When Chris was at work recently, I wanted to explore the area. I usually don't do this without him because 1- I get lost easily 2- I am bound to always get lost. But he was working one of those 12-hour days, and I was wanting something other than McDonald's or Wendy's for lunch. A friend suggested Dick's Swissburger. I had heard of this place, but the only address I could find for it was "Rt 52 N," which doesn't give me much to work with. However, with my handy-dandy iPhone, my friend dropped a pin on the map so I could find it exactly.

From Princeton, it wasn't too tough to find. I went past the mall, made the next right to go toward Bluefield. Then I was on the main drag in Bluefield and made a left to go up a small hill (across from Bluefield State College) and across that bridge for a little while until Dick's Swissburger was on my right.

I actually saw the sign first and had to look for the building - it's kind of swallowed up by the larger building beside it. But I pulled up and it's kind of an empty lot - maybe park wherever you want? There was one spot open at the front so I parked and went inside.

As soon as you walk in, there's a bar area where you order your food. A few menus are up at the front. I went for, you guessed it, the Swissburger - 1/2 pound beef, lettuce, swiss cheese, tomato, mayo, onion, pickle and mustard. For $5. They only take cash here - luckily, I stole a few bucks from Chris JUST IN CASE this was the case. And it was.

The two women working were super nice and helpful. I told them I'm not from the area, but I heard good things so I wanted to check it out. They made some small talk with me about WVU and my nail polish, then I went to find a seat. It seems as though they have two main dining areas - two small rooms. One is at the very front with some windows, while the other is window-less. The tables and chairs are basic for a burger joint. I only waited a few minutes before one of the women brought me a basket cradling the massive burger I just ordered.

Their burgers are made with seasoned angus, and you can certainly taste the beef. It's not overpowered by any of the condiments, so if you want a huge slab of meat, this is your place. Everything was really tasty, too. I don't know if I've had a burger with just swiss, sans cheddar/American, but it was good. It was melty and warm and coated the meat in that slightly sweet, creamy cheese. Ingredients were top-notch - fresh tomatoes, lettuce, etc. The burger here is clearly the star, though. That flavor is most prominent. I actually added a little ketchup because they had some at the table. I couldn't even finish this burger, so I got a to-go box. The service was awesome, and the food was great. Want a good, homemade burger? This is your place. This is everything I love about West Virginia restaurants - quality food, awesome service and the rest is up for grabs.


Grade: A

I'm at the point in my blog where I've visited most of the mainstream restaurants in town, and I'm now venturing those bar/grills (meaning, a bar with about five food items) and, now, the mall food court. But it was actually a pretty good decision.

Morgantown's mall is fairly small, especially for a college town, so there are only a handful of options in the food court. There are four that aren't major chains: Wong's Wok, Fuji Grill, T&L hotdogs, and Just Desserts. My friend that I was with is doing a "low carb" thing, so we were sure we would have to look outside the mall. But as we were walking around, we saw that Wong's Wok advertised a "Non-Carb Menu."

We got in line, and before we knew it, we were already at the front. It is extremely fast; it might be good to have an idea of what you want beforehand. They have a few options: 1 entree with rice/lo mein, 2 entrees with rice/lo mein, or 3 entrees with rice/lo mein. I wasn't completely certain what their entrees were because the line moved so fast. But they are up on the wall. So, I asked for sesame chicken, general tso's chicken and lo mein. Also, I got an order of cheese wontons. Plus a drink.

My order came to $12.37, but they don't give receipts. I took my tray back to a table to uncover my lunch. They are pretty large portions, especially for "lunch." The box was filled with a bed of lo mein, and each type of chicken was two large, heaping spoonfuls on top of the lo mein.

To my surprise, it was all pretty tasty. Granted, this is not authentic; this is Americanized Chinese food in every sense of the word. But I'm not ashamed to admit I like it. The chicken had the perfect amount of crispness, with a thick, spicy sauce over it. I couldn't sense much difference in the sesame chicken and general tso's - but it's pretty similar anyway. Tangy sweet sauce over chicken. The cheese wontons were even pretty good - ample amount of cream cheese filling.

Next time I'm in the mall around lunchtime, I'm headed here (after I try the other three places, of course).

Grade: A

Bent Willey's is the nightclub for 21+ college kids. That's not my scene. But Bent does serve pizzas late night, when drunk patrons need some food. When you've been drinking, sure they taste fine. So, I'll combine that review with this one.

Bent now has an extension called Bent Willey's Red Zone Sports Bar, which is underneath the main Bent Willey's area. And it's open for lunch and has a bazillion TVs.

As a side note, Vintage Room is also owned by the same folks, but it's a finer drinking establishment, and they, too, are known for their pizzas. But that's a more separate restaurant that I've already reviewed.

Again, Bent just has pizzas for the late-night drunken kids. This new sports bar portion has an actual menu and is open for lunch. When we walked in, it was pretty bare. It's still very new, though. TVs are plastered everywhere, and there were a few games set up to play. A waitress came over to us as soon as we sat down and handed us their menus. She suggested their wings and potato skins. I was more interested in their pizza, since it seems to be a running theme.


My two friends had their food delivered way before mine. The waitress apologized about four times, which honestly started to make me uncomfortable, but when it finally came out, it looked pretty good. It was fairly large. I'm not sure if Vintage/Bent/Red Zone share a kitchen or not, or at least Bent/Red Zone, but the pizzas seem a little different. While Bent's seem like large, NY, flat slices, the Red Zone's are big smaller, but parmesan cheese was all over it, including the crust.

It was tasty - the sauce is their homemade sauce they use at Bent. It's more tomato-y and less marinara. It's hearty, acidic. But it's a decent pie overall. I also tried Tony's potato skins - they were okay. I wouldn't order them again. And he got the sweet chili wings, which were probably the best item I tasted. Not a homemade sauce, but decent.

It's basically a run-of-the-mill, mediocre sports bar. Lots of TV. Lots of decent food. I won't seek this place out again, but it wasn't a waste of money either.


Grade: C

I had mentioned Art is Food in a previous post. Art is Food was a new Fall Family Weekend event in Morgantown this year, which was in coordination with the Arts Walk. It was held Friday from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.


I had bought my tickets online; I didn't really know if there would be an option to buy them in person. But one perk to buying them online was that the first 300 people got "Downtown Dollars," which was $10 to spend at a number of selected businesses downtown. That's pretty cool! After we got our wristbands, we selected a table right smack dab in the center of the action.

It was located at the new Farmers' Market pavilion, and we arrived about 10 minutes early, so we were one of the first people there. In the center was a ton of tables with black and white tableclothes and autumn flower centerpieces, and on the left side were three restaurant tables and on the right were three restaurant tables. In front was a stack of trays and utensils. At the back of the pavilion was a band playing. It was really a pretty nice setup.

We realized as more people started to filter in that we could just walk up to the tables and begin our adventure. Our trays had four portions, so we hit up the three tables on the left that were closest to us: Golden Finch, Mother India and Black Bear Burritos.

Golden Finch was still kind of setting up when we arrived, so they had a salad and a slab of meat: The salad was basically tomato and lettuce (later on, they added potatoes, etc.). They had a few options for dressing and a slab of meat with a side of horseradish sauce. The sauces were very good; I just wish there was a little more here! Golden Finch is one of my favorites for desserts - too bad they didn't bring any along with them. Their creme brulee is to die for.

Next in line was Mother India. They had a tray of basmati rice, chicken tikka masala, vegetable pakoras and naan bread. This was a nice little sampling of what their buffet is like, and these are their top-sellers - for good reason! They're all fantastic, with great, delicious flavors. Their chicken tikka masala is my favorite dish, as it's slightly sweet, slightly spicy and creamy. The pakoras are also one of my favorites - that fried crunchy, salty taste is divine with the creaminess of the entree. The friend I was with, who hadn't tried any of these restaurants, deemed this the best. She never even had Indian food before! So, they definitely sold her on it, and she's using her $10 Downtown Dollars to go there.

Black Bear Burritos was the final restaurant table on the left side. As one of the most favorite restaurants in town, I was interested to see what Black Bear would choose as their flagship burrito to represent themselves at this event. Instead of one of their trademarks, they chose to display their special that week - the Darkwing Duck. It was a small stroller inspired by autumn - in their words. It was a bed of romaine lettuce and spring mix, roasted golden corn and cooked red onion. A cinnamon-brown sugar cream cheese is added with crunchy walnuts and your choice of succulent slow-roasted duck confit or local tofu. They also had a pumpkin/squash soup that went perfectly with the burrito. The flavors are a bit more complex than your typical burrito, but I loved it, especially when the cream cheese mixed with the duck confit. Creative and fabulous!

So after stopping at these three places, my tray was full. We took it back to our table to dig in. I think my favorite was Black Bear, because it was new and different. Then Mother India, because that's one of my classic faves. Then Golden Finch because there wasn't much standing out here, but regardless, it was still tasty!

I headed back for a new tray and set of utensils before hitting up the right side of the pavilion where Oliverio's Restaurant, The Cupcakerie, and the Morgantown Brewing Company were set up.

Oliverio's brought two pastas to choose from - or to sample both - as well as a small hot crab dip. There was a penne pasta in their pink cream sauce (my favorite!) as well as a grilled chicken penne olio, with hazelnuts. These were all amazing - the crab dip was creamy and in a flaky, crunchy shell. The pasta sauces were killer, as always. Indulgent.

The Cupcakerie was next in line. They had a ton of mini cupcakes in: pumpkin pie, loco cocoa, p'nutty for chocolate, mountain mama apple butter, red carpet red velvet, 24 karat cake. I would've loved to try all of them, but two was what they were willing to dish out. So I went for the p'nutty for chocolate and the red carpet red velvet. The p'nutty for chocolate was a moist chocolate cake, with a peanut butter cup in the center, topped with peanut butter icing and shaved chocolate. The red velvet was a decadent red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. I don't even need to use words here: YUMMMMMM.

Morgantown Brewing Company was the last of the six restaurants. My friend was surprised to find they had food and weren't just a bar (so, smart on their part to be part of this event!). They first handed us a small pretzel, and the woman said it would be great with the beer-cheese soup. Yum! They also gave us a small bratwurst. Very German. And they were right - that pretzel went perfectly with the beer-cheese soup. I think I could drink that soup; it was so delicious. What would've been even better was if they would've brought some Alpha Blonde along with them.

But overall, it was such a great experience. My friend, who is a freshman, was able to try six completely new restaurants in one place. We even got the $10 worth of Downtown Dollars, so it was really only like paying $5 for the event - well worth it! And the $10 is encouraging folks to spend some money downtown. It's a great incentive and a great way to showcase what downtown has to offer. I'm hoping to spend mine soon! It looked as though they had a great turnout, so I hope they continue to do it in the future.

Hi all! My latest Savor WV articles have come out about Muriale's Italian Restaurant and Key Ingredients for Life. And the best part is that the magazine is now selling in Morgantown! Please pick up a copy and subscribe if you like what you see! =]

Monongalia County
Friends Gift Shop  WVU Hospital
8075 Medical Center Drive
Morgantown, WV 26506
304-598-4133