Clementine
It’s been awhile ago, but I’ve been so busy on the weekends now that baseball and running season are in full swing, it’s begun to cut into my quality food questing time! However, one fine February morning the little boy and I went out to get some breakfast and take some photos at Clementine Bistro & Bar.
We were there a bit early in the day, so there were only a few other diners when we arrived. Turns out that was a good thing in this case, because they were short staffed that morning and the waiter who was doing 20 things at once seemed a bit frazzled. But he was always pleasant and kept checking on us throughout the meal, despite how obviously busy he was, so while we lingered a bit longer than normal over our meal, the service was great under the challenging circumstances.
There are three rooms in the restaurant – a front room, a bar and a room at the end of a short hallway that is “child friendly” – tables with toys, even some cake put out. As a parent who not so long ago had small children, I appreciate the effort to accommodate and segregate the youngsters. We always used to seek out restaurants that had play areas, but with some atmosphere better than Chuck E Cheese and something to eat more sophisticated than plastic pizza. You cannot underestimate the opportunity to have some coffee, adult food and unbroken adult conversation until you don’t have have it!
So, now that I have a half-grown boy in tow, we opted to sit in the grown up room, right off the bar. In all fairness, I did offer him the seating in the play area, but he gave me a withering look that told me he’s much too sophisticated for dinosaurs, and we quickly moved on.
I wanted to order something different and somewhat healthy, since Luke was once again getting his favorite biscuits and gravy (this after all is billed as a southern style bistro) so I ordered a veggie scramble. I don’t know if it’s southern or not, but it was tasty, the vegetables were cooked perfectly, still somewhat firm, rather than soggy. Had we tried this at home, they’d have been raw, so I recommend it if, like me, you have to make a conscious effort to eat veggies – they’re tough to cook properly without ruining! I secretly would rather have sampled some of the other menu items I saw, the french toast, pancakes, chicken fried steak or even the grits. But I was good, however when we return we will be trying some of the more traditional fare.
As for the biscuits and gravy, Luke claimed the biscuits were superior to others he’s tried, while the gravy was not (however as I have to remind you everything from now on is compared to Pine State Biscuit for him, he’s been ruined for all other food).
Just as we were finishing up, the later morning/early lunch crowd began to show up, and fortunately so did some additional employees to help out our original waiter. I’d like to try them again, maybe for lunch or dinner, definitely sample some of the desserts and maybe a southern cocktail drink.
