Citizen's Band

[ Originally posted December 4, 2011.  Moving to blog after discussion of the place with a friend. ]

I was excited to go to Citizen's band because the menu sounded great (mac and cheese! burgers! warm pie and ice cream!) and I've really liked the baked goods from the associated bakery (Pinkies).  Unfortunately, nothing was very good, and I do not think I will be returning there.

Mac and cheese: Baked macaroni, cheddar fonduta, onion rings.  $8.

Ok, this *should* have been awesome, in a totally unhealthy comfort food sort of way.  Mac and cheese and onion rings, all in the same dish?  It was a square of pan fried mac and cheese, topped with more cheese sauce, topped with tower of onion rings, finished with grated parmesan cheese.

Unfortunately, it looks/sounds better than it was. The mac and cheese just wasn't that flavorful and the batter on the onion rings just tasted like bad old oil. I did like how the mac and cheese was pan seared though, so there was an entire layer of crispy bits!

$8 was a very good price for a dish this size.

Burger and house cut fries: Grilled Snake River Farms Kobe beef, Pinkie's challah bun, tomato marmalade, roasted garlic mayo, housemade pickles, cheddar cheese.  $13.

Another one that *sounded* great.  Quality beef, bread from their awesome bakery, housemade toppings ...

The fries were the most inconsistent fries I've ever encountered - some were crispy, some were soggy, some tasted like cardboard ... meh! And they all tasted like old oil like the onion rings.


The burger was also totally inconsistent - some parts well done and other parts medium well (the entire thing was overcooked, it was ordered medium-rare).  On the plus side, the cheese was well melted, the challah bun was decent, the bacon we added was tasty, and the house made pickles were pretty good. The roasted tomato marmalade that was supposed to be on here was pretty much non-existent.

$13 is a good price for a quality burger, but the execution was just all off on this.

Warm persimmon cobbler with Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous Ice Cream.  $7.50.

And yet another dish that sounded perfect, but was a disappointment.  I love warm cobblers/pies/crisps with ice cream and generally have pretty high tolerance for them not being awesome and still love them, but this was pretty bad. Served lukewarm (which I guess is still technically "warm").  Certainly not a cobbler as advertised ... as in, no cobbles, topping was just some oats/flour more like a crisp, except ... not crispy.  There was very little persimmon (perhaps 5 tiny chunks in the whole thing?)  The majority of the dish was poorly cooked, still hard, apples.  Overall it was just flavorless and goopy.  Sigh.