A Perkins milkshake, Mexican cornbread turned baby food, and some hilariously frustrated waitresses

These are some of the things I encountered on the Meadville food scene.

My expectations driving into Meadville, Pennsylvania, were low. On my six-hour drive, I passed signs for McDonald’s (classic), Cracker Barrel (never been), and Fatburger (never even heard of it). Nothing about these options screamed good food to me.

But then I found a Denny’s. And I discovered they started using brioche buns for the burgers. And things started looking up.

I’m half kidding, of course. Denny’s has a certain level of nostalgia for me; every time my family traveled growing up, we’d stop at a Denny’s before we flew back to New York, because my mom was obsessed with it. In turn, I became obsessed with it. Now, my parents’ live twenty minutes away from a Denny’s and we never go. That’s because Denny’s is one of those places that you only go to when you’re traveling. The food pairs well with being a nomad. That’s why I stopped there on my road trip.

I forget the exact name of this burger, but it had a fried egg and hash browns stacked on top. Obviously I had to order it.

At my first meal of the residency week, I pulled out my phone shyly and announced to the table, “Sorry, guys, you’ll come to find out that I’m one of those annoying people who has to take a picture of my food every time I eat.” When someone asked me if I ever post them anywhere, I thought, What, you’ve never heard of my Very Famous Substack?¹

Here’s everything I ate for a week in Meadville, PA

Perkins

When we drove up to Perkins (think: Denny’s, but with pie?), we thought it was closed. Every single table was empty, which we later learned was because most people were down the block at Applebee’s watching the Steelers game. We learned this because our waitress—a middle-aged woman with penciled-in eyebrows and a Suburban mom sort of accent—was a huge Steelers fan and wished she was at Applebees watching the Steelers game). She also, I should note, probably hated us.

The first person at our table to place their order asked for a milkshake. The waitress all but recoiled, looking over her notepad at the culprit. “It’s going to take me like 10 minutes, just so you know. Our machines are really old, so I have to do everything by hand.” She said it like she was begging the girl to take it back. The rest of us clenched our teeth and clasped our menus tight. There were eight of us, and five minutes earlier, half of us had decided to order milkshakes.

You don’t need to be good at math to know that the waitress was not happy with us. “Seriously guys, it’s going to take me a while to make these milkshakes,” the waitress pleaded. Cowering in our seats, we told her we could take them to-go if anything. She huffed and walked away.

When our milkshakes came out twenty-five or thirty minutes later, we sipped them first with apprehension.

It was a really good milkshake.²

The Whole Darn Thing Sub Shop

This place taught us not to judge a book by its cover. The exterior is unassuming, a classic mom-and-pop shop with no fancy decorations save for a giant yellow WHOLE DARN THING sign on the outside, if only so you can identify it. When we got there, it was completely dead, which wasn’t exactly promising.

The sandwich menu was numbered 1 through at least 20, though I think there were up to 30 sandwich options listed on the chalkboard. They had various types of bread and wraps, and the woman taking our order somehow memorized each person’s within a matter of minutes (there were six or seven of us). It was impressive.

I got a chicken salad sandwich on plain white bread, and just the half was enough to account for my lunch for two days. I added onions, lettuce, and mayo (always mayo) and paired it with a bag of sea salt chips. I paid less than $10 for this meal, which set a tone for the rest of the trip—Meadville food, on the whole, was inexpensive.

Julian’s

Julian’s was one of those restaurants that really wants to be hip and cool, and for them, it kind of works. They have musicians painted as murals on their walls and a stage when you walk in for open mic nights. Their menu is full of cultural references and quirky puns, the kind that you just can’t bring yourself to order no matter how good the ingredients sound. “Big Papa Pump” and “Huggie Bear” were simply not coming out of my mouth as I ordered, especially not when I sat at the end of the nine-person table and might have had to scream my order in the waitress’s direction.

Instead, I ordered the “Buff Bagwell,” a sandwich made of chicken tenders, blue cheese and cheddar cheese, and buffalo and ranch sauce. The place also gives you the option to switch your regular fries for cajun, nacho, or poutine loaded fries. I went with poutine, because you can never have too much cheese. The sandwich came out piping hot, which I always appreciate. Also, the fries managed to stay crisp under the weight of the poutine’s gravy (a feat).

This is a horrible photo but I was famished so forgive me

Taco Factory

Nothing about the name sounds appealing, but this restaurant was the perfect place for an order-in, go down a YouTube rabbit hole kind of night. I ordered the grande chimichanga (I mean, obviously), and it lasted me two meals. It was cheesy and the chicken inside was flavorful. The side of beans were the level of mushy I love so much. The guac tasted fresh and well-seasoned. I think we were all pleasantly surprised by our meals…

My grande chimichanga

…until we noticed a random plastic container sitting untouched in the middle of the table, the grainy-looking, almost orange blob inside drizzled with sour cream. No one knew who ordered it at first, so naturally, most of us tasted it.

The Mexican cornbread was not well done, so if that’s the kind of thing you order from Mexican restaurants, I’d avoid it at this one. It was mushy, like baby food, and tasted mostly of sweet potato, and at the same time tasted of nothing in particular except a combination of flavors that should have never been combined. There was nothing corn about it, or bread for that matter—some of my fellow writers called it Thanksgiving “gone wrong” or “in a blender.” What can I say, we writers are articulate.

A close-up so you can see the texture

Riverside Brewing Company

Riverside Brewing was the epitome of small-town charm. Set inside a barn with cozy lighting and wooden fixtures preserving the stable-like decor, the restaurant has a menu that spans anything from pub-like appetizers (a giant pretzel served with maple mustard) to cuts of steak and even french onion soup. It certainly had range.

I ordered an apple ginger ale, which was something I’d like to have canned and sent to my apartment, not because it was the best soda I’ve ever had, but something about it felt warm and like it could cheer me up on a bad day. For my meal, I had the maple jam burger. It was a good burger. As I told my dinner companions, I’ve had better and I’ve had worse. I think if it had come out hotter, I’d have enjoyed it more—the burger came out borderline lukewarm, and if I wanted a lukewarm burger, I would’ve ordered it on Doordash. (I will say, though, that the maple-seasoned pickles they served on the side were great, along with the ranch.)

This burger had so much more potential if it had just been HOT

Firehouse Tap & Grille

And now onto my favorite and least favorite meals of the week. Firehouse was, unfortunately, my least favorite. And I know some of you are about to say that it’s my own fault, because, like the child I am, I ordered boneless wings, and no self-respecting adult would order those, but my middle-of-the-road experience at this place went beyond just the wings. Here, I learned the term side-winders, which apparently is a combination of a wedge fry and a curly fry, but really was a wedge fry just barely twisted in the center. And I don’t like wedge fries, so I was hoping these would be a bit more curly. (Fine, blame me and my side-winder ignorance for this one.) But the wings were also dry and needed more of a buffalo sauce to offset that. This was another place where we had a character of a waitress, so at least that made the experience fun.

Venango Valley Inn and Golf Course

My favorite meal of the week! We sat in the quietest part of this old house, with pink wallpaper and pictures of historical figures and adult-looking babies surrounding us. But the pictures aren’t why I loved this place.

Though they were a Pepsi establishment (I am a Coca Cola girl myself), this place surprised me in many ways. The first was with the complimentary bread. We all love free bread, right? This place served a regular loaf of bread with butter, of course, but the other half of their complimentary bread system was serving a sort of cinnamon roll-sans icing. That’s right, a dessert roll before dinner.

The cinnamon sugar roll was soft and fluffy, full of air as soon as I bit into it. Though cliché, I have to admit it was like biting into a cloud. It was sweet and soft and everything I would dream of in a cinnamon bread. I would love to understand the why of serving this sort of bread prior to the main course (I have never experienced such a thing), but I’m not mad about it.

I ordered a special of the evening—the surf and turf, where the turf was a cut of steak I can’t remember and the surf was three bacon-wrapped scallops. Every entree was served with two sides of your choosing, which in itself is kind of insane? So much food? And also sweet bread before dinner? What is up with this place? Anyway, I got loaded mashed potatoes and broccoli, because I always need a veggie.

Left to right: The pre-dinner cinnamon bread, my surf and turf, and Alexander's pork osso bucco, which was too beautiful not to share

I was expecting the mashed potatoes to be loaded like a baked potato (toppings just sitting on top of the mash), but I think just to impress me, they mixed the toppings into the mashed potatoes, so every bite of potato was loaded. I cleaned my bowl. The broccoli was good enough, the meat was ever so slightly pinker than the medium I wanted, but the seasoning was great so the flavors made up for it. the scallops were coated in an Asian barbecue sauce that I loved, and they were smooth and melt-in-your-mouth worthy (though another person at the table ordered scallops and hers tasted sandy, so perhaps the consistency wasn’t up to par this night). Overall, I will miss Venango the most.

Honorable mentions

• Pizza Joe’s: We ordered in pizza from this place on the first night in Meadville, and the veggie pizza was really good and unique—I’d never tried anything like it.

• French Creek Coffee and Tea Co.: Cappuccino was good, St. John’s Mocha was too spicy, not mocha-y enough. I did have a really good triple chocolate scone (but I wish it didn’t have icing on it).

• Cattail Cafe: The matcha here was a nice mix of grassy and sweet. Not my favorite matcha I’ve ever had, but not bad. The cute arts and craft store attached to this café makes it a place worth visiting.

• Cup n’ Spoon Coffee and Frozen Yogurt Bar: The dark chocolate and cotton candy frozen yogurt combo (self-concocted) was yummy. They have lots of topping options, as is typical for these DIY-frozen yogurt bowl places. It was perfect for small-town nostalgia.

1. I’m kidding!

2. All I ate at Perkins was an order of mozzarella sticks. This was (obviously) girl dinner.