This Is MetroWest

Lookout Farm

Michelle — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:19:53 +0000

When I worked at Wellesley College, my friends and I would often go down to Marino’s (now Belkin’s) Lookout Farm.
It’s a really nice place to take a break and look around the nice market they have inside:

In addition to their great house-made take out foods, they also have gelato, which on a summer day is real treat. I believe this is also made here and they have a lot of flavors to choose from (dark chocolate is my favorite):

After getting a gelato, we’d go outside and get some shade under the grapevines and check out the animals in the barn. It was always a great way to spend a lunch break. There are not a lot of farms in the area (and none with gelato) so this was a real treat to have nearby.

I know they do a tremendous U-Pick business as well but I’ve never tried it out. You can check out their U-Pick and other info at http://www.lookoutfarm.com/

Regatta Deli

Michelle — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:44:21 +0000

When I started working in Westborough, my fellow employee and Westborough native, Brendan showed me all the good placed to eat. Regatta Deli was one of our first lunchtime fieldtrips.
Inside is a small but not cramped space that you can sit in but it seemed most people (including us) got sandwiches to go.
They have a dry erase board behind the counter with their hand-written menu.
Since this was my first time here, I felt compelled to get their famous regatta club which has various cold cuts, cheeses, lettuce, tomato, pickles and I think I got oil and vinegar on it.

This was excellent. The bread was fresh and the combination of all the ingredients was delicious.
It was a tough call for Brendan but he went with some sort of turkey and bacon sub and had an equally satisfying experience.

He insisted on having me take a picture of it open to show all the goodness:

I actually ended up bringing almost half of my sub home to Ethan and he enjoyed it as well. This is well worth the $4. In fact the whole menu is a bargain. This is a great place, you can check out their menu on their site. Don’t mind the lady in the upper left-hand corner taking a passionate bite out of her sandwich, maybe she just got off the juice-fasting diet.

Mel’s Commonwealth Cafe

Michelle — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:16:12 +0000

I’ve heard so many good things about Mel’s Commonwealth Cafe in Wayland so one morning we went to check it out.
The service was okay, a little slow and they weren’t that busy. I got a low-fat yogurt waffle with light whipped cream and strawberries:

Ethan got pancakes:

We also shared an order of bacon, turkey sausage and homefries:

I’d say the best part of the breakfast was the waffle, everything else was mediocre. The bacon was paper-thin and seemed plasticy, the homefries were luke-warm and were mushy even where they looked like they should have been crispy. I know people LOVE this place and someone will give me a hard time for not liking it here, but we just found it to be okay at best. They seemed to do a good business at their take-out counter and had a lot of regulars who chatted it up with the staff. Maybe we just got a bad order, it wasn’t the worst ever but we probably won’t be back between the service and the food.

Dollar Tree

Michelle — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:13:08 +0000

For all my needs I only want to spend a dollar on I got to Ashland for the Dollar Tree. Unlike the misleading “Family Dollar” in Framingham, where item’s are more than a dollar, the place tells it like its and states on it’s signage “Everything’s $1.00″ and this is true.
They have some name brand items but a lot of lesser-known brands so you may find something like “Cress” toothpaste or “Captain Munch” cereal but you know…what do you want for a dollar?
On my last visit, there was a grandmother walking around with her grandkids and as I was passing them , they were walking by some erasers and the little boy who was maybe 7 said “Rainbow erasers, that’s the best they could do?”
Surprised, I raised my eyebrows and smiled and the grandmother patted me on the shoulder and started laughing. It was just so odd, I didn’t even know what that was supposed to mean.
They looked adequate erasers to me:

It was just funny to hear anyway.
Also, I’d like to add that this is a great place to get mylar balloons for an event like a birthday, babyshower etc.. they inflate them too- all for just $1!!

Owen’s Closed

Michelle — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:05:14 +0000

The other day I was going to Michael’s Craft store in the old Cloverleaf Mall Plaza (I guess it’s still called Cloverleaf but it was much better as a mall, than the plaza it is now) and I noticed Owen O’Leary’s has closed(!)
I have such mixed feelings about this place. I worked here when I was a student at Framingham State College and was part of the original staff when they opened in 1996. It’s weird to see it closed.
I have so many memories of that place, it was an absolute zoo on the weekends. It was a challenge just trying to get drinks/food to the tables because the bar was so packed. I remember waiting on nice regulars and the quirky Guitar Center guys. The group of jerks from Mathworks who would come in for their Friday after-work TGIF! drinks. The “rough and tumble” guys that dwelled down in the pool room all night. One time this guy who looked like Greg Allman just walked in, went right to the pool room, found this guy who was leaning over the table preparing to shoot, punched him and walked out.
Dreading to fulfill a promise of picking up a shift for “Roast Night”, an all inclusive meal for $6.99, and people still demanding to upgrade items for the same price (like a hot fudge brownie sundae instead of the scoop of ice cream the meal comes with).
The manager throwing plates, supplies or anything in grabbing distance if he was mad and staff getting the hell out of the kitchen when that happened.
The obnoxious cook who would make offensive jokes and thought he was God’s gift to women. The dishwashers who barely spoke English and called him “mono blanco”, and learning that means “white monkey” (and then bonding with the dishwashers).
Last call being at 12:30am and not getting done with sidework until almost 2am, walking to my old Honda Prelude exhausted, with achy knees and then listening to Norm Nathan on WBZ while driving home.

That was some of the toughest waitressing I’ve ever done. I’d say it would tie with working the graveyard shift at the old Athenian Restaurant in Framingham. I’m exhausted just thinking about it!
Anyway, goodbye Owen’s.

I heart Kappy’s

Michelle — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:10:25 +0000

I don’t drink a lot of beer but when I do, it’s to really enjoy the craft of a fine brew.
One of the few beers I feel is a taste experience is “Blackened Voodoo”. This is actually my all time favorite beer (lager), ever, ever.
The New Orleans based brewery was destroyed by Katrina in 2005. I would hear report/rumors that they were trying to rebuild and/or find another brewer to produce from but whenever I asked my local liqour store(who was very compassionate) they said they had not heard anything.
Every few months, I’d try to google up any news on Blackened Voodoo and see if there was any news. The other day I found that a brewery in Wisconsin is infact producing Blackened and Crimson Voodoo! At first I was weary that there might be something about the new brewery that would not be able to make Voodoo the same way, but the article I read stated that the Dixie brewmaster makes many regular visits from New Orleans to Wisconsin to ensure the ingredients, process, and product are up to Dixie standards.
I emailed the distributor in Colorado and asked them if there were any places in MA they supply Blackened Voodoo to and they said they would get back to me.

In the meantime, I called my usual store who didn’t have it and thought, on a whimp, that Kappy’s in Sudbury seems like the type of place to carry such a beer. I called and sure enough they did!
When I got to the store, I eagerly scanned the shelves, I felt like I was looking for my sister at baggage claim, I was so excited. Then I saw the beautiful 6-packs of Blackened Voodoo. It was a sweet reunion!

I got home and opened one, right from the sweet smell I knew this was the same brew I knew and loved.

And it was, I can’t even describe how much I love this beer!! Kappy’s totally made my night (and the rest of my life!).
I love you Kappys, thanks!

Different but the same

Michelle — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:50:50 +0000

After the final dissapointment at “Fun & Games” in Framingham, we decided to check out the Fun & Games at Village Green in Natick.

Sadly, this was just as dissapointing. They have this “game garage” arcade:

The garage features 5 or 6 games I don’t play or I’ve never heard of like “EggVenture”

and even the one classic game, a re-furbed Pac-Man, has a weird feel to it, you can’t see but the white letters are actually japanese (I think)

So in that way, this Fun & Games is a disappointment.
Although we’re not huge mini-golf people but we ended up playing it since we were there and found it to be a pretty decent course.

It has a colonial theme and is kept up well.
We’d like to know what this guy is doing though:

Writing about all this remnids me: Wasn’t Good Time Emporium supposed to move into the old Sam’s Club on Speen St.?

Weston Nurseries

Michelle — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:14:46 +0000

I like Weston Nurseries(located on 135 in Hopkinton) because there is a great assortment, nice people and a beautiful layout.
Whenever I go here for something I always end up walking around and looking at everything thinking I can somehow fit it in my tiny yard. It’s a great place to go and just look at everything to get ideas. If you need advice the people there are very helpfull too.

Ethan and I went here one morning in May and tried to do a one stop shop to landscape our yard in a day. We bought flowers, shrubs, vines and grass seed. Which they have an impressive selection of.

Inside the shop they have all sorts of fertilizers, weed killers, garden trinkets, pest repellent and more.

Also, on Friday’s they host a Farmer’s Market in their parking lot from 12-6. You can get vendor information on their site: http://www.westonnurseries.com/

Tasty Treat

Michelle — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:44:36 +0000

Since I’m sitting at the computer sweating at 10:30PM I thought I’d post about our recent trip to Tasty Treat in Ashland. This is one of our top picks when it comes to going out for an ice cream. I guess there’s nothing too special about it but it’s a nice place to go for an ice cream and although we haven’t played it, they offer mini golf and you can sit on the benches and watch people play.

Ethan got some sort of peanut butter ice cream and I got a German Chocolate Cake, which is my favorite here and that’s what I usually get everytime.

They don’t seem to have a website but they’re at 16 W. Union St. (Rt. 135) and are open year round but obviously summer is their time to shine.

Lincoln Drug (no more)

Michelle — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:57:54 +0000

(Photo from January)

Growing up right on the Holliston/Milford line, we frequented Lincoln Discount Drugs which in the past 2 years has become Milford Discount Variety, which I think is going to focus more on alcohol but they have kept a lot of old merchandise in hopes of people buying it.
I remember coming here with my sister and playing “Crystal Castles” while our mom was shopping. Almost as entertaining was the blood pressure machine in the back by the pharmacy.

Like Village Stationary in Holliston, I like to consider this place a “living museum” of sorts. Here one can find all sorts of artifacts from make-up, to books, to software.
I haven’t been in a couple of months so I’m not sure if they’ve finally cleaned everything out but on a somewhat recent visit I made some purchases:

I tried to give this to my sister to put in her son’s nursery but she refused it.

I can’t use it but was compelled to bring home with me:

Classic Ziggy cardboard stand-up for my desk.

Not to mention a bunch of old Halloween decorations which I don’t feel like digging out of the basement right now but they’re great, old school paper cut-outs of witches and monsters.

Some items that didn’t make the shopping cart but are “musuem quality”:
80’s “Ouch Kit”

An Organizer (judging from the “ice cream fantasy” theme probably at least mid-80’s):

Outdated Commuter Cup (with adhesive tape):

Ancient cake decorations:

Oh Lincoln, so many good times but alas, you must become an beer and wine outlet. I’ll still stop in, like I said I’m always curious to see what they still have no the shelves and wonder WHY they keep this stuff on the shelves.