It's a Ruben! How Fucking Hard Can it Be?!?!?

 

OK, I know it has been awhile but I'm slight pissed off.  I have a weakness for Club Sandwiches, Chicago Style Hot Dogs, and Rubens.

I usually give a place three chances to keep my business.  There is a Butcher/Deli on the corner of Court and Muscatine that I drive by everyday.  One  day I see a sign "Today's Special - Rubens".  You Bastards!  I'm in. Not that day, but soon.  

I stop in a couple of week's later when I have money burning a hole in my pocket and a rubble in the belly.  I order one Ruben to go.  At home, I chow down.  The Ruben wasn't bad, not great, but not bad. That's one.  

Round two, I am told they are out of rye bread, but they can use white bread. (Well, it's not a Ruben is it. It's a pile of sadness.) The time is about 1:15 PM.  I can't imagine a Deli running out of sandwich bread that soon.  One Ball, One Strike.  

Round Three.  Couple of weeks later, 5:15 PM Friday, I have a dream of a Ruben and a couple of cold ones for a Friday Dinner Pinic.  Perfect!  Nope!  "We close the grill down and stop making sandwiches at Five." One Ball, Two Strike.  To be fair they are a butcher shop and the Deli thing is a side hustle, so I kind of get it.  However, it's like going to Mickey D's and finding out they are out of shake mix. 

Round Four.  OK the stars align for another try, They have Rye Bread, the grill is open, and there is plenty of meat behind the Counter. I order two Rubens.  Fuck my heart!  I get the last of the meat they have for the day.  Back at home, the first sandwich goes down the gullet.  It's ok, need some more Thousand Islands, and I want some fries.  The bread seems a little dry.  Ball! Second Ruben is a failure pile.  Each bite is a fatty mess.  Looks like I really got the dregs of the cuts.  Strike Three.  

I give you all the chances, and I guess you don't want my business.

Bluebird Diner
330 E Market St
Iowa City, IA 52245-2171
(319) 351-1470
Normally, I don't trust a dinner that doesn't a fat guy cooking, but when a friend suggested this place I had to go. The other item that intrigued me was this place once was the Pittsburgh Paint store. The location is Gilbert and Market across from the Iowa City landmark John's Grocery.

I have had lunch, dinner and breakfast at the Bluebird so it's no time to write my review. First up the appearance.

As the name implies there is alot of blue: Blue chairs, Blue Booth, Blue awning, Blue floor tile, Blue T-shirt, and you get the picture. Even the main mirror has faint hint of blue. A word of warning, don't go into the male bathroom during a sunny morning without sunglasses, preferably some "Blu-Blocker". It all nice as a diner should be. The twenty-something staff gives the place a beatnik feeling, especially when the stand on the counter to change the chalkboard menu-of-day.

(Aside: How come I never get the cute waitress?) Enough about me and my personal issues, back to the Food.

Lunch
I had the Classic Reuben. This is almost always my first choice in any diner or theme restaurant. It's a good gauge of what staff in the kitchen are doing and the wait staff as well. It was a nice start especially during the lunch crowd. The sandwich had a generous amount of corn beef served with two thick piece of toasted rye. It came warm and juicy with the bread still crisp. A lot of places will not drain the sauerkraut enough to keep the bread from getting soggy. Other places grill the Reuben to hide this fact, but not here. The sandwich came quickly enough so the wait time didn't make the bread soggy either. Kudos for the staff. The taste was fine, but I found myself really wanting a kosher pickle with Reuben was well. Instead I got fruit, an interesting choice but not need. Stick with the pickle, if I'm order the Reuben I'm not thinking about my heart at the time. The Reuben was served with a nice portion of fries. This were crisp, yet a little cool. Which could mean the fries were probably put on the plate first and left to wait on the sandwich. This could be a timing problem in the kitchen. Normally I expect the sandwich, burger, fish or whatever to be under the fries slightly. That let's you know the order how things were put on the plate: Sandwich, fries, then garnish (Pickles). Then BOOM! to the table. The garnish may come before the fries depending on what it is: tomatoes, lettuce, or onion. Not sure with the fruit maybe after if it is cold, and before if warm. ( Aside: There's an idea, baked apples slices served warm. Maybe not for summer, but it might be a good winter choice. What do you think, guys?)

Dinner
I had the Classic Caesar Salad with grilled chicken. This was very nice. The Chicken was warm and the lettuce was crisp, not the easiest thing to do. This shows good timing in the kitchen and low wait time with the staff. The HP order the Vegetable Lasagna so kudos for the staff getting it to the table at the same time. (Aside: I tried my wife's Lasagna. It was good, but in the back of my head I kept saying to myself this needs more meat. Go figure. I just order a salad with meat.) The salad a a nice amount of dressing. I might have asked for a bit more if I wasn't in a good mood. The kalamata olives were another interesting choice. To me they taste like a cross between a old dishrag and a used diapers. I suspect the olives themselves were off, but I that could be just me. I will have to try this salad again. Then, I had pie.

Want to keep a fat guy happy? Offer him pie. The pie of the day was an Apple Pie with raisins and walnuts. The desserts are made everyday so there is something different each time I've been there. This pie was perfect, serve warm it held together nicely. The crust was flaky and moist. I thought the walnut and raisins would throw the taste, but they made a pleasant surprise. I was expecting something like currant or something dark, but this was light. The was served with two small scoops of vanilla ice cream. I wanted more. Once again, if I'm ordering pie with ice cream I pretty much killed my diet or already worshiped the StairMaster for an extra hour, just give me the ice cream! I going to come back for this pie.

Breakfast
I spent all morning chopping wood and doing yard work, so earned a big breakfast. I dragged the HP with me and order my two breakfast standards: Eggs Benedict and Pancakes. Once again this is sort of a standard benchmark with me. The Eggs Benedict was very good. The eggs were truly poached and not fried a short cut sometimes used in diners. The Hollandaise sauce was mild in flavor but very creamy. The ham was deli style shaved thin, and then cooked, a pleasant change compared with the Canadian bacon some places prefer to use. The ham does dry out faster when cut thin and cook. The sauce and eggs cover the ham slight dryness very well. The English muffin was nicely toasted. I couldn't quite place the brand, but it was tasty.

The hash brown were close to being perfect as I have ever got in a restaurant. Most place just fry brown one side of a mound of shredded potatoes, then flip the other side over. What you get is a raw mess of potatoes in a burnt brown layer. I hate that. The Bluebird's hash brown were cooked throughout and crunchy outside with a hint of butter. I had promised myself not to eat them all, but I did.

I order three buttermilk pancakes on the side. For $2.50, I received three sauce plate size pancake. This is a deal. I may just have to go back for just the pancake. They were light, but not too light as to be a sponge soaking up the maple syrup. I buttered the hell out of these, and wolfed down most of the cakes before they had time to cool. You can get these pancakes with whipped cream and fruit (grilled bananas, strawberries, or blueberry). Which just makes these pancakes evil and more time on the StairMaster for me.

Overall, a 7.5 out of 10 for me. The food will bring me back, but the staff sort of annoyed me.