Wednesday, August 10 , 2016
It was a dark and stormy night . . . and I was hungry! So a friend and I decided to drive around our
town in search of sustenance. I was
excited about writing my first local restaurant review. We talked about trying out Jalisco’s, as we
had heard good things. But after getting
dressed and bojangling, it was late evening.
Jalisco’s was closed. No
worries. On to the next magical eatery. La Milagro, the grapevine had whispered,
serves delicious food at great prices and so we drove to that forgotten corner
of mid-Burg. No luck; it was closed too.
Hunger was beginning to get the best of us and our problem-solving
skills were getting erratic. Passed El
Sol and I still don’t know if that place is open to the public but there was a
private birthday party full swinging in there.
Oh god; Hardee’s was mentioned but I could not stoop; I could not
stoop. Tacos El Primo: closed. It was 9:45 and I knew what we had to do.
Finnigan’s Cove. How
freaking fitting is it that I do my first review of my own favorite restaurant?
These pictures are of the signature alley between the
downtown parking deck and courtsquare, on the side of which is the entrance to
the tavern of the modern mariner. First,
and most importantly to an avid smoker like myself, Finnigan’s is the only
restaurant or bar in town that allows smoking.
Yeah, you heard me right. This
place is so chill. The music is always
perfecto with 90’s punk and alternative.
The nautical theme is cozy with ropes and dark woods and hues of navy blue. Scattered around are a few arcade style
traditional bar games.
Comfortable
seating sits atop a floor of parties past aplenty. Sports aren’t the main event and the two TV’s
are muted, leaving room for intimate conversation among friends. It is a local hang out.
But back to the crisis of nosehairs. I mean food!
It’s the reason I was at Finny’s and it’s what all the people are aching
to read about. Fine. I’ll tell you. It’s amazing.
Delightful. The burgers are a
shoe-in on my Harrisonburg Top Five Burgers list. And that’s in spite of it being a seafood restaurant. Pretty impressive. The fries are really the best in town. I maintain that position. Large, crispy, salty, a little greasy, you
get the idea – but not really - until you try them. There is a salad bar, which I’ve had on a
number of occasions, a salute to you vegetarians out there, but it’s located in
the non-smoking section so you have to walk by all the suits and grampas - a
salute to you, too, suits and grampas.
Moving on. The bar also, I found
out by reading a sign, serves gluten-free beer if anyone is in that market, the
gluten-free good-time market. Y’all
should have a dating app. You probably
do. Moving on. Okay, so like I said, it was late, almost ten
PM, and that’s a lot later in Harrisonburg on a Wednesday. At that hour, Finnigan’s menu is
significantly whittled down to foods you want when you want food, if you know
what I mean. So, since I recently
started eating meat again (after pretty recently stopping), I had some good
choices. I chose tenders in honey BBQ
sauce with fries and blue cheese dressing.
Me amigo ordered tenders in Caribbean jerk with fries and ranch. We ordered the food at 9:58, two minutes
before the wing sauce menu goes down to the bare minimum. Score.
Okay, skip to the food arriving, oh happy day.
My six giant chicken wings were totally slathered in
sauce. They were cooked to
perfection. Perfection! The blue cheese was creamy and tangy and,
best of all, chunky. The fries were
spelled f-r-i-e-n-d-s. Perhaps it was the late
hour, but the Caribbean Jerk, which is typically their tastiest sauce, was a
little light on the Caribbean and a little heavy on the jerk this time. Perhaps it was the hour. When you look at this food photo, you need to
understand the scale. The fries are
big. The tenders are big. The plate: big. That ramekin of blue cheese: deep. That food did not stand a chance and neither
did my hunger. I was satisfied. Well almost.
I can smoke in there, remember.
All I’m saying is, next lucid dream, meet me at Finnigan’s
Cove. Amanda out!
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