Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Run of The Mill

Well, I got some good news today. Y'all may recall that a couple of weeks back, I had to go in for an echocardiogram. It was occasioned by my GP noticing on my chest film to diagnose a case of "walking pneumonia" a month or so ago that I had a very slightly enlarged heart. Moreover, while forcing a lot of fluids, I had experienced some pitting edema in my ankles and a suspiciously high amount of fluid in my lungs, even for pneumonia. Anyone with any kind of medical background will immediately recognize those as possible symptoms of CHF (congestive heart failure) as I did. I got the results given to the cardiologist from Shands / Jax, Dr. Chapman, this afternoon. All findings were perfectly normal. Moreover, my heart is actually in remarkably good shape. For those in the know, my ejection percentage is 77 %. Not too shabby for a guy pushing 62 and in a wheelchair for 5 years as of 5 days ago. So, anyway, I got out of the doctors office off of Kings Bay Road around three. Having had nothing but a child-sized lunch at school, I was a little hungry and in the mood for a good meal. So, I thought, "Why not give The Mill Seafood Bar & Grill a try?" If you don't know, that's the new restaurant opened last week by the current owner of Steffens. It is in the old St. Marys Seafood and Steak building in Lillliput. I got there about 3:15. The first thing I noticed was that there was not a single disabled parking space in sight, much less a "van accessible" space (more about that later). But, given the time of day, there were just handful of cars and, as I suspected, most of those belonged to employees. There were four customers when I arrived, which ain't bad for 3:15 on a Tuesday. I just found a space with an adjacent open space on the passenger side and deployed my own traffic cone in that space after I exited my van. The owner, Linda somebody-or-other, was there, "hands on" managing every little detail. The first thing I noticed when I came in the door was that the rumors that they had entirely gutted the place were true - as I had hoped they would be, if only for sanitary reasons, much less aesthetics. However, the second thing you notice is that the whole place is permeated with a peculiar chemical odor. Perhaps it was a new paint smell, but I really could not identify it. Fortunately, you get used to it in 5 to 10 minutes. Service was prompt by a friendly enough young gal. She only lost points for failing to see that I had no silverware when she delivered my food about 12 minutes (good) after I ordered it. While she had disappeared into the kitchen by the time I discovered the omission, the alert bartender fixed me right up. The decor is interesting enough, especially if you ever worked in the actual mill. The soon-to-be unemployed mill hands obviously took all available mementos - nailed down or not. Many have been donated and now adorn the walls. Once again, though, the owner has not thought out the dining area lighting very well. About three feet from the walls, the are small track lights pointed back at the walls to highlight all of the mill artifacts hanging on the walls. They do that well and I would recommend keeping them. However, they are the ONLY light sources in that part of the dining room. The result is that even at 3:30 in the afternoon, the tables themselves are insufficiently lighted. God only knows how much worse the problem is at night when you would surely be sitting in near darkness with the glare of the spots bouncing off the walls into your dilated pupils. The solution is to keep the tracked spots, but also hang the same lights you have in the front dining area over the tables in the back area. Sure, it will kill the dark cocktail lounge ambiance of the small bar at the end of the dining area, but barflys will just have to suffer through it or go to some dive suitably dark for their liking. Food-eating patrons tend to like to see what they are eating. Now, let's get down to the food. Given that they put themselves forward as a "seafood bar and grill," I naturally opted for seafood. I figured I would try a Southern seafood staple - a combination of fried oysters and fried shrimp. My order came with twelve shrimp, twelve oysters, 0ne baked potato with butter and sour cream, 4 hush puppies, cole slaw, tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, and unsweetened iced tea. The entree was $12.95. The tea was $1.85. Let me start with the cole slaw. The cut and texture were excellent - those little cubed chunks of cabbage that are so nice and crunchy. Unfortunately, someone went nuts with sweet pickle cubes, sweet pickle juice, and sugar. The pickle taste completely and utterly overwhelmed the taste of the cabbage. Without the sweet pickles and juice and with maybe only 1/10th of the sugar, it would have been very good. The baked potato was a nice sized baking potato which, unfortunately, came out of the oven maybe 15 minutes too soon. Practice will fix that. The butter was already on the table when I rolled up. It was those tiny little 1/2 cubic inch plastic containers of whipped butter. You have to open about a dozen to get enough butter for your potato. For God's sake, order a baked potato at, say, Sonny's, and take notes. The small and entirely inadequate dollop (maybe a rounded tablespoon) of sour cream had obviously been dipped out of a larger container back in the kitchen and put into a small plastic cup. It should have been served with 2 of those rip and squeeze, portion controlled, waxed paper containers of sour cream- again, like at Sonny's. The cocktail sauce was mousy. It easily needed half-again as much fresh horseradish. The tartar sauce tasted like they had made it themselves. Not a bad try, but see if you can match Aunt B's - the best I've ever had anywhere. The hush puppies were a doughy disaster. They were not only undercooked, but the things (well, "thing" - I only ate part of one) tasted like they were made from a bag of corn meal that was left over form St.Marys Seafood and Steak - way stale. No onions in them. There is a simple solution: tell your supplier that you must have 25 lb bags of "House -Autry" brand buttermilk hush puppy mix with dried Vidalia onion flakes. All you do is add water to the right consistency. Refrigerated, leftover, mixed dough is perfectly good the next day. Trust me on this: I'm a former seafood restaurant manager and as-need-be seafood cook. Now, moving on to the shrimp and oysters. Both had clearly been thawed out raw, then breaded and cooked in the kitchen. The breading, though tolerable and not too thick, was, unfortunately, 100% wheat flour. You will find that most Southerners (and like it or not, we are and will continue to be the bulk of your customers - if you survive) prefer a breading that is a mix of plain (not self rising)wheat flour and finely ground corn meal - preferably white - in roughly equal parts. The solution is, again, quite simple: tell your supplier not to come back without House -Autry seafood breading. It's exactly the way we like it. The shrimp were on the small end of the jumbo spectrum, but still a little too large for my taste. Both the shrimp and oysters were fried just exactly the right amount of time in fresh, good quality oil at the right temperature. In terms of volume, the meal was a good deal at the price. If she will make the changes I'm suggesting., she could give Lang's a real run for their money. A caveat: if you like to eat at a place where you feel like the owner is genuinely friendly, genuinely cares about her customers and welcomes constructive criticism, then neither The Mill nor Steffen's are good choices for you. Now, on the other hand, if you yourself are from New York and are quite used to scowling, disingenuous, unfriendly asses -or even better, you are one, then you will feel right at home. You will recall my mentioning that I did not see any disabled parking spaces upon my arrival. As I was about to leave my table, the owner came over and warily asked me if everything was alright. Based upon my previous encounters with her at Steffens, I knew she was being totally disingenuous and spoiling for a fight. I told her it was "pretty good" ( and to be sure, I've had worse). I then asked, "Have y'all opted not to have disabled parking or have you just not gotten around to it yet?" Well, she flashed her true self on me instantaneously, blurting out, in a tone only wimpy married men are obliged to tolerate, "Why, that was the very first thing we did. It's right there on the corner. How could you have missed it!?" I calmly replied that I obviously had, but would certainly look for it on my way out. Well, it was there alright. Right on the very front right corner of the building, without any effort to go on the Internet for guidance as to ADA compliance, they had painted a dark blue square, about 36" X 36" in the exact middle of the parking space. The little stick man in the wheelchair was probably hand drawn and painted in fire-plug yellow. In ADA compliant spaces, the entire space is painted about this shade of blue, the stick man is white, the sign is high enough to be seen above the roof lines of cars (their's was 6 inches off the ground on one of those old, cut-off pilings and totally obscured from my view by the car parked in the one space they've marked half-assedly), and it has diagonal lines on either side of the parking space to give extra passenger embarkation / disembarkation space. There had apparently been a car parked over it when I drove up. I know, you're saying, "But Moreno, couldn't you see the diagonal white lines on either side of the designated parking place, or the disabled parking sign on top of a pole marking the place?" No on both counts. The diagonal lines do not exist. If you park in that space and you need a little extra side room to deal with a wheelchair or walker, you're just SOL if there is a car in the next space. One wonders what half-assed Lilliput building inspector signed off on that travesty of ADA compliance? It's y'all's decision, but this is the old gal's third strike with me. She's done. I'll stick to Aunt B's where both Jeannie and Cathy know me and like me, and vice -versa , genuinely appreciate my business, AND the food is always top notch, authentic, Southern home-cooking. Addendum: Just in case the owner might like to be ADA compliant, here is a link to the regs: http://www.access-board.gov/adaag/html/adaag.htm#purpose FYI: Title III - Public Accommodations by Private Business A public accommodation is a private entity that owns, operates, leases, or leases to, a place of public accommodation. Places of public accommodations include a wide range of entities, such as restaurants, hotels, theaters, retail stores, museums, libraries, parks, private schools, and day care centers. Title III prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in all of these areas. Title III requires places of public accommodation to remove barriers in existing facilities where it is "readily achievable." Readily achievable means it is "easily accomplished and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense." Examples include the simple ramping of a few steps, the lowering of telephones, and similar modest adjustments. When barrier removal is not readily achievable, alternative steps are required such as providing in-store assistance for removing articles from inaccessible shelves. Link to info on commercial House-Autry seafood breaders: http://www.house-autry.com/food/breaders.aspx Link to info on commercial House-Autry hush puppy mixes: http://www.house-autry.com/food/mixes.aspx Link to House-Autry retail products for home use: http://www.house-autry.com/retail/index.aspx

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Again you're on point......

I love House of Autry products. I use them at home both the hush puppy mix and seafood breader.

Someone ask me to meet them there (The Mill) for dinner Thursday. Without hesistating I said no I think I would rather go to Langs for all you can eat fried shrimp (although I never make it pass the first plate). Langs has really good fried shrimp and excellent hush puppies. There tarter sauce is good, but Aunt B's has the best tarter sauce in Camden. I try to go there as often as possible on Saturdays for their fried shrimp, tarter sauce and macaroni and cheese.

Thanks for the review

But I will try "The Mill" for breakfast. If they serve the same menu that they have at Steffans.

Anonymous said...

Isn't ADA one of those big government Clinton-era Mommy-state things you like to rail about?

Jay Moreno said...

Have you figured out what the orange substance is in Aunt B's tarter sauce? I tickles me that a place which does not lay claim to being a "sea food" restaurant makes, right there in their kitchen, the very best tartar sauce I've ever had - anywhere. Between their fried aAlaskan pollock on Fridays and Mondays and their very lightly breaded and perfvectly fried shrimp on Saturdays, they pretty much keep my seafood hungries satisfied. Oh, and how could I forget: they make a killer seafood chowder from-time to-time.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not one of those nut cases who demands that even historic, antebellum architectural structures be all but demolished and rebuilt to accommodate disabled folks. I even believe that if a private buiness owner would rather forgo my business that make it possible for me to gwet inand out of his business, that is his right, just as it is my right to take my money and spend it elsewhere. Now, publicly owned buildings are a different matter. I'm not sure when ADA came along, but that's a good question. I'll get back to you.

Jay Moreno said...

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), was signed into law by President Bush on July 26, 1990.

Anonymous said...

ADA laws may be an inconvenience to those who must adhere to them. But they are no where near the inconvenience that those who need them must endure to continue to be productive citizens in today's world.

Anonymous said...

Jay, thought you might be interested in this article:

AIKEN, S.C. (AP) — Former Chicago Bears defensive lineman William "The Refrigerator" Perry remains hospitalized in South Carolina.

Aiken Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Melissa Summer said Wednesday that Perry is in serious condition. The 46-year-old Perry has been hospitalized to deal with complications from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a chronic inflammation disorder of the peripheral nerves.

Perry's nephew, Purnell Perry, said Tuesday that his uncle was admitted more than a week ago but was expected to recover. A man who answered the phone Wednesday at Purnell Perry's home in Aiken said he couldn't comment on the football player's hospitalization.

The 300-pound plus defensive tackle played for the Bears' 1985 Super Bowl team, and helped lead Clemson to the 1981 national championship

Jay Moreno said...

Thanks.

Statistically, he has a good chance of recovering fully or almost fully. I'm working from memory here, but I beleive the strats are that about 85% of people who have the less serious demylinating version recover fully. Another 10% have some residual peripheral neurological deficits. The reamining five percent have the more serious, permanent damage from the unrcoverable axonal form which destroys not only the myelin sheath, which can regenerate, but the underlying axons, which cannot. I fall in the last 5%. Their description of GBS as a "chronic inflammation disorder of the peripheral nerves" is a little off. Onced they zap you with in my case - $35,000 worth of IV human immunoglobulin, the inflammation of your nerves is eliminated. Thereafter, it is just a matter of how much damage was done before then which determines the course and extent of your recovery. Maximum recovery (to whatever extent possible for each patient) usually occurs in no more than two years. I passed five years on the 16th of this month.

Anonymous said...

Hey Jay if your gonna be such good friends with the owners of Aunt B's, you might want to learn their names. It's Janie and Kathy.

Jay Moreno said...

You're absolutely correct. Just a senior moment. That's Cathy (Mrs. Coleman)Gentry and - give me a minute - Janie Hightower, right?

Jay Moreno said...

Oh, wait a minute: it just came back to me. It's Janie NeSmith.

Anonymous said...

Formally Janie Highsmith not Hightower. Although both the Hightower and Highsmith families are home grown. Janie however hails from Screven,Ga. Not so sure about Kathy though. I know that Coleman's family is from here but not sure about Kathy. Just a little aboriginal history lesson. On a side note, I had my first occassion to visit Langs Seafood tonight and two hours after a $54.00 + a 20% tip, I found that I was hungry again. Although the food was good, the portions are too small for the price. However, I have heard their "All you can eat" nights are well worth the money.

Anonymous said...

How about Janie Highsmith. You were close but no cigar.

Jay Moreno said...

There you go - Highsmith. Between Hightower and NeSmith, I was closing in on it. I had all the right parts but not in the right order.

Jay Moreno said...

I agree with you on both the portions and the price, especially given the early mobile home ambiance. If you notice, the clientele tends to be the more affluent upper crust of Lilliput. I rather think that the tolerate the high prices as the price oif keeping out the riff-raff. In the pursuit of really good food at a fair price, I'm not all that concerned with who I rub elbows with. Like I said, at the food volume and price points at The Mill, if the woman would just get and listen to some suggestions from bona-fide southeast Georgians (I'm from Savannah, where there is no shortage of good sea food), she could give Lang's fits. Of course, she will not.

Anonymous said...

Jay your right about Ms. Cagle. She is far too full of herself to let any back woods southerner tell her how to run her business. I mean how dare we? That's one reason I don't patronize her business anymore.

Jay Moreno said...

The shame of it is that the ass can't seem to understand that I - and I'm sure most folks - have a vested interested in having MORE -not less - good restaurants in Camden County. She's not the first woman from way outside of Dixie to attempt to purvey homestyle cooking (and on the southeast coastline - that damned surely includes seafood) based on they way they cooked it where they came from - not where we come from. Hello?!

Obnoxious ass for an owner or not -if I hear that the food is really good, I'll patronize a place. If the food is good, I have no reason to say otherwise and every reason to spread the good news. I want good restaurants to succeed wildly. It is in my self interest.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure what to think of your review. I love seafood, and have ALWAYS had nothing but wonderful service at Steffans. (Especially from Nikki and Samantha, who both go out of their way to be pleasant and helpful. Strangely, I've yet to see either of them about town unless it's inside of Steffans.) We have met the owner on two occassions and she was extremely polite and pleasant. I think we will try The Mill tonight, and I'll let you know what we think. I'm thrilled that the rumors of "gutting the inside" are true though! Whether I end up agreeing with you or not in the end, I thank you for offering a review!

Jay Moreno said...

You're welcome. I look forward to your review. Oh, and please let me and my readers know where you are from originally. It is relevant in terms of evaluating your "qualifications" to judge southern style cuisine in general and seafood in particular.

Anonymous said...

Ok, so we went to The Mill and were completely thrilled! There was a small wait (less than 5 minutes) when we arrived but that wasn't annoying at all. Our waitress was quick to take our drink orders and told us about the specials. Seeing as it was Saturday night, the special was Surf and Turf, but I was there strictly for the seafood. The calamari appetizer was delivered hot and fresh, and was a perfect consistency...not too mushy and not too tough. The only surprise was when I dipped the first piece into the sauce that came with it and completely expected to taste cocktail sauce. However, what I got was Marinara! Still yummy, but definitely one of those crazy "tongue surprises"! Considering how crowded the restaurant was, the 14 minutes it took to get our food didn't seem very long. (That was from the time of initial order, not after the appetizer arrived.) My husband and I both got the fried oysters, french fries, and side salads. While I knew my limits and only ordered the 1/2 pound serving, he briefly considered the 1 pound. After he saw how much food he got, he was so glad he went with the smaller size! The oysters and the fries were fixed to perfection! I very much liked the cocktail sauce but didn't try to tartar sauce. Hubby said that it was good (but didn't rave about it). The hushpuppies seemed small compared to those at other seafood restaurants, but at least they weren't overcooked as seems to happen too often regardless of the caliber of the eatery. (Am I just too picky?) I was glad to see that our drinks were refilled often and quickly, which is another true sign of how much attention the staff is paying to the customers. The decor is DEFINITELY better than the previous owner's tastes, so much so that you can hardly believe it's the same place inside! The idea of covering the tables in a layer of "brown package paper" is a brilliant idea that we haven't seen since we were stationed in New Jersey. The staff seems to work well together as everyone was bustling around but was able to stay out of each others' ways, and I didn't see one table sit empty or in need of being bussed at any time. The owner did stop by our table twice to see how things were and if we were pleased. I have to say that after reading your review, I think I was actually LOOKING for an attitude or any sign of snottiness. However, I didn't see anything. While we were waiting to pay after our meal, I did see the owner bring a fresh plate of food out to a customer who was not pleased with the first one. The customer was pleasant, and the owner didn't seem disgruntled or peeved at the temporary disapproval. The only thing that was less than expected about the entire visit was that the waitress forgot to bring our salads before the meal. However, once she sat down the plates and noticed we were missing "a side" each, she quickly consulted her order pad and corrected the mistake. It made the meal seem a little "lopsided" for the order I like to eat in, but it was really not a big deal. A big plus was that the balsamic vinagrette dressing I ordered must have been homemade! I've never tasted anything quite like it and it was thicker than the common vinagrette! All in all, I went in a little more skeptical than I would usually have when approaching a new restaurant, but I left happy and full! (And, just in case anyone wonders...the only "common factor" as far as the wait staff of Steffens and that at The Mill was the presence of the owner. Hubby and I both wondered if they "shared" waitresses, but it doesn't appear that they do!)
To answer your question about where I hail from, I'm a Southern girl. However, I married a Navy man, so I've had the wonderful benefit of living in many different places and experiencing lots of different cuisines. Some things are just done better in the North, and some are done better in the South....and seafood is one that belongs to the South!
In closing, while we both have offered different reviews, and obviously had different experiences, one thing remains the same...it's better now as The Mill than it was as St. Marys Seafood, even if you don't eat anything!

Jay Moreno said...

Oaky, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are not actually the owner pretending to be a bona fide customer (the recipient of one of my bad reviews has pulled that stunt before).
But were you reared in the south near the sea coast or the gulf? Trust me - folks hereabouts and in my hometowmn of Savannah, and Charleston to name a few, prefer our fried seafood battered with a mix of plain flour and fine ground white corn meal, not just wheat flour. As I said in my review, the shrimp and oysters I had were perfectly fried. My service was also good. Where your hushpuppies were described as not overcooked, mine were more raw than cooked. Moreover,they were utterly bland. Southerners reared on the ocen eat hushpuppies with onions in them. The slaw absolutely sucked. A good cole slaw is absolutely essential to the enjoyment of a good seafood dinner for most coastal reared southerners. The tarter sauce sucked, and the attempt at cocktail sauce needed easily twice as much horseraddish as what it had. Saying it was better than St. Marys Seafood is faint praise indeed. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I still say they will do much better if they fix the problems I encountered as I suggested.

P.S.,

Calamari is an Italian dish: it is always served with marinara sauce. If you are used to having it served with cocktail sauce, the folks who served it to you did not have a clue.

Anonymous said...

I've had Calamari served with marinara before, but I've also had it served with a ginger/sesame sauce...kind of like teriyaki, but not quite. Just hard to describe. Either way it's always been good. I think the only reason that I had a surprise this time (with it not being cocktail sauce) was because we had just remarked about the coctail sauce squeeze bottles on the table. Perhaps that was the slip in my own mind?... As for the hushpuppies, these weren't raw or doughy, but I too prefer mine with some onions and more "zing" to them. Yes, I'm an ocean gal!
And no, I'm definitely NOT the owner! I don't have the level of patience to put up with people eating food in a place I own with the lack of manners that some people have! It's tricky enough raising three teenage boys and a little girl to eat politely and appropriately in public without having to endure the varied upbringings of others. (Again, I'm picky, and rather set in my ways sometimes!)
An owner really pretended to be a customer??? That's pretty sad! If you're going to open an establishment to the public, then you need to be ready for criticism as well as praise. You just can't please everyone all the time, and that owner would be better off learning that from the start, and trying to take any criticism as a learning opportunity as well!
Thanks again for sharing your point of view...I'll keep my eye out for more of your restaurant reviews as this area continues to grow! (And I agree, The Mill could definitely give Langs a run for their money!)