Sunday, January 10, 2010

Donkey Dawgs

If you live in VA Beach any where near the oceanfront you need to check out this local dog & burger spot. Donkey Dawgs (1933 Virginia Beach Blvd. VA Beach, VA. 757-425-3885) may seem like a strange name for a hot dog spot but when you get there and realize that it also serves as the office for Air Station Storage (ASS) then it makes sense. I learned of Donkey Dawgs when I moved to the Oceana/First Colonial area and drove by it daily, noticing that they were open for breakfast as well as lunch. So after driving by several times I decided it was time to give it a try and I was hooked at first bite. This is one of those no frills hot dog spots that serves up good food fast and on paper plates and in solo plastic cups. Now don't be startled when you first walk in and you are greeted by a beaver and fox wearing Donkey Dawg shirts and at the very least 1 of the super friendly employees welcoming you. You will also notice that there are plenty of tables to sit at or several bar seats to choose from. Make sure you look towards the back wall for the daily specials and desserts, more on the desserts in a few.
With a menu that not only includes hot dogs such as the "Donkey Dawg" by Hormel, the "Corny Dawg" yes it's a corn dog, and the "NYC Dawg", a hot sausage with spicy mustard & onions. The burgers & sandwiches have even better names like "Runt" a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, & mayo, "Fat Boy" cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, & mayo, the "Pig Boy" that's right it has bacon on it. My favorite named sammy on the menu the "Barnyard Pimp" deep fried chicken breast with lettuce, tomato, & mayo. They also have Taylor pork roll, ham, turkey, chicken and egg salads. Philly cheesesteaks, hand cut fries, soups, and salads. Oh yeah they do breakfast too, with several hearty breakfast plates including bacon, sausage, eggs, waffles, pancakes, grits, and bagels. Like I said make sure you check the boards for the daily lunch specials too.
On my most recent visit with my lovely wife who decided to start with a cup of the soup of the day which was mexican chicken chili. Must say it was quite delicious with it's bounty of tender chicken, corn, black beans, tomato, and pepper. Had an excellent flavor and packed a nice little punch of heat too. I decided to start with a Carolina style Donkey Dawg, which comes fully equipped with mustard, onions, chili, and cole slaw. Now I must drop some knowledge on ya about this slaw, you ready, here it comes, it's yellow. That's right and no not yellow mustard yellow but a light yellow color and it's not from adding mustard to the slaw mix, but it is excellent and the best slaw I have ever eaten on a hot dog. But I digress, the chili on the hot dog isn't a thick pasty chili and it's not a thin flavorless chili water, it's the proper texture and has good flavor. My wife and I both feasted upon a "Pig Boy" and some hand cut fries, and let me tell you the fries are very tasty for hand cut. A lot of places you go that have hand cut fries, they sometimes aren't the most crispy fries or they are very greasy. The "Pig Boy" is a burger cooked on there well seasoned flat top and donned with crispy bacon and the cheese is put on the burger right when it's flipped and allowed to melt while the burger cooks. Robin (the owner/my personal favorite cook there) will place the top of the top bun on the grill and let it get nice and toasty while the cheese is melting. I also get grilled onions on my burger and they aren't the overcooked burnt onion slices they are tender tasty diced onions she piles up so nicely on the burger then serves it up with a smile. Both myself and the wifey have no complaints when it comes to the burgers here, and we showed the true sign of goodness in food when we fell silent to eat the tasty nuggets of goodness. The wifey is a fan of Taylor pork roll and says that they also have a very tasty Taylor pork roll sammich. I decided that I hadn't shoved enough in my face and going on a recommendation from the wife I opted for a homemade dessert in the form of a Keylime cake with icing. Now I am not a big fan of Keylime but occasionally I can get down and this was one of those occasions. It was very flavorful but not over powering in the keylime flavor, not to mention it had a crunchy outer crust while the center was super moist. Come to find out when they make a key lime dessert there they get keylimes delivered, now if that doesn't say tasty then I don't know what does.
Whenever your on the boulevard near First Colonial around lunch time or even breakfast time I recommend you swing thru Donkey Dawgs and give them a try, you won't be disappointed.

I pass the word about this place like a collection plate at a Sunday service and I'll be back like Terminator.

Kid friendly

non smoking

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

!ggles A Cheesesteak & Burger Joint

So the owners of Philadelphia Cheesesteaks on Tidewater Dr. in Norfolk opened !ggles A Cheesesteak & Burger Joint (2676 VA Beach Blvd. VA Beach, VA. 23452 757-340-0317) several months ago in the shopping center across from Beach Ford on the Blvd and have brought their tasty sammy's to VA Beach. Yes there are some places in VA Beach that have Philadelphia cheesesteaks and yeah some are good but some are not so good. As mentioned in the Deuce Mcgee's blog my brother Mat is a cheesesteak guru, but I am no rookie when it comes to the cheesesteak scene. After reading the Deuce Mcgee's blog my buddy Scott Lee (as mentioned in the Saffron Indian Bistro blog) said that it was brought to his attention that !ggles had a good cheesesteak, so after hearing a few more people talking about it I decided to give it a try.
In case you couldn't tell by the name this place is owned by some serious Philadelphia Eagles fans, not just Eagle fans but Philadelphia fans so make sure you don't go in wearing your Giants, Cowboys, or Redskins jersey's. They don't only do Philadelphia cheesesteaks but chicken cheesesteaks, burgers, hot dogs, salads, burger subs, and sandwiches like grilled cheese, PBJ, BLT, and ham and cheese. They also have fries that come in one size, but you can get regular or cheesesteak fries, they are the tasty fries that have 1/2 a cheesessteak on them. mmm mmm good. They also have some funky sammy's like a pizza cheesesteak, chicken cordon blue cheesesteak, and a chicken teriyaki cheesesteak.
Today I went for the mushroom cheesesteak with grilled onions and an order of fries. Yes everyone puts the fries on the back burner and a lot of people forget to even talk about the fries, but the fries here are very tasty not to mention crispy and well seasoned. The cheesesteak was huge and packed full of meat, to me a big part of a cheesesteak is the bread to meat ratio and this sammy definitely had a very high meat to bread ratio, and the bread was good too. The meat was well seasoned and there wasn't an abundance of onions and mushrooms as filler, there was plenty of meat and flavor, and oh yeah cheese whiz. That's right cheese whiz, just like up north. As usual I got a togo order on my lunch break and from the time I got that massive sammich and fries in my car to the time I got home my mouth was watering from the fragrance of hot fries, grilled onions, mushrooms, seasoned meat, toasty bread and warm cheese whiz. It tasted so good and to be honest the smell made me drive a little faster than I should have. When I got home and got that sammich unwrapped and took a look at it I was stoked. I knew there was no way I could finish the whole thing so I knew I would have some for later. I took the first bite and it was what a cheesesteak should taste like, yes I have had cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, no I have never eaten a Gino's cheesesteak before, yes I have had good cheesesteaks before, and yes I have bad cheesesteaks before and man this is a damn good cheesesteak. As I said before it was very well seasoned, it had a good taste of grilled onion, the cheese wasn't over whelming, and the bun was toasty and buttery yet soft and chewy. I don't bother with the lettuce, tomato, and mayo on it but I could see where that could be good if they could find room to fit that stuff on there, but the way it comes is just perfect. And with the tasty fries to go along with it, I must say it was one of the better lunches I have had in a while and for sure the best cheesesteak I have had in a long time.
Whether you are craving a cheesesteak or just looking for a filling, tasty, delicious lunch or dinner I suggest stopping into !ggles for a great cheesesteak. The cheesesteaks come in 1/2 sizes or whole, I recommend a whole so that you have some goodness for later in the day. They are open till 9 at nite Monday thru Saturday, so don't think you can get a Philadelphia cheesesteak from !ggles for the Eagles games on Sunday's.


I'm passing the word about this place like a collection plate at a Sunday service and I'll be back like the Terminator.

No smoking (like damn near every restaurant in VA now)

No tables inside but there are some picnic tables outside

They are kid friendly as long as your kid roots for the Eagles (just kidding, I said they have PBJ if that doesn't scream kid firendly I don't know what does)

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

Ok so this is the first beer blog and the first blog of the new year. I have been drinking micro beers off and on since I was about 17 or 18 and yes I know it wasn't the legal drinking age but really who had the first beers when they were 21? Not to mention if you wanna start drinking beer underage it's better to drink quality micro beers than piss water or zima's. More recently I found out about Dogfish Head brewery's out of Deleware and man do they have some seriously good beers. I have tried a handful of their beers and talked to several folks about their beers and everyone has nothing but good things to say about them. My buddy Matty was the first person to tell me about the Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, and after that I started doing some research on it and it may not be the Bentley of beers, but it is for sure the Lambo/Ferrari of beers. Every thing I read had reviews that were all over the place, but had very high praises for the beer. They also described as more like a fine porter rather than a beer. I must say it is definitely like no beer I have ever had and not like any stout I have ever had. It has a very strong alcohol taste and smell, it also has what I describe as a funky over sweet flavor to it. When I say sweet I don't mean like chocolate/sugar, I mean like sugar that has gone bad if that is possible. It is for a dark beer although it is not a thick heavy beer like you would expect from a stout like a Guiness or Young's. There is very minimal head on the beer and as it sits in the glass it looks more like soda with no ice than it does a stout. When looking on the internet for what to drink the World Wide out of most everyone had it in a pint glass but several had in a snifter so I poured 1/2 of mine into a snifter and the other 1/2 into a pint glass and to me there was no real difference in taste. Personally not my favorite beer by far and even if someone offers to buy me another one I would have to decline for a beer I like more, not to mention at the price that this beer runs you don't wanna get one and not like it.