Pop-A-Top Cafe

Roughly on the corner on Speight and South Valley Mills Drive at 1601 South 29^th street in Waco, is a shady little building with a menu that rivals any other burger joint I've ever been in. I wandered in around 11:30 in the morning toting my 4 year old into a place that looks like it should have sported more Harleys outside than the twenty or so sedans and SUV's that were there.

The first impression of the building is that I took the wrong entrance and ended up in any bar, anywhere in Texas. The smell of stale tobacco and the slight glaze of grease in the air aside, the café was exactly the kind of place I like-filled with Baylor students, Business suits and blue collar workers. If it attracts everyone it must be a good thing.

Once ordered, the food took 8 minutes and 22 seconds to reach the table. However the wait to get served was a tad bit long, but with two servers and 50 odd guests I can understand. The menu was a standard laminated paper listing of the food, with a table topper proclaiming the dinner specials and a chalk board with the lunch specials on the wall near the restrooms.

The first thing to hit me was I was going to have trouble sticking to my budget. Not because the food was overpriced, but because the menu teased me with delightful appetizers and amazing dishes that I really wanted to try. I stuck to my plan and ordered a double patty hamburger with ….RIBBON FRIES!!! I was shocked, real ribbon fries without having to stand in line at a fair and actually getting to sit down to eat them!

The breakdown:

The Hamburger (Double Stacked):

The burger arrived wrapped in a grease laden wrapper on a tin pan surrounded by ribbon fries.

I took out a quarter hung with a knife and gave it to my hamburger hating daughter. With a look of annoyance she bit into it. Suddenly with a "better get the camera out this will only happen once" face she devoured the food.

For a double patty burger most people would be overly full. I recommend that you go for the single stack so you can enjoy your food. Or, if you are brave, they have a 20 patty burger that you can have for FREE if you can eat it and 1lb of fries in an hour. I wonder if they are trying to get food networks attention!

The Fries:

Ribbon Fries! Ohhh Yeahhh! Although I have made a big deal about these so far, they were a little on the not quite done side, and not quite seasoned enough for my tastes. However, a little ketchup and some salt made them excellent.

The Price:

The meal cost me 9.30 with two drinks. Decent, especially for the amount of food you get. Moving down to a single stack and one drink probably would be a great money and belly saving move.

The Judgment:

An excellent place to eat. The atmosphere is rough, however the food more than makes up for it. This is not a place to bring a date unless she or he gets all romantic over ground beef. The specials are quite intriguing, and I will be back for the Friday Night special which is 2 burgers, 2 drinks and 2 fries for 9.99.

Epilogue:

A few items of note:

I will go back and do an appetizer review. Mostly since so many of their offerings caught my eye. In particular the road kill which are pepper jack cheese and chopped BBQ stuffed jalapenos wrapped in bacon. If it comes from a cow, was part of a cow and is stuffed in a spicy fruit wrapped in a pig, it must be good right?

I have already been asked and no I will not be doing the Belly Bomber. I value my stomach and don't want to try to do anything that foolish. Though, I was tempted for all of thirty seconds.

 

 

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers

In Waco we don't really have a whole lot of new things pop up. The economy and the environment of blue collar workers mixed with old cotton money makes for quite a few people who know what they want and get what they know. Many fast food chains have found ruin here, even the Krispy Crème donut shop that was "destined for glory" failed and now sports a two headed Schlotzsky's-Cinnabon monster that reminds me of flying out of Dallas Love-Field airport every time I smell the mixture of baking bread and cinnamon goop.

Funny thing is, up until they came to Waco, you'd find high school fund raising committees pushing those puffballs of fat and carbs at your car window up and down Valley Mills drive every fall. Besides the obvious financial issues that our country faces now and that the owners picked the worst place in Waco to put a donut shop, we are forced to ask ourselves the question; why did they close? What about ourselves have we done to push away business after business but still complain that we don't have enough places to choose from on a Friday night?

I don't have the answer.

However, by I do have a thought. Perhaps we want something ….more. We like our town and want to see it grow. However we want to see businesses that offer us what we can't get anywhere else and possibly make us even forget about the money we just handed over to get that food. We want something truly special, or better yet truly unique.

Krystal's, the White Castle wannabe that occupied the space next to Cheddars for all of 9 months bit the bullet rather quickly. Now a new comer to the Waco area has taken over the building and painted a big red mural proclaiming that they sell Chicken Fingers.

Chicken Fingers?

When I think of chicken fingers I think of those oddly rectangular shaped pieces of laminate floor tiling that our over worked mother or the lunch lady would stack on our plate at lunch to keep us quiet. Now I could go for some chicken tenders. Which is what Raising Cane's is all about. No literally. They only serve ….Chicken Tenders. Most meals come with fries, toast and a 1oz solo cup of a sauce called Cane's Sauce. No flavors, no mashed potatoes. Just Chicken Tenders.

So now that we know what we're dealing with, let's take you on a quick tour of the six piece platter called a Caniac The Caniac comes with six "fingers" two servings of Cane's Sauce, a two ounce cole slaw, a slice of toast and a large handful of crinkle cut fries, as well as a 32 oz drink.

The Chicken:

On first bite the chicken is really, really tender. The signs boast that only 1% of all chicken is acceptable to be made into chicken fingers. Also, the chicken is fresh (which for those of you who may not know, fresh is a term in market-speak which means it has never been frozen). This is the one time I've actually been able to tell the selection of the chicken made an impact on the final product. The breading is very light and has a delicate flavor. However, the chicken doesn't seem to hold up on its own , and the breading slips off greasily when picked up. I didn't really enjoy the chicken with or without the provided sauce. I've had better, plain and simple.

The "Cane's Sauce":

On first glance, this the only sauce they have besides ketchup, seems to be a hidden gem. A pinkish mayonnaise with speckles of spices throughout smells strong and tastes stronger. The sauce was over flavored, coating my mouth and making it near impossible to taste anything else. Since this is their only sauce I feel I have to be really critical about it. I once walked into a coffee shop and ordered a mocha, they only served non flavored espresso drinks. I thanked them and walked out. I don't like not getting a choice. This sauce is terrible and over powering. If you have one sauce, make an effort not to make it seem as if you had stirred half a jar of mayonnaise with a cup of seasoning salt. It simply overrides everything you'll eat for the rest of your meal.

The French Fries:

As you read my column more and more you will realize that a French Fry can either make or break a restaurant. I have two places (which I will cover in another article) which I would go to just for the fries. This is not one of them. In point of fact I wouldn't go here because the fries are so awful. The fries are crinkle cut frozen French fries deep fried and stuck on a plate. Whoopee! I can get better fries from a gas station, a really bad gas station. If all you are going to serve is unflavored chicken with an overpowering sauce, at least have the nerve to make real French fries. Please.

The Cole Slaw:

Long John Silver's---ish. Enough Said.

The Toast:

The only redeemable part of the meal besides the soda was the toast. Cane's seems to have actually made a point to place a soft piece of griddle toasted, sesame topped, "Texas" toast in the box. To place a piece of toast of this quality in a basket full of generic French fries and greasy chicken is insulting. Even on the picture the toast is inviting. However with my mouth coated in salty mayonnaise I was totally unable to tell you if there is anything besides butter on this bread.

The Drinks:

Cane's offers the standard Coke package plus Dr. Pepper. That means of course no Diet DP. They also have fresh lemonade and tea (both sweet and un-sweet).
They have crushed standard ice, sorry none of the nugget (Sonic) ice that y'all love so much.

The Price:

Absolutely overpriced. Turn around and go back up the block to Chick-fil-a.
The Caniac and a kid's meal ran me 14.59.

 

The Judgment:

I had hoped that Raising Cane's would have an awesome assortment of flavors that aren't your typical buffalo wing style. Like a sweet chili sauce or a honey mustard. This is a concept that would be better suited next to Baylor or even in a larger city. It's just too limited a menu with a price tag that is way too much for what is offered.