CHEAP EATS
Cowlesville’s Pine Lounge: Excellent food led by fantastic fish fry
A guy called up and recommended we try the Pine Lounge in Cowlesville. “It’s 15 minutes from Transit and Clinton,” he said, although Cowlesville sounds much farther away. “And it has the best fish fry around.”
Anonymous guy, you were right on both counts. “I’ve had a lot of fish fries in my life,” John said after making a valiant effort to finish the Pine Lounge’s version. “And that was one of the best.”
The fish is breaded, almost grease-free, hot, crunchy, fresh and sizable, if not the largest we’ve ever seen. And it was a good price—$8.50 for the fish fry, $7.50 for a half.
More about that fish fry: When it was delivered, on a platter, we saw scoops of coleslaw and potato salad, a pile of fries and the fish. Further excavation of fries uncovered a scoop of macaroni salad, tuna mac, by the taste of it. Because our server brought a plate of bread to the table as soon as we sat down, all the carb bases were covered. Take note, all the places that are throwing a slab of fish and a side of fries on a plate and calling it a fish fry!
The plate of bread, by the way, contained two slices of unremarkable white bread and two small segments of utterly delicious cornbread.
The caller had also recommended the homemade Polish food at the Pine Lounge, so I got the Polish platter, just over the budget at $10.50. But it promised smoked sausage, two pierogi and golabki, a way to sample several kitchen creations. It came with soup, a hearty tomato-noodle, and was excellent. I chose one cheese pierogi and one potato, and in both cases, the tender dough wrapper was lightly fried to perfection and topped with subtle threads of fried onion.
The smoked sausage was studded with herbs and it was delicious, much better than run-of-the-mill grilled kielbasa. The golabki was served in a shallow pan set on top of the platter so its tomato sauce wouldn’t mix with the other flavors, and it was tender and meaty. The platter was served with a vegetable—peas and carrots in a buttery sauce—and french fries. Half of it went home.
We also sampled the 99-cent shrimp cocktail, just for fun. Six slender peeled shrimp sat in a pool of cocktail sauce in a chilled metal dish. Their shrimp taste was faint, but they were worth their price tag.
We finished up with a slice of three-berry pie. The berries were sweet inside a sturdy homemade crust, and it was a bargain at $2.50.
The Pine Lounge kitchen is open from 11 a. m. to 9 p. m. daily, with breakfast on Sundays from 7 a. m. to noon. Credit cards not accepted. It is handicapped-accessible.
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