Monday, December 31, 2012

Christmas Eve Dinner – Life is Good!

Ever since we retired and moved down to East Tennessee from Chicago, life has indeed been good!  We are very lucky indeed…lucky to have a great family and to have great friends.  As for retirement and our home here in ‘paradise’, we earned it!

Christmas Eve 2012… What to have for dinner?  We knew that Dawn Marie was coming in to stay with us for a week and we know that she is a true carnivore.  We also knew that we’d like to invite a couple of friends over for a late afternoon Christmas Eve feast…
 
So we invited Bev and Larry over for dinner.  This is Larry’s favorite seat at our house…and he enjoys it because he can watch Laurie do her dervish routine…cooking and cleaning up at the same time!  He's amazed by this!  By the time we're through with dinner, all that’s left to do is to load the glasses, plates and silverware into the dishwasher and turn it on…

Larry is a true foodie and a blogger… He can make a meal, especially a breakfast, out of just about anything left over in his refrigerator.  Larry’s blog site is found at http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/.   
 
As mentioned earlier, Dawn Marie flew in to stay with us for a week.  She’d arrived from New York a little after 2 AM on the Saturday before Christmas.  Dawn had been within 2 minutes of her flight being canceled in New York due to FAA ‘time out’ rules… The plane was able to back away from the gate at literally the very last moment!  Now she is able to enjoy a few days of  ‘chill time' before heading back to Miami and the pressures of her role as a retail consultant! 
 
 
Remember…I did use the word carnivore didn’t I?!  How about this great looking hunk of prime rib!  Tender and delicious it was…!  I still have a couple of left-over ribs to gnaw on. (This was a great piece of meat…purchased at a very reasonable price from The Fresh Market)
 
 
For once, I took the photo and for once, Laurie is actually in the picture! (Left to right: Laurie, Dawn Marie, Bev and Larry)

The table was laden with food…wine, prime rib, roasted potatoes, the best yeast rolls in the world as baked by Bev, a terrific salad…also by Bev, and some yummy horseradish cream sauce by Dawn.  A bit later, it was Apple Crisp with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream… Life is indeed excellent!
It isn’t all about us though… Laurie and I sent a significant contribution to the East Tennessee Food Bank and Dawn Marie bought out the last bunch of pre-packaged food cartons for the needy at our local supermarket.  We’re hoping that we helped a few other folks have an enjoyable Christmas as well.
Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks for stopping by and sharing a bit of your time with us during this Holiday Season…
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

Friday, December 28, 2012

A Family Breakfast in Painesville Ohio


Once again we were up in the Cleveland Ohio area visiting our son, our daughter-in-law and our 2 grandsons.  We all like eating out!  David II and Amy decided to take us to one of their favorite little places on the east side of the metro area for breakfast. 
 
This little place is Jimmy’s in Painesville.  The owner/operator is Jimmy Mucciarone and he’s proud to tell the world that his grandparents, his parents plus an aunt and uncle were all in ‘the business’, operating their own restaurants for years.  He's proudly following in their footsteps...
 
 
On the inside, things are pretty much as expected…homey but simple.  There are a number of family business related photos scattered around the walls, but otherwise this restaurant looks much like what you’d think…a basic neighborhood restaurant with lots of locals breaking bread together.
 
 
And here we have our little family breakfast grouping…minus Laurie who was taking the photo.  From the left: Emmett Lee, Amy, David II, David III and me.  Here we were just waiting on our food…
 
 
Emmett Lee kicked things off, ordering 2 Blueberry Pancakes with a side of bacon. ($6.75) Emmett stays pretty basic, as at this point in his life, his palate is pretty limited.  On the other hand, he does have 3 blog sites.  His latest ‘handle’ on the Internet is ‘Epic Sauce’!  Before that it was ‘Milo’…  Emmett is only 9…
 
 
I believe that this was Amy’s breakfast.  I can’t recall for sure, but I think that this was the Western Omelette. ($6.50)

The no egg/protein items on the breakfast menu include Pancakes, French Toast, Belgian Waffles…and Crunchy French Toast.  The latter item is made with Honey Wheat Bread and it’s topped with sliced fresh strawberries, bananas and blueberries.  Three slices cost $5.00 and two are $4.25. 
 
This was part of my breakfast… Jimmy’s Basic with a choice of bacon, Italian sausage, links or patties.  No trouble making that decision…I opted for something a little bit different…the more distinctive Italian Sausage.  Everything was cooked properly and with the eggs over easy my breakfast was close to being perfect!  …plus they had Tabasco for me!

 
I’d have been OK if I’d stopped with the breakfast shown in the preceding photo!  I decided to see if Jimmy’s had the perfect version of sausage gravy and biscuits.  It was OK but it was pretty standard issue… Of course, now that we live in the south, we have seen many perfect biscuits so we’re spoiled.  My basic breakfast was $4.95 and the sausage gravy with biscuit was $3.00.
 
 
David II went with something really different…the Chorizo Hash topped with a couple of scrambled eggs. ($6.25) He gave it two thumbs up!

The big boy on the breakfast menu is the State Street Scramble.  This consists of three eggs scrambled with bacon, ham or Italian Sausage and tossed with breakfast potatoes and cheeses, then smothered with Jimmy’s Sausage Gravy with onions and peppers. ($10.25)
 
David III, our oldest grandson, went with a standard breakfast.  Two eggs, scrambled plus home fries, sausage patties and toast. ($4.95)

Jimmy’s is open from 7 AM to 3 PM on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday, the hours are from 7 AM to 8 PM.  Saturday and Sunday, the restaurant is open from 7 AM until 2 PM.  What this means of course, is that part of the menu is devoted to food items other than the Breakfast selections that I’ve mentioned.  The menu also includes appetizers/’starters’ and sides, specialty salads, wraps as well as sandwiches and burgers.  The single most expensive item on the ‘lunch/dinner’ menu is the Perch Dinner…coming in at only $10.00!
 
Laurie followed in our son’s footsteps…going just a bit off the grid for her breakfast.  She ordered the Salmon Benedict. ($8.25) The owner/chef heard that I was blogging about the restaurant and he apologized for the poached egg’s desertion of their respective places on top of the salmon.  Laurie really liked her breakfast!  This is despite the fact that we both prefer hash browns over home fries…

The menu also included the standard Eggs Benedict as well as Eggs Rothschild. The latter item consists of two eggs poached on char-grilled medallions of shoulder beef tenderloin on top of toasted English Muffins with Hollandaise sauce.  All of the eggs benedict style dishes were $8.25.
A real winner for us…if we lived somewhere on the east side of Cleveland…is the fact that Jimmy’s “Always Serves Breakfast”!!  Here in East Tennessee, that statement is almost unheard of, when the breakfast hour is over, it’s over!  Actually a nice breakfast in a restaurant is hard to find hereabouts…no matter what the hour of the day.  In any case, when we return to Cleveland for another visit, we will get back to Jimmy’s.  The price is right, we rated the breakfast items as solid to very good and the people are very nice!

Laurie wanted me to apologize for the poor quality photos.  She tried taking the photographs without using the flash because the restaurant was really busy and she didn't want to disturb the other diners.  
Jimmy’s Restaurant is at 50 North State Street in Painesville Ohio.  Phone: 440-357-1388.  Website: http://www.jimmyssimplygoodfood.com/#.
Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks for stopping by for our family breakfast!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

It’s Incredible!! We Had No Idea!

Finally, via our family's Christmas card, we learned the truth about our son David II, his wife Amy and our 2 grandchildren, David III and Emmett Lee! 

We were shocked!   We had no idea about these special talents although we did wonder how they managed to keep it together while going in 4 different directions at the same time… David as a law student, Amy as a retail executive and the boys who are both great students and into all kinds of afterschool activities!  Laurie and I get tired just listening to the family’s schedule…
 
It turns out that they really are The “Incredibles”!!  Caught on film by the paparazzi on their front porch as they prepared to go off and save the world in time for Christmas, its Violet, Dash and Bob!  Violet is a middle-schooler that can turn invisible and form a force shield to protect herself and others...  Dash or, more formally, Dashiell Robert is a 4th grader with super speed!  As for Dad, he has superstrength!  And all along, we thought that they were really ‘just’ David III, Emmett Lee and David II…
 
 
Mom…aka. Helen or Elastigirl almost managed to avoid the photographers.  I’m sure that she was trying to shield her impulsive husband and children from the rumor mill and keep them off the evening news!  And all along we thought her name was Amy…fooled us!

There is one thing that really worries us… The Incredibles, as popularized by the Walt Disney Studios back in 2004, had a 5th family member…
 
Is there something that we don’t know?!!  Where is little Jack-Jack!?  He allegedly has powers of transformation and fire…
 
 
Is this the missing link…the grandchild that we’ve never met?  It’s possible…as his head is as big in relation to his body as mine was at this age…but he already has more hair than I do!

Credit goes to Amy for this very imaginative Christmas Greeting!
Just click on any photo to enlarge it…
Thanks for stopping by and meeting our superhero family!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave and Laurie, aka. Papa and Nana

 

Monday, December 24, 2012

The Spirit of Christmas Past!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Happy Holidays to all!

I started thinking about our past Christmas celebrations.  I decided to browse through a few hundred of the thousands of family photos that we have, in an effort to find some meaningful Christmas related photos…
Here are a few pictures from our past that brought back some great memories.  The oldest photos were taken ca. 1950, and with one exception, the newest photo in this collection is from Christmas 2002. 
 
I’m in the foreground in this photo that was taken at our family’s home at 1113 First Street in Jackson Michigan.  I was about 8 ½ years old and my brother Bob was about 2 ½.  That’s mom, (Elizabeth or Beth) just behind us…
 
 
Yup… It’s me again.  I’m playing with my new train and I’m wearing a new cavalry hat.  I still like trains and Laurie takes photos of trains and railroad depots for me to research and blog about.
 
 
This photo is from 1954…Golde’s Department Store in Maplewood Missoui.  Laurie, my future bride, is at the left and her sister Bonnie is sitting on Santa’s knee to the right.  Laurie was just 3 years old and Bonnie was almost 2.  This Santa looks like he had a long day…or else he had gas… He certainly doesn’t look happy!  Were they afraid of Santa?
 
 
We think that this photo of Laurie and Bonnie is from 1955 or 1956.  Both girls were sooo excited because for Christmas they got these great ‘stick horses’ to ride about the yard! (Toys have changed just a bit, don’t you think?!)
 
 
Oooops…another Santa.  This one looks really mean and the kids don’t seem to be enamored with him either!  This photo was taken in the old J.M. Field’s Department Store in downtown Jackson Michigan. 

Hey!  I needed a job during the Christmas break from Michigan State…I was about 6’ 1” and weighed in at around 225…so with a beard and the suit, I was ‘qualified’ for the job.  Why I wasn’t smiling, I don’t know.  The fact is that these 4 kids are my cousins and they had no clue that I was Santa.  From the left: Margaret/Maggie; Judy; Michael, and; John.  Judy and John just saw this photo for the first time about a year ago…
 
Moving right along… 1978… Here are David II and Laurie stringing cranberries and popcorn to decorate our tree!  I wasn’t much help except in depleting the available popcorn… This was our first Christmas together!
 
 
The ‘destruction’ of our living room!  Do you think that there were enough presents?  Time flies…David II is now an attorney with an executive wife and 2 grandchildren for Laurie and I…
 
 
David II and me, when I still had some hair and my chest was still where it belonged!  David II was 9 years old…and now his boys are 9 and 12…
 
 
Here’s David II again…age 11+. (Christmas 1979) This photo was taken in our new house in Bridgeton Missouri.  Apparently, he really liked this Lego gift.  Emmett Lee, David II’s 9 year old spent part of this past year being fixated on Legos…and now we know where Emmett gets the crazy expressions he likes to make when he’s excited!
 
 
Christmas of 1980…same home in Missouri.  From the left…Laurie, David II and me.  David II was 11 going on 12 in April of 1981.  I just might still have that shirt stored away somewhere…but of course it doesn’t fit.
 
 
Yikes!  David II grew up!  Laurie took this photo at our house in Mt. Prospect Illinois.  Our ‘little’ David was 19 already, a student at Michigan State University...and by now he was much taller than his papa.  
 
 
Heck…critters celebrate Christmas too!   This is Lhasa, our Himalayan all dressed up for the Holidays… In truth, although she always looked perturbed or disgusted when Laurie put the antlers on her, she was the only cat we’ve ever had that would tolerate them for any length of time.
 
 
What goes around comes around!  This photo was taken at David II and Amy’s house in Winfield Illinois.  This little fella is David III at 2 years of age!  He’s riding on an old fashioned wooden rocking horse that we bought for him.  It’s just like the one that Laurie and her sisters shared when they were little. (Their horse was blue) We’d found it in an antique store in Woodstock Illinois.
 
 

This is the one new photo that I’d mentioned at the beginning of this blog… This is our hearth here in East Tennessee.  But, since this is all about reminiscing about the past…check out the small stocking with the name on it!  My mom made this stocking for me ca. 1948 or 1949.  Laurie and I bring it out and put it on display every year…
 
 
Finally… This handmade card, (in the style of Grandma Moses), was drawn by my mom for Christmas in 1994.  She was in a nursing home and she was bored…just a bit depressed.  Laurie suggested that she make up some Christmas cards for the nursing home to send out to their patient's families.  Mom did just that and for just a bit that old spark shined through!  Her Christmas spirit was revitalized and she had a great Christmas…albeit her last one.

That’s about it for now… I’m sure that all of you have many terrific Christmas/Holiday memories.  Perhaps this little trip down our memory lane will get you thinking about your Christmases past!
Just click on any photo to enlarge it…
Thanks for stopping by… Once again,
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Friday, December 21, 2012

A Bit of History – Railroads and Libraries

Time for a little bit of history!  It’s all around us and, with the vast amounts of information available to us via the Internet, anyone with a computer can fill their minds with all kinds of useful information as well as general fluff that is only useful if you’re playing Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit.  Nevertheless, I do like investigating and researching historical facts, even if some of those facts seem trivial to the reader.

So…today my blog is all about a railroad depot and a library...or libraries.
 
This is the former Louisville and Nashville Railroad Depot in Knoxville Tennessee.  It is an impressive structure.  I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to view the interior of this building as it’s now been transformed into a school, but one can still imagine just how busy this depot must have been in its heyday.

Knoxville’s Louisville and Nashville Railway Depot was built in 1904 – 1905, so it’s about 107 years old!  In 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places based on its architecture and its role in Knoxville’s transportation history.  The building operated as a passenger station until the railroad ceased passenger operations in 1968.  It continued as an office for Louisville and Nashville personnel until 1975.
This very upscale depot was built in order to rival or outshine the nearby Southern Railway Depot.  The designer was the head of Louisville and Nashville's Engineering Department and he was the one mostly responsible for the building’s Victorian and ‘chateauesque’ architectural appearance.
 
I can see a bit of Dutch influence in the upper façade of this end of the building.  Due to changes in nearby roadways, the building’s ground level now lies about 10 feet below Western Avenue so it’s a little difficult to envision just where and how the rails and passenger trains fit with the structure. 

Louisville and Nashville completely vacated the building in 1975 and it sat empty until it was purchased in 1980.  In 1982, the station was renovated for use in conjunction with Knoxville’s 1982 World's Fair.  It was adjacent to World’s Fair Park.  Two restaurants, a Ruby Tuesday and the first L and N Seafood Grill occupied the first floor of the building while the second floor was converted into meeting rooms to be used in conjunction with the fair.
For a short time, 2002 to 2004, Ye Olde Steakhouse operated out of the station while that restaurant’s original building was being rebuilt after a fire.  In 2010, Knox County Schools announced that they would establish a magnet high school…a ‘STEM’ school teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics…in the old depot.  That school is now fully operational and this beautiful old building has found yet another life…
 
I like the fact that the old Louisville and Nashville sign has been left up on one corner of the building.  I also like the metal work supporting the roof overhanging what must have been a rail platform or a truck delivery area.

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was one of the longest operating railroads in the United States.  It was chartered in Kentucky back in 1850.  The company continued in operation until 1982…a 132 year run!  Much of its growth was due to an executive named Milton H. Smith.  He ran the operation for over 35 years.  He’d started out as a telegraph operator and worked his way up.  During the Civil War he was named the Master of Transportation for all railroads in the occupied South.
 
How many readers have heard of the Carnegie Libraries?  I’m sure that those of us of a certain age are familiar with them, whereas I’m betting that most people that were born after about 1965 haven’t heard about them… This particular Carnegie Library building is in Etowah Tennessee.  As you can see, it’s now being used as Etowah’s City Hall.

Did you know that a total of 2,509 Carnegie Libraries were built between 1883 and 1929!  Some of them belonged to public and university library systems, 1,689 of them were built in the USA, 660 in Britain and Ireland, 125 in Canada and others were constructed in Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, the Caribbean, Mauritius and Fiji.  Serbia?  Strange in that the rest of the countries where libraries were built were at one time or another under the umbrella of the British Empire. (This is something else for me to research!)
 
This is a photo of Andrew Carnegie… He was born in Scotland in 1835 and he died in Lenox Massachusetts in 1919.  At his wealthiest, in 2007 dollars, Forbes Magazine estimated that he was worth $298,300,000,000 dollars.  Even all of the Walton’s combined can’t hit that number…

The Carnegie family immigrated to the USA when he was 13.  The family was so poor that they had to borrow money to immigrate.  Andrew’s first job was as a factory worker in a bobbin factory.  Later, he became a messenger boy and then a telegraph operator.  He was hired as the secretary and telegraph operator for the head of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company…and then worked his way up to Superintendent of a key segment of that operation.  The president of the railroad helped Carnegie with investments…some of which might land a person in jail today, but which were par for the course in the 1800’s.
During the Civil War, Carnegie was appointed Superintendent of Military Railroads and the Union Government’s telegraph lines in the East. (I wonder if he knew Milton Smith from the Louisville and Nashville Railroad who was concurrently responsible for railroads in the occupied South during the War)
Carnegie invested in oil…and then iron and steel.  Eventually, he put together a ‘little’ company called US Steel.  He made much of his fortune via that company, introducing mass production and the vertical integration of his suppliers of raw materials.  FYI…Vertical integration is measured by the degree by which a company owns its own suppliers and its customers…
 
As of 1992, 911 of the original Carnegie libraries in the USA were still serving as libraries and another 770 were still standing and were being used for other purposes…such as Etowah’s City Hall.  The first of the Carnegie libraries opened in Dunfermline Scotland in 1883.  The first of his libraries in the USA was opened in Braddock PA in 1888.  It’s interesting to note that 31 of the 39 libraries that comprise the New York City Library System are Carnegie libraries. 

Communities applying for a grant so they could build a library had to meet the requirements of the “Carnegie Formula”.  These requirements were: the town had to match the contribution; they had to demonstrate the need for a public library; they had to provide the building site; they were required to annually provide 10% of the construction cost to support its operation, and; they had to provide free service to all.
Andrew Carnegie basically gave away his entire fortune.  When he died, his last $30,000,000 was given to foundations, charities and pensioners.  His contributions and gifts are tied to many well-known institutions.  These include: Carnegie Mellon University; Hooker Observatory on Mount Wilson; Carnegie Hall in NYC; Carnegie Institution for Science; Tuskegee Institute and the New York University Medical Center.  He was opinionated and controversial too… When the USA paid Spain $20,000,000 for the Philippines, Carnegie offered $20,000,000 to the Filipino people so they could buy back their freedom.
A final note… Carnegie has been quoted as stating that “The life of a wealthy industrialist should comprise two parts…first, the accumulation of wealth and second, distribution of that wealth to benevolent causes.”  This sounds a bit like Warren Buffet's philosophy today...
For more information on the Carnegie Libraries, you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library.  For an interesting summary re: the life of Andrew Carnegie, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie.
Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks for stopping by for this little adventure in American History!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Willie’s Italian Restaurant ("Due"/Two)!

On several occasions over the past couple of years, I’ve talked about Willie’s Italian Restaurant over in Seymour Tennessee.  Well, now the big test has come for Willie!  He has been successful to the point that he moved his original restaurant to a new and larger location in Seymour, plus he’s opened a second full service restaurant in Sevierville and he’s also reopening his old Seymour location as a Pizza Parlor…

Big changes create giant challenges.  I always worry about expansion in the restaurant business.  It tends to dampen the quality provided by the original…
After our wine tasting/social group finished attending the Christmas Show at the Smoky Mountain Opry in Pigeon Forge, we headed for Willie’s Restaurant (“Due” is Italian for Two), about 10 minutes away in Sevierville.  I’d made reservations for the group at Willie’s and I was curious to see if the original restaurant’s food standards had been maintained…
 
This photo was taken directly from Willie’s website.  It was dark when we arrived… The restaurant is based in a strip mall…as was the first Willie’s…  In this case, it sits in front of a Food City so there is plenty of traffic going by the front of the restaurant. 
 
 
The interior of the Willie’s Restaurant in Sevierville is very warm and welcoming…much different than the original semi-bare bones restaurant that Willie had opened in Seymour.  This location has more subdued lighting softened further by the wood and brick interior walls and the big wooden bar. (Despite the bar, no liquor was being offered)
 
 
If you looked at my blog from the Smoky Mountain Opry, this is a familiar looking group.  Our waitress took this photo of our Christmas themed group… Left side: Jenny, Charlie, Irv, Joel, Bev and Larry.  Right side: Fred, Karen, Martha, Holly, Laurie and me…
 
 
Holly and Joel had suggested a “white elephant” gift exchange…holding the value of each gift at $10.00.  We drew numbers and choose our gifts in the order drawn… Items exchanged ranged from a credit card wallet/organizer to a bottle of wine and a coffee press.
 
 
Then we got down to the serious part of the day's events…The Food!  As usual, I ordered the Shrimp Fra Diavlo…extra spicy. ($8.99) This new iteration of Willie’s did not disappoint me!  The sauce was extra rich and spicy plus the shrimp and penne pasta were cooked perfectly.  Another excellent meal at Willie’s...

FYI… All dinners come with Garlic Bread Knots and a side dinner salad.
 
This is Willie’s own “Not Your Mama’s” Lasagna. ($8.99) This is Willie’s own recipe with layers of pasta, meat sauce, ricotta cheese, parmesan and mozzarella.  It too passed the taste test…surviving the passage from the original Willie’s to Willie’s second location.
 
 
Here we have the Shrimp Alfredo… ($8.99) While I’m not sure who ordered this entrée, 11 out of 12 people in our group gave thumbs up for their food experience at Willie’s new restaurant in Sevierville!
 
 
This is Willie’s Eggplant Parmesan served over fettuccini noodles. ($7.99) Larry…aka Big Dude…ordered this entrée.   He said that it was very good.  Between his entrée and the side he ordered, (see below), there was so much food that Larry ended up taking part of it home. 
 
 
Larry also ordered this side of meatballs. ($2.99)  Since Larry shared a meatball with me I can corroborate his evaluation of this side dish…the meatballs were excellent!  Even his wife Bev, who is quite a chef in her own right, acknowledged that these were very good meatballs.

 I expect to see the remaining meatball paired up with an egg for breakfast in one of Larry’s upcoming blogs at http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/.
 
This was Laurie’s Maine Lobster Ravioli…her favorite dish at Willie’s. ($10.99) Three other members of our little group joined her and ordered this for their entrée.  Laurie reported that the Sevierville restaurant came through and delivered an entrée that matched the original. 

The only negative was that at the Seymour location, this dish arrives with all of the ravioli completely immersed in Willie’s special cream sauce. The presentation above gave the diner a visual impression that the ravioli had just been dumped into a plateful of sauce…a little extra attention to presentation would of been appreciated.
 
Bev ordered this plate of Chicken Parmesan. ($7.99) Looks good to me…and Bev said that she enjoyed it… I personally like the looks of this entrée and with the addition of a few sprinkles of crushed red peppers, it would be exactly my idea of a great meal!
 
 
Irv ordered an item that we’d never ordered at Willie’s and that had never been ordered by anyone that we were dining with… This is a Stromboli, basically a baked sandwich…dough wrapped around pepperoni, ham, capicolla and mozzarella and sided with Willie’s rich tomato sauce. ($6.99) Irv reported that this was the best Stromboli he’d ever eaten!  It sure looks good…
 
 
Jenny ordered the Shrimp Scampi…shrimp, broccoli and fettuccini noodles sautéed in a lemon-butter-wine sauce. ($8.99) This was our one ‘failure’ for the evening.  Jenny said that her pasta entrée was just floating in liquid…and most of it was mixed with water…probably a run off from poorly drained pasta?  She had to pour off the excess water into another dish in order to be able to eat her dinner… She assured me that she’d never order this entree again!

I’d ordered this entrée once myself at the Seymour restaurant and I’d liked it.  Although my experience told me that this dish was ‘wet’, it wasn’t close to being this wet…and the version that I’d had was very good!   Sorry that your dinner wasn’t too great Jenny!
 
 
Three desserts were ordered by our group and all of them made it around at least part of the table.  Laurie managed to take photos of two of them…right after we all sang Happy Birthday to her!  I’d ordered the Chocolate Eruption (top) for her birthday treat.  The bottom photo is of the Turtle Cheesecake.  The other cheesecake that we weren’t able to photograph was the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake… All desserts were $4.99 and they were very, very good!

The new Willie’s Restaurant in Sevierville is located at 737 Dolly Parton Parkway.  Phone: 865-428-5002.  The new location for the original Willie’s Restaurant is at 10321 Chapman Highway in Seymour Tennessee.  Phone: 865-773-0170.  The website for Willie’s is http://www.willies-restaurant.com/.
We will return to Willie’s in Sevierville in the not too distant future…although the Seymour location is significantly closer.  We’ll want to sample one more dinner before I submit my thoughts to Trip Advisor.  I’ll be ordering the Shrimp Scampi as the ultimate test…
Just click on any photo to enlarge it…
Thanks for stopping by for a combination Wine Group pre-Christmas/birthday dinner for Laurie!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave