Look Out For The Gator (Tail)/ Godot, Party of One

With apologies to her vocal (very, very: yes, you were definitely heard, a lot) readers, Miss Vinegar has rallied herself from her fainting couch to review once more. A twofer, in fact, from her recent outing with friends PoBoy and Wingding.

Boudreaux's
Main Street, Blacksburg, VA

The Food--Miss Vinegar dotes on this, the best Cajun restaurant in her area, so she has but few complaints: the lack of sweet tea available in a restaurant of aggressively Southern cuisine, and the fact that etouffée is no longer on the lunch menu. Miss Vinegar highly recommends the gator bites appetizer ("with Cajun Mayeaux" as some wit described it on the menu) and the seafood gumbo: PoBoy recommends well, guess what.

The Service--Better when the bar isn't crowded.

The Ambience--College hangout wood decor with a New Orleans theme and posters from Norfolk's Bayou Boogaloo Festival. There's also a nice outdoor deck upstairs for warm-weather dining.

Special Touches--Boudreaux's is the only local restaurant/bar Miss Vinegar knows that stocks the new, less toxic form of absinthe--a drink served with elaborate ritual and the immolation of a sugar cube. So if you're looking for a fascinating spectacle as you imbibe, or just want to free your inner Van Gogh, this is the place to do it.

Overall: **** (four stars out of five--some tea would make it perfect!)


The Homeplace
Route 311, Catawba, VA


Special Note--My one and only complaint about The Homeplace, which is an area tradition, is the wait. Miss Vinegar's party arrived just after four-thirty and was subjected to approximately an EIGHTY-MINUTE wait. While she realizes that the restaurant is in a remote locale, Miss Vinegar could not help calculating that a family could easily drive down the mountain to nearby Salem and get something at a wide selection of restaurants by the time she got seated.

The Food--Miss Vinegar is usually no fan of family-style dining, but the Homeplace's country-cooking menu is superb: roast beef, fried chicken, ham, and country (i.e. cooked with pork) vegetables. Here again, however, no sweet tea. Granny Vinegar would be scandalized, even with perfectly sweetened lemonade available to make up for it.

The Service--Once you actually get service, excellent (see Special Note).

The Ambience--After the fried chicken, probably the biggest selling point of the restaurant. The Homeplace operates out of a large, traditional white southern house overlooking a valley, trees, a pond and rolling pastures. People get married on the grounds, including the couple with whom Miss Vinegar, PoBoy, and Wingding were dining. In warm weather, the wraparound porch holds waiting patrons who were all, on this occasion, crammed into the anteroom.

Overall: ***1/2 (three point five stars out of five, because Salem really does have many fine restaurants, and an antique phone isn't nearly as picturesque when you're squashed up against it)