Of course we wait to visit a place called The Islander when it feels like fall outside.

Shane pushed the boundaries of our driving this week , but it’s worth a 40 minute drive to end up in a place that celebrates Bald is Beautiful Day, no?

I mean at least we skipped Hide the Salami Day. I don’t think we want to know how that’s celebrated in a public space.

Honestly they do have a lot of specials at this place. We spent a good amount of time looking at the menu and discussing what food specials are on what days, what drink specials are paired with what sporting events, what nonsense holidays actually made it onto the calendar, and how exactly we should prepare Ted to celebrate National Cheese Pizza Day next year. And of course we’re all circling National Drink a Beer Day on our calendars, right? I mean as if that differs from any other random day, but whateves.

Speaking of beer, the great debate at the table this evening was “which is better: the $5.00 Miller Lite pitcher special or the $4.00 32 oz glass special or several of the $2 beer of the month specials (which this month is Yuengling Oktoberfest, because September = fall in Ohio apparently and PUMPKIN EVERYTHING).”

Who had “this week we’ll do some lessons in economics on our Wednesday night out” on their WTGW Bingo Card? Anyone?

We asked our server what was good on the menu and got a very long list because apparently she loves food just as much as us. Score.

Among the top of the list of recommendations though were the wings, the pizzas, then the burgers. I mean, could we have gotten anyone more perfect to take care of us this evening?

She also suggested a few things on the app menu, including the southwestern egg rolls which we had been eyeing up already but then after hearing her recommendation told us it was fate and we needed to have them in our lives. Sold.

Shane’s first statement after taking a bite out of one of these was “well there seems to be a lot going on in there.”

And he wasn’t wrong. There’s chicken, pepperoni, some celery, parm cheese, maybe some black beans? It was like someone just cleaned out a bunch of leftovers and wrapped them in egg roll wrappers. Which sounds weird but in this case it actually worked, so kudos to them.

We stopped our server as the words “if you want a healthier option” left her mouth because we all know that has never been the goal of this group. It’s more like a contest of whose arteries are going to harden the fastest with this crowd.

Case in point, I got the “real Roman” burger with a side salad instead of chips. This is my attempt at healthy. That’s as far as it goes.

The Wednesday special is a 12 oz steak with a side for $14.99. And because you know the guys can’t pass up a good deal on a steak, that’s what they both ordered.

Round two of beers and Shane changes from the Oktoberfest to the $5 miller Lite pitcher. For himself. The server brings him a 32 oz glass along with two plastic shot glass place holders and says the pitcher is the equivalent of three of those glasses.

I think Shane fell in love at that moment.

My burger was decent. I only ate half of it because my stomach is apparently only so big. I liked that it was on a hoagie instead of a plain old toasted sandwich bun and you could tell it was freshly made and cooked to order

Ted loved his sweet potato fries because he said they were covered in the melted cinnamon butter and sitting on a bed of honey. He was slightly disappointed when they arrived and they didn’t have the dipping sauce, but the fact that it was pretty much baked in was even better. Less work to get the same taste.

To be honest, Shane’s initial comment about the apps “having a lot going on but it works” kind of fits for the place as a whole. The crowd is an intriguing mix of blue collar regulars and business people who clearly stopped in for a drink after a long day at the office. There was someone setting up for karaoke in the corner but no one seemed to care because the jukebox was super busy with a very eclectic assortment of songs the entire time we were there. And then once karaoke did start – well, that was a show. I think we suddenly became the youngest table in the place and that’s saying something. It was like someone dropped a bus from the senior center off for a little Wednesday night field trip to have a sing along. Someone forgot to tell us our time frame ended and we should’ve packed up and headed out once the first song came on.

So yeah, if I had to use one word to describe the overall vibe of the place as a whole it would just be “random.” But it worked. And I’m sure we’ll go back to test it out again.

Picked by: Shane