by Leigh Ivey, Charger Staff
Third time wasn't the charm in our perfect restaurant search. Our destination was Farmhouse, a new restaurant on Interstate Drive. Because Farmhouse caters along with being open for meals, it's only open from 11-2, so we went to check out the lunches. Molly Risley, Yamini Rao, Nicole Pullen, Meg Ivey and I took along a "mystery guest" for his opinion on the restaurant.
We had to drive fifteen minutes out of our way because Meg recently got a stick shift and is, well, a little shaky on hills. To avoid hills, slopes, and any other dangerous roads, we drove around half of Cookeville rather than making two turns and stopping on a hill.
Eventually, we arrived at the new restaurant, decorated like an old barn and filled with rooster clocks and posters. Since it was the first day Farmhouse was open, the restaurant looked "very clean" according to Molly, and a jukebox provided music in the back room where we sat.
It took Nicole a while to figure out that what they call "oat" bread is really just wheat, and our mystery guest was disappointed because apparently the grill wasn't working, so he couldn't order a grilled cheese sandwich.
Once we had ordered, it took a while for us to get our food. It took even longer for me because our waitress, who was clearly inexperienced, mixed up my order twice before getting it right. Maybe I can understand how you could mistake "grilled chicken salad" for "grilled chicken sandwich," but after being corrected once, she brought out a pita stuffed with what to me looked like cottage cheese.
The atmosphere struck us as "cafeteria-like," and the food wasn't great. Expensive, but not great. But it seems nothing will stop Yamini from eating other people's food, despite how bad the food may be. Nicole and Meg were happy because they believe Farmhouse has "cool drinking glasses."
We asked our waitress what the Boston cream pie was. She didnŐt know (she didn't seem to know much at all about the menu), but luckily our "mystery guest" knew that "Boston cream is a custard-style pudding served warm."
In our opinion Farmhouse is cute but expensive and unimpressive. It only received half a star from us, and that's pushing it a little.
On a happier note, after leaving Farmhouse we went to Baskin Robbins, and it wasn't hard to agree that it should be awarded four stars. So, as our mystery guest concluded about our third adventure, "Just skip the lunch and go straight to the ice cream."