The Peanut Shoppe - Akron, Ohio

Peanut Shoppe Of Akron - 203 S Main St, Akron, OH 44308

Peanut Shoppe Of Akron Facebook Page

Boy, I just let time slip by in between my reviews, don't I? Truth is, in between my time spent working on this blog I have several other projects I work on, plus a regular job. Most importantly, Crissy and I like to spend a lot of time together (sometimes when we're out we look for places for this blog, but not always). We just celebrated our first wedding anniversary last Sunday. The laptop we currently have seems to be on its last legs as it runs very slowly, but eventually we will upgrade (though hopefully not to anything with Windows 8 or newer). 

Last week we reviewed an Akron restaurant, and this week we remain in Akron once more. That said, our review today is not actually for a restaurant. While we like to find the best food on the road for you to try, we also love local shops that give you something unique, something that takes you back to the good old days. We've found it in a wonderful place called the Peanut Shoppe of Akron. 

(Photo Credit: Tim Davisson)

The Peanut Shoppe of Akron is one of just a dozen Peanut Shop/Shoppe locations left from when there were over 200 locations all over the country, opened by the National Peanut Corp. between 1930 and 1960 as a means of selling Planters Peanuts to customers. In 1961, Standard Brands bought out Planters Peanuts and began closing up the retail shops. Akron's location, around since 1933, remained open, but in the 82 years since opening, the store has seen three owners and three business locations, all on South Main Street. 

(Photo credit: Lisa Abraham, Akron Beacon Journal)

When the city of Akron purchased the building that housed the previous location of the Peanut Shoppe, they helped store owner Marge Kline find her current location, which allowed her to expand the business to include more than just nuts.

They have almost every kind of nut or candy you can imagine in this store, available to purchase by weight, even as little as 1/4 of a pound if you are only craving a small snack. They have a wide variety of nuts, chocolate candies, hard candies, something to satisfy any craving. We've come here numerous times for their fresh roasted peanuts, sunflower seed kernels, chocolate toffee squares, juju candies, valentine hearts (in season, of course), brazil nuts, malt balls, banana chips, even their fresh made popcorn. I could go on and on, but you can see for yourself from the pictures (many of which were taken by our friend Tim for The Peanut Shoppe's Facebook page) just how much this store has to offer. They even have ice cream available in both prepackaged ice cream bars and soft serve flavors.

When you come to visit, don't forget to say hello to Marge, and while you're here, try to spot as many Mr. Peanuts as you possibly can...

As you can see, Mr. Peanut sure knows how to get around. Crissy and I do too, and when we are in Akron, we're always sure to stop in on the Peanut Shoppe! Perhaps best of all, the Peanut Shoppe of Akron does accept credit cards (you know, for those times when you're hauling out two plastic bags filled with goodies like i've done in the past).

It's time for us to be hitting the road again. We'll check in again soon with our next review. If you have something to say about the Peanut Shoppe of Akron, leave us a comment on this post. If there's a restaurant in your local area (whether or not it is local to us) that you'd like us to check out for a possible review on our blog, let us know by messaging us on our Facebook Page. If you have your own pictures or reviews to add to our blog, drop us a line because we would love to add further reviews for this business as well as other restaurants to our blog.

Until the next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

For Diehls On The Road, this is Tom Diehl, signing off....

El Puente Mexican Restaurant - Akron, Ohio

El Puente Mexican Restaurant - 2329 Romig Rd, Akron, OH 44320

http://elpuenteakron.weebly.com/

Has it really been two weeks since an update? Oof, sorry about that! Between both of us, we've been sick quite a bit lately, not to mention two recent hospital visits from Tom for some recurring ear issues. We wanted to give a review when we were best able to present our honest opinions.

A couple of weeks ago, in between all of our sicknesses, we spent some time in Akron, Ohio, house sitting for a friend. Of course, we decided to check out some local places to review. One of our friends had once taken us to a different Mexican restaurant in Akron, called Mi Casa, when we were visiting some friends in the area, Well let me tell you, I'm not big on Mexican food (Crissy is more so since she comes from Southern California). When I was growing up in Maryland, we had one local place that is apparently still around (and until looking them up today, I had no idea they were local - I thought they were a national chain!) but it was never my favorite place to eat.

Coming to El Puente and a few other places recently has really changed my mind on Mexican food. We were warmly greeted (in Spanish) by the host of the evening, who then took us to our seat. We had our drink orders taken (Coke products, including Cherry Coke!) and were given a basket of fresh made tortilla chips and salsa (I don't care for any kind of salsa, Crissy enjoyed it, though). The chips were nice and hot and tasted great.

When I was first reading about this restaurant online (which had many, many positive reviews), I had looked the menu over and planned to have Arroz con Pollo (Chicken and Rice), which I decided on trying simply for the fact that it had been mentioned in one of the most famous episodes of I Love Lucy, Job Switching:

I can't get the Youtube page to start on my blog right where I want it to, so for reference start at 11:45 into the episode.

I didn't really know what to expect, as it was something new I was trying (my father would be so proud of me for trying something new!) and I figured I would enjoy it anyway since this restaurant was busy! There were lots of customers here, and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

If you like peppers, tomatoes and onions, this would be the perfect dish for you. I am not fond of them so I picked all of those out (okay, i left some onions in but took out some of the bigger chunks), and was left with about 2/3 of my dish. The rice tasted amazing, the chicken was incredible. I think I would've loved the dish more if it was just the chicken (cooked exactly the way it was in this dish) and the rice, but I loved it just the same.

Crissy had what the restaurant called their vegetarian combination #3, a bean burrito, a cheese quesadilla, and what they said was a chalupa (though Crissy says it looks more like a tostada). See it for yourself:

As for how things tasted, Crissy says, coming from California, the food was very authentic Mexican food. It has a lot more flavor than many other "Mexican" restaurants, and it lives up to the standard of many Mexican restaurants out in California, and has a home-cooked feel to it.

As for the actual name of the restaurant, it does get confusing. Their Facebook page calls themselves "El Puente Mexican Restaurant & Grill", Their website says "El Puente Mexican Bar & Grill", and their actual building just says "El Puente Mexican Grill". 

We've already been back here a second time. Yes, I got the same thing once again, Crissy got something different and loved it, and the place was just as packed. If you like authentic Mexican food, this is the best place in Akron to try. It's well worth the trip to get here and the prices are extremely reasonable for the amount of food you get. The next time we return to Akron, I know where we'll be heading for dinner.

It's time for us to be hitting the road again. We'll check in again soon with our next review. If you have something to say about this restaurant, leave us a comment on this post. If there's a restaurant in your local area (whether or not it is local to us) that you'd like us to check out for a possible review on our blog, let us know by messaging us on our Facebook Page. If you have your own pictures or reviews to add to our blog, drop us a line because we would love to add further reviews for this and other restaurants to our site.

Until the next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

For Diehls On The Road, this is Tom Diehl, signing off....

George's Restaurant - Erie, Pennsylvania

George's Restaurant - 2614 Glenwood Park Ave, Erie, PA 16508

Facebook - George's Restaurant

We've been in Erie for some time now, and have had a lot of time to check out a lot of the local restaurants. This one has been under our radar until recently. After a few recent stops to the doctor due to ongoing sinus problems I've been experiencing, we would pass this restaurant on the way home and would always say "we should try that place out". They boast of their "real homemade mashed potatoes" which made me wonder if anything else there was good. Let me just say that yes, we've enjoyed everything we've had here!

(Photo credit: George's Restaurant Facebook Page)

We decided to go in and see what all of the hoopla was about regarding their mashed potatoes. They offer a wide variety, including garlic parmesan, cheddar ranch, bacon horseradish, onion and bacon, verdi and pepper jack, jalapeno, and broccoli and cheddar among other flavors. 

These mashed potatoes lived up to our expectations, and then some. We now know why Erie's oldest restaurant has remained, and why they still have such a loyal fanbase. Tom had the broccoli and cheddar potatoes while Crissy had the garlic parmesan. Both flavors were fantastic. The garlic parmesan is a little on the salty side but some people certainly prefer it that way. These are not huge portions of potatoes (you couldn't necessarily make a meal out of a bowl), so we ordered them to go with our main courses.

Tom got his usual, all-american cheeseburger, cooked medium at my request, and they made it exactly the way he likes it. For an extra charge, you can get fries and coleslaw, which are well worth it. The fries taste like they're fresh cut, even if they aren't (we can't tell). The coleslaw was very creamy and had a sweet taste, definitely homemade, and very delicious.

Crissy ordered the club sandwich. It came with bacon, lettuce, tomato, turkey and mayonnaise. The bacon was crisp, the turkey had a good flavor to it, and it was such a large sandwich, she had trouble eating the whole thing (it was a very tall sandwich, with an extra piece of bread in the middle). She also opted for the fries and coleslaw and enjoyed them as well. 

The restaurant offers sodas (excuse me, we're in Erie, they call it Pop here - you can tell I still feel like an outsider), but you only get one free refill with your meal. A major plus is that they accept credit cards here, which we were unsure of as a number of local restaurants seem to be cash only.

This restaurant is known for its breakfasts, though we have not tried them yet (I guess this means we'll just have to go back again soon). I'm a sucker for a good belgian waffle and I'm hoping to get one the next time we come here. This restaurant has been an Erie landmark since 1926 and I'm sure it will be around for a long time to come.

A little side note, Crissy is a big fan of Coca Cola, so she was thrilled to see that this restaurant was covered in Coke memorabilia. We even spotted this at our booth:

On the way out of the restaurant, there is a newspaper article hanging that gives the headline of George's Real-Deal Meals. That's the kind of food we like to spotlight on this blog, and we sure hit the mark today.

It's time for us to be hitting the road again. We'll check in again soon with our next review. If you have something to say about this restaurant, leave us a comment on this post. If there's a restaurant in your local area (whether or not it is local to us) that you'd like us to check out for a possible review on our blog, let us know by messaging us on our Facebook Page. If you have your own pictures or reviews to add to our blog, drop us a line because we would love to add further reviews for these and other restaurants to our site.

Until the next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

For Diehls On The Road, this is Tom Diehl, signing off....

Rest In Peace Mike "Bossman" Hardin, Co-Owner of Hodad's in San Diego, California

(Photo credit: NBC San Diego)

Howdy, this is Tom posting here tonight...I learned earlier tonight of the passing of Mike Hardin, co-owner of Hodad's in San Diego, California. He was 56 years old and passed away last week from a heart attack in a hotel room in Oregon, where he was visiting family. I took my first trip out to California a few years ago and fell in love with Hodad's burgers on a trip to Ocean Beach. I've never had a better burger anywhere. Plus I just loved the atmosphere of the restaurant. Their milkshakes were amazing, too. Reportedly the restaurant will keep on going with things staying exactly the same, which is how Mike would've wanted it. 

Hodad's was featured on an episode of Diners, Drive-In's and Dives, which is how I first was introduced to the restaurant and it was this clip that made me want to check it out. It lived up to the expectations I had for the restaurant and then some. Take a look:

Rest in peace, Mike "Bossman" Hardin.

Mike's Hot Dogs - Schenectady, New York

Mike's Hot Dogs - 1135 Erie Boulevard, Schenectady, NY 12305

Facebook - Mike's Hot Dogs

Mike's is a restaurant we have been coming to for years. Twice a year Proctor's Theater in Schenectady holds a fantastic oldies concert with usually four or five fantastic acts. Before each concert, our friends and us come to Schenectady for dinner. It started out that we would eat at another local establishment, Morrette's, which also had some great desserts, but after a few bad dinner experiences at Morrette's we decided to go down the street to check out Mike's and see if they were better, and they were!

As for Morrette's, our last several times in there to try to get some hot fudge sundaes were met with "our ice cream machine is broken", and it turns out the service and quality at that restaurant had gone downhill since being taken over by a new owner recently, but we are happy to keep having our dinner at Mike's. 

Now, Mike's is known as Mike's Hot Dogs, but we had never come here for those. When we would go to the Proctor's concerts, we would eat here because we had heard they had some of the best cheesesteaks outside of Philadelphia, The first time I ate here, I was craving a good cheesesteak and I was hoping it would be better than what I'd had at Morrette's. It was much better. The steak was sliced thin, piled high, and melted in my mouth like butter. 

Now, they only call them Steak Sandwiches. The cheese costs extra but it's well worth it. The peppers also cost extra, however you can get the sandwich with onions and sauce at no extra charge. I prefer to get mine with just cheese on it and I like to add ketchup to it (as you can see above, for our recent visit, I kind of jumped the gun a bit and put my ketchup on before I took the picture of the sandwich, as I was so excited to be getting one of these sandwiches again). 

The sandwich tasted just as good as it always did. If I had one complaint, it would be that they cooked the sandwich on the same grill as they had previously cooked a fish fry without cleaning it afterwards, so part of the sandwich did end up tasting like fish. I didn't mind, though, as I love the sandwich anyway, but if anyone from the restaurant reads this, please learn to cook your foods in different locations specifically for those foods. 

Anyway, since we weren't here for a concert on our most recent visit (as it was just Crissy and myself), we were able to take our time here and not feel rushed to get over to the theater. I decided, what the heck, I would try some new foods here that I hadn't yet tried. Mike's is known for their hot dogs so I had to see what was so special about them:

I was asked if I wanted it with the works (which was sauce, onions and mustard), and I was originally thinking of just ordering a plain hot dog, but I decided to get it with the sauce. It's not quite a chilli sauce, this seems to be a bit like the Greek Sauce we can find around Erie. The sauce had a great flavor to it and really added to the hot dogs. I don't know of onions or mustard are even necessary with the dog but most people seem to prefer them that way. As much as I love the steak sandwiches here, I will be coming back more often for the hot dogs, which are my new favorite item here. 

My friends and I would often get the french fries while we were coming here before a concert, but this time around we decided to try the curly fries here, which we had never had before:

Amazing to think of what we had been missing by getting the regular fries instead of these. I think these would go good with some kind of seasoning on them, but they were wonderful as-is, too. 

By this time, we had been completely stuffed and did not have any room for desserts, though they looked very good. I think next time we will have to try one of them. We are also hoping to make it back sometime for breakfast, as they have a large breakfast menu available until 11 A.M. which people seem to enjoy. 

The prices here are for the most part reasonable, especially when it comes to the hot dogs and the breakfast foods. I suspect if they lowered the prices of their steak sandwiches, they would sell a whole lot more of those. I am already looking forward to my next visit in town (which will likely be before the next oldies concert at Proctor's) to make another trip to Mike's. 

It's time for us to be hitting the road again. We'll check in again next week with our next review. If you have comments about this restaurant, please let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment on this post. If there's a restaurant in your local area (whether or not it is local to us) that you'd like us to check out for a possible review on our blog, let us know by messaging us on our Facebook Page. If you have your own pictures or reviews to add to our blog, drop us a line because we would love to add further reviews for these and other restaurants to our site.

Until the next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

For Diehls On The Road, this is Tom Diehl, signing off....

Stevo's Pizza (Downtown) - Erie, PA (A Mid-Week Update!)

Stevo's Pizza - 1019 State Street, Erie, PA 16501

http://www.stevospizzeria.com/

We were downtown taking care of some errands when we decided to go to lunch at the main location of Stevo's Pizza, the Presque Isle location of which was our first review on this blog. The Presque Isle location has limited hours during the non-Summer months, we were craving their pizza, and we were already here, so we figured, why not? Plus, by coming here, it meant that we got the opportunity to order our beloved Broccoli Cheese Soup... we'll get to that soon.

For this location, much of their business comes from takeout and delivery orders, but we always see more people eating in here than at the Presque Isle location as well. I'm not really sure why, though. There is limited parking out front, but that's what happens downtown so you just get used to it I guess. 

If I had to pick which location has my favorite pizza, it would more than likely be the Presque Isle location, however it could depend on who is making it and what day you visit, since I've had some very enjoyable pizzas at both locations. The one that we had when we visited the downtown location recently was also a very good pizza, and their ranch dressing was also very tasty and was definitely a homemade dressing. 

This pizza's got a piece all ready for you...and did I mention previously that at either location you could order pizza by the slice? I don't know why you'd want only one slice of pizza, but that is their lunch deal (one slice and a drink)...perhaps best suited if you are in a hurry and need something fast.

One thing this location has that the Presque Isle location is missing is their legendary (ok, it's only legendary to us) broccoli cheese soup:

They have several soups of the day available on any given day. If any of the others are as good as this one, you will love them. We don't know how Stevo's makes their broccoli cheese soup, but we suspect they might use white cheddar, chicken broth (we detected a slight flavor of it), and maybe flour for thickening the soup up. They use fresh (not frozen) broccoli, and that makes a huge difference in taste and texture. We also suspect they make their soups in small batches because we had one soup each to dine in and we took one each home to have for dinner and those that we took home seemed to be a thicker consistency than the ones we had when we ate in. 

The downtown location also has several menu items not found at the Presque Isle location (due to the PI location not wanting to be competition to Sara's restaurant next door). These items include hamburgers, hot dogs, a number of appetizers, and subs. They've also expanded their pasta selection at this location as well, it appears. 

Maybe sometime in the future, we will check it out further and report back on something we ordered other than "the usual". Until next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

This is Crissy and Tom Diehl, signing off....

Russ' Dinor - Erie, Pennsylvania

Russ' Dinor - 2902 Buffalo Road, Erie, PA 16510

https://www.facebook.com/russdinor

We had heard that Russ' Dinor (rather than Diner) was an Erie, PA landmark (though their menu says their address is Wesleyville, PA), and having lived here for more than a year, we pass by the restaurant often. We finally decided to go check it out after saying "we really should check that place out" one too many times. 

I can't believe we hadn't checked this place out sooner! We love these kind of places. You almost step back in time by coming here. As soon as you enter the door, you go find a place to sit down, and you'll be greeted by the waitress as soon as she's able to get to you. Most of the clientele seems to be made up of regulars who must have been coming here for years, but we observed a number of younger people eating here as well. There was a lot of back-and-forth banter from the locals with each other as well as the waitress, and it was a lot of fun to just sit back and watch and listen to everything.

Like the restaurant in our last review, this place only accepts cash, but they also keep their prices fairly reasonable by doing so. A lot of the food seems to be made fresh, and it is very delicious. A number of people seem to stop in for just coffee and pie. We aren't coffee drinkers (Crissy will have one every now and then but only when necessary), and we'll get to the pie later.

While they seem to be best known for their breakfast foods, we came here during lunchtime and decided to go that route for our meal. We hope to be back soon to try some of their breakfast items and even some of their dinner items in the near future. We'll concentrate on lunch for now, though.

Tom had their bacon cheeseburger, which he says had an excellent taste to it and he says it contained a fairly hefty amount of bacon on it (almost the size of the burger patty itself), Tom also could not stop raving about the hot dog he had at Russ' Dinor, saying it had an amazing taste to it, reminding him of hot dogs he had when he was growing up that were made fresh by a butcher shop that had a little restaurant set up inside a building at the fairgrounds near where he grew up. We aren't sure what kind of hot dogs they serve here (we suspect they may be Smith's, which seems to be what 99% of Erie restaurants serve, being that it's the local brand of hot dog), but we know we'll be back for them often. The fries were fairly typical diner fries which tasted good with their ketchup. 

Crissy also had their grilled cheese sandwich, which she says was the best grilled cheese she's ever had. You'd think she would have had tomato soup to go with her grilled cheese, but she didn't. Did I mention in a previous review how much we both love broccoli cheese soup?

Yeah, we both ordered their broccoli cheese soup. It surprised both of us, though, as in addition to the broccoli, it had carrots, celery, squash, and onion in addition to the broccoli and cheese, but boy was this one of the best tasting broccoli cheese soups we have ever had. I think both of us were a bit sad when we had finished our bowls. 

I failed to mention that we started off our meals with some chocolate shakes, which were pretty large, but they sure don't last long! If you get one, make sure to wait until you've got your food before you start drinking it or else it will be gone in no time!

While we were having our meal, a couple of guys came in and sat down at a table, ordered their coffee, and asked what kind of pie they had. As soon as we heard the waitress say that one of the pies was butterscotch pie, we both looked at each other and went "ooh I bet that is delicious!" We were deciding on whether or not to have dessert, but it didn't take any convincing for us. We just had to try it. In fact, we anticipated it so much that we jumped the gun and started into our pie before we had a chance to get a picture to share! However, we stopped before we got too far along (which was no easy task, one taste of it and we were hooked!):

The pie had a fantastic flavor that was not overpowering, with a nice graham cracker crust and a topping of either pecans or walnuts for texture. I've never had anything else quite like this pie, and you could tell that it was definitely homemade. In some ways, this pie reminded me of those frozen Reese's Peanut Butter Cup pies that can sometimes be found in convenience stores, but this being homemade (and butterscotch being one of my favorite flavors overall) was a much better tasting pie than any of those. Not to mention the size of this piece of pie was huge for the price they charged for it (around $3.25). Now that's a deal if we ever heard of one. 

It's time for us to be hitting the road again. We'll check in again next week with our next review. If you have comments about this restaurant, please let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment on this post. If there's a restaurant in your local area (whether or not it is local to us) that you'd like us to check out for a possible review on our blog, let us know by emailing us here. 

We'll be branching further out of our local area soon with reviews from around the country, but until the next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

This is Crissy and Tom Diehl, signing off....