Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Grub Crawl - New Smyrna Beach: Third Wave, Sasaki Sushi and The Original Famous Philly's Cheesesteak

I chowed down at these three establishments on or connected to Flagler Ave Sunday afternoon. All reflected admirably on their genres.

Third Wave - I just chose this place because it was the next on the block on my list. No prior intel. I was resoundingly (some may say bigly) impressed. It looks like a little house that they turned into a snooty coffee bar from the front. That area/house is cute in its own respect, but, the thing that makes it special is the outdoor area in back. It looks like it may be a whole other restaurant. In fact I thought it might be. But, it isn't. It's a sizable nook with a bar that seats around sixty. It was packed, but, the cute hostess found me a table expeditiously (just re-saw Lean On Me with Morgan Freeman). The space has personality without calling attention to itself. They have the front half/grill of a truck over the bar and orchids nailed to planks nailed to trees. It's shaded by trees. I had the Southwest Hash because it had the greatest mix of the elements that spoke to me among all the dishes. But, I could have gone with shrimp and grits or the cranberry citrus chicken salad or or chai banana bread french toast. I was jonesing for avocado and potatoes so I chose what I did. It consisted of the aformentioned plus two over easy eggs, choice of chicken or chorizo or fennel sausage (I chose chicken for heart burn reasons), roasted corn, mozzarella, carmelized onions and rosemary topped by a red pepper couli. Fancy right? It was very good. The chicken seemed like the pre-sliced stuff you can get in a bag. That was the only disappointment. It came in a skillet. It ran $12. Filling. Service was good. They also serve pizza, salads, crepes and other breakfast and sandwiches. The dinner menu is different. It has fresh oysters, rock shrimp, pimento cheese dip, lamb meatballs. And those are just some of the apps. Highest price brunch was $15. $25 for dinner. Hard to beat this place. Seemed like the "it" place in town.

Sasaki Sushi - This place is a twelve seater in the middle of the avenue on N. Cooper St. I just grabbed a yellow tail and scallion roll and an avocado (still jonesing) roll to go. $8 for the YT. $5 for the A. Got to get that A! Both were full of die sized pieces of the good stuff. The YT was a little bland. Probably not wild YT. Still, it was worth $8. The rice was properly made. Big kernels/grains. They did fall off the A Roll though. Probably because he put such big chunks in. The menu is limited. Probably for the better. Ensures quality. The place is tiny and is functional. A good food-centric place to patronize.

The Original Famous Philly's Cheesesteaks - Their name reminds of the Pat's pizza nonsense that goes on in NYC. For those who are not aware, there are like a dozen configurations and places that use some version of that name. Anyway. I had a cheesesteak with wiz to go on my way home. It was what a CS should be. grilled, thin, crispy, nice quality beef on a fresh roll with wiz permeating every available free space. It cost $9. The place is middle of the way up on Flagler on S. Cooper St. They had another in Port Orange, but, the hurricane got the roof. They also serve egg rollers, burgers, hot dogs, nuggets, etc. They have four tables outside. Better than the place near the bridge. Much better.

*FYI - Watch out for stuff in the water. I stepped on what was probably a nail in a board. Just caught the edge of my big toe. Lucky. Plus the water looked green.

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