Perk & Pub

This eating out is not working for us anymore. Do you know how far east we were on Wednesday? The Perk & Pub, a bare bones, boring restaurant (if you can call it that) on about 130th and Bluemound Road in Elm Grove. It just isn’t worth driving even 10 minutes to eat uninteresting food at yet another uninteresting restaurant. I’ve counted. IF we get into our kitchen next Monday, as is the plan, that would be four more meals out. IF we continued on Bluemound Road until then, we would hit The Garden Something Restaurant at that motel that used to be the 40 Winks Motel, then Rocky Roccoco’s pizza, then yet another Mexican place across the road, and finally back to Flemings.

If we were going to get as far as Mo’s Irish Pub, I’d surely put up with these repetitive, mediocre meals until then. But we won’t – assuming Cabinetwerks’ schedule works out, and the plumber who is supposed to hook up the sink, dishwasher, and gas for the stove on Monday is not a hunter and won’t call in at the last minute when he realizes what week it is. I’ve noticed that the common subject of conversation of all craftsmen who have worked in my kitchen centers on the shooting of deer.

So... I think we will eat our few remaining restaurant meals at places we know we like, probably closer to home, and then maybe have one last fling at Flemings. I am debating saving that spot until we have grown somewhat tired of home cooking again and can appreciate such a fine restaurant. I’ve become such a witch about this eating out. Nothing pleases me, and The Man and I are getting testy with each other about our disagreements over food.

For instance, Monday night at The Perk and Pub. It’s in a nice looking shopping center, just down the road from all those annoying office buildings in Bishop’s Woods. (Only annoying to me I suppose, because I was one of the folks who fought against desecrating that lovely woods with those commercial buildings.) Anyway, you’d think this restaurant location might attract a pleasant place to eat. But no. The Perk & Pub sports a brown, painted, bare concrete floor, brown formica tables, a high acoustic tiled ceiling, and a bar in the room with the tables. It seems like one of those bars that also happens to serve some food. The menu is bar food – pizzas, a few sandwiches. But unlike most bars, you don’t place your order at the bar. Here a waitress serves you at your table. And yet, oddly, in one corner is a child’s play area, with games and toys for kiddies. Hmmm...

The Happy Man (red meat, cheap food, nothing "funky", like cilantro or Asiago cheese) had a Reuben sandwich with cole slaw. I couldn’t muster up enough appetite to even have a sandwich. I just had a Caesar salad – romaine lettuce (a good thing), bottled dressing (okay), many dry croutons (yuk), and no Parmesan to be seen (boring). I checked out the plumbing, betting it would be clean. Not. Actually, the turn-off is walking back to the bathroom where the mop and pail and boxes of stuff are stacked and stuffed in the hall. No broom closet, apparently. How charming.

As we drove home, I complained (a polite word for it) about the Perk & Pub, while The Man With Impecible Taste insisted it was just fine -- even called it "very nice.".

As I said, it is time to quit this nonsense. We will have some of my homemade pea soup from the freezer for dinner tonight, and will probably eat at our favorite Venice Club before the kitchen returns. I’m sure I’ll find something to blather to you about anyway, even if it isn’t on Bluemound Rd.

Grumpy, as well as
Kitchenless in Brookfield