believe in mixing the spicy things with things that will cool it down...like the cucumber sauce."

Krueger, who has been writing for The Flint Journal almost 20 years, says it is a "pet peeve" of his when restaurants don't serve "wine friendly foods."

"It probably has something to do with the culture," said Krueger, "Where even the people in the restaurant business don't understand that wine should be considered food."

Whether they consider wine to be food or not, 501 isn't the first restaurant to be host to the Wine Thieves. The group was originally started over 20 years ago and was a university club called The Wine Club. After the club faded, the members started the Wine Thieves at Chef Fernades's former restaurant, Broadstreet Restaurant in Linden.

Now the group is hoping that they've found a new place to host their wine tasting events.

"First it was word of mouth, and Luis's good food and seeing if we can revitalize a group of friends," said Miltich about choosing 501.

A wine thief is someone who goes into a barrel of wine and uses a small tube to siphon a small amount of wine to taste it, according to Miltich.

"That's what the wine makers do to sample the barrels and then determine when they're ready to bottle, so we're here sampling the bottles," said Miltich.

A Taste of Italy, in Flint

2009-12-02T17:05:00.000-05:00

While it may not be in downtown Flint, John's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant is celebrating 50 years of business. The pizzeria has three locations in the area, but the original location is at 3600 Davison Rd.

In 1959, John's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant was opened by Giovanni Bufalini. As an immigrant from Patricia, Italy, Bufalini wanted to bring authentic Italian food to the Flint area. The restaurant is now owned by his son, John Bufalini, after Giovanni's death in 2006, according to The Flint Journal.

I have never been to John's Pizzeria, but I'm certainly intrigued after reading this news. The idea of authentic Italian food sounds great in our ever-growing world of mass-produced food. This could be a nice alternative to Little Caesar's.

Soup Showdown

2009-12-02T01:13:00.001-05:00

After a week-long break from school and blogging, I'm back!

To begin the week I took comfort by staying on campus and eating lunch at The Riverview Dining Room. The Dining Room is an all-you-can-eat buffet for $5.99 and is open for lunch Monday-Friday 11 am - 2:30 pm.

As usual, The Dining Room was serving two types of soup. On Monday it was Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup (pictured top) versus Vegetarian Lentil and Spinach Soup (pictured bottom).

The Chicken Noodle Soup seemed to be a lot more popular than the Lentil and Spinach. When I served myself at 12:30 pm almost all of the Chicken Noodle Soup was gone, while the later hardly had any skimmed off the top.

However, I preferred the Lentil Soup. It was different than what The Dining Room normally serves. Most of the time they serve Chicken or Turkey soup and I liked to see something new.

The Chicken Noodle Soup had a strange taste to it. It had the same taste as The Dining Room's Roast Turkey soup. The entire soup has an overbearing roast meat flavor, which actually might be good, if it tasted authentic. Basically, it tastes like someone put in too much artificial flavor. For this reason, the Vegetarian Lentil and Spinach Soup wins.

Soyla's Mexican Cuisine: Good food, Poor Service

2009-11-23T21:18:00.010-05:00

Today I ate at Soyla's Mexican Cuisine. It's located at 555 S. Saginaw, in the Wade-Trim Building. It's located almost in the center of downtown and is a pretty reasonable walking distance for anyone in the downtown area.

For $6.99 ( a recent price jump from $5.99) you can enjoy Soyla's lunch menu, from 11 am - 2 pm. There's about eight options that you can choose from and all of them are pretty standard, including tacos (yes, even fish), quesadillas and chimichangas. All lunch orders come with a side of refried beans and rice. They serve Coke products and a selection of imported, bottled sodas. They do not serve alcohol.

My experience today was not the greatest.
If you were following my Twitter feed you saw what happened. Basically, it took 35 minutes for me to receive my order.

I arrived to Soyla's at about 12:25 pm. I ordered a lunch combo of two hard, bean tacos with a side of rice and beans. The lunch combo also included a fountain drink.

Twenty minutes later my order arrived, but it was wrong. The waitress brought out bean burritos, instead of tacos. If I could see into the future I would have just kept the burritos, but I told the waitress it was the wrong order and she took it back. In the mean time, my friend was able to eat their meal in front of me.

Ten minutes later the waitress brings another plate to the table. She brings two hard tacos, but they contain beef, and I do not eat ground beef. I told her this and she took the plate back.

Finally, 35 minutes after I first ordered, my correct order was brought out to me. At this point I didn't have time to sit in the restaurant. My friend and I were already five minutes late to meet someone. I asked for a to-go box, and for the fountain drink to be taken off my bill since I never received that either.

The waitress brought my bill and took a dollar off, plus gave me a free order of chips. The chips are excellent so I couldn't complain about that.

I'm still upset about the service I received today. I saw two tables get their food before I did, even when they arrived 15 minutes after.

When I go to a restaurant, and they get an order wrong, I expect it to be taken care of immediately. I had to sit in their restaurant for a half hour and watch my friend and those two other tables eat their food in front of me. At the same time, the waitress didn't even remember to bring me my fountain drink.

I'm hoping that today was just an unfortunate situation. I really enjoyed the food (once I got it) and I love the chips because how crispy and deep fried they are. Soyla's seems to rely on their native, homemade meals, according to The Flint Journal, but let's hope they focus on their service a little bit more too.

Riverview Dining Room: A UM-Flint staple

2009-11-20T13:21:00.003-05:00

On Thursday I ate at The Riverview Dining Room, again. It's a great place for students to eat because it's right on campus on the third floor UCEN. The Dining Room is all-you-can-eat for $5.99.

To start I had the Tortilla Soup (pictured right). The soup wasn't spicy, like I would expect it to be, but I didn't mind.

The texture was thicker than a normal soup and it was full of finely-chopped vegetables. I liked that the vegetables were small because that made it easier for them to go down.

A lot of times I like to sprinkle cheese on top of my tortilla soup, but there wasn't any to do this. Instead, I had to settle for oyster crackers. I wouldn't normally put oyster crackers in my tortilla soup, but there weren't any tortilla chips either. Overall, the soup was pretty good. I've had worse soup in the Dining Room, like the Roasted Turkey Soup.

For my main course I got General Tso's Tofu with a side of summer squash and carrots, and broccoli (pictured left).

I've never tried tofu before so I thought this would be a good opportunity. Unsurprisingly, I didn't like it. It tasted like a mixture of chicken and french toast. Kinda weird. I can't compare this tofu to any other because this is the only kind I've had, but I thought the whole concept was a little strange. The General Tso sauce was delicious though, and I ate the vegetables that came in the mixture.

The broccoli was also good. It tasted crisp and fresh and went very well with some salt. The squash and carrots were tasty as well, and they were soaked in a buttery flavored sauce. Overall this was a good meal, and it was different from their normal, traditionally American meals.

For dessert the Dining Room was offering Raspberry Jell-O Parfait, again. I'm a little sick of Raspberry Jell-O Parfait so I decided to treat my sweet tooth at the waffle bar.

The waffle bar is a fun place because you get to make your own waffle (pictured right). Once it's done you get your choice of toppings, ranging from peanut butter, whipped topping, syrup and jelly.

I just went with syrup. I didn't put any butter on it either because they only have the little butter packets, but nothing at the bar to spread the butter on with. It's a hassle really, so I just skipped the butter.

Not a bad day overall in the Riverview Dining Room. My only complaint is that they need to mix it up a little with the dessert. You can only eat Raspberry Jell-O so many times in a week.

The 411 on 501

2009-11-19T11:50:00.004-05:00

On Wednesday I ate lunch at 501 Bar and Grill, located at 500 S. Saginaw in downtown Flint.

I was surprised by how it busy it was when I first walked in. The restaurant was about half full, filled with what looked like a lot of business people. I found a table for myself and the waitress asked for my drink order.

I ordered a pint of Miller Lite for $3 (certainly not as cheap as Churchill's!). I would have liked to order a mixed drink because of the martini-bar-atmosphere, but I didn't want to pay $7.50 for a drink.

The waitress also brought out a plate of bread with my drink. The bread was quite tasty. The crust was hard, but had a sweet, buttery flavor to it, and the inside bread was really soft. Each table also had a bottle of olive oil for dipping. I liked that the olive oil was already on the table, because I usually have to ask for it every restaurant I go to.

I ordered the Chicken Alfredo (pictured left) for $8. I had a choice between whole wheat penne pasta, tri-colored bow tie pasta or gluten free Fusilli. I went with the bow tie pasta. The dish also came with tomatoes, mushrooms, and spinach mixed in.

I really enjoyed the presentation of this dish. It came in a tall, square bowl and had parmesan cheese sprinkled all over the top.

I didn't enjoy eating it so much, though. The chicken wasn't cut into bite size pieces, so I had to cut it myself. Normally this would have been fine, but in this case I found it very hard to cut the chicken deep inside of a bowl. The chicken also wasn't very good. Every bite that I took had some kind of chewy or stringy fat. After about five bites I stopped eating it and just worked on the pasta.

I wan't very happy with what I ordered. I would have taken Churchill's chicken Alfredo over this.

However, this isn't stopping me from going back. I really enjoyed the upscale atmosphere. Next time I will just order something different, maybe something without chicken.

What I probably should have ordered was some tapas, which are small, Spanish appetizers.

Ron Krueger talks about tapas at The Flint Journal's Mlive.com site. He talks about how tapas are becoming a phenomenon in North America and how Flint residents only need to visit 501 Bar and Grill for the experience.

Krueger is also advertising the opportunity to try some of his favorite tapas Nov 21 during the annual Art Fair and Boutique at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Flint. The admission charge is $2.

OH Blendz

2009-11-18T01:01:00.005-05:00

The UM-Flint University Pavilion is home to many eateries. I experienced one of these, OBlendZ, on Tuesday. OBlendZ primarily sells smoothies and grilled sandwiches.

I ordered a bean burrito (pictured right). The burrito contains a mild salsa, cheese, refried beans and a spicy-sweet rice. All of this is wrapped and grilled in a 12" tortilla.

The rice is my favorite part of the burrito. Its so different from any kind of rice I have tasted. It's kind of sweet, but has a hint of a spice that I'm not familiar with.

Everything wrapped together makes it handy to pick up, without having to worry about anything slipping out the bottom. This is a feature of almost every sandwich that OBlendZ serves.

I also ordered a freshly-made smoothie. OBlendZ has many smoothie choices, including fruit like pineapple, mango, strawberry, raspberry, orange, and blackberry. I ordered a strawberry banana chocolate smoothie (pictured left).

I can only say good things about this smoothie. It's freshly made with real fruit, and plenty of it too.

The texture is real smooth, and it glides through your straw and down your throat in one gulp. There aren't any chunks to get caught in the straw, which makes it real handy to drink on the go.

I received everything for a total of $6.55. My meal also included a bag of chips. I found it to be a reasonable price, but it's close to being a little too much. All of the items can be purchased separately, though, if you don't want to spend as much, or if you're looking for a snack.

Wise Guy, Eh?

2009-11-16T14:14:00.002-05:00

On Friday I went to Wize Guys Pizza for the first time. It's located at 500 S. Saginaw, Flint. I didn't really "get it" until I entered the pizzeria and saw pictures of Al Capone, The Sopranos, The Godfather, and Scarface all over the walls. "Ohhhhhhh," I said to myself. Italian Mobsters, pizza, the name made sense now, and I found it to be pretty cool.

The restaurant didn't have any waitresses so we had to walk up to the counter and order. For pizza you have the choice to make your own, or choose from their pre-made menu.

I found the make-your-own pizzas to be a little expensive. A medium, 14" is $9.99 for just cheese and sauce, and then an additional dollar for each item.

A pizza from the pre-made menu is mostly around $11.49 for a 14". These pizzas have multiple items on them, and a lot of the pizzas have a special kind of sauce too. For example, the Don Carlo Gambino comes with buffalo sauce.

I went the safe route and ordered the Book 'Em Danno (pictured above), which comes with ham and pineapple. The total was $14.18 with the pizza, one fountain drink and tax. We waited no more than ten minutes for the pizza, and had to pick up at the counter when it was ready.

The pizza looked and smelled delicious, and the taste didn't disappoint either. They didn't skimp on the toppings or the cheese and the entire pizza had a nice buttery glaze. It was a little greasy, but nothing that made me feel sick afterwards. Just make sure you load up on plenty of napkins before you sit down. There were also plenty of herbs sprinkled on top that added a nice taste and made the pizza look nice.

The pizza was very filling. I think it was because of the plethora of cheese and toppings. Our pizza came with eight slices and I was only able to eat two; my boyfriend finished three. We were able to take our remaining slices home.

Over all, Wize Guys was acceptable. I would recommend it for lunch, rather than dinner, because of the walk-up-and-order style that is has. The pizza was a little pricey for what I'm used to paying for a pizza, but it's worth the quality. On the plus side, Wize Guys also serves beer and wine.

The Lunch That FINALLY Happened

2009-11-13T15:47:00.002-05:00

On Wednesday of this week I was finally able to make it over to The Lunch Studio. It's located at 444 S. Saginaw St. in Flint, Mich.

After finding my own seat a waitress brought me a menu. I love their vegetarian chili so I ordered a bowl (pictured right) for $2.75 (price is with sandwich purchase).

The chili is full of beans, corn, and peppers, among other things. It has a nice, medium spice too. The spice isn't overwhelming, but it's hot enough to need a drink near by. The chili came with two packs of saltine crackers as well.

It was definitely filling, and it almost left me wondering if I was going to be able to eat my sandwich.

I quickly changed my mind, however, once my $4.75 cheddar and tomato grilled on sourdough bread (pictured left) sandwich arrived. The sandwich was so hot and fresh I had to left it cool down for a minute before I could eat it.

Once I was able to take a bite, gooey cheddar cheese and fresh tomatoes filled my mouth. They didn't skimp on anything. There were so many tomatoes that some of them were falling out, they could hardly fit on the sandwich!

A side of chips came with the meal, but I didn't get to pick which kind I wanted. I think they gave me original flavored Ruffles. I like Ruffles so I didn't really care that the chips were chosen for me. Two lemon slices also came with the meal. I didn't eat them because I don't usually eat just a slice of lemon. In the past I've received other fruit, though, like watermelon, cantaloupe, orange, and pineapple.

The Lunch Studio doesn't have a Web site, but they do have a MySpace and Facebook page.

In addition to great food, The Lunch Studio also supports the arts. They sell and display art from many local artists. One artist, Flint Handmade, recently thanked The Lunch Studio for their support and efforts.

I can't get enough of The Lunch Studio. I would eat their vegetarian chili and grilled cheese sandwiches everyday if I could.

Riverview Dining Room: Meh

2009-11-12T21:12:00.001-05:00

I ate on campus of UM-Flint this week on Tuesday. The Riverview Dining Room is an all-you-can-eat buffet right on the campus of UM-Flint. It's located on the third floor of the University Center and costs $5.99. At lunch time they're open from 11 am to 2:30 pm.

The Riverview Dining Room seems to be hit-or-miss. Some days I want to taste everything they have to offer. Other days I stick with the basics. On Tuesday of this week I went with the latter.

On this day there wasn't anything offered that was particularly special. It was a choice between Beef and Broccoli stir fry, or Roast Turkey Breast (pictured right). The turkey didn't have a lot of flavor. It was kind of pink too, which really grosses me out. I think it would have been better if they had offered some kind of gravy to top it off.

However, the garlic mashed potatoes were delicious! The garlic taste wasn't too much and they had a real creamy texture.

For vegetables I had a squash and zucchini mixture. The vegetables themselves didn't have a lot of flavor, but it tasted like they were soaked in some kind of butter garlic sauce. The buttery flavor added a nice taste to an otherwise less tasteful vegetable.

To finish the meal I got a seasoned piece of flatbread. The flavor was all there, but the bread was as hard as a rock! I've found this to be a pretty common theme at the Dining Room. The bread taste good, but it's always cold and hard. That fact really takes away from the bread experience.

For my next dish I got the usual slice of pepperoni pizza. I'm still not even sure what to think of the pizza overall. Some days it's good and some days it isn't.

On this day, though, the pizza was pretty alright. It wasn't soggy on the bottom and it was decently warm.

The pizzas are never frozen because they make them right in front of you. At least I know they're freshly made. The only problem is that they sit out too long sometimes and they get cold. Or on other days they'll be stiff, and won't even bend when you pick them up. Either way, the pizza is usually a good alternative when the two main meals being offered just aren't doing it for you.

The last thing I ate was the American Bounty Vegetable Soup. The soup is advertised as a vegetarian dish. I'm not sure if this means the broth is meatless, but there aren't any chunks of meat, at least. I can't figure out everything in it, but I know it has corn, carrots, celery, diced tomatoes, and onions.

Overall, the soup has a very tomato-ey taste, and the vegetables are very well cooked; They practically melt in my mouth. Because it's a soup I like that the vegetables are squishy. I don't want to have to chew my soup.

I didn't have dessert because it was Oreo crumble pudding. Like I've said in a previous post, I've recently had a bad experience with pudding, especially chocolate pudding, so I stayed away from it.

Some items today were pretty good, like the garlic mashed potatoes and the soup. On the other hand, the turkey was too pink and flavorless and the bread was cold and hard. It's a real hit-or-miss experience at Riverview, but you still can't beat all-you-can-eat!

The Lunch That Almost Happened

2009-11-09T13:03:00.007-05:00

The Lunch Studio
Originally uploaded by sarrazak6881

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahrazak/
/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Lunch Studio is seen as the
black building with the orange and yellow sign.

Today I was supposed to eat lunch at The Lunch Studio (pictured right), located downtown Flint at 444 S. Saginaw. Since I didn't eat there today I can't review any of the food, but I will give a small preview of the restaurant because I have been there before.

The Lunch Studio serves mainly soup and sandwiches, and of course, their famous chili. The restaurant has a very retro feeling to it too. Every table and chair is different than the next and the walls are decorated with interesting art. One of my favorite pieces of art at The Lunch Studio is a giant piece of key lime pie, complete with whipped topping.

Rob Gill, a food writer for Flinttalk.com says that The Lunch Studio is a healthy burger alternative. "They do not deep-fry anything and I bet there isn't a hot dog in the building," said Gill on his blog. "The soups are almost all homemade and salads are prepared fresh daily." The Lunch Studio also received a Healthy Lifestyle Award for their menu and nutritional value, according to Gill.

With that being said, I will be reviewing The Lunch Studio the next opportunity I have!

Riverview Dining Room: A Look at the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

2009-11-08T13:44:00.003-05:00

To end my school week I ate at the Riverview Dining Room on Thursday. The Riverview Dining Room is located on the third floor of the University Center at UM-Flint. For $5.99, the Dining Room serves an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet between 11 am and 2:30 pm. It's open to all students and staff, and it's even open to the general public.

While there were many options at the buffet, I chose the cheese ravioli in marinara sauce with a side of broccoli (pictured right). It was decently good, too. The broccoli was crisp and tasted pretty fresh. It wasn't soggy, like it had been sitting out for a while. The ravioli was stuffed full of cheese and I was given plenty of sauce too. I would have liked a bigger portion, but it wasn't a big deal because I could have gotten more if I wanted. The other meal to choose from was spaghetti and fried clams. I'm not a fan of fried clams so I didn't really want to try it.

For my second dish I got the pasta with Alfredo sauce (pictured left). This is something that the Dining Room offers every day. They usually change the type of pasta. One day it will be spaghetti noodles, or fettucini noodles, and the next it could be rotini or shells. I know that changing the pasta isn't a big deal, but it's nice to see that they put a little effort into making it slightly different everyday.

The sauces are always the same too. You can choose between marinara, cheese, or Alfredo. This time I got the Alfredo. It was pretty good too. The sauce was thick and flavorful, but the server put too much on. Next time I will stop him after two spoonfuls because three was just too many.

For dessert I had the choice of Oreo Crumble Pudding or Raspberry Jell-O Parfait (pictured left). I went with the Jell-O because I recently had a bad experience with pudding. So the Jell-O was good. It tasted like it should, like raspberry Jell-O, and the whipped cream was a nice addition. It wasn't runny and the Jell-O had just the right amount of jiggle.

All-in-all I think that the Riverview Dining Room is a great deal. It has two meal options that change every day, and there's always a soup and salad bar, a waffle and cereal bar, and a pizza and pasta bar.

However, the Riverview Dining Room has been under scrutiny by a lot of UM-Flint students, especially those that live in the dorms. The dorm students are required to buy a meal plan to use in the Dining Room. According to a recent article in The Michigan Times, students are concerned that the meal plans and dining options are overpriced. One student states that they "don't usually have time to go through a buffet to sit down and eat." From my experience, even if you only have 15 minutes, it's worth it to go to the Dining Room. It's usually better priced than grabbing a meal somewhere else, and the Dining Room is now offering a To-Go service, where you can take one serving of a meal with you.

Even so, I'm all for the Riverview Dining Room because I think it's conveniently located on campus of UM-Flint, it's decently affordable, and the main menu changes everyday.

Deco Deli: An Art in Itself

2009-11-06T13:43:00.003-05:00

On Wednesday I ate at Hoffman's Deco Deli and Cafe, by a tip from one of my professors. So my friends Melanie and Mandy, and I headed over to Flint's Carriage Town to visit the deli/antique store located at 503 Garland St.

When we walked in we were pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere. The deli was very trendy, with colorful walls and plants everywhere. Almost all of the tables were full of a diverse crowd too. There were business people, college students, construction workers, and even little old ladies. This was obviously a very appealing place to be.

We walked up to the counter and stared at the enormous menu.
Most of the sandwiches had a Flint theme to them: The Flintstone, Carriage Town Corn Beef, The Durant, the College Club, etc. They even had a featured sorority sandwich, the Phi Sigma Sigma. You could also make your sandwich a meal by adding a drink with a choice of chips or couscous.

All college students receive a 10 percent discount on orders, so I decided to order The Durant with chips and a coke, and Melanie ordered the College Club with couscous and a coke. Mandy didn't get any food, but she did order a small coffee.

The Durant: turkey, swiss cheese, leaf lettuce, tomato, and avacado spread on my choice of sourdough bread.

It cost $5.00, and the chips and drink cost $1.75, for a total of $6.46 with tax and 10 percent student discount.

I was a little hesitant about the avacado spread because I never had it, but I definitely enjoyed it. The spread had a mild taste, so it didn't dominate the overall flavor. They did put on a little too much for my liking, though, because it was dripping out the bottom of the sandwich.

College Club: ham, turkey and bacon with cheddar cheese, leaf lettuce, tomato, and a dill mayonnaise spread with Melanie's choice of sourdough bread.

It cost $6.00, and the couscous and drink were an additional $3.00 for a total of $8.58 with tax and 10 percent student discount.

I tasted the couscous myself and it was quite good; I never had couscous before. Melanie agreed that it was good, and when I asked if it was a bit pricey she told me it was pretty reasonable.

One of the fun aspects about the deli is the antique store. It consists of both an upstairs and a downstairs. Customers are encouraged to visit the store while waiting for your order.

The Downstairs portion contains all types of furniture. Couches, chairs, desks, clocks, vases, paintings, and much more.

Personally, I found the upstairs area to be more interesting.

The upstairs part of the antique store is where all of the clothes are. Hats, gloves, dresses, suits, shoes, you name it. Everything was well priced too. The red hat in the picture to the right was only 12 dollars. One of the brushes for sale even had some old hair in it still. Kind of gross, yes, but still, it was authentic.

Overall, I found Hoffman's Deco Deli and Cafe, with The Carriage Town Antique Store to be different and interesting. Everything was well priced, and the atmosphere was fun. It's appealing to a wide variety of demographics and I recommend it to anyone looking for a new place to eat.

Free Food On Campus!

2009-11-04T23:58:00.003-05:00

On Tuesday I found the opportunity to enjoy a free lunch at UM-Flint. The Office of Student Life is hosting a series of workshops called "Amaizing Leaders" and this time around it involved lunch with Chancellor Ruth Person. Located in the Happenings Room on the first floor University Center, the luncheon was held from 12:30-1:30 pm and was open to all students and staff.

The food wasn't much, but you can't really complain when it's free. A buffet table was filled with Fritos, assorted breads, mustard and mayonnaise, an assortment of meats and cheese, vegetables, cookies and lemonade. It was basically everything I expected it would be.

I ended up making a Turkey sandwich with swiss cheese, mayo and lettuce. I also grabbed a spoonful (yes, spoonful) of Fritos, four pickle spear halves with a peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie.

I wish that I would have grabbed more of everything though, especially the Fritos. I was third in the buffet line and I felt the pressure of 20 hungry people waiting behind me. It would have been different if I had paid for the food because I would have felt the need to get my money's worth, but being that it was free I felt the need to be slightly modest.

The luncheon was a great opportunity to say a few words to the Chancellor and get to know a little more about her. She told the history of her work and education and afterwards opened the floor for students to ask questions. She talked about her hobbies, that she liked to cook and garden. She told a couple of stories about how her father was an influence and inspiration to her, and she gave advice to students about taking the time to have a little fun in addition to their studies. Finally, Chancellor Person had to leave 15 minutes early because of a scheduled conference call with Governor Granholm.

I found the luncheon to be a great opportunity. Not only was I able to enjoy a free lunch right on the campus of UM-Flint, but I was able to learn more about Chancellor Person and network with other student leaders on campus as well.

Churchill's: Not As Bad As You Think

2009-11-03T23:56:00.012-05:00

On Monday I ate lunch at Churchill's with my friend Melanie. Churchill's is located downtown Flint at 340 South Saginaw. Students receive a 10 percent discount and happy hour drink prices during lunch.

The entire month of November Churchill's is offering $1.35 pints of Coors Light Draft. We started by ordering ourselves a pint each and were not disappointed. You can't go wrong with a $1.35 pint, even if it is Coors Light.

Melanie (pictured above) was very happy about her drink decision. We were going to order pints of Miller Light, but when the waitress informed us of the drink special we changed our minds. We thought it was a good deal for a couple of poor college students.

Next, we received our salads. Pretty standard. Ice Berg lettuce, some carrots, a slice of tomato and an onion. I ordered caesar dressing and it was 50 cents extra. Luckily though, the waitress forget to inform me that caesar dressing was extra and she didn't charge me for it. Don't count on being so lucky yourself though, because I don't think that happens all of the time.

Our main course arrived in a timely manner. Both of us ordered the Special of the Day: Chicken Fettucini Alfredo with a side of garlic bread. I thought there was too much Alfredo sauce for my liking and it was a little bland. It was decently priced at $7.99, though.

Overall the food was pretty acceptable, and the cheap drink was a nice addition. It wasn't very crowded at all. I could have studied if I wanted too. Not really a place to go if you're looking to meet new and exciting people, but still nice, nonetheless.

The Michigan Times posted an article about Churchill's a year ago. It gives background information about the restaurant and is accompanied by a few user comments. The article also states that "Thursday night is college night with $1 pitchers 75 cent rum and cokes, and a live DJ and dancing until 2 am Friday and Saturday nights."

Introduction

2009-10-28T22:11:00.003-04:00

Hello Bloggers!

I'm setting up my first blog here on blogger.com, and am only hoping for the best. For this blog I will review one restaurant a week (yes one, I live on a college student's budget) and will post my review every Tuesday night. I am hoping that I will gain a better understanding of blogging and the tools that are provided to do so.

I am also looking forward to becoming familiar with the many dining options in downtown Flint. Currently I've only been eating on the campus of UM-Flint at the University Pavilion and the Riverview Dining Room.

I plan to report and review my dining experience at each restaurant. Included in each post will be the cost of the meal, what my guests and I have ordered, and how we rated each meal and our overall experience. I will always include photos of meals, and the restaurant, to enhance my blog post. I will also provide a link to the restaurant's Web site, if available. On occasion I may find it appropriate to add video or sound footage. Those are factors dependent upon the setting and the atmosphere of the restaurant. In other words, it may be acceptable to shoot video footage at one restaurant, but not another.

I look forward to reading comments and to finally become a "blogger!"