I have to admit, we were all a little bit nervous to visit this week’s pick. Well, except, of course, the one who made the pick (Shane). And we’re not sure how exactly he discovered this place – but let’s just say that it’s definitely not in the most desirable of neighborhoods. Maybe that should tell us all a bit about how he spends his spare time? Hmmm.
Actually, Amanda admitted that she has driven through this area on her way to work, and when Shane gave her the name of the place she was thinking it was actually the building next door. Which, we realized as we drove up, is rather frightening. It turns out that Papa Don’s is only slightly less intimidating looking from the outside, but score for us that at least Shane didn’t pick that other place.
However, it’s worth mentioning that as we walked in there were two matching convertible Mercedes parked near the door, so that helped shudder our nerves a little.
Inside the bar is a whole different world, though. It’s not the most glamorous of places – just one big room filled with tables/booths and a large bar at the back, and then an enclosed patio off to the right side. The boys voted for the patio, but Amanda and I decided it was a bit chilly to go that route. Yes, we’re girls. And it is fall, after all. 60 degrees is not warm this time of year.
Wednesday nights at Papa Don’s are .50 cent wing and $1 Bud Light drafts. OK, suddenly we’ve forgotten what the exterior of the place looked like or the dark, slightly shady neighborhood it’s located in – because specials like that are hard to come by. Naturally we went with the $1 beer specials … except Ted, who likes to be different and is apparently made of money, who opted for a Great Lakes bottle.
We opted for the appetizer platter – which, for $14, includes half orders of your choice of four different appetizers. This is right up our alley, since that way instead of having to agree on something to share, we could all pretty much just pick what we liked. Nice. Our choices were mac ‘n’cheese bites (a regular staple for us), breaded mushrooms (our closest attempt at being healthy for the night), queso bites (who wouldn’t love deep fried hot cheese? Oh, right, Ted), and pizza rolls (because everyone loved Totino’s back in the day … and this is pretty much exactly what these were). Everything was good, and came out piping hot. I mean, I think Ted lost a layer of skin on the roof of his mouth from his first interaction with a pizza roll. That should teach him to be over-eager.
For our meals, Shane and I both went with wings. I had the hot garlic parm, and Shane got six each of the honey mustard, 6 pepper and regular garlic parm. Mine were good, just not as spicy as I thought they would be, especially considering they have a hot and a regular version on the menu. I guess I should’ve really stolen one of Shane’s regular ones to try them, since he voted them as #1 out of the three kinds he ordered. Although that being the case, you know he was also coveting them and not sharing. Oh well.
Amanda went with her tried and true order – a steak wrap with fries. She said it was good, just not the best thing she’s ever had.
On a complete curve ball, Ted ordered an actual dinner – the prime rib. He said it didn’t have much flavor. Although I’m not really sure what he expected from a neighborhood bar with wing and Bud Light specials? He also said he was glad he finished off the meal with one of Shane’s 6 pepper wings, which apparently had enough flavor to totally redeem the whole trip for him.
Hey, wait … should I be offended that Shane shared wings with Ted and not his own wife? Hmmm.
Speaking of wings, I noticed one of the flavors on the menu was “BBQ potato chip.” I was intrigued … but then Amanda reminded me of the Taco flavored wings I had back at Ripper’s Rock House that were also “intriguing,” but not actually good. Point taken.
The service at Papa Don’s was good. The bartender was also our waiter, although throughout the night a few other bartenders must’ve come on shift because from time to time a random would also stop over to fill our drinks or see if we needed anything. Or maybe they didn’t work there but were just really concerned patrons. This place definitely had that Cheers sort of feel to it where the person behind the bar may not necessarily need to be an employee.
Side note – some of the reviews we’d read before coming in made mention of how bright the place was on the inside – you know, for a bar. And I have to admit that they weren’t lying. I mean, it wasn’t surface of the sun bright or anything, but if you’re looking for ambiance … well, let’s just say first of all that maybe you need to look up the meaning of the word before you think of this place , but there definitely aren’t any dark corners to hide in (so to speak) here either.
All in all a good visit. It didn’t skyrocket to the top 5 on our list, but they do have good specials ($1 Bud Light drafts on Wednesdays and during Browns games, $2 Blue Moon on Thursdays, etc) and the food, while not over-the-moon fabulous, was decent. And because of the insanely cheap specials, it meant that our bill rivaled that of The Big Dog a few weeks prior – so you know that made us happy. I could see us coming back to take in a game or just grab some wings and check out the crowd on another night.
CAPSULE
Picked by: Shane
Drinks: Thank you, $1.00 Bud Light drafts, for the second under $30 bill we’ve had in the past month. Enough said.
Food: Typical bar food, and Wednesdays are 50 cent wing nights. There were specials for every day on the menu, but that was the only one we actually paid attention to.
Service: Good. Despite the place having that neighborhood “Cheers” kind of feel, no records came to a screeching halt when we walked in and we weren’t ignored in favor of the regulars.
Overall: Nice little neighborhood bar in a bit of a scary neighborhood. If you can get past the exterior and the area it’s worth a chance.
Next Pick: Steph
Where To Go Wednesdays 