I take it back! I take it back!

Okay so I may have sort have been extremely wrong about Broadway Diner. Maybe they have different cooks in the day than they do at night, but oh my goodness.

After having a blast with my 4804 family in a non-journalism capacity, a bunch of us decided 2 a.m. was a great time for breakfast.


The game changer was the coffee. It was good. Like really good. And the waitress kept my tiny cup full. This gave me hope for the food, and I wasn't disappointed.

I ordered the exact same order, but it was so much better!

So here is my conclusion. Go to Broadway Diner at night. In my limited experience it is exponentially better between midnight and 8 a.m.

Steak on the Bosses

I love our company holiday dinner. Mostly because I love food and I love food even more when my bosses pay for my $24 steak. It truly is a happy holiday.

I had never been to 44 Stone before, but I will be sure to go back. Even though my meal was pretty expensive, it looked like there were some reasonable chicken based entrees on the menu. We sat in a private dining room, but the main dining room was very spacious with more than enough room between tables.

Nothing annoys me more than when you go to a restaurant and you can't use the restroom for fear you are going to bump the elbow of the person behind you when you get up causing a cartoon like chain reaction ending in humiliation and regret.

But back to the food.

My steak was cooked to perfection. Medium well has a variation of interpretations depending on the restaurant, but 44 stone has the correct interpretation. Not only that but they kept the coffee coming. Not once did I have to ask for a refill. Once they were so quick I didn't even see the waitress fill my mug. It was like the coffee cup magically refilled itself.

I would definitely go again. 

Coffee, and Gulash, and Rain Oh My!

While walking down 9th Street earlier this semester I overheard a guy say Cafe Poland has the "best chicken noodle soup ever". I made a mental note to visit the tiny stand alone
storefront, but I would wait until the perfect rainy day. A day so cold and dreary only a bowl of chicken could lift your spirits can warm you. Today was that day...but I blew it.

I have restaurant anxiety. If a waiter asks me what I would like to order before I have have a chance to look at the menu, I have this bad habit of just ordering the first thing I see instead of taking all of 30 seconds to read the menu.

I walked into the Cafe and was surprised to find the restaurant was actually smaller than it looked. Yes, smaller. There were only two other costumers chatting in the corner so my presence captured the waiters sole attentions. Perfect.

Even though I fully intended to order the amazing chicken noodle soup the random guy on 9th street unknowingly recommended to me, the first thing that caught my eye on the menu was gulash. I see now the chicken soup is right above the gulash on the menu and it's half the price. Obviously I need to be supervised when trying new restaurants. 

After stumbling through ordering and paying for my meal I took a seat and awkwardly took pictures of the restaurant. The two girls in the corner started making fun of me in Korean. I would just like to point out to anyone who cares enough to read this that just because you are speaking a different language does not mean your teasing goes unnoticed. The teasing continued as I took pictures of my food


I was very surprised by the presentation of my food. I am by no means hating on the paper plate. It's probably one of the greatest and laziest developments of the last half century. That said, I was not expecting my food to be presented on one.

The food was okay. It's nothing that, if taught, I couldn't make myself, but I don't feel right making a judgement seeing as I freaked out and ordered the wrong thing.

The coffee, however, was delightful. I consider coffee a staple in my diet. It's basically a food group.




I'll have to get back to you on my final judgement of Cafe Poland. For now, I recommend their coffee. Definitely their coffee. I'll have to wait for another cold rainy/snowy day to try their soup. Seeing as it's now December and we live in Missouri, that shouldn't take long.

 

The Burrito Battle

If you don't spend 90% of your time at Mizzou's J-school, you may be unaware that Moe's opened a location directly across from it and, if you're like me, you have no idea what Moe's is. 

Moe's is basically a Chipotle with a cinema theme and a different color scheme, which is interesting because they opened their new location right next to a Chipotle. And so the burrito battle was born. 

People have chosen their sides. I remained loyal to Chipotle, but I figured it was about time to give Moe's a chance. But I couldn't just eat their food without answering the big question- Who is the real winner of the burito battle? 

I enlisted my roommate, Devan, and her boyfriend, Seth, to help me decide. We were embarrassing thorough. 
We spent about $50 combined on food. I got my usual at Chipotle: burrito bowl with brown rice, veggies, carnitas, hot salsa, pico, and quac. I got as close as I could to that order at Moe's to try to keep my findings fair. 

Chipotle was better. Much better. 

But wait! There's more!! 

I was surprised to find that Moe's quac was better than Chipotle's, and Moe's has queso so obviously they get brownie points there. However Moe's chips are not great. Actually, I think it would be a compliment to call them adequate. Chipotle on the other hand has great chips. They're salty with a hint of lime and ironically go perfectly with Moe's quac. 

So here's what I recommend- go to Chipotle. Get you're burrito bowl, your quesadilla, tacos, whatever, and a bag of trips. I don't care how weird the look they give is, the combination of Chipotle chips and Moe's quac/queso will be worth it. Then go next door and get your queso and quac. 

So I guess there isn't a winner, except me because I was a very full and happy girl after this experiment. 

Diner Standings Thus Far

Coffee Quality

In high school I self medicated my ADHD with Diet Coke, then was prescribed adderall, then I stopped taking adderall and now I'm back to coping with my ADHD with caffeine. Except my caffeinated beverage of choice is now coffee. I take my coffee very seriously. I will drink a cup of crappy coffee, but my morning is made that much better when I get to drink a really good cup of coffee.

1. Cafe Berlin-not only is their coffee really good, but sometimes they give you abnormally large coffee cups. When it comes to coffee cups, the closer it gets to a bowl the happier I am.

2. Ernie's- also has excellent coffee, but not quite up to Cafe Berlin's level. Their cups are quite small though, making frequent refills a necessity, and if you have ever been in Ernie's on a Saturday morning you know flagging down your waiter or waitress every time you require more liquid happiness is nearly impossible.

3. JJ's Cafe- JJ's has the same issue that Ernie's has- tiny cups. It's coffee is only a few steps above crappy.

4. Broadway Diner- tiny cups and crappy coffee = bottom of the list.

Quality of Food

Breakfast food is among my favorite kind of food. It makes me sad that we relegate eggs, bacon, and waffles to the very early hours of the day. It makes me even sadder when I don't have time to sit at my kitchen table (of a diner booth) and sip a warm cup of coffee while eating an omelet with a side of bacon.


1. Ernie's- Ernie's is at the top of this list because it is genuine diner food and it is genuinely delicious.

2. Cafe Berlin- Don't get me wrong Cafe Berlin's food is fantastic, but I have issues with calling it diner food. It's artisan food, which doesn't make it bad, it just makes me hesitant to put it at the top of a list judging diner food.

3. JJ's Cafe- JJ's is definitely diner food, but isn't has good at Ernie's.

4. Broadway Diner- poor Broadway Diner at the bottom of the list again. It's nothing personal, but when your coffee is crappy, you have to make it up with having amazing food. The food is only adequate, which isn't enough to redeem the coffee.

Ambiance 

This is a tough call. They all have very distinct personalities so its difficult to rank them, but I'll do my best. 

1. Broadway Diner- See I have some love for the Broadway Diner. It has a cozy, classic diner interior, which almost redeems the crappy coffee and only adequate food.

2. Ernie's- Ernie's is sticking to what's worked. It's retro vibe gives the place a character all it's own.

3. Cafe Berlin- Again, Cafe Berlin rocks, but it doesn't have a diner personality. It has a cafe personality, and that's awesome, but a cafe personality does not deserve to be on top of a list rating diners.

4. JJ's Cafe- JJ must have been very conflicted when he sought to decorate his diner. There is everything from pictures of tigers, to cityscapes, to framed cross stitchings. Also, my roommate and I could not decide if the building used to be a Mexican or Chinese restaurant. All in all, it's very confusing.

Overall

1. Ernie's- Good food, good coffee (just please get bigger coffee cups), and a fun atmosphere places Ernies at the top.

2. Cafe Berlin- Great food, great coffee, and a cafe vibe put Cafe Berlin in second place because this is a list of diners.

3. JJ's Cafe- Confusing atmosphere, but good food, and adequate coffee= third place.

4. Broadway Diner- If your looking for some food at 4:00 a.m. this 24 hour diner is your place. Otherwise, head a few blocks northeast to Ernie's.

Yes Another Diner

If you haven't guessed from the frequency of my breakfast themed posts, I love breakfast food. So I ventured to the north part of town to try JJ's Cafe. 

This morning my lovely roommate joined me largely because of the total lack of food in our apartment. 

The coffee is not as good as Cafe Berlin's so if you're a coffee snob I'd stick to Cafe Berlin. I am not a coffee snob. Caffeine is caffeine. 

The food was excellent. I liked it much better than The Broadway Diner. 

Devan had the biscuits and gravy and I had the supreme skillet. Both of us were very happy. Money well spent. 

Recovering With Food and Friends

For the past 10 weeks I have been taking what has to be the most difficult class ever required by an academic institution-Journalism 4804. We work on a two week cycle. One week we find a story, pitch it that Friday, and then must produce a media package by the following Thursday at 6 pm.

I'm sure everybody has their own recovery routine after deadline day, but this is mine. I call my mom on my way home from the lab. She likes to know how my stories go, and she's is very concerned I'm losing my mind. Once in my apartment I tell my roommate how my story went. After eating for the first time since 7 am, I crawl in bed around 8:30 pm and slip into a mini coma until about 7 am.

Usually the morning after deadline day entails showering for the first time in days and rethinking everything I did the week before. 

But on this Friday after deadline day I did a something a little out of the ordinary. Instead of obsessing over something I can't change, I went to Cafe Berlin to eat breakfast with three empathetic friends. 

We read over the menus while drinking coffee, which I must say is much better than Broadway Diner's. Also Cafe Berlin's mugs are bigger too so you don't constantly have to ask for refills. 

I ordered the Starving Artist. It might have been the post deadline productivity hangover, but oh my goodness it was so good. I woke up this morning craving it.

They have a very creative menu, but they have the typical breakfast options as well. So they have a little something for everybody. 

It was the perfect way to start my day. Not only did get to eat great food, and drink great coffee, I got to spend time with three of the best people I have been privileged to meet through 4804. Not bad at all.