A visit to Kipp’s Down Home Cookin’

David and I go out to lunch a couple of times a month. We often try to find a place we’ve not been to before. I picked up David and started driving toward the near West side, where there is a good selection of nice lunch places and more importantly, no Chili’s, Red Lobsters, or worst of all, Olive Gardens.

I have driven past Kipp’s a hundred times. Maybe three hundred times. On the corner of Monroe and Regent, Kipp’s is easy to see but for me, sadly, easy to drive by. Kipp says a lot of people drive past all the time but they’re always on their way to work or on their way home. Today we decided to stop there. I have no idea why, but we did.
We were greeted by Tiffany. When I asked if I could take her picture, she asked “Who me? Why?” It should be obvious why. Then Kipp came out and we introduced ourselves. He said he’d pose too. Tiffany is the smiler in the group.

We ordered the Friday fish fry special ($7.25) which included two nice pieces of fish, a cornbread muffin, cole slaw (good!) and either regular or sweet potato fries. It is served with a genuine spork.

It takes some (but not much) courage to try a new place for lunch when there are so many familiar places and “safe” places like the aforementioned restaurant chains with industrial-strength food that tastes the same in San Diego as it does in Bangor (i.e., boring). Me, I say take a chance. The worst thing that can happen is your meal is about the same as it would be at Outback Steak House.

The best thing that can happen is that you get to meet Tiffany and Kipp, and your meal is really, really good, and your cash stays in the community.

So given that, why on earth would you eat at any restaurant where there are 1,500 locations nationwide? To be safe? Comfortable? Boring? A little more adventure would suit us all, methinks.