Farewell, Lincoln City…

It’s our last full day in Lincoln City, and I would like to have returned to the Beach Dog Café—this time for a breakfast of their biscuits and gravy. But, alas, they aren’t open today, so we will be forced (forced, I say) to indulge in another of our favorites—fried food covered in a crunchy coating. And having been somewhat virtuous in our food choices this past week, indulgence is in order. So we are off to J’s Fish & Chips.

And it appears that we aren’t the only ones. First from madaboutmushrooms.com: “Sometimes it seems as if we are in a perpetual search for the tastiest fish and chips. Well, our quest may just be over, now that we've discovered J's in Lincoln City.”

And then there is drivethrucritic.wordpress.com: “…J’s is excellent and inexpensive! This little shack of a restaurant serves up a very nice order of fish and chips…. It’s lovely cod…. The building is not remarkable inside or out, and the key for the outside bathroom is on a plastic fish bowl, but then again, appearances aren’t everything. They are friendly and busy from the moment they open, with people and phone orders pouring in at 11:30 a.m. on the dot. This fish and chip shop should be a must on your list of lunch stops…”

To begin, this place is small. Really small with only twenty seats. I knew from my investigation that if you arrived during 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., there would be a wait for a seat. But even when we arrived around 2:00 p.m. there were only two vacant seats. On a weekday. In October.

I also knew that the food is prepared to order and that a wait could be expected. So I used our wait time to peruse one of those handouts that you find in many small local restaurants. You know the ones. They combine ads for local businesses with quizzes and totally obscure and unnecessary information. Did you know that the province of Alberta, Canada is completely free of rats? Did you know that Illinois has more personalized license plates than any other state? Did you know that American Airlines saved $40,000.00 in 1987 by eliminating one olive in every salad served in first class? Now you know.

But I digress.

From the menu posted above the counter,

Chuck chose the three-piece cod with regular fries and slaw.

For me it was the four-piece combo with one piece of cod, one of halibut, and two shrimp with curly fries and slaw.

Both the cod and halibut were steamy and flakey under their crusts. I had never eaten both fish on the same plate before and concluded that I like the milder taste of cod over the stronger (but not really all that strong) taste of the halibut. But I certainly wouldn’t pass up another order of J’s halibut. And the shrimp were equally good. And the fish and shrimp seemed to have a panko coating, and if so, the kitchen knows how to use panko correctly. It was as if panko had been mixed into a beer batter so that the crust wasn’t harder to penetrate than a suit of armor.

Chuck’s fries looked to be hand cut and my curly fries were coated. I so wish I knew how they do that! To me, the downer was the slaw that was cut into rather large chunks and was rather light on the dressing.

A good 4.0 Addie way to end our stay in Lincoln City. Tomorrow we have a short and quick seventy-five mile drive to Florence, OR.

The following morning we picked up US 101 and headed south along the Oregon coast. Even though it was a very short distance between RV parks, it was a strenuous drive--the fog, by itself, called for extra vigilance, but when we found patches of sunlight, the sun and fog combination made driving more difficult.

Hello, Florence

Well, we hadn’t anticipated the fog (although we should have). We didn’t anticipate the many twists and turns in the road. And we didn’t anticipate the road construction just north of Newport, OR. So we arrived much later and much hungrier that we had anticipated.

On our way through Florence, we passed Abby’s Legendary Pizza where we had eaten our first meal when we visited this city in the summer of 2009, and while the pizza didn’t knock my socks off, I remembered it being somewhat north of adequate. So, after unhitching, we head back into town for lunch at Abby’s.

“It all started in July of 1964. Two long-time friends and high school classmates, Albert Broughton and James Harrell (better known as Abby and Skinny), opened the doors of the very first Abby’s Pizza…. It wasn’t long before word of Abby’s spread like melted mozzarella cheese throughout the region, and a legend was born…. During the next eight years their operation mushroomed to include seven more outlets, each built around a simple, successful formula: create a friendly, family atmosphere…. By 1997, Abby’s Legendary Pizza locations could be found from Wenatchee, Washington to Medford, Oregon. Today, there are 35 Abby’s locations serving hungry pizza customers throughout Washington and Oregon (abbys.com).

Have you ever noticed that most pizza joints are virtually empty mid-afternoon? Abby’s was no exception. Well, there was one exception. Shortly after we sat down someone came along and proceeded to play the very noisy video game right behind Chuck. So for a while we were serenaded by the sound of racing motors.

And there on the table was another of those ads and info handouts. Did you know that an ostrich’s egg is larger than its brain? Did you know that there is an ATM at McMurdo Station in Antarctica which has a winter population of 200? Did you know that one pound of lemons contain more sugar than one pound of strawberries? Now you know.

And about the pizza—my assessment was the same as in 2009. It “had a medium thin, but very crisp, crust. It was topped with a generous amount of good Italian sausage that was light on fennel. The sauce reminded me of the slow-cooked South Philadelphia Italian gravy (their term for this type of red sauce) that becomes cloying after a while.

I prefer more acid in my tomato sauce and less sweet. And again, there was far more cheese than either Chuck or I prefer. (And this was after requesting light cheese.)

This pizza was so filling that enough returned home with us to provide me with two mornings of cold pizza breakfast.”

And my rating of 3.5 Addies also remains the same.

To review the role of Adler, Kitty Humbug, and the Addie rating system, read the November 14, 2011 blog.