Good Quality Lowbrow

[chappie]

The Exxon station on the road to St. Michael's just outside of Easton, MD makes exquisite cheese-steaks.  They also sell really good home-made country style fresh pork sausage.  It is worth a short detour if you get hungry on the way to/from the beach.  They also make home-made fruit pies, but I have never tried any of them.

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It's called Carroll's Market, and you'll be saddened to know the pies are Sysco; they don't make them. While they are tasty, some run as much as $12, which is far too steep for a pie that wasn't baked by someone's grandmother, with a lard crust and homegrown fruit.

The pork sausage is fantastic, however, and the owner does make that himself. It's also not cheap; the premade sausage sandwiches in the warmer are tiny and yet will set you back I think around $3. (They're great with mustard and hot relish, though).

Most of the other food there is very good. I've been going there since I was a kid, long before he got the gas pumps.

Edited September 14, 2004 by chappie (log)

[DonRocks]

Erm....that's over behind the mall, on the Borders/Best Buy side of the street, right? The *trailer* is still there, if I'm thinking of the place, but it didn't strike me as an actual operating business.  Then again, you never know.

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Oops! Sorry - I meant Pentagon City, not Crystal City. If you walked out the front of Pentagon City mall (the side facing Washington DC), and continued one block down a sidestreet, there was a little trailer called Nell's, and they had pretty good french fries (I think).

[chappie]

Has anyone been to Food Factory in College Park? (Located in the shopping center behind Town Hall Liquors on Rt. 1).

I lived on their samosas, lamb kebabs and made-to-order naan when I was in college. The generous portions of meat are perfectly seasoned, the bread is shaped over and then lowered into a specially made bread oven on a sort of pillow, and came out charred and crunchy in some spots, soft in others. The kebabs come with a yogurt and cucumber based hot sauce and salad and run about $6. Add a side dish (there are several vegetable curries, etc. offered daily) or some basmati rice, plus one of the cheap ($1) samosas and you're still stuffed for under $10.

We used to refer to the owner, a la Seinfeld, as the "Kebab Nazi," because he was very precise on the phone about how long your order would take, and he would chastise you (he must've memorized voices) if you entered earlier than his allotted time. "I said THIRTY minutes!" shaking his head.

Once I snuck in an order of 10 extra breads — at a ridiculous 50 cents each — all but certain he'd deny the request. He didn't. For the rest of the week I made pizzas with them, though I'm sure if he ever found that out, he'd have cut me off.

Marathon Deli in College Park used to be another crummy staple, but around 1997 or ’98 new owners took over and the quality changed. I was disappointed to order a tyropita and discover a filling that tasted like cheese danish.

[hjshorter]

Marathon Deli in College Park used to be another crummy staple, but around 1997 or ’98 new owners took over and the quality changed. I was disappointed to order a tyropita and discover a filling that tasted like cheese danish.

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That's a disappointment. I loved their gyros and french fries - the fries always came liberally sprinkled with salt and black pepper. Dinner there always preceded a night at the 'vous and was perfect for soaking up cheap beer.

[westofrome]

Has anyone checked out the new pizza shop Valentino's in Alexandria? It's at the intersection of Duke and Little River Turnpike in the Tower Records shopping center.

I work near there and have been loving it for lunch. It's real NY style pizza, with around 10 varieties for sale by the slice (sicilian marinara, hawiian, veggie, vodka chicken, white, spinach, broccoli, a huge zita pizza, and a bunch more). They also have good subs, pasta, salads and gyros. The best pizza I've had in DC.

[chappie]

That's a disappointment.  I loved their gyros and french fries -  the fries always came liberally sprinkled with salt and black pepper.  Dinner there always preceded a night at the 'vous and was perfect for soaking up cheap beer.

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Wasn't there some sort of green seasoning all over the fries? I was a big fan of the gyros of course, but also the souvlaki and any phyllo pastry except the one filled with chicken mash. I lived right in Frederick Hall on south campus for a few years, so Marathon was practically on our front steps.