Have a Seat in the Club Car
Real blue cheese, a sprinkling of Parmesan, and well-toasted almonds. Those were part of the excellent lunch on Monday at the Club Car in downtown Auburn. My husband and I had just come from a less-than-enjoyable meeting and needed some serious comfort food. Now I haven't been to Auburn much (mostly for outdoorsy biking and hiking things), but the downtown and "Old Town" streets are full of well-preserved buildings. Even better, it seems as if the businesses are thriving there, which is fantastic to see. Far too many of our area towns have old main streets that look unloved and unsupported.
So we walked along Lincoln Way to choose between a soup and salad spot, a fancier joint called the Monkey Cat, a diner, pizzeria, 2 sushi spots, a Mongolian bbq place, and this spot called the Club Car. Set in the ground floor of the Hink Block building (it says so on the top of the building, that's how I know), the Club Car space used to be a smoke shop. They still have an excellent oak cabinet with lots of shallow cubbies and storage spots for cigars. Now the top part displays wine bottles adjacent to the big wooden bar.
We sat in the front by the big windows. There was a 10-top on the other side and large party going on in the back. My eye immediately zoomed in on the burger listings. Why is it that a good burger is comfort food? I'm really not a big beef eater anymore, but give me a burger with blue cheese and onions, and I'm happy. The onions were listed as "fried," my favorite, and I ordered zucchini fries for $2 extra. My husband ordered the Curry Chicken Salad, since that was my second choice, and I agreed to split everything with him.
The waitress took the order while I was checking out the facilities, so to speak. There was an Oriental rug in the bathroom! An interesting pile of yard sale books occupied a shelf outside the bathrooms--everything from elementary German to an old Sunset cookbook. I digress.
Apparently the waitress didn't ask how I wanted the burger cooked, surely a bad sign. But it came to the table a perfect medium-rare, oozing with REAL blue cheese (no blue cheese dressing here), and actual deep-fried onions. A comfort food powerhouse. And those zucchini fries were long and thin and crisp and sprinkled with the aforementioned Parmesan. Some of the best zucch fries I've ever had. The salad was no slouch either, with chunks of white meat chicken, a creamy curry dressing, raisins, and those well-toasted almonds. (We break here to mention that untoasted nuts in food drives us crazy. Add some flavor people! Toast the nuts already.) The only downside to the salad was overdressed greens. The balsamic dressing was a nice contrast to the spicy curry, but there was far too much of it. And the tomatoes were still too out of season. I barely even eat restaurant tomatoes anymore unless they're listed as "local," which means they're more likely in season and juicy.
So the Club Car lunch was just the thing we needed that day. We probably should have stayed and tried dessert, because a quick jaywalk across the street brought us to a chocolate shop that was less than inspiring. They had Joseph Schmidt truffles from SF, which are fine, but nothing more local. Anyway, I should be happy with my blue cheese antidepressant. I'll take that any day!
The Club Car
836 Lincoln Way
Auburn
887-9732