After a great run inspired by all the runners on Twitter yesterday morning, Ty and I decided we wanted to try somewhere new for lunch. We live about 15-20 minutes outside of what most people would consider civilization (and I know some Richmonders can think of a few other words to describe Short Pump) but if you go in the opposite direction for about 25 minutes you come into the town of Ashland. Ashland is really the only "town" in our area in the traditional sense of the word. They have their own police, their own town council and their own Mayor - who is a woman I just discovered. They also have their own slogan, hence the title of this post :)
I used the Yelp app on my phone to pick a restaurant. We discovered once we got there that there are really only two restaurants in downtown Ashland and we ended up at Trackside Grill.
We were expecting pretty standard diner fare but were highly impressed with the choices on the menu. We couldn't resist starting out with the Hanover tomato and mozzarella appetizer:
Hanover tomatoes are just coming into season and they made this so much more delicious! We started devouring it before I remembered I wanted a picture to share with you...
For our meals, I ordered the turkey & avocado wrap (which also included Hanover tomatoes) and got a little too excited when our waitress asked if I wanted regular or sweet potato fries. I don't even like sweet potatoes but I LOVE sweet potato fries.
I'm wary of wraps a lot of the time because they tend to get soggy before you finish them but this one was really good. I love almost anything you add avocado to, this wrap was really fresh and the sweet potato fries where awesome. I even got Ty to try a few, he liked them ok but he's definitely a regular fry guy. Today though he actually got a really great chef salad:
After lunch we walked around the town, which has train tracks running right through the middle, and we stopped in the corner grocery (which was so incredibly adorable) to get drinks. It was pretty hot outside so these totally hit the spot.
RC Cola!! Did anyone else drink that growing up? My grandma always had it at her house. For some reason drinks just taste better out of a glass bottle too. Speaking of soda (or pop as Ty calls it), did anyone else call 2 liters a "boss" or did my mom just make that up? She'd always say "Pick up a boss Coke at the store." which meant the big one. I've called it that a few times recently and the people around me have no idea what I'm talking about...
Anyway, we walked around town and around the Randolph-Macon campus for a while. On our way back to the car we noticed the other restaurant in town serves brunch on Sundays, I'm a sucker for brunch! So the next morning we got up and headed to Ironhorse Restaurant for brunch.
The restaurant has a great feel too it and lots of big windows looking out on the town. When I go out to a nicer restaurant for brunch and they have eggs benedict on the menu, 95% of the time that's what I order. I've had regular eggs benedict (egg, Canadian bacon, English muffin, hollandaise sauce) more times than I can count, but I also love when they switch it up with country ham, crab cakes, or fried green tomatoes - all have been winners in my book. Ty makes fun of me all the time about ordering the same thing so this time I thought I'd through him a curve ball and order the huevos rancheros. They did not disappoint!
(I'd insert a pic but it somehow got lost on my phone?)
Wow. My favorite part was the cilantro crema on top, I couldn't get enough! Ty also wanted to order something a little different so he went with the chicken and waffles. We both thought the waffle was really good but we weren't too impressed with the chicken. It was cooked nicely but didn't have a whole lot of flavor. Plus, because it was bone-in chicken it made it hard to eat. Most of the chicken and waffles we've had before have used boneless chicken (I don't know much about the proper preparation of chicken and waffles so maybe you're supposed to use bone-in?).
I was really excited to get another RC Cola and walk around town but, as in many small towns, pretty much everything is closed on Sundays including the adorable corner grocery store. :(
We will definitely be visiting Ashland more often, we haven't been to their farmer's market in a few years and I hear it's really grown! We're planning to check it out this weekend, apparently you can now get locally grown meat there in addition to the vegetables and fruit they've always had.
What is your favorite thing to eat for brunch?
0 comments:
Post a Comment