Side Walk Cafe - Ober Gatlinburg

Ober Gatlinburg Sidewalk Cafe

The city of Gatlinburg, Tennessee is nestled at the foothills of the great Smoky Mountains. There are an endless number of restaurants to tempt your appetite. But there's more. Take a right hand turn on Ski Mountain road and it will twist you through the mountains and take you to the top where Ober Gatlinburg stands.

At the top of the mountain sits of course many elaborate ski slopes but also a small amusement park, an ice rink, carnival games, a black bear habitat, and several food stands and restaurants.


The Side Walk Cafe over looks the ice skating rink with several retail shops dotting it's surroundings. We had just spent several hours at the amusement park and came inside for a quick bite.

Ober Fries And Corn Dog

Since we were there in the off season, it was not very crowded so there was no line and placed our order. I ordered the corn dog and fries. You are looking at $6 dollars of food here. The corn dog was readily available but the fries were cooking in the fryer. My order was called out in a matter of minutes.

The corn dog was standard fare as corn dogs go. Well cooked, fresh, hot, and good taste. The fries were of fresh cut variety but as you can see, not to plentiful. However, they were fresh, well cooked, and hot and tasted good. It was a good fast food meal that filled me up and got us on our way to our next Ober Gatlinburg adventure.

The Grassy Knoll Diner scores 3.25 out of 5 shots and recommends the Side Walk Cafe in Ober Gatlinburg for lunch and dinner.

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1. 
   

   LOTGK said

   September 23, 2011 at 3:34 pm e
   Moominboy
   One of those days I’ll taste a corn dog 
   LOTGK in reply to Moominboy
   If you like hot dogs, you will love corn dogs. Trust me….
   Reply

Belleria Restaurant - Fried Haddock Dinner

Belleria Italian Bread

Belleria is a very nice and friendly restaurant in Youngstown. They have the standard fare entrees but with their own special touch. Patty and I decided on fried haddock dinners. At Belleria, you seat yourselves and we were lucky enough to find an open booth. The waitress dropped off some menu's and took our drink order. A few minutes later fresh Italian bread was delivered to our table. The bread was fresh, still warm, and very delicious.

A Little Sparse Salad

As I said previously, we were hankering for haddock and the waitress took our order and I added fried cheese sticks for an appetizer. In less than five minutes our salads were at our table. As you can see, it wasn't a big salad, but it was fresh and it did the job.

Cheese Logs

As soon as we finished our salads, our fried cheese with sauce arrived. There were five pieces and a zesty spaghetti sauce. However, notice the smallness in size of the sauce container. It was not enough for all five pieces. The cheese was well breaded and cooked and with the sauce was very good tasting.

Belleria Fried Haddock Dinner

Like clock work our fish dinners were brought to our table as soon as the appetizer was finished. I must say, it was very good service. And friendly. The haddock was a generous portion and breaded nicely. It wasn't as thick as other haddock planks but good nonetheless. It wasn't greasy or smelly but light and flaky. A little lemon and pepper and it was ready to go. The fries were fresh cut and well cooked. A packet of tartar sauce was also present on the plate which I completely ignored.

The price was reasonable, around $10 dollars for the dinner. The cheese sticks were around $4.50 which wasn't bad, except for to less of sauce. Soft drink added and this could all be yours for around $16 dollars not including tip.

The Grassy Knoll Diner scores 3.75 out of 5 shots and recommends Belleria's Fried Haddock Dinner for dinner.

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Quattro Restaurant - Houston Texas

Quattro Of Houston

This year the Halloween Trade show took me to Houston, Texas for five fun filled days. After a hard days work we stopped at Quattro restaurant housed inside the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston.

Quattro Fresh Bread

We were tired and as we were going to our room we spied Quattro so we decided to stop and eat. The restaurant was dark, I don't mean closed, but very dimly lit. We were seated quickly and as my eyes focused to the cave like lighting, I noticed that there were not many people in the joint. No matter, we waited for the waiter to take our order. Twenty minutes later he arrived at our table. (Perhaps the dim lighting prevented him from finding us) Anyway, about ten minutes later, hot fresh rolls were delivered to our table.

9 Inch Pizza

Wanting to just get a quick bite, I ordered a personal pizza. Just plain cheese. It was another half hour before it was delivered to our table. The cost was $15 dollars for a 9 inch pizza.

As mentioned earlier, the service was glacier like. I walked in clean shaven and left with a beard.

The pizza itself was OK. It was hot, but apparently the cook forgot to cut the pizza in slices. All I had was one of those butter knives. I didn't want to ask the waiter for a knife, it might have taken another 20-30 minutes for him to return.

The Grassy Knoll Diner scores 1.5 out of 5 shots and does not recommend Quattro Restaurant for dinner.

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Scarsella's Italian Restaurant - Fried Cod Dinner

Scarsella Restaurant Italian Bread

Scarcella’s Restaurant in Youngstown has been a classic Italian Restaurant for decades and is one that we often frequent especially during the Lent season.

Scarcella’s has the feel of an authentic Italian restaurant. The seating is sparse but just enough. We were seated right away and bread and butter were brought right out. The bread was Italian of course and was fresh and tasted good.

Scarsella's Restaurant Youngstown Ohio Salad

A salad comes With every dinner at Scarsella’s. It is standard fare, a little cheese, lettuce, carrots, tomato. It was good.

Youngstown Scarsellas Home Made Fried Cheese

As an appetizer, I ordered Scarsella’s fried cheese with sauce. In the Youngstown area, all fried cheese is compared to the original Antone’s restaurant fried cheese. Scarsella’s fried cheese holds its own as the taste was very good, the portion adequate, and the sauce zesty and plentiful.

Youngstown Scarsellas Fried Fish Dinner

Fried Cod And Shell Dinner To the main course. In less than 15 minutes, our fish dinners were delivered to our table. The order was fried cod with a side of shells and sauce. The breading was well cooked and crunchy, not soggy like many other fish dinners. The cod was fresh and not greasy. The shells well cooked and plentiful with the same zesty sauce from the fried cheese.
The cost without tip was right around $10 dollars which was a fair deal considering the portion size and quality cooking.

The Grassy Knoll Diner scores 3.5 out of 5 shots and recommends Scarsella’s Italian Restaurant for dinner. Especially during Lent.

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Crepe Cafe - San Francisco Pier 39

Crepe Cafe - Pier 39 San Francisco

Patty and I visited San Francisco recently and of course we made our way to Pier 39 to spend the day. Pier 39 has a carnival setting and atmosphere with plenty of shops, side shows, open performance stage, plenty of food vendors, and of course the sea lions sunning themselves on the pier.

Having the inkling to sample the local cuisine, we stopped at the Crepe Cafe for what else, some crepes. For several minutes we watched from outside the big picture window as the chef rolled the dough and thinned it out and placed it on the griddle to cook. It was entertaining and we went in to buy some.

Strawberry Crepe Breakfast

I decided on the breakfast crepe with strawberries for a filing with whipped cream and of course a generous portion of powdered sugar. In just a few minutes my order was up and my crepe was on a paper plate with a fork and handed to me. A bottle of Coke Zero completed the order.

Believe it or not, I have never had a crepe in my life so I did not have a base line to compare. The crepe looked good, and it was fresh, and I like strawberries, and whipped cream, and powdered sugar, so this was going to be a good thing. Right!

Well, it wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t good. It was bland. But maybe that is what crepes are supposed to taste. I was expecting a pancake with strawberries. After all, that is what a crepe is. A French pancake.

The batter didn’t have any taste, it was like I was eating air. The strawberries, cream, and sugar were adequate, but I was a little disappointed. The cost, well, I forget, but I think it was under $5 dollars. Being in San Francisco, in the middle of a tourist trap, $5 dollars was standard fare. I am not going to score against this dish for lack of a base line so I will just barely recommend the Crepe Cafe.

The Grassy Knoll Diner scores 2.5 out of 5 shots and barely recommends the Crepe Cafe of San Francisco for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

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Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies - 1973

Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies Record Album

Alice Cooper, the shock rocker of the 1970's, continued his legacy with his unique style of music with his 1973 album, Billion Dollar Babies.

The Billion Dollar Baby album cover is snake skin green with a small yellow gold emblem with a picture of a baby with typical Alice Cooper eye dressings.

When you open the album jacket, on the left side are trading cards perforated to easily remove. The trading cards were of the band members.

Band Members: Michael Bruce, Neal Smith, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, and of course Alice Cooper.

The other trading cards are of the band on stage plus the jacket cover and of course the icon of the album, the billion dollar baby.

Alice Coopers real name: Vincent Damon Furnier.

The right inside offers no real information on the album or the band. However, it has a band wrapper cut into it that held a very large billion dollar bill.

This album jacket has an inner cover tucked away on the left side. When you peel back the outer layer you see the enlarged One Billion Dollar Bill. It also contains the album song list.

Side One: Hello Hooray, Raped And freezin, Elected, Billion Dollar Babies, Unfinished Sweet

Side Two: No More Mister Nice Guy, Generation Landslide, Sick things, Mary Ann, I Love the Dead

The back cover is an almost carbon copy of the front cover with the gold icon on each side. The front depicting a baby with the iconic Cooper black eyes and the back cover revealing several songs inside the album and several smaller gold babies.

The album jacket has a great photo of the band members dressed in white satin with Cooper holding a naked baby covered only by American currency.

Of course the baby is decked out in the classic Cooper black eyes. In 1973, this was a shocking picture. Thousands of complaints by parents were logged to Warner Brothers, the record label to have the pictures removed. They were not.

The back of the album jacket housed the lyrics of the songs from the album. The hit song of the album was No More Mister Nice Guy. Elected was also a hit along with the title song, Billion dollar Babies.

Below are the lyrics of No More Mister Nice Guy:

I used to be such a sweet, sweet thing
Till they got a hold of me
I opened doors for little old ladies
I helped the blind to see
I got no friends ’cause they read the papers
They can’t be seen with me
And I’m gettin’ real shot down
And I’m feelin’ mean

No more Mister Nice Guy
No more Mister Clean
No more Mister Nice Guy
They say he’s sick, he’s obscene

I got no friends ’cause they read the papers
They can’t be seen with me
And I’m feelin’ real shot down
And I’m gettin’ mean

No more Mister Nice Guy
No more Mister Clean
No more Mister Nice Guy
They say he’s sick, he’s obscene

My dog bit me on the leg today
My cat clawed my eye
Mom’s been thrown out of the society circle
My dad’s has to hide
I went to church incognito
When everybody rose the Reverend Smith
He recognized me punched me in the nose

He said, no more Mister Nice Guy
No more Mister Clean
No more Mister Nice Guy
They say he’s sick, he’s obscene

Record Jacket Sleeve

Billion Dollar Babies

Billion Dollar Bill

Billion Dollar Babies Back Cover

Inside Jacket Billion Dollar Babies

Lyrics Billion Dollar Babies

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A Hummer No More

A Grassy Knoll Institute quirky little fun fact:

Everyone knows how to hum. (No, no, get your heads out of the gutter you dirty readers) But did you know that it is impossible for left handed people to hum while holding their nose closed with the left hand. And it is impossible for right handed people to hum while holding their nose with the right hand.

Go ahead, I'll wait for you.

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By the way, it doesn't matter what hand you use. 

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Boots Bell - Video Killed The Radio Star

And now we meet in an abandoned studio.
We hear the playback and it seems so long ago.
And you remember how the jingles used to go.
Video killed the radio star.

The Buggles had the pleasure of being the first rock band with the very first MTV music video airing August 1st, 1981. (30 years ago today) With that video, it ushered in a new culture of music, a new British invasion, and FM radio was on it’s last legs. Today, in 2011, just try to view a music video on MTV. They don’t show them anymore. The technology and viewing pattern has again changed. MTV has become reality TV. Sad, very sad.

Nowadays, with the CD player, MP3 player, On-board MyGig systems, Jump drives, streaming audio and video, and Youtube, is it any wonder that the FM radio disc jockey is almost extinct. Does anyone really listen to the radio anymore? To Kasy Kassems weekly top 40 hits? Does anyone out there know what I'm talking about?

In the 1960′s and 70′s, in my home town of Boardman, Ohio, the cool music was played on W.H.O.T. 1330 AM radio and later switched to FM in the 1970′s. Boots Bell was one of the highest profile disc jockeys in the area. He was one of the "Good Guys" on the air at W.H.O.T. The rest of the good guys were, George Barry, Smoochie Causey, Johnny Kay, Dick Thompson, and Jerry Starr.

Each DJ, (Disc jockey) had their own style and tag lines and we would tune in to not only listen to the records they would spin, but also the one liners and jargon from the DJ's. One of Boots Bells tag lines were, "Yes indeedy doody daddy."

Every week at the record store, Yes, back then people would actually go to a record store and buy their favorite 45's and albums. At the check out counter would be the W.H.O.T. Fabulous 50 Tunedex hits of the week. The only complete, accurate, and official music survey in the Youngstown, Ohio area. The list on the left is for the week of July 26th, 1965.

As only befitting, thirty years ago today, video killed the radio star. Five years ago, Youtube and Reality TV killed the video star.
You can click on the picture on the left to enlarge so you can read the top 50 tunes, or just keep reading below if your browser doesn't re-size or if you are to numbed from watching all the Teen Mom and Jersey Shore reality programs.

Top 50 From July 26, 1965
1. I’m Henry The 8th I Am – Herman’s Hermits
2. What’s New Pussycat – Tom Jones
3. Hold Me Thrill Me – Mel Carter
4. I Like It Like That – Dave Clark Five
5. Marie – The Bachelors
6. Satisfaction – Rolling Stones
7. Cara Mia – Jay & The Americans
8. Easy Question – Elvis Presley
9. All I Want To Do – The Byrds/Cher
10. Theme From A “Summer Place” – Lettermen
11. Sunshine Lollipops & Rainbows – Leslie Gore
12. Around The Corner – The Duprees
13. Seventh Son – Johnny Rivers
14. Don’t Just Stand There – Patty Duke
15. Save Your Heart For Me – Gary Lewis
16. Baby I’m Yours – Barbara Lewis
17. World Needs Love – Jackie De Shannon
18. I Want Candy – The Strangeloves
19. Sittin’ In The Park – Billy Stewart
20. You Turn Me On – Ian Whitcomb
21. Down In The Boondocks – Billy Joe Royal
22. Take Me Back – Little Anthony
23. Yes I’m Ready – Barbara Mason
24. Too Many Rivers – Brenda Lee
25. Unchained Melody – Righteous Brothers
26. Ride Your Pony – Lee Dorsey
27. Pretty Little Baby – Marvin Gaye
28. One Dyin’/It Happened That Way – Roger Miller
29. To Know You Is To Love You – Peter & Gordon
30. Moon Over Naples – Bert Kaempfert
31. Poppa’s Got A Brand New Bag – James Brown
32. You’re My Girl – Roy Orbison
33. You Better Come Home – Petula Clark
34. I’ll Always Love You – The Spinners
35. California Girls – Beach Boys
36. The Tracker – Sir Douglas Quintet
37. Same Old Song – Four Tops
38. You Tell Me Why – Beau Brummels
39. Gonna Take A Miracle – Royalettes
40. He’s Got No Love – The Searchers
41. Tracks Of My Tears – The Miracles
42. I’m A Fool – Dino, Desi & Billy
43. I Got You Babe – Sonny & Cher
44. The Loser – The Skyliners
45. Here I Am – Dionne Warwick
46. A Little You – Freddie & Dreamers
47. Ju Ju Hand – Sam The Sham
48. You’re My Baby – The Vacels
49. A Little Lovin’ – Dwain Story
50. Thru The Eyes Of Love – Gene Pitney

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