Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches
Chicken breast, breaded and deep fried and tossed in hot wing sauce makes a favorite sandwich for me. They are hard to find so I usually order them when I see it on a menu. Generally, they have tons of flavor and are a nice break from a burger.
Denny’s
When taking customers to lunch in Lost Hills (I-5 and Hwy 46), there are not too many options. There is a truck stop diner and fast food junk. And then there is the Denny’s. And my customers are frequent diners at the Lost Hills Denny’s. They get greeting and hugs from the waitresses. And they are on a first name basis with them. Occasionally, I join them for lunch and I almost always have the Buffalo Chicken Melt sandwich. It’s on a fresh roll and very moist and juicy with buffalo sauce. It comes with lettuce & tomato and melted cheese. I usually get a salad with blue cheese dressing instead of the fries, fooling myself that is it a lower fat, lower calorie option. And Denny’s also serves a dish of ranch dressing with the sandwich, making it a flavor bomb.
Rocket Shop Café
At Bakersfield Municipal Airport, there is a very cool diner. I went to the Rocket Shop Café for the first time on a business lunch while in the south Union Ave. area. South Union Ave is not a destination place to eat except for a few exceptions like Great Castle Chinese. The Rocket Shop Café is also good enough to be a destination restaurant. There are lots of airplane, jet and flying stuff inside and TV’s with news and sports. The run way is just outside in view of the dining room.
I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich that offered a nice portion of quality chicken and a soft fresh roll. The fries looked good, but I had a side salad. The burgers looked great and they had some great specials like homemade chicken pot pie.
Hooter’s
I’ve only been to Hooter’s once “in Bakersfield”. Some customers wanted to go there for lunch. They are quite a bit younger than me and seemed rather deprived, like they don’t see too many young girls in skimpy tight cloths. The girls are nice and mostly very cute. I had their Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and a side salad. It was a large boneless chicken breast. It seemed hand cut because it was an irregular shape and thicker in some spots, like it came from a real chicken. The chicken and the sauce were good, but the sandwich was on a dry bun with a green tomato slice and wilted lettuce on the side. It is definitely not the dripping gooey goodness of the Denny’s buffalo chicken melt. “Melt” seems to be an added benefit to the sandwich. My companions at Hooter’s finished their lunches without comment and didn’t want to leave. They keep getting refills of soda and water and lamented how they can’t have beer during lunch at work.
Since I’m older and remember the good ol’ days, I offer stories about how my customers used to have 4 drinks each day for lunch at places like the Buttonwillow Lumber Yard, Buck’s Steak House in Maricopa and The White Elephant in Taft. All are gone now and are fading memories of the old timers like me that tell the same stories of the good ol’ days to anyone that will listen. I can’t believe I’m one of “those guys” now.
I was at the Original Buck’s Steakhouse in Maricopa when I first came to Bakersfield in 1981. It was January and my fellow mud engineer that I was working with on a well at Coles Levee took me there after work one morning about 9:00 AM. I remember the silver dollars in the bar and that we had turkey nuts and beer for breakfast. That was February and the landmark restaurant bar burnt down in February 1981. I was working in Rock Springs, Wyoming in February that year and when I got back to Bakersfield, Bucks was gone. It was rebuilt and thriving for about 10 years after that. Read some history:
Garman’s Pub
Downtown Santa Paula is a mish mash of shops, stores and the Union Oil Company Oil museum. It can’t really decide if it’s going to be a trendy artsie-fartsi rebirth of an old-west downtown, or a Mexicano barrio shopping district where you go for cheap party favors, pan dulce and Mexican cuts of meat. So, it’s really both for now it seems. And in the middle of downtown Santa Paula, there is a very cool Irish Pub called Garman’s Pub. It’s an old brick building with lots of seating, a pool table and bar. I have customers in Santa Paula and the lunch options are limited, unless you know all the hidden gems like the restaurant at the Santa Paula Airport.
I had the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and homemade potato chips for lunch. The chicken was breaded in a hot and spicy coating and fried and served on a cibata roll. It had a nice serving of lettuce and tomato but no buffalo wing sauce. My companion had the ½ Lb. jalapeno cheddar burger. I think that was spicier than my sandwich. Garman’s would be a great stop for lunch when driving through the Hwy 126 corridor. It’s on the main street that parallels 126. The reviews on line are great.
Over-all, I have to say my favorite Buffalo Chicken Sandwich is at Denny’s. I’m sorry, it’s true. Denny’s wins. And they are everywhere.
