Oregon's local diner
LYNN WASHINGTON
Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: Arts & Culture
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BrouxNellie's is a member of the Madison Originals group, and has won "Best of Madison" awards in recent years. It's been around for ten years now, and from all reports, has done nothing but improve during that time. It opens for Breakfast at six Monday through Saturday, seven on Sundays. Hey, everybody gets to sleep in once in a while! Lunch hours, at least according to their website, don't exist, but it is mentioned in the "Daily Specials" area of the site, with serving starting at eleven and going until "Close." "House Specials" are considered "Dinner" and are served starting at four until "Close". Just for the record, I looked through practically every part of their site, and never did find out what time "Close" is! I would venture a guess that it is probably no later than nine p.m., if not earlier.
The food would be considered "American Country," if there were such a category. It's pretty much what you expect to find in a small-town diner. Omelettes, pancakes, French toast, waffles, etc. at breakfast; sandwiches, including a Portobello Mushroom Croissant, soups and salads, burgers all served from the traditional "lunch" time until closing; dinner items include a couple of steaks, meatloaf, chicken pot pie, pork chops, tuna steak, Mahi-mahi, Rainbow Trout, Tequila-Lime Salmon, and three different shrimp dishes. Actually, somewhat above and beyond the standard small-town diner menu, but I'm certainly not going to argue with them about it!
While their website has the "Daily Specials" listed for Monday through Saturday, the Sunday ones are not on it. They are listed in the in-house menu, and they are both chicken dishes. A grilled chicken sandwich with the appropriate sides for $6.99, and four pieces of fried chicken plus your choice of potatoes, cole slaw, and a HOMEMADE biscuit for $8.99. We both chose the fried chicken special (did I mention we were there on a Sunday?). Our waitress, whose name I never caught even though she did introduce herself, warned us that it would be about a twenty minute wait for the fried chicken, as they fried it to order. This was a very welcome thing to hear, as it means that the restaurant really cares about its food. It wasn't just a wait for chicken to be fried to refill the pan under the heat lamp. Nope, this was the real thing. Yum. So, while we waited, we went to the bathroom, caught up on gossip, discussed the show we saw earlier, and all of a sudden, there it was. Hot, steaming, golden, and smelling truly delicious. You get four pieces of chicken (drumstick, thigh, breast, and wing), a small serving of cole slaw (good, but not memorable), a choice of mashed potatoes, hash browns, regular fries, waffle fries, or wild rice, and a homemade buttermilk biscuit with butter melted on the top, and a package of honey to drizzle on the side. I had the hash browns, since I hadn't had any in ages, while my friend had the waffle fries, with sour cream to dip them in. Of course, we each had to try the other's potatoes. We both liked the others, but pronounced ourselves happy with our own choices.
Then came the moment of truth. Eating the chicken. Personally, I really love fried chicken, but finding some that hasn't been sitting under a heat lamp or on a steam table waiting for you to order is extremely difficult, not to mention rare, so I don't get it often. That is why we were so thrilled that BrouxNellie's chicken was fried to order. I started with my white meat (breast and wing), my friend started with her smaller pieces (wing and drumstick). We picked them up at the same time, saluted each other, and bit into the chicken. Talk about dying and going to heaven? I have never, let me repeat that, NEVER had fried chicken so perfectly cooked. No, the coating didn't have lots of seasoning in it, in fact, most people would probably dismiss it as "bland", but it's there to showcase the chicken, not make up for bad preparation. It was a minimal coating, too, just enough to give that little crunch needed, and to help keep in the chicken's moistness. So was it moist? You betcha! Other fried chicken I have eaten is usually sort of moist in the dark meat (drumstick, thigh pieces), but rarely is the white meat moist. I bit into the breast piece, and had juice running down my chin (ask for extra napkins, you'll need them!). Not only was it juicy, it was truly flavorful. I don't know where they get their chickens, but I'd be very surprised if they came from any of the huge operations (no names, please!).
We worked our way through as much of our dinners as we could, but both of us had to ask for take-away boxes for at least half of our chicken, and my friend still had some of her waffle fries left. The dessert cabinet looked delicious, with a large variety of cheesecakes and pies, chocolate being well represented in the choices. Chocolate Shoppe ice cream is also available. Unfortunately, neither of us had room. We plan on going back for just dessert sometime.
Final damages? Two dinners at $8.99 each, one soda at $1.79, one coupon for "Buy one dinner, get the second dinner of equal or lesser value free", and 5.5% tax equals $11.37 for essentially two meals per person, not counting the tip. It would have been almost as good a bargain at the full price!
Editor's note: BrouxNellie's Diner is located at 101 S. Main Street, downtown Oregon, 608-835-3435, http://www.brouxnellies.com. They also do catering.
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