28640 M-40 Paw Paw, MI 49079
My daughter and I were driving home on a slow winding country road (M-40) somewhere between Holland, MI and Kalamazoo. In a little place called Paw Paw, we came upon this small roadside restaurant-- a family restaurant: Village Inn South.
We were hungry and I've always had a thing for small restaurants along the highway in the middle of nowhere. It's a food adventure. You never know what you are going to get. Unlike going to McDonald's or Wendy's, there are surprises in small restaurants which you've never heard of in the middle of nowhere.
Sometimes you'll enjoy the best food you've ever had and be willing to drive a hundred miles to savor one single onion ring. At other times? Well, lets just say most nightmares have their basis in some traumatic events in real life.
So, looking forward to a great adventure, we pulled into the parking lot of this small establishment in the middle of nowhere in the middle of southwest Michigan.
The building had a dark brown exterior. Dark brown brick and dark brown vertical siding with a sign that while clean and well taken care of, clearly proclaimed the marketing ideals of the early 1980's. As we opened the front door, we discovered that our experience of the past was not limited to the exterior of the restaurant. In fact, the inside seemed to be a scene from the mid-1970's. Dark brown faux-leather bench seats, dark copper ceiling tiles, a wall covered with newspaper articles and pictures honoring former President John F. Kennedy.
A hostess very quickly directed us to sit wherever we wanted to and and soon our waitress came over to us with a big friendly smile and quick service asking for our drink order and handing us our menus. Quickly she returned with glasses of water with a slice of lemon in the drink. I love the lemon slice. Every restaurant that wants a tip from me better keep my water full and a slice of lemon in the water. The lemon is powerful. As anyone knows, restaurant tap water sometimes has a very disturbing flavor. But add a squeeze of lemon, and one can drink any water no matter how much it might be lacking. We were off to a good start.
Next we ordered our food. When comparing restaurants, it's important to get a baseline by which one can judge the quality of the food. In order to do this, it's important to order a meal common to all restaurants. A simple dish, yet a dish which tells you so much about everything else on their menu. That dish for me? The 1/2 pound bacon cheeseburger with fries. If a restaurant can not do a simple cheeseburger right, they are not worth the gas spent to accelerate out of the parking lot.
As an aside, I'm particular to gravy on my french fries. This is also a good test of a quality establishment. If they don't carry gravy, I'll probably never come back. Of course, it's not just having gravy that counts, its having good gravy. Did Village Inn South have good gravy? Yes it did. And it was clear that it was fresh out of whatever container they pulled it out of. There was no gross skin of hardened gravy on the top. Whoever scooped the gravy out, made sure it was hot and took care to make sure that if their had been any skin on the top, none of it was in my cup of gravy.
Now, I should be careful not to get out of order here. The gravy came with the burger and fries. What came first was the coleslaw. Coleslaw is a strange beast. So many places really mess this up. How hard is it to make coleslaw? It's cabbage, carrots and mayonnaise. What's to screw up? Yet so many places do. I can proudly report that this was some of the best coleslaw around (I assume, not eating anywhere else in Paw Paw.) The coleslaw was cold, crisp, and crunchy. It was creamy but not soupy. Most importantly? It wasn't too mayonnaise-y. You know what I mean by that.
Within a minute of our coleslaw being completed, the main course arrived. A delicious bacon burger with swiss cheese. The burger had two large slices of thick bacon perfectly cooked. Not so crisp that it disintegrated to the touch and yet not so soggy and undercooked that you had to fear food poisoning. If you like pickles, you'll love this burger. It had about a dozen slices of pickle. I actually picked off all but 4 slices but I do not consider this a negative. I'd rather have too many than not enough and my daughter was more than happy to have my extra pickles. The onions were large and crisp but were nice and dry. Nothing is worse than a soggy bun on a burger. The lettuce was equally crisp and made for a nice addition. Mustard, mayonaisse, and Heinz ketchup were on the side.
The meat is an important part of any good burger. This is where I would say that I had a slight complaint. The beef was slightly on the dry side. Not horrible and I don't want anyone to avoid this restaurant because of this. I only point out it wasn't a 5 out of 5 stars burger. Would I give it 4 stars? You betcha! I would go back again to this restaurant and I would get the same burger again. It was that good.
Now the french fries. What can be said about the fries. Well, for starters, they were lightly seasoned but not too seasoned. They were crispy but not over-fried. They were thin but not shoestring. They were the perfect french fry. And with the gravy lightly pour over them? Can we say french fry heaven? I think we can!
The price was very reasonable for 2 meals and with tip only came to $15.00. A very reasonable price for a date out with ones 10 year old daughter.
As we exited the restaurant and entered the 21st century again, I wondered if we would ever travel back in time to this fine food establishment. To answer that, all I can say is that I can not foresee the future, but I do have a longing to return to the 1980's. So perhaps I will. If any of you are in the Paw Paw area, I would highly recommend this trip through time and allow your taste buds a special treat served at the hands of some very friendly staff.
