On a tucked away interstate, in a tucked away town, in a tucked away truck stop there sits a brand new restaurant that just opened a month ago. In fact, I'm not exactly sure the name of it come to think of it. I actually stumbled upon it by accident. Last time I was here, there was no restaurant. When I walked in this morning to use the bathroom I was thinking about what to get from the nearby McDonald's that has truck parking. As I turned the corner for the bathrooms there was a sign promoting the newly open restaurant.
Once I was done taking care of business, I walked in and looked at their white board. One sign caught my attention right away, "Cash only, ATM located in store." Alright, be right back. Okay, back with cash in hand, I waited for what another sign said a "bright and shiny server" to seat me. I think they meant 'bright and shining'. If this girl is shiny then she needs to apply some powder, but this is a food blog, not a makeup blog.
So since this is a brand new restaurant, the booths, tables, chairs..all that..they're not brand new but they're arranged and put together enough to where you get the idea that they're serious about trying to get this thing off the ground. It may be left over from when this place may have actually _had_ a restaurant but had to close it? They even had the ... I don't know..70's? 80's? little machines in the booths where you can put a quarter in and watch TV on a screen smaller than your phone. It was cool back in the day!
Now bear in mind I'm only going on their breakfast menu. As you may have guessed, their menu is....limited. One disappointment is that their omelettes don't come with anything else. No hash browns, no bacon, no toast. none of that. They offered a spam omelette which I of course could not pass up. But I had to because their truck hasn't been in to restock so they were out of spam. Out of spam? What is this nonsense?! The front of the menu touted some breakfast specials. I opted for the 665: a full order of biscuits and gravy, choice of breakfast meat (no sexual jokes, please) and 2 eggs any style.
This was...a full order of biscuits and gravy. I looked at the plate and thought "can I eat this much?" Then I poked a grey blob poking out from the gravy and thought "is that thing all sausage?" (it was, and it was delicious). I'm pretty sure those were biscuits. They didn't look like biscuits you'd get at Bojangles, Popeye's or even Cracker Barrel for that matter. They were flaky, they were cooked all the way through and they were a pretty decent size. It did the job it was intended to do. There were some pretty big hunks of sausage (again, no jokes please!) on my plate as well and those were a delight to devour.
I opted for bacon, and was given 4 slices cooked just right. Eggs I went for over easy and the leftover yolk that spilled out I poured onto the biscuits and gravy. (I had to work on that, it was a full plate. the bacon and eggs came on a second smaller plate). Coffee was a mere $1. Can't beat that. My only complaint is that I'm a little OCD when it comes to my coffee. Once it's poured I add 2 cream and 2 sugar and one ice cube to cool it off some. If a very attentive (and shiny?) waitress comes by and tops it up while my nose is buried in biscuits and gravy, it throws off the delicate balance of coffee, cream and sugar that I created. Now I have to guess what to add and the quantities of each. Hold on let me get the calculator, I haven't balanced a Chemistry equation in awhile...
They had dessert offerings and the cinnamon rolls and cinnamon bread (wha? who carries that anymore?!) looked tempting but I was a little full from breakfast. They have a spinning dessert case right at the front with some nice choices that were either home made or looked like they could be passed off as home made.
All in all, this place has potential. They're brand new so I'm giving them a good review. The servers are nice (and shiny!), they're attentive, the food is good, it's pretty cheap and coffee was only a buck. Just remember, cash only. Oh they had a TV perched above the buffet but it looked like an after thought. I think my computer monitor is the same size. Might be a little hard to see that from the back of the restaurant. They're trying though, have to give them credit for that.
Okay! So. Duke's Travel Plaza is located on I-77 in Newcomerstown Ohio. That's exit 65. At the first stop light, turn south and then take an immediate left onto the frontage road and follow that all the way to the end for Duke's. On that same road is a McDonald's with truck parking, a BP and a Super 8 motel. Newcomerstown is about 45 minutes south of Canton (home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame) and I think about 20 miles north of I-70.
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