I, like many others who have followed the story of local restaurant County Fare, watched with anticipation Wednesday night when the eatery was featured on Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible.”
The show came to Stafford in April and provided restaurant owner Eric Green a much-needed makeover for an eatery has seen hard times.
I had lunch at County Fare on Saturday, which is now being billed as “a great American diner.”
Having spent a few years working in corporate chain restaurants, even managing one of them, I appreciate County Fare’s new local diner feel.
My lunch, the “sort of Philadelphia Cheese steak” was piled high sliced beef, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms (I ordered green peppers on the sandwich, too, but they never showed up) and the all-important fresh cut home fries. The food tasted much better than when I visited County Fare prior to their makeover.
The menu, however, is riddled with times and dates when food is served are served. The great thing about a diner, especially the 24 hour ones (which County Fare is not) is that breakfast, lunch and dinner are served all day, never leaving me wondering if French Toast or a Patty Melt is available after 2 p.m. on a Tuesday.
Breakfast is served until 11 a.m. weekdays, and some items aren’t available until 4 p.m. Making things even more confusing, we were given a “weekend menu” and in the end ordered something that wasn’t even listed on it.
The new, baby blue décor of the restaurant gives the diner a modern feel while displaying items and photos from Green’s proud time in the Marine Corps.
But any diner goer knows music – tunes that are easy to sing along with – are paramount to the diner experience. For most of visit Saturday, music was missing.
All diners need a great jukebox that lets customers select which song they want to hear. Hopefully someone with an old jukebox sitting in their basement will donate it to County Fare. We also hope Green will accept it, as he has many other bright and positive changes to his restaurant.
