Village Squire, 1976-05, Page 29�iiitire's
��ble
Any restaurant that promotes family dining
is looking for trouble. The Village Restaurant,
a new version of an old restaurant in Blyth
courted trouble with this reviewer and family
recently and came out looking pretty good
despite it.
The restaurant has been promoting family
fare on weekends since Skip and Bonnie
McMullen took over the business a couple of
months back.
The reviewer's family descended on the
unsuspecting restaurant owners recently.
First off a complaint...a restaurant hoping for
family business should purchase a high ( hair
and the Village Restaurant didn't have one at
the time. That complaint taken care of, there
Village Restaurant wins
success the hard way
must be praise for the staff. The youngest
child, the one who needed the high ch lir,
immediately took a dislike to the place (luckily
he wasn't writing the review) and set to
screaming. The friendly staff seeing a mother
trying to quiet a child and eat at the same
time tried to help out by looking after the
youngster while the other four members of
the family ate but didn't have any more luck
than mother. Mother ended up leaving early
to keep from disturbing other diners while the
rest of the family stayed behind to finish their
meals more leisurely.
But back to the beginning and a little more
about menu and atmosphere. The restaurant
specializes in Italian food but also has a wide
selection of other dishes including perrenials
like steak and fish and chips.
The wife, before her hurried exit, had the
special of the night, red brand New York
sirlion steak with butter fried mushrooms.
The meal also came with homemade soup or
juice, fresh rolls, potato and the vegetable of
the day. _ _
The children had child -sized portions of
spaghetti with meat sauce and fish and chips
respectively. The father had an Italian special
platter of spaghetti, ravioli and chicken.
It would be unfair to get a reaction from the
mother on the meal since she hurried through
it too much. The fish and chips looked
delicious with crisp french fries and golden
fried fish, (the restaurant uses fresh fish and
makes its own batter). The Italian food can be
a little startling to those not used to "real"
Italian -style spaghetti as opposed to the poor
imitation prepared varieties of sauces sold
through stores. It's stfonger and hotter than
those sauces and can take some getting used
to. The meal has proved a popular one at the
restaurant in the short time it has been open
so obviously many people like that kind of
Italian food.
The child -sized portions are about as large
as many of the regular portions at many a
restaurant. They proved just too much for the
young pre-schoolers in this family. .
The decor of the restaurant is interesting.
Local artist Ron Walker has recently
completed a 22 -foot long mural which takes
up one entire wall of the diningroom which is
at the back of the restaurant. Individual
tiffany lamps (reproductions) hang over each
table.
The bill for the whole affair (including ice
cream for the two children for dessert) came
to under $12.00 for the family of four; pretty
good for these days of inflation.
In all, The Village Restaurant did a pretty
good job of overcoming the odds to make it a
good evening. Service was fast and helpful,.
food was good and decor interesting. Not bad
for owners who have only been operating the
business for two or three months.
Where Style and Value go Hand in Hand
MENS &
BOYS
• Suits
• Shirts
• Pants
•SOCKS
etc.
• Coats
• Dresses
• Slims
• Blouses
etc.
VILLAGE SQUIRE/MAY 1976, 27