Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [170]
Crabill’s
727 Miami St.
513–653–5133
Urbana, OH
L | $
Size matters, but when it comes to hamburgers, bigger isn’t necessarily better. In fact, some burger hounds prefer minuscule two-bite “sliders.” The best place we know in Ohio to gobble such mini-burgers is at the counter of Crabill’s, where fifty-cent hamburgers are served on itty-bitty buns, with small squares of cheese if desired, and with mustard and/or relish for a few cents extra. Eating one of these gems is a unique experience: Cooked in deep oil on the grill, it has an outside surface with delicious crunch, and it is so skinny that there is virtually no interior! Six or eight make a decent meal, but if you have a competitive spirit, you might want to try to beat the single-sitting record-holder, Dave Woods, who ate thirty-one on February 22, 2001.
Flury’s Sandwich Shop
1300 Sackett Ave.
330–929–1315
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
BL | $
This tiny diner seats scarcely over a dozen people and there is nothing revolutionary on the menu, but if you are in greater Akron and looking for a hospitable slice of Americana, we highly recommend it. There is always a pancake of the day—we’ve enjoyed cornmeal and banana-nut—and lunch opportunities include nice meat loaf sandwiches and creamy mac ’n’ cheese, preceded by proprietor Kim Dunchuck’s homemade soup. For dessert, choose from among Kim’s homemade cookies and shortcake laced with blueberries or blackberries.
G&R Tavern
103 N. Marion St. (off US 23)
740–726–9685
Waldo, OH
BLD | $
Waldo, north of Columbus, is known as the town with the fried bologna sandwich. Since 1962, the G&R has built its reputation on bologna sandwiches that put pale, pink, thin-sliced supermarket bologna sandwiches to shame. In this family-friendly sports bar, the bologna is dark and smoky, firm as a knoblewurst salami, and sliced as thick as a good-size hamburger patty. It is fried until its exterior turns a bit crisp, and loaded into a sandwich with sweet pickles and onion (a great condiment combo), or your choice of mustard, mayonnaise, or tomato. Fitting side dishes include a variety of deep-fried vegetables and curly fries.
If for some reason you are a fried-food-frowner, G&R also offers a bologna salad sandwich, and because this bologna is so much better than the spongy packaged stuff, the salad reminds us of something made with good ham, but smoother.
While you stand along the bar waiting for a seat (at mealtimes, you will likely wait), your appetite will be whetted by the sight of the kitchen staff carrying great big logs of this very special bologna into the kitchen.
Hathaway’s Coffee Shop
441 Vine St.
In the Carew Tower Arcade
513–621–1332
Cincinnati, OH
BL | $
When we called our Cincinnati friend Mary Beth Brestel at seven o’clock one morning and asked her where to eat breakfast, she directed us to Hathaway’s for waffles. Like us, Mary Beth is a fan of slim, small-tread waffles—as opposed to the bloated Belgians that have been a plague on American restaurant menus ever since they were introduced at the New York World’s Fair of 1964. She said that Hathaway’s, a vintage coffee shop in the Carew Tower Arcade downtown, made the elegant, old-fashioned kind. It had been her bad luck that the last time she had breakfast there, the waffle iron had been broken, so she joined us this morning for a redo.
We sat at the lunch counter, perfunctorily perused the menu, and ordered waffles. “It’s broken again,” the waitress said. “No waffles today!” Reassured that this was only a temporary problem, we ordered pancakes and French toast with goetta—a fried-crisp tile of pork-and-pin-oats loaf that