Ken and I decided to take a short ‘Daycation’ ie ‘vacation for one day’ and headed north from Jasper. We thought we would drive up to Blue Ridge, Hiawassee or Franklin, NC and find a nice place for lunch. We left Jasper and made it to Blue Ridge and decided to walk and check out the shops.

We ate lunch at a place called Blue Orleans Bistro. It was a beautiful place with soft ambiance in the New Orleans style and the food was pretty good. Ken had an Angus Burger with fries and I tried the Shrimp Po’Boy with a wonderful Remoulade sauce. Now having lived in Mississippi and Louisiana, I know good Po’Boy but knowing this was not an original New Orleans Po’Boy, it was pretty good!!!

We left Blue Ridge and headed north. Off and on we had rain, which didn’t dampen our spirits, only cooled things off for a little while. We drove through Blairsville, Young Harris, Hiawassee and past Lake Burton – Lake Burton is where one of our inspectors will be getting married next month, Congratulations Bobby!!! In Clayton, we headed north on Hwy 441 up toward Franklin, NC.

As we are driving along, we come upon an ice cream shoppe, which of course we passed before we realized it. I had to bribe Ken by saying I would buy the ice cream if he would turn around…well, he did and we each got a great ice cream cone – AT $3.00 per scoop!!! That is something, having an monopoly on ice cream way up Hwy 441!!! I didn’t ask what a bottle of water was…the ice cream was good and a great treat!

It was getting late so we decided to take Hwy 64 West to Murphy and then on down to Blairsville and home. Taking in the scenic mountains and nice ride makes a person hungry and so we thought it would be nice to grab a bite to eat before going home, that way we wouldn’t have to worry about cooking once we got home. We didn’t want to eat right away but had our options open.

As we got to Blue Ridge, we started thinking about eating dinner so we starting looking at the signs for restaurants. We saw a sign about Toccoa Riverside Restaurant and thought that sounded pretty good so Ken asked me to ‘google’ it and check out the reviews. Dont’ want to eat at a place if it doesn’t have good reviews…I told him there were 19 reviews and started reading them to him…OMGosh, after the first couple of reviews, we decided it wasn’t for us…but you have to read one of the reviews…I kid you not, this is a review (I couldn’t make this up)…

“…A decent Shoney’s down the street would put them out of business.

I went to the mountains to celebrate mother’s day with the fam. I’d heard this place was good and, being a fan of unique spots, decided to give it a try. We got in before the rush, ordered and headed to the ‘famous’ salad bar. The salad bar wasn’t bad but was nothing to write home about either. The fried pickle and fried green tomato appetizer my sister had was actually pretty good. I had the ribeye (not bad, bit overdone), bro-in-law had catfish (decent), fiance’ had shrimp (not bad for mountain shrimp), and my mom ordered a medium-rare prime rib but actually got the sole of the chef’s boot. This ‘medium-rare’ prime rib was brown on the outside and all the way through. We asked the waitress for help and she gladly returned it. A few minutes later, she brought out the sole of the chef’s other boot. She then asked my mom to ‘cut into it to see if it’s right’. HEH? This is prime rib, not a steak! My mom tried to cut into it in two different places but couldn’t get the steak knife to hack all the way through the meat, so we sent that one back and my mom kept the baked potato and had that for dinner. A few minutes later, the waitress returned and told us that the (now barefooted) chef said that the meat was fine and we could take it home in a box, if we wanted to. I asked for the manager and the waitress said she’d try to get him on the phone (not kidding) and a few minutes later returned and said he was on the way. The owner arrived a few minutes later and said that he’d tested the prime rib and it was fine. I asked him if he’d tried to cut it and he said he’d ‘finger tested’? it and he’s been in this business for 17 years and knows what he’s doing. HMM, a good cook finger tests a steak for doneness. Any idiot can look at a properly cooked and sliced prime rib and tell what level of doneness it is. I actually wonder if they slice the prime rib raw and grill it like a steak. That would explain the hockey puck and the waitress asking her to cut into it. Anyway, after this dude tries to have the last word (you don’t know me or my sister), he says that he’ll take the prime rib off of the ticket and just charge for the salad bar and potato ($13.90), ‘apreciate it’. Happy Mother’s Day MF!”

After reading this review and about 10 of the 19, we decided it would be in our best interest to go by Kroger’s on the way home and pick up our dinner…

We decided to have Steak Oscar with Baked Potatoe…a much better dinner grilled by hubby and at a fraction of the price. The only thing is…I had to do the dishes…but that’s okay!!! Yum Yum!!!

Here are some of our pictures of our ‘daycation’, I love to get out like this but truly love coming home.

I hated missing the Jasper Merchant Associates Antique Car Show this evening – I remembered it just as we were driving through Jasper on our way home. I know it was great though.

The beginning of Steak Oscar

Filet Mignon with Asparagus

Filet Mignon with Asparagus and Lump Crab Meat

The Grand Finale’ Steak Oscar, I bet we could not have gotten this at Toccoa Riverside Restaurant…

Our North Georgia Mountain Sunset on Saturday, June 26, 2010

Most all the pictures were taken from inside our vehicle going down the road at about 55 mph!!! It’s a wonder I got any decent pics at all…ha

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