Shane waited until we were in our way out the door tonight to make his decision on a pick. Not like he had an extra week or anything since we called an audible last week to visit Akronym downtown and get our Summit County Brew Path passport stamped before the brewery closed for good.

But anyway.

He said on the drive that the final choice for this week was between Main Street Saloon and Caddyshack Inn. So clearly he was craving a burger. 

Checking back, we haven’t been to Main Street for a Wednesday pick since July of 2022. Which seemed like a lot longer than we were remembering, but then again we all know time plays tricks with us these days, am I right?

Well and Ted gets a pass since I’m sure he’s been here for lunch a few times without is these past few years. 

Walking in we were immediately reminded that it’s pool league night, in the form of one entire side of the place being full of guys sitting at tables holding big sticks. And no that’s not a euphemism for anything.

Our poor server followed us around for a hot second before we landed at a table on the other side of the space. Sorry about that. This is why we shouldn’t be allowed to seat ourselves I guess.

The menu has changed a bit since our last visit, but it definitely hasn’t gotten any less diverse. Especially for a dive bar. I mean, you expect the burgers and wings, even the coney dogs … but things like specialty salads, BBQ, Mexican fare, surf & turf, chicken & waffles, and alligator bites? OK. Challenge accepted.

They even have breakfast on weekend mornings. Might have to earmark that for a try at some point.

About the only thing they don’t seem to have is pizza.  Stand your ground, Main Street Saloon.

Hey look, a Wednesday steak special! This is becoming a trend. We may need to rename this blog “where to go to eat steak on Wednesdays” if this keeps up.

Oh, wait, Ted will pick Mexican on his next time around. Never mind.

But we’re here now, and so you know at least one of the guys has to get the steak special – which here is a ribeye with side and roll for $15 – just on principle. Ted raised his hand this time around.

So you know how most people top their steak with things like onions, mushrooms, or some type of sauce? Not Ted. He added … a fried egg. Because that’s, well, unusual.

But the menu clearly states that you can “add a fried egg to anything for $2.50,” so I mean, OK, point proven.

He also got an order of the hot wings, because clearly a steak dinner requires more meat as an appetizer.

Same for burgers, apparently, because when Shane was asked if he wanted anything on the side with his Mr. D’s burger, he chose the boneless wings with fries. 

That’s like a whole other meal, but sure. Whatevs.

I think he regretted that choice just a bit, though – not for the amount of food it would bring to the table, but for the follow up questions that were needed to complete his order. Sauce for the wings? Let’s read off that whole list. Oh and seasoning for the fries? Sure let’s read those options too.

Props to our server for having the patience of a saint during this portion of the evening.

He eventually decided on the garlic butter sauce for the wings, and something called the North Akron seasoning for the fries.

I got the chicken popper sandwich, which is fried chicken with jalapeños and cream cheese on a pretzel bun.

And also a side salad. Because healthy eating is clearly important to me given the sandwich I just described.

Hey, remember how much fun it is when servers commit orders to memory instead of writing them down? We all shared a look after she walked away from the table because we assumed Ted’s fried egg was going to show up on Shane’s burger or my sandwich was going to arrive with Shane’s fries. As much as we love puzzles, rearranging the pieces of our food orders is 100% not enjoyable at our table.

And truth be told, Shane got visibly concerned when everything arrived at our table except his burger – because he was convinced she forgot to put that part of the order in. I mean, when you order two full meals that is a risk you take. But lo and behold it materialized after she went back to check.

Although maybe he wished it hadn’t actually shown up, because he wasn’t very impressed. It was a little more well done than he would’ve liked. And he didn’t really care for his wings either. So even though he was very full when he left, he wasn’t really happy with his meal.

And of course it helped things tremendously to hear that Ted was a huge fan of his steak. No food envy there at all.

For those on the edge of your seats about how the egg topping affected the taste of the steak, Ted said it actually made it even better. So when this becomes a trend he’s going to want recognition.

My sandwich could basically be described as what happens when a jalepeno popper meets fried chicken. So as you can imagine it was nothing short of a colossal mess to eat, but overall worth it. I would probably get the grilled option next time instead of the fried, since the breading seemed to stick to the bun and/or cream cheese anyway and I put most of it to the side. But the flavors were good. 

Even though we were a bit hit or miss this time around, this place is a definite staple that we will for sure return to. Even when it’s busy on pool league night, we never felt like we were outsiders or in the way. The server had a great sense of humor and properly chastised us for the amount of food we ordered as well as our inability to make decisions. Fair.

Picked by: Shane