Restaurant Review

Kaz and I went to Fincastle's Diner last night. You should, too.

I was going to cook, but you know how it goes (or try and remember how it went pre-kids). You have a dinner plan; ours was baked potatoes and salad. Not the most exciting thing, I know, but it works on days I don't feel like cooking (yes, there are days I don't feel like cooking). Somehow though, baked potatoes didn't seem like the fun Friday night dinner young couples unsaddled with families are supposed to have. So we went to Target. Not to eat. To buy shaving cream and dish soap and to think about what we wanted to eat.

Quick note on the dish soap. I almost got the "green" version to help save the environment a little. I picked up a bottle of Seventh Generation, took a whiff, quickly put it back on the shelf, and grabbed a bottle of good ol' Dawn. Stuff smelled like old dish water with a few lavender petals thrown in. Gross. I'll have to figure out another way to save the planet. Okay, back to dinner.

So we thought walking around Target would inspire a dinner plan; it did not. We sat in the parking lot for a couple of minutes throwing out ideas. Nothing. We don't eat out much, so we wanted to make this meal count; we take our food seriously. We landed on Napoli, a little Italian place on State St. that's actually quite good. We went there for lunch a couple of months ago and decided then we wanted to try it for dinner sometime. Was tonight that sometime? For four and a half minutes, it was.

Then sitting at the intersection of Cornwallis and Elm, we had a brainwave. We've always wanted to try Fincastle's! It's a little burger joint on Elm St. downtown that's been open for a couple of years. Now a word about downtown... Kaz and I don't feel cool enough for downtown. There are restaurants we want to try and we realize we're the last people in Greensboro to have never gone to the Greenbean (one word or two?), but Kaz's glasses aren't cool enough, my coat is too "soccer mom," and we definitely don't walk like we know what we're doing or where we're going. But despite all of those anxiety-producing facts, we decided to try Fincastle's. So glad we did.

It's a little narrow restaurant with maybe ten tables and a long counter. They serve perfectly simple burgers, freakishly awesome onion rings, and ice cream that I will try the next time we go. The service was casual and prompt, the decor was fun and diner-y, and the food kept us from talking for awhile because we just kept cramming it in. We liked that there were kids and older folks and college kids (and us) in the same restaurant. The jukebox makes the place a little throw-back. The prices are great. We got burgers with fries/onion rings, Kaz got a soda, and it was just under $14. Sure, you have to leave a tip on top of that, but that's just a buck or two more than dinner for us at Panera. Totally worth it. And parking in the deck a block over is free at night.

So go to Fincastle's. It's fun no matter who you are. And seriously... get the onion rings.