Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Corner (Milford) for Breakfast and The Place (Guilford) for Dinner

This was a busy eating day for me.  In the morning I went to breakfast with my lovely friend, Carrie.  She said that she wanted to try The Corner located in Milford center for breakfast.  I had been there once briefly with DJ.  I was unimpressed with it when I went but I thought maybe that was just a rough morning.  I'm just going to start off by saying that The Corner is not my cup of tea. I don't think Carrie disliked it as much as I, but this is my blog here.  haha.  First of all, we went on a Friday morning- like 9:45.  When you walk in, it looks like you walked into some old lady's house.  I guess they're going for a certain "at home" feel because all the plates and cups and whatnot mismatch.  It really does feel like you opened up somebody's cupboard and grabbed yourself some breakfast.  Some may find that cute but not me.  I think that's gross and dirty.  It reminded me of when I would babysit for non-relative children.  (Not all of the families, especially my fave 2 boys) It's a little creepy.  Just using someone else's stuff, not knowing where it's been, wondering the cleanliness of the things you're touching, trying to just go off the appearance of the house, or in this case, a restaurant.  It gave me that old feeling.  I feel like there was a cloud of gray just hanging in the air.  It was packed.  There were "two" large groups of special needs camp children and the rest of the tables were taken as well.  We stood there for maybe about 10 minutes.  No one looked at us.  They didn't say, "Hey it'll just be a few minutes," or "we'll be with you in a minute."  Nothing.  This was really pissing me off.  Carrie suggested that we just leave and I took her up on that offer.  When we walked out on the sidewalk we noticed that that new cupcake place that was in the paper had just opened.  Apparently, they won on cupcake wars.

The people at the cupcake place were very nice.  They had a limited selection of cupcakes.  I feel like they have more flavors at Julia's and they're a regular bakery, not a special cupcake shack.  We weren't sure if we would order cupcakes or not but we ended up ordering them.  At that time in the morning, there was no way I could handle chocolate or really sweet stuff. They had a blueberry cupcake.  It was basically a blueberry muffin with some blueberry frosting on top.  It was okay but as far as I'm concerned, it won no battle.  If that's what won on cupcake wars, then I guess I'm Genghis Khan.  I can make a better cupcake than that.  It tasted stale, yet they just opened for the day.  Carrie had the Ethel Mertz cupcake (yes folks, there are other Ethel Mertz and Lucy fans in the world).  It was chocolate and peanut butter.  Carrie said it was good but she didn't go crazy for it either.  After the quick cupcake and coffee snack we went back to The Corner.

Neither of us were very hungry but it's where we had set out to go.  We went back in.  Summer camp was gone, they were in the process of separating tables.  Still no eye contact, conversation, nada.  Eventually they seated us at this teeny tiny round table for two.  It was pushed up against a bookcase and a ledge of some sort.  There was a loud old man right on my keister and the ledge was right at eye level, bosom-level for Carrie.  The menu is very exotic.  Expensive too. What I mean by exotic is crap you normally wouldn't serve for breakfast- pulled pork breakfast wraps, crabcake scramble, caramelized onions, etc.  I wasn't that hungry so at first I was going to just get scrambled eggs and pumpernickel toast (the only plus) but then I decided I should give a real review.  I got, what was described as, "scrambled eggs with spinach, caramelized onions, and gruyere cheese on French flatbread.  I basically envisioned like an open-face breakfast sandwich.  Not at all the case.  What was served to me was scrambled eggs with spinach and onions with a crepe on top of that with hollandaise sauce on top of the crepe.  Didn't like it.  Too much onion, not enough bread, not enough egg, crap. Not for me.  Carrie ordered a crab cake benedict.  The crab cake took the place of the Canadian bacon.  She said it was good but again, not blown away.  The bill came and whatever- just get me the hell outta here!  I will never go there again.  This goes with that group of snooty people from Milford who think that Milford is something more than West Shore - extension.  Change the name of Ocean Ave.  I see it on a street sign West Shore Ext.  Eating eggs in some old bag's three season porch is not my idea of quaint New England living.  Skip the corner!  Especially if you have jury duty, you'll be there all damn day.

Carrie and I have some more travels ahead of us so stay tuned.  For now, on to The Place in Guilford.  Now Guilford, the better of the two -ford towns, has a lovely little place you should check out.  I had first seen The Place on the Travel Channel.  It's a place outdoors.  You sit on tree stumps, and all of the food is cooked on this huge grill nearby.  It's a very simple menu.  BBQ chicken, blue fish, catfish, salmon, steak, shrimp, lobster, clams, mussels, veggiebobs, and corn.  You are allowed to bring anything else you want.  Drinks, side dishes, desserts, sodas, tablecloths, glasses, flowers, whatever you want to make your meal more enjoyable.  I'm not sure what the story is when it rains so just make sure you check the weather forecast before setting out there.

I had a blast at the Place.  I went with DJ and a large group of friends.  There were 13 of us all together.  The best kind of get together.  We were lucky enough to get a table that could fit all of us.  Every couple brought a 6 pack and some type of side.  We brought a couple of bags of potato chips and dip, some brought chips and salsa, some made a tossed salad, some brought coleslaw and potato salad.  It was just perfect.  We weren't really sure what to do when we first arrived so we just passed around the sides and chatted until out waitress came over.  **THEY ONLY ACCEPT CASH OR CHECK**  That just popped in my head, sorry.  We had a nice variety go around the table.  DJ and few others ordered the BBQ chicken, Dan ordered the steak and some clams, Dana and Jessi ordered the shrimp, Fred had bluefish, I think Michelle had salmon, Not sure about Kevin, and I ordered the lobster.  I believe Chris also ordered the mussels.  I have so much to say, I don't know where to begin!

Let's start with the chicken.  It was good, everyone ate it, but the BBQ sauce was a bit on the Ketchup-y side.  If you know me by now, you know I don't like to order chicken when I eat out.  The bluefish and salmon were both a hit.  Shrimp was good but had the shells on it so it was kind of a pain in the rear.  Roasted clams were good.  Mussels were delicious and the lobster was good.  The lobster can either be boiled or roasted on the grill.  I chose to have it roasted because that's unique, but I may have liked it a touch more if it had been boiled. It was a little rubbery in texture, although I think that was due to the grill roasting.  The lobster caused quite a scene.  They don't have crackers there so if you need one, they give you a stone covered in tin foil.  I bashed the hell outta that little lobster.  It was easy to break apart.  I did get a little grossed out at one point though.  My mom taught me how to eat a lobster and she never eats the body, just the claws, tail, and some of the legs.  Well this group wasn't going to let it just stop there.  They had me eating the antennae, the roe, guts a galore!  I had fun though.  It was tasty.  I got my lobster-fill for the summer.  Everyone enjoyed their food.

All the plates were cleared away and then it was time for dessert.  I technically passed on dessert but ate half of DJ's.  He ordered this luscious chocolate peanut butter thing.  Oh my word!  Delicious!  It was the best dessert I ever had.  I would go back just for that!  I don't know when I'll be heading back to The Place but I was able to cross it off my summer bucket list, and I have a wonderful memory to go with it.  There was a moment when I was waiting for my lobster when I kind of just stepped back and took it all in.  Outside, summer time, the smell of the grill, a cool breeze, laughter, friends, food.  It was perfect in that sense.  I couldn't ask for anything else.  I was so happy I finally made it to The Place.  So thank you to everyone who joined me!!  Overall, I enjoyed the food.  For the types of food I thought it was accurately priced. The service was great.  I wasn't brave enough to check out the bathroom.  The cons- It's outdoors so that could be a problem, cash/check only, and from what one of my friends said, maybe wear capri pants or bermuda shorts.  Apparently her rump got some bug bites from sitting on the stump.  It happened to one person out of 13, so not bad odds, but be careful!  Next time it could be you, so dress appropriately!!  Or maybe bring a cushion.  Definitely recommend!  It's very different and pretty cool.  Until my next bite....

*apologies to any Milford residents that may be offended by this blog.  This is for humor and enjoyment so lighten up!

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