88 Restaurant and Lounge in Buckhannon scored a spot on the 101 Most Unique Places to Dine in WV list. The restaurant features a traditional menu full of sandwiches and salads for lunch, as well as pasta, chicken and beef dishes for dinner.
However, on this day, I was actually here for breakfast. Eggs, cinnamon rolls, biscuits and gravy, pancakes. Of course, I go for the sweet over the savory. So, blueberry pancakes were calling my name.
The pancakes had actual small little blueberries in them. They were a bit tart, but the abundance of my maple syrup covered any of that. they were a good mix between fluffy and dense - a perfect texture, really. The sausage patties added the perfect amount of salt for this dish. A pretty tasty dish.
Mary Kay ordered a cinnamon roll, which was pretty hard and dry. It was not great. Definitely skip the cinnamon roll and go straight for the pancakes.
And, one of the coolest parts of the trip, as we were leaving, I saw this old cigarette machine that had been transformed into an art machine.
There are a bunch of different pieces from different artists. It requires a $5 coin, which you can get at the front desk. One noted that it was a hand-crafted book. So, I got that one. I now have this teeny tiny book that I'm not sure what to do with, but there are tons. Little paintings or graphic novels or all kinds. Check it out if you stop here.Grade: B
Buckhannon is home to some pretty cool restaurants, like CJ Maggies, The Donut Shop and The Market Bistro. The next one on my to-try list was 3/4 Cafe.
That name? Well, the owners have some insight as to why that is:
During a vacation in the summer of 2013, in an antique store on the California coast, a vintage cast brass ¾ house number was discovered at the bottom of a box of random hardware parts. We immediately recognized it as the rightful address for the 3rd basement, being the 3rd of 4 basements in the Stockert Building, and we delighted in the concept of the fractional addresses that are still found on so many Main Streets across the country, which the postal system no longer permits. It seemed that we had discovered an historic version of the contemporary "micro" trend. This ¾ name also solidified our hopes to someday have all four basements occupied by creative and alternative enterprises, comprising an underground district for the Arts in Buckhannon.
3/4 Cafe is located off the beaten path, in an alleyway behind Main Street. That sort of adds to its charm of being this hidden gem. Despite being in the basement of a building, there is a surprising amount of light that comes in through the windows. Plus there are hanging lights above each table, which adds some more air to the space. It's quite lovely inside, really, with sleek furniture and simple accents.
Water for the table is served in these glass bottles with swingtop closures. They have a variety of coffees, teas and wines, as well. The menu consists of mostly light plates, like salads, bread and cheese plates, soups and paninis.The bacon, peach and chevre panini caught my eye. The panini had bacon, fresh peach, basil, and goat cheese on a nice hearty, crisp bread. It was served with a garden green side salad that I had dressed with a maple bacon dressing.
I really liked my sandwich. The flavors and portions of each were well thought out. The goat cheese was a perfect bite with the sweet peach, salty crisp bacon. It all tasted fresh, too. The salad dressing was a bit too sweet for my taste, but not bad.
It's something a little different, light and fresh. Give 'em a try.
Grade: A
I visited The Donut Shop in Buckhannon to learn about pepperoni rolls (you'll be seeing that a lot from some of my blog posts), and I had to try some of the donuts, too.
The manager told me they have around 40-50 donuts. YUM. They're open 24 hours and have a small dining area inside.
They serve pepperoni rolls with ground pepperoni. Yummy! It's a roll with ground pepperoni right inside, so there are little bits everywhere.
I got a strawberry shortcake donut, which was delicious with strawberry and cream filling. I also got a peanut butter angel, I think it was. It was so good! Peanut butter and cream. Good lord. Do yourself a favor and just get a dozen to go - along with a pepperoni roll.
Grade: A
I went to the C.J. Maggie's location in Fairmont a few years ago when it was still around, and I have fond memories of a giant spinach salad - peanuts, egg, tomatoes, mozzarella and hot bacon dressing. Yum.C.J. Maggie's, which has opened a few restaurants in West Virginia, is well beloved in the state.
A Morgantown one was even more short-lived than Fairmont. Now, only two C.J. Maggie's remain: Elkins and Buckhannon, the original.
C.J. Maggie's boasts a huge menu from wings and fries as appetizers to seven salads with a choice of nine dressings. There are more than a dozen wood-fired pizza choices, like a spinach ricotta and roasted garlic, and a grape ape. Then there's the meat section with steak, roast beef, chicken and biscuits, Italian sausage platters, stuffed pork chops, fish and pulled pork. Then, there are nearly 20 options for pasta - lasagna, linguine and meatballs, alfredo pie, burgundy beef, chicken asiago, super mac, tortellini, jambalaya, marsala chicken and more. Plus side orders, plus tex mex, plus 22 sandwiches - club, buffalo chicken, burgers, Italian hoagies, reubens.
But we actually didn't go there for any of that. I just wanted something with strawberries in honor of the Strawberry Festival, so I ordered a strawberry shake. That is, once we were finally waited on - about 15 minutes after we sat down. That was odd since we were seated immediately. They didn't seem too busy.
Then, it took about another half hour before I received my strawberry shake and the order of dough-knots that a friend ordered. The service was not great. It took about an hour total for a simple shake and an order of flash-fried dough. We had another appointment scheduled, and I didn't want to be late. I think our waitress knew the wait was too much, because she brought out our drinks in to-go cups without even asking.
The good: This damn milkshake was delicious. I know you're really surprised that I was impressed with ice cream. But there was some chunks of strawberry, and the whipped cream. Yum. The dough knots were also good - if you love donuts. I had one, and it was super sweet between the sugar, the chocolate syrup AND the caramel.
The bad: The experience here was a mess. I wish it wasn't, but it was. We were seated almost immediately, but it took 15 minutes for our server to arrive. Then another half hour to receive our food (which shouldn't take that long), then another 15 or so minutes to bring our cards back once we paid. The whole experience was kind of ruined because it was rushed and just not fun. And there were empty tables all around.So, I'd go back again for a meal. And just hope the experience is better.
Grade: B
Buckhannon is such a cute little town with some delicious restaurants options. As soon as we got to town, we beelined to the Market Bistro, a charming little cafe with soups, sandwiches, salads with homemade dressings, quiche and loads of desserts.The inside of the Market Bistro is cute and eclectic with some floral tablecloths and chalkboard painted bottles. My friend Kayla created that beautiful "Strawberry Fest" art.
There wasn't another soul in the restaurant, besides the workers when we went, which I found odd for a Saturday around lunch time. Maybe we were a bit too early. We seated ourselves and looked through the menu.
There's a club sandwich, a hot Italian sandwich, a portabello sandwich and "Donna's Favorite," which was a grilled chicken breast on sun-dried tomato foccaccia with provolone and artichoke spinach dip. There is also a variety of dinners, like baked penne, lemon chicken, eggplant parmesan, lasagna, alfredo, etc.
For our lunch, I went with the Donna's Favorite and a house salad with maple bacon dressing. After a little wait, our plates arrived.
My sandwich was an impressive display piled high with thick triangular cuts of bread. The bread is phenomenal - fresh, crumbly in all the right places, golden brown and super flavorful. The artichoke spinach dip was also tasty, but the chicken was not doing it for me. It was maybe precooked and then microwaved? Or maybe just microwaved? It was rubbery and dry and lacked flavor. I was a little bummed, but I honestly ended up just picking at the bread and dip because they were both so good. The salad wasn't bad, either, and the dressing was much more on the maple side than the bacon side, leaving me with a sweeter flavor.
All in all, a very cute little restaurant, and I really loved the bread and dip, but the chicken needed some work. It's an easy fix - but also an important one. Otherwise, I think their dinner also looks really good, and I'd love to try that if I'm back in the area sometime. And that dessert case - good lord, it looked delicious. But were were saving room for our snacks throughout the day, so I didn't want to get stuff at the first place. Next time.Grade: B
Buckhannon is the home of the West Virginia Strawberry Festival. I corralled a few friends to join me for the opening day and check out all the strawberry goodies.
The festival, held annually in the third week of May, began in 1936 as a way to honor strawberry growers, as per their website. The festival gave strawberry growers a place to sell their berries and the first one was one-day long and eventually grew into a full week. The festival continues to honor the strawberry growers from across West Virginia with a strawberry auction on Friday afternoon of the festival week.
Walking through the main streets, all the storefronts were covered in painted strawberries and strawberry artwork. Restaurants also had strawberry specials. I quickly learned that the very first day is not the most eventual, and other events begin throughout the week. They later opened a carnival, arts and crafts exhibits, quilt shows, photography shows and more.
There were a few vendors along the Main Street dishing out some strawberry goodies (though no fresh strawberries) and some street side entertainers.
A very cool festival - though I'll definitely go later in the week next time - and I was able to try a few new restaurants. Look for those soon :)
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