I visited the Greenbrier on the Fourth of July to see Maroon 5 play. It was a crazy busy day, but my friends and I wanted to make the best of it. The concert series is part of the Greenbrier Classic, and it's held at the Fairgrounds - so not right at the hotel. We took a shuttle to the golf course area and walked up to the hotel for some grub.

Draper's at the Greenbrier is one of the few places in the hotel that has a more casual dress code, so we figured this would be our best bet.

The only problem was that there was an hour and fifteen minute wait. We couldn't do that, so we opted for the ice cream bar only area.


We walked in and took a seat at the bar. The interior of this place is awesome. It's bright and colorful and has floral patterns on everything. They are open 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. for breakfast, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for lunch and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. for dinner daily.

I ordered a caramel sundae with butter pecan ice cream. Good lord. Super rich, but also super great.

It gets a little hectic here, so if you really wanna check it out (and I would love to try the fried green tomato sandwich), definitely get here early. Especially if there's a large event going on. But definitely worth it to check out. Pretty tasty.

Grade: A

A quick weekday getaway to Pittsburgh landed Afton and I at Osaka, a sushi and Chinese restaurant located on Greentree Road. From the outside, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, with it being in a plaza with giant lettering that reads "Chinese Restaurant." Hmph.

On the sushi side, I wanted to go with their namesake - the Osaka Roll. It is a tempura roll with crab and spicy tuna. I was thinking for some reason it would be crab tempura, as opposed to the whole thing being fried. And that's my fault. But it was still good.

Fish was good, flavor was good - a little heavy on soy - but overall pretty tasty. I'd go back again and try some other dishes.

Grade: B

Finally finished with my tour of farmers markets in Morgantown.

Monday - Cheat Lake Farmers Market
Tuesday - Westover Farmers Market
Wednesday - Health Sciences Center Farmers Market
Thursday - South Morgantown Community Farmers Market 
Friday - XXXXXXXXX
Saturday - Morgantown Farmers Market

This one actually has a pretty nice little space - it's in a small pavilion near the Community United Methodist Church at 1966 Grafton Road.

There are a handful of vendors - with vegetables, baked goods, coffee and more. Check it out.

After attending a church service (I know) in Washington, Pa., my family and I were starved. I always look for the best restaurant in the area, and I was surprised to see "Al an' Rubens" toward the top of the list. I pass by this place every time I head home and always assumed it was a bar. You know what they say about people who assume...


It's not. It's a decent Italian place, actually. We walked in and saw all the staff sitting to the right - either they just opened or weren't very busy. I felt everyone's eyes on me as a waitress led us to our table.

I looked over the menu as our waitress brought us drinks. I asked if they had just opened, and she said no, so I was concerned why we were the only patrons in the restaurant. Luckily, it filled in pretty quickly as it got a little later and into "dinner time" territory.

We were brought bread and butter, and the butter was a different kind blended with some seasonings. Not bad.

I ordered their Tortellini Al Fonze, which had sautéed spinach, bacon and mushrooms in a garlic parmesan cream sauce tossed with cheese tortellini.

But first, a salad. Actually, a pretty decent salad with a pepper, some tomatoes, olives and mixed greens.


My entree was pretty good. It was $18, but that seems on par with meals in Morgantown. Tortellini was tasty, cheese sauce was on point, and I love the bacon and spinach. I mean, this is really kind of a dish made for me. Creamy and cheesey and amazing. Love this.



The service could be a tad bit more professional and polished (how odd to have servers standing around and watching you while you eat), the prices could be a little lower for the area, and the outside could be a bit more inviting -- but overall, decent food.

Grade: A

When I first heard of "Spicy Gringo's," I thought to myself ... isn't that a derogatory term? I thought "gringo" was something Spanish-speaking folks called non-Spanish-speaking folks in a disparaging way. But what do I know.

This new-ish place is located in downtown Wellsburg in the location of a previous restaurant. It's the only Mexican place in Wellsburg - as far as I know - so my mother has to be happy. (My dad and I love Asian food, but my mom tends to go toward Mexican. Two against one. We won a lot.)


Walking in, we were immediately greeted. The gentleman waiting on us was lovely. After some conversation, I went ahead and ordered the chicken quesadilla. We started with some chips and salsa. The chips were pretty thick - I dig that.


My quesadilla was fairly average. Kinda boring, really, but I like chicken and I love cheese, so how bad can it be? I did ask for some sauces (do this!), and they brought out a trio ranging from not too spicy to very spicy. I actually really enjoyed the green one. It really added a punch of flavor to my quesadilla.

After the quesadilla, we ordered dessert. They have "chimmies," which are fried candy bars. Good god. I had a Snickers one. It was so good - melty chocolate and caramel, but then I found a toothpick. I'm assuming they use those to fry them. But it was OK. It didn't affect me too much, and it was still good.

Our waiter took away our plates and actually saw the toothpick, apologized profusely, and took that off my check. Wow. I don't think service gets much better than that.

Not super mind-blowing Mexican food, but basic, simple and with some good sauces. And awesome people. Oh, and for SUPER cheap.



Grade: B

I've kind of dogged Tudor's in the past because I'm a terrible West Virginian. Just kidding - it's because I didn't get all the hubbub.

But I've come around in recent years and, wouldn't you know it, the most northern location of the chain has me come full circle.

I ran through the Tudor's Biscuit World drive-thru in downtown Weirton before heading to check out the Fiesta factory in Newell. I thought maybe going inside is the key to the perfect Tudor's biscuit. But I don't think that's accurate. I just think some chains are better than others.

Weirton's chain is great.


The food, that is. It did come in a weird plastic bag (I thought they did paper bags), and the hash brown tried to tell me it was french fries, but yolo.

I ordered a Mary B. And good lord, it hit the spot. It was huge, the biscuit was so fluffy and perfect. Hash brown was greasy as hell, but it didn't matter. That biscuit had me super happy. It was hot out of the oven and perfect. Delish. Keep it up, Northern Panhandle.











Grade: A

I should've known better.

The location is a former strip club. It's out in the middle of nowhere. And a menu is nowhere to be found on their website.

Honky Tonk Grill was rough around the edges, to say the least.


When we pulled up, it looked like a shack. No windows and in dire need of a good scrub. Located past Sabraton, near Dellslow, it's not the most convenient location (but maybe an option for folks living out that way, I thought?). Regardless, we drove all the way there, so I wanted to go inside.

As soon as we walked inside the building, two small pups came running toward us barking. The girl working - in gym shorts and a cami - apologized and said she's usually the only one working. It was incredibly muggy inside. Their AC was broken, so she ushered us outside.

As we walked outside, I spotted what I think was a stripper stage. So, that was cool. And by cool, I mean no.

Outside was just a sun-bleached deck with newly constructed picnic tables - which were prone to splinters through my dress. It was so hot that day - like upper 80s, low 90s - and there was absolutely no shade. Not an ideal combination for work clothes and hot food. There is a nice little overlook onto the creek, but there was poison ivy within arm's reach.

Oh, the menu. One menu. For six people. Handwritten.

There was still time for me to leave, but I didn't.

We ordered drinks. Some cups came out dirty. Others had hair on them.

I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with scalloped potatoes. Coworkers had ribs, chicken wings and burgers.

Our waitress - who should've been wearing gloves - repeatedly wiped sweat off her forehead (I don't blame her, it was blazing outside), which may or may not have made its way into our food.

Speaking of things in my food.

I found not one but two hairs in my food. This is the absolute worst for me. I just lose my appetite. It grosses me out beyond belief. I started in the pulled pork - which was absolutely not pulled and more like a chopped up pork chop - and found an inch-long dark hair. Maybe the dog's? Because the waitress had light hair.

Then I went for my scalloped potatoes, which were surprisingly tasty, until I found an even longer blond hair.

I think I had about five bites total. And that was five bites too many.

A man came to join our waitress in helping us - which is great, because she was clearly frazzled - but it was too late. They brought us out pitchers of drinks and some fries, but I was already too grossed out to continue.

My coworkers finished their food - the chicken wings were average, but everything else was subpar.

I went inside to hurry along this transaction and pay. And what do we find on the floor?

Dog poop. On the restaurant floor.

I'm generally concerned with your well-being if you go here. I waited about nine hours before I was in the clear to make sure I wouldn't have food poisoning.

Avoid, at all costs.

Grade: F

The Mason Jar has been doing a bit of advertising lately, boasting its food and whatnot. That made me question writing it off as a typical bar, so I convinced two coworkers to make the hike to Granville for lunch.

It's on Dents Run Road, which is near the mall, but technically over in Granville. That area confuses me. There's a good bit of parking, and the outside is a bit questionable looking. Dark tinted windows and advertisements for it being a hot spot. Bypassing that, we walked to the right and into a small bar area.

The first thing I noticed was the stale cigarette smell. You know what I'm talking about - a good bit of bars in Morgantown have this, from the recent smoking ban put in place. It was kind of overwhelming at first, but after a moment, I got used to it.


It was clear that while they advertise their food, they are still primarily a bar. We walked in and sat awkwardly for a moment before menus were brought to us. The waitress seemed a little clueless and uncomfortable, which made me uncomfortable in my choice going there. A guy took over eventually and was way more personable and knew what he was talking about, so I was thankful for that. They have a bigger menu than what I was expecting, but still average bar stuff - wings, chicken tenders, some burgers, etc. I wanted to go with something safe: chicken tenders.


The table was a little sticky, they had a list of shots named after sexual innuendos, and I could see beer cases taped to the wall in the kitchen. Chicken fingers it is. And some hot pepper cheeseballs.



Hot pepper cheeseballs are my fav. fried food probably. Crispy and fried on the outside, gooey and a little spicy on the inside. These were OK. A fairly small portion for the price, but OK.

The chicken tenders were fine. Nothing you couldn't get out of the frozen section of Kroger. Fries were OK, too. Nothing great, but nothing really bad either. Just very average. With maybe a slightly less than average environment.

If you're in the area and don't have many options or are a fan of the bar, then yes. But if you're going for the food, look elsewhere.

Grade: C