Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Surprising dockside fare
Larry Bly
Larry Bly runs an ad agency and does freelance writing in the Roanoke area.
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When pulling up to a lakefront restaurant, one never knows how good or bad it might be. When we came into the dock at Central Marine Center on Smith Mountain Lake recently, Banana Joe’s looked pretty much like most lakefront restaurants. But it turned out to be much more.
But first, let me recall the matter of our rather unfortunate "landing." Our captain came in a tad fast and 1 inch off. No damage was done to the boat or the dock, but our scratchy landing gave the gawkers from the nearby dining crowd a good show. We tried very hard to look cool, but that's not easy to do when you pick up yourself up off the floor. So big deal — the ship of fools had just docked. Naturally we were ready to steady our nerves with a mixed beverage. Our captain had to be satisfied with iced tea.
Banana Joe's is owned by two young guys who seemed to be carefully watching over the operation the early evening we landed. From their attention to detail, they might just have a future in the restaurant business. The crowd was a mixed bag of families, yuppies and misfits. Most of us chose to eat out on the deck, but there's a room or two inside the restaurant. Because it was Friday evening, a band played out on the deck near the bar.
I expected no more than bar food and burgers. What I found was a simple but extensive menu that would please about any palate. I had a respectable filet mignon, grilled perfectly, served with a salad and bread and one side, a baked potato. At $18.99, I felt this meal to be a real value and of good quality.
A fellow sailor with a slight limp (from the docking?) chose the jumbo lump crab cakes. The cakes feature real crabmeat served with salad and bread for less than $17. I thought they were too perfectly formed to be "from scratch," but this old salt spent 15 years in Baltimore, the land of crab cakes, and was certain they were freshly made.
Our captain had the chicken Caesar salad and proclaimed it "delicious."
Because we were starved from an afternoon on the lake, I ordered the "Banana Joe's Killer Nacho's," expecting a heap of chips and cheese big enough to feed a crowd. The "Killer Nacho's" turned out to be not a particularly large serving nor very exciting, my only disappointment of the day. The cheese was barely melted and the portion was small and unexciting. I guess I've become spoiled to those oversized portions from the franchise operations for about the same price.
Appetizers are about what you'd expect at a restaurant/bar most anywhere: mozzarella sticks, cheese-stuffed jalapenos, Buffalo wings, chicken queasily, nachos, and peel and eat shrimp. You get a half-pound of shrimp for $8.99 and they looked pretty good from where I sat.
Salads include Caesar, traditional chef, steak Caesar and grilled tuna. All are reasonably priced and quite ample. Choose from these sandwiches: grilled chicken, monster burger or lump crab cake sandwich, all served with lettuce, tomato, mayo, fries and pickle. "Plates" include BBQ with hushpuppies, chicken tender plate and spring chicken plate (all served with coleslaw and fries).
But as I've said, the true surprises are in the steaks and seafood. One does not expect rib eyes, N.Y. strips, filet mignons and the like at such a casual place.
The seafood items are plentiful as well: fried shrimp, shrimp skewers, shrimp scampi, grilled tuna steaks, jumbo lump crab cakes, and the seafood platter (crab cakes, tuna steak, shrimp skewer, and one side). All are reasonably priced and arrive steamy hot from the kitchen, which is a rather ugly affair that is sort of stuck in the middle of it all. It's a real no-nonsense operation, this kitchen. But it gets the job done.
"House favorites" are a bit of surprise, too: spaghetti with homemade meat sauce, apple wood pork chops, chicken kabobs, steak kabobs, and surf and turf — as expected, the most expensive item on the menu and still a bargain at less than $25. The surf and turf includes filet mignon, your choice of shrimp skewer or crab cakes, plus garden salad and bread. You can get all kinds of sides for your meal: fries, baked potato, baked sweet potato, hushpuppies, cole slaw, steamed broccoli and garden salad. So you can eat well, but sensibly, at Banana Joe's.
Frankly, we enjoyed our little dockside visit with Banana Joe’s, though we never actually had or saw a banana; nor did we meet anyone named Joe. The food was good, the service was fine and the lake view is always the best part. Except for a slight concussion, I think I really enjoyed myself.
Banana Joe's Bar & Grill
Central Marine Center
2200 Old Salem School
Union Hall, Va. 24176
(540) 576-1987
