Tom Wahl's (Bushnell's Basin)

After hiking Powder Mills Park and feeding the fish we decided to head up the road and grab some root beers. We arrived 10 minutes before the doors closed and still had to wait in line; this is a true testament to the longstanding relationship Rochestarians and suburban-Rochestarians have with this chain of restaurants. Now, I had not actually been through Bushnell’s Basin in a few years and was sort of surprised at its Pittsford Jr. appeal and charm with new buildings and nouveau riche, boutiquey, atmosphere. None of it bad, of course, just not what I was expecting. As we headed to Tom’s I thought well why not bypass the cheeseburger and root beer and finish our hike with something healthier from Fruit & Salad Co. or Great Northern Pizza. We pulled in and took a peek and seeing that Fruit & Salad Co. was closed decided not to eat there. Onward and upward, around the back of the building and after a quick debate about pizza and the growing voids in our stomachs we decided that a burger would be especially more satisfying now than before. Much of the town was under the same impression.

It seemed very crowded for a Wednesday night and every demographic was present and accounted for. We placed our orders when called for at the counter. I was having the Bleu cheeseburger and an order of onion rings (secretly hoping that I would hit the jackpot again, like I did at Schallers) and my friend decided to go with a chicken sandwich, boring, but she’s a grown up. She made up for it by getting a frosted mug for her root beer. We were given a pager which I joked was a futuristic coaster for her root beer mug… it did not garner a lot of laughs.

We took our seats in the single person booths looking out into the dark parking lot and after a brief conversation regarding how stupid hiking is, Captain Kirk’s coaster started to buzz and flash and hover back to the counter where our food was waiting. It looked good and smelled good but as I was filling up a couple ketchup cups I noticed how dark and bike-tire like the onion rings were. Smooth, round, and brown (isn’t that how the song goes?). Not the flaky, organic, and golden color I was hoping for. C’est la vie.

I delivered the meal to our table and due to the size of the plates in comparison to the size of the bun and burger we deemed it necessary to share the tray rather than make a mess of the mesa.

Apart from the onion rings Tom Wahl’s nailed it once again. The bleu cheeseburger is a minimalist burger by design (lettuce and blue cheese dressing) and, when looking at it, it becomes plain to see why it gets the preferential hard roll… the creamy bleu cheese dressing. It is a sloppy mess as it is but with a plain hamburger bun it would be much worse. They also say that it is a buttered roll which leads me to believe it was slightly toasted but I have no recollection of either of those impressions on my tongue. My friend’s grilled chicken sandwich was said to be surprisingly good, and maybe it should not have been so surprising, I have no idea what a burger joint’s chicken would be like. I would not get the onion rings again; they were edible and not disgusting but burned and dry.

A word on when I don’t like something. It is easy to give a restaurant the benefit of the doubt and I always will because, well, I like easy. These onion rings that I had could have been an anomaly to the specific location or time of the day, and frankly both may be the case here, the restaurant was closing and inventory could have been running low, the deep fryer probably was filthy and prone to temperature fluctuations or some such thing, and the staff may not have been as diligent due to the proximity of quitting time

Things to remember when going to Tom Wahl’s:

1. Drink root beer (it is an original recipe and you will not regret it).

2. Order anything and you probably will be satisfied, their fish fry has always been good.

Schallers (Greece)

It was a Saturday night around 7:30 and we all thought that we were going to suffocate. The place was packed and coming in from the coolness of the lakeshore into the hustle and bustle and grease of a local diner left a weird film of something on the skin. And there were four of us, two of whom should count twice, so there were more like six dudes having a late dinner in what has become the quintessential burger joint for the town of Greece. Others do exist there, Bill Gray’s on Latta and Tom Wahl’s in the mall’s food court, but there is something inherently unique about the original Schallers Drive-In.

I stood at the counter and ordered (one ground, one cheeseburg, one Italian sausage with peppers and onions, two grilled cheeses, 4 orders, one Cherry Coke and one water). A friend went over to the ice cream counter and picked up a couple shakes, one vanilla and one chocolate. The clowns I was with had sat down in a faraway booth and were beginning to immerse themselves in the magnificent people watching these sorts of restaurants offer. Upon the stainless steel counter rested my empty brown plastic tray and out of my pocket came $25 of cold hard cash. The young lady behind the counter took it, gave me my change, and afforded me some conversation while she waited for the food to start showing up.

It did not take long for the heap to start forming. First the drinks, as is the fashion, then the counter girl asked what was to go on the burgers and sausage; the request was handled with ease. Now, the tray was getting a little cramped when the cheese sandwiches showed up, they ended up being stacked which was alright… they’re only grilled cheeses. I did become slightly concerned as to where the four orders of fries were going to go. Turns out I didn’t really need to worry because lo and behold there appeared on my tray only one order of fries and a mysterious order of onion rings.

When I reminded the girl of my original order she became very apologetic.

“I love onion rings so just get me two more orders of fries.”

“You’ll have to pay for them because I didn’t include them on your original order.”

“I wasn’t expecting not to,” I said and smiled. She was relieved and I was excited to try their onion rings.

I joined my cohorts at the booth. They had so kindly already gotten the pickles and as I had waited for the order I filled 5 or 6 paper cups of ketchup. Food was divvied up to its respective parties and consumed in a matter of minutes. The sausage was ranked very high and enjoyed immensely and comes highly recommended. The grilled cheese sandwiches were grilled cheese sandwiches but were delicious none-the-less; they did, however, leave their paper plates nearly translucent. The hamburgers, made in the Rochester style, were very decent, and would seem relatively lean sans hot sauce. They were a little chewy and the cheeseburger was missing something, probably the cheese (either they use an amount that is insufficient or the quality of the product does not provide adequate cheesiness in regards to all aspects of tongue-appeal). All in all the sandwiches delivered but the real star of the show were the onion rings.

I was floored. They were breaded and deep-fried perfectly. They were not gooey or stringy or wet or dry, they were crisp, crunchy, and the produce seemed fresh, and if they were frozen they fooled me good.

Things to remember when going to Schallers:

1. It’s crowded and steamy.

2. Waiting at the counter can be a time consuming and hence annoying procedure, even for small orders. After we finished our meal I went back up, got two more burgers and another order of fries and it took as long as our original order of 3 times the size. C’est la vie. The counter kids are great though and do care about the quality of the food as well as the waiting customer.

3. Much like a DiBella’s you must specify which type of roll you want for your ground before you can proceed with the rest of the order. The bun is default but you still need to specify. The other option, a hard roll, costs extra.

4. The chocolate shakes are not that chocolaty. But the vanillas are stupendous.

5. Onion rings rocked.