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.