Food Notes: Bonefish Grill & Mo-Joe's

Bonefish

Eight years ago, in St. Petersburg, Florida, the first Bonefish Grill was born. Their success has taken them throughout the Southeast and Northeastern coasts. Now the Bonefish Grill is expanding to the Macon area. The new restaurant is expected to open on March 17 at 5080 Riverside Drive in The Shoppes at River Crossing, the new Jim Wilson & Associates development. Bonefish Grill is an exciting and refreshing new choice on the restaurant scene. They offer a polished, casual dining experience in a sleek décor warmed with golden hardwood, art glass lamps, and an inventive art collection of metal works and fish rubbings. Their signature menu is comprised of carefully selected fish, hand-cut beef, chicken and pastas. Utilizing a wood-burning grill, innovative flavors, and original recipes, Bonefish Grill offers a delicious and healthy cuisine that’s “quite a catch” here in Macon. Hours of operation will be Sunday 4-10, Monday-Thursday 4-10:30, and Friday- Saturday 4-11:30. 478-477-5256 www.bonefishgrill.com

Mo-Joe's

Mo-Joe's is said to be "the best little wing joint in the neighborhood" by most who live in North Macon… but with chicken wings that have been voted Best In The Nation for two years in a row that may be an understatement. Eric Califf and Todd Rivers are the guys to be credited for this. They both gave up careers in completely different fields to follow the 10-year-running restaurateur itch. About five months later, there was Mo-Joe's. Mo-Joe's offers up salads, sandwiches, wraps and a variety of appetizers. Are you in the mood for something other than pizza? Guess what. They deliver! Call them up at 757-8009, or drop in at their location in the Kroger shopping center off Zebulon.

reporting by Jessica Duncan

Restaurant Spotlight: The Red Tomato

The Red Tomato
by Molly Wilkins

Bang for Buck - 3
Service - 3.75
Atmosphere - 4
Food - 3

For this issue’s restaurant spotlight, I headed a little north to The Red Tomato in quaint Bolingbroke. I had been a couple of times, but not often enough to be very familiar with them. Well… except for the dinner house salad and THAT I knew I had to have again! My parents and my husband William made the trip with me. The ambience of the restaurant is very cozy. It’s in what appears to be a former home, without giving the diner a feeling of being crowded. Our server made some excellent wine suggestions. I ordered the Whitehaven and my husband had a merlot.

To start off, we had the Assorted Cheese Plate, the Black Eyed Pea Cakes, and the Escargots, which is something my husband gets wherever he goes. William managed to talk my mother and me into trying the escargots, and I have to say they were quite good. The texture and the taste were both incredible—granted, I do not have a trained palate for escargots but they were good: buttery and just the right amount of lemon. The assorted cheese plate came with Danish blue cheese, green onion, and brie along with a strawberry clover honey. The blue cheese and brie were good alone but even better with the honey. I did not care for the green onion except when paired with the honey. The black eyed pea cakes were amazing, not too crusty, and not much filling but great whole black eyed peas. Very simply, it was as if your mother had condensed a whole pot of black eyed peas into cake form, just salty enough and very tasty. They were served with a bacon cornbread, which was a good compliment with the cakes.

The house salad is just to die for: I could make a meal of it alone. Seriously. I had it once at a wedding rehearsal dinner and knew I had to have it again. It comes with baby greens, candied nuts, cantaloupe, grapes, pineapple and a blue cheese balsamic vinaigrette. It’s so good that after the first time I had it I tried to replicate it at home (not much luck).

For the entrée’, I ordered the salmon, which was served with tortellini and an alfredo sauce. My salmon was too salty for my tastes, but it might have been because it was presented with the tortellini and alfredo on top. My father ordered the Chef’s filet, which was not bad but was cooked a little too much for what he had ordered (that happens sometimes). My mother had the chicken piccata and it was very good, very tender. That’s especially hard to do with such a thin piece of meat but they pulled it off nicely. It was not only good, but the shining star of our entrees.

Side note on the side dishes: the blue cheese bacon grits were amazing! I had to take it home, however, but it was still good the next day. And the double chocolate Godiva cheesecake for dessert for to die for.

The service was good. For example: Our server was amiable and made nice conversation when appropriate, but when he missed that both my husband and my father were out of their beverage, a second server noticed. Even more impressively, she knew my father’s drink of choice. So a few rookie mistakes, but no one is perfect. Other than that our server was spot on. (And I will remember his wine recommendation for next time.)

As expected, the Red Tomato provided a comfortable atmosphere with high-end meals in the charming setting one finds in isolated Bolingbroke. If you don’t mind the drive, you should have a good time.

Our Lady of Pizza: Tina Dickson @ Ingleside Village Pizza

"I'm just a squirrel saving my nuts," Tina Dickson

Though dreams of escape are the norm in most small towns, in Macon the desire to bolt from the bubble seems even greater. It feels like a black hole dragging its children backward all over the world on the inevitable way back home. Some blame a Creek Indian curse.

Sitting in her restaurant, Ingleside Village Pizza, Tina Dickson doesn’t mention any of that. She just talks, smiling to punctuate the end of stories, glowing as she does like the many-splendored lights that hang from the exposed ceiling and homemade wall mounts for kooky table lamps. Even so, there’s no doubt she understands the black hole thing real well. In fact, it’s how she became “Our Lady of Pizza”.

Raised in Macon, Tina chased Atlanta’s siren song, shuffling off to GSU for a degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration. “I always knew I wanted to work in restaurants, but I didn’t want to own. I thought I’d just climb the ladder somewhere, become an executive or something like that.” Legitimized, Tina set out to climb that ladder and become an executive… or something like that.

The only company that was hiring was a big franchisee of Domino’s in Atlanta. So, her first rung was the assistant managership of a store where she dabbled in all the wonderful roles available in corporate pizza delivery. Well, except for the actual delivery. “I was never good at that,” she says. “The 30 minute limit was too much pressure.” But still she was on her way. Her boss sold his stores back to corporate in 1989 after what Tina ominously refers to as “The Noid Incident”. (Seriously, she leaned in and whispered with a low growl “The Noid Incident”. It was creepy.)

For those with limited late-80s pop culture consciousness, the Noid was a chronically crossed-eyed and bone-deep evil character decked out in a red, hooded unitard with what appeared to be bunny ears. His sole goal was to ruin pizzas, which he did with crazed aplomb, like Anton Chigurh. Naturally, Domino’s cautioned the public to “Avoid the Noid!” Unfortunately, an Atlanta man, Kenneth Noid, thought it was an orchestrated attack on him. So he took an area store siege, holding employees hostage and demanding $100,000, a pizza and a copy of “The Widow’s Son”. The Noid, henceforth, disappeared.

Tina was promoted to supervisor, overseeing nine stores in Little Rock, AR. That unfortunately coincided with Domino’s founder Tom Monaghan having a religious awakening, leaving to do missionary work. (What would you expect from a guy who titled his autobiography “Pizza Tiger”?) The company sold off several stores and shipped Tina off to Louisville, KY, where she’d rinse and repeat in just six months. This time, she was offered a demotion. Instead, she decided to—you guessed it!—move back to Macon.

Her sister knew the sister of the guy that was running Sammy Café Nouvelle—Michael Keen. She worked there for six months before it closed, following Michael to Victorian Village, which also soon closed. Tina then worked upstairs at Rivalry’s On Cherry before joining the staff at The Rookery. (While at Rivalry’s, she met Trevor, her future husband. He came up to see about putting his motorcycle helmet behind her bar and then asked, “So when are we getting married?” Tina answered, “When are you available?”)

The pointless job cycle provoked her and roommate Saralyn Harvey. “We both got tired of working for people who didn’t know what they were doing,” Tina says. “What Macon didn’t have and desperately needed was good pizza. We decided we could do it. That was Super Bowl Sunday.”

Together they opened Ingleside Village Pizza on July 28, 1992. Two little boys, Adam and Josey, circled the parking lot on their bikes, waiting to be the first customers. When the clock struck noon, IVP was packed. It’s been that way since.

In the spring of 1995, Tina bought out Saralyn, who now owns Good to Go. And Tina was pregnant with daughter Eliza. Despite that tough stretch, which she now describes as a long blur, she pulled it off. More challenges came and others will, but Tina and IVP sally forth. Without a hint of sarcasm or false modesty—just the sweetness of 100% real cheese—Tina says, “I’m the luckiest person I know.” The closer the first IVP franchise gets to opening and the longer the original stays open, the luckier Macon gets.

Food Notes: Joe's Ravioli's & the Oasis

Joe's Ravioli

The doors to Joe’s Ravioli opened on January 8^th and with this, Macon gained a little slice of old world Italian cuisine—straight from the streets Brooklyn. Joe Bocchino’s imported New York pastas are all handmade and his sauces are traditionally created with fine Italian tomatoes. He carries on his Grandma Elise’s love of cooking through doing it as she would: from scratch and with plenty to go around. Open Tues-Thurs 11:30-8:30, and Fri-Sat 11:30-9:30 at 3975 Arkwright Road in Macon. 478.787.0211

Oasis

If you hadn’t already noticed, the Oasis, a new spot for dining and entertainment, is open downtown. Owner Leslie Smith says she loves entertaining and putting smiles on faces. Whether you are looking to munch on tasty wings or chicken tenders (which she serves till 2am), watch a game on one of the eight TVs, or shoot a game of pool on one four tables you are certain to enjoy a good time. If the excellent hospitality doesn’t bring you back, then the live bands and happy hour specials will. Come by Mon-Tues 11:30-5, Wed-Fri 11:30-3 and 5-2am, and Sat-Sun 8pm-2am. 580 Cherry St. 478.741.9070

The Fountain of Juice

Great grub springs eternal from The Fountain of Juice

by Molly Wilkins

Out of Five Stars:
Service: 5
Food: 4.75
Atmosphere: 4.5
BFYB: 3.75

Macon’s newest lunch hot spot is “The Fountain of Juice”. What I love most about may not even be the food but the atmosphere, the fact that I can go in and talk to everyone. I only frequent places where I feel like I am treated special. But not only do they make ME feel like this, I can tell that everyone gets the same kind of specialized attention here, which is probably why it’s always so busy. Brittany Poole is always quick to say hello and can carry on a conversation with anyone about anything. Owner Natasha Philips, daughter of world-famous Natalia del Basso-Orsini, is there every day, interacting with customers as they create tasty delights. Her husband Carl’s work isn’t just behind the counter—those are his paintings on the walls!

By now, I’ve eaten just about everything there it seems—this was not nearly my first visit there. They offer a wide variety of sandwiches, smoothies, and even casseroles to take home. In the past I have gotten the sandwich with the slice of pear in it, I wouldn’t ordinarily pick something like that except that Brittany convinced me. She also convinced me, on this occasion, to get the roast beef, and my husband got the California club. I’m not much of a roast beef eater, in fact I generally stay away from it, however this was amazing. The roast beef was sliced so thinly, and cooked just right, at slightly over medium well. My husband really enjoyed the turkey paired with the avocado in the California club.

They try to use all natural products, and organic as much as possible, which of course will make your price higher. I’d say for any other lunch spot they are about average, if maybe not a little higher in price. For me however, it’s worth it because I feel good about going there. (If my cupcake is all natural then it doesn’t seem so bad that it taste so darn good.) FOJ makes getting good taste good. For example: try a smoothie. Brittany slipped me a sample of the strawberry-banana smoothie. (This is also a good example of how they make you feel special—they’re always offering you samples of other stuff so you always leave stuffed!)

The strawberry-banana smoothie is great. (Editor’s note: So is the Mon Cherie!) I also like the “de-tox special”. Some of that could be because I like the idea of “de-toxing” my system. The last time I got it, Brittany suggested adding the protein to it so that it would “stay with me the rest of the day”. It was really good, I was hesitant about adding vanilla-flavored protein to the pineapple and pomegranate in the de-tox smoothie, but it worked out. Better than I thought, even.

You might see a theme here: If you don’t know what to get: ask Brittany. Of course Natasha and Carl have good suggestions as well, but Brittany is usually the first to encounter you when walking in. Remember: FOJ is in a small space, but the word is that they’ll soon be expanding into the space to be vacated by neighboring Fitness Firm. Until then, I would advise everyone to go early or prepare to be cramped.