The Early Bird Gets the Shoe: Charlie Parker’s Diner

Charlie Parker’s Diner in Springfield has been featured on various TV programs and has become quite famous in several circles. Charlie Parker’s features a 16” pancake (yes, the size of a large pizza) and also creates breakfast horseshoes. They actually have a challenge that if you can eat four 16” pancakes, you get the meal for fee; but only a handful of people have been able to conquer the cakes. The restaurant is situated in an old Quonset hut (kind of like a half-circle aluminum bunker) dating back to World War II era and the inside of the hut is decorated to look like a 1950’s eatery. For this leg of our quest, we woke up early and tried one of their famous breakfast shoes. The breakfast horseshoe is significantly different than a regular shoe since the breakfast one comes with your choice of egg style; then topped with bacon, sausage, or ham; then topped with hash browns; and finally smothered in sausage gravy. The breakfast horseshoe is an acquired taste, but the flavorful combination of all the breakfast foods is hard to resist, even to a newcomer. As for us, we each ordered slightly different variations of the shoes, with each horseshoe tailored to our specific breakfast tastes. The breakfast horseshoe is a very hearty meal, so make sure that you bring your appetite along for this dish.

When breaking down all the components of a breakfast shoe, it becomes a bit difficult to compare them to the other horseshoes we have encountered on our quest. The breakfast shoe is a completely separate entity, but to remain fair and unbiased, it must be graded on the same scale as every other installment on the quest. We find ourselves having a hard time trying to pick out any negative aspect of the breakfast shoe, but at the same time, it is much harder to critique the breakfast foods as most of them tend to have very little variation and generally taste the same from location to location. However, the gravy on this breakfast horseshoe was fantastic and the hash browns were above our expectations. The meat and eggs were good, but nothing too special. The gravy had a nice peppery flavor that balanced perfectly with the hash browns. The hash browns were crisp, but were not overcooked. To top it all off, we had great service and we were in and out of the restaurant in about 35 minutes. We gave the breakfast shoe a final score of 89 due to the overall lack of complexity of the entrée. The meal was great and there are no obvious flaws in the shoe, but we felt like giving this an A would take away from some of the other horseshoes on the journey. We would like to review one more breakfast horesehoe on our Quest, but it will take take a colossal effort to overtake Charlie Parker’s. If you have never been to Charlie’s, what are you waiting for?

Cheese (Gravy): 90
Meat: 82
Fries (Hash Browns): 86
Overall Score: 89

The Clydesdale Challenge: Boar’s Nest Bar & Grill

For this leg of the quest we decided to take our talents to Athens. The Boar’s Nest Bar & Grill boasts the only horseshoe challenge we have found in the area. The Clydesdale challenge is a 7-pound horseshoe that is designed for one person to eat in less than one hour. The Boar’s Nest does not allow two people to split the Clydesdale (even though we made it clear that we did not want to take part in the challenge), so we had to order the smallest entrée as well. We ordered the buffalo chicken Clydesdale and also a breaded tenderloin ponyshoe. When the Clydesdale came to the table, it was almost too much to take in. Neither of us has even seen a horseshoe this large and it was worth the short trip north just to see this monstrosity. Since we ordered two different shoes, we agreed to average the grades of the meat for the final score. The breaded tenderloin was excellent and we would highly recommend trying the tenderloin if you ever find yourself at the Boar’s Nest. The breaded chicken was average, but neither of us really enjoyed the hot sauce. The sauce was very oily and had some zing to it; however, the overall flavor was pretty bland. The cheese sauce on the shoe was sparse because of its massive size, but the flavor was good. They use a homemade white cheese sauce recipe. The sauce had a very mild flavor, but it wasn’t what stood out most about the shoe. The cheese was by no means great, but it was above average in terms of the horseshoes we have had so far. The fries were very average, and did not make a lasting impression, but it didn't take away from the shoe in any way. The lasting image from this leg of the quest will be the hundreds of french fries all somehow balancing on one plate. The Clydesdale challenge was something that was incredible to see and made it a very worthwhile stop on our quest. The horseshoe was middle of the pack overall, but if you really hungry (or a bit insane) and want to take the challenge, you will not be disappointed.

Cheese: 84
Meat: 87
Fries: 80
Overall Score: 86

Hitting the Road for a Shoe: Fat Willy's

Fat Willy’s is a medium size bar and restaurant located just outside the city limits of Springfield. The place itself is not something that will catch your eye and can be a slight bit confusing to first time patrons. There are three doors that all lead inside to three separate seating areas. The dining areas are definitely nothing special; however they did have immediate seating, so we can’t complain about that. Once we had found a place to sit and received our menus, we decided to go with the Buffalo Chicken Horseshoe for this leg of our quest. The horseshoe quickly caught our attention when it came out as it was loaded with cheese sauce. They used a white cheese sauce and there was a solid amount of fries and an average amount of breaded chicken as well.

In our opinion the cheese sauce was the best part of this horseshoe. It had a really great consistency as well as an appetizing mild flavor. The sauce definitely tied all the flavors of the shoe together; but it was not overpowering. The fries were put on top of the cheese sauce and once again this was a nice way to keep the fries from losing their crispiness from the heavy amounts of sauce. The fries had a nice crunch to them and there were plenty to cover the plate. The buffalo chicken could have had a bit more zing; but it could have also been much worse. The horseshoe was served with basic toast as the bottom layer, so in the future it would be nice to see an upgrade in the bread department. Overall, this experience was positive and we can see another trip back to Fat Willy’s in the future. It should also be noted that the cost for this horseshoe was very fair. The horseshoe was only $7.75 after tax and when compared against its size and flavor this horseshoe was a great deal. Is Fat Willy’s the best horseshoe on the quest? Well, the answer is no. However, if you ever find yourself in Chatham, IL and suddenly have a craving for a horseshoe, this restaurant will definitely cure the hunger.

Cheese:86
Meat:80
Fries:82
Overall Score: 82

A Horseshoe Place for a Pizza: Dublin Pub

Dublin Pub is one of our favorite places in Springfield to grab a regular horseshoe. We have been very loyal customers of Dublin for the good portion of the last five years. Dublin Pub recently upgraded to a larger size building and has also slightly retooled the menu. One of the newest additions to the menu is a Horseshoe Pizza. The horseshoe pizza has been around in Springfield for a few years now, but its not very well known around the town. (The Corner Pub has a fantastic version of the horseshoe pizza and it is very highly recommended) Once we discovered that Dublin had purchased a new pizza oven we couldn’t wait to try the new horseshoe pizza. We ordered both the Philly Cheese Steak and Buffalo Chicken horseshoe pizzas. Our expectations were through the roof as we anxiously awaited the arrival of the two delicacies. To our dismay, the pizzas were a complete disappointment from the start. We do need to explain that after having the Corner Pub’s version of the horseshoe pizza, the bar had been set very high.

The pizzas came with very few toppings and were absolutely nothing special. The Philly Cheese Steak horseshoe pizza had twelve fries on the entire pizza, and the Buffalo Chicken pizza wasn’t too much better. The cheese on the pizza had hardly any taste at all. Dublin Pub generally has a very flavorful cheese sauce on the actual horseshoes, but the cheese on the pizza was downright unacceptable in comparison. The meat on both of the pizzas was fair, however it was not nearly enough to save this meal. After we had our fill of the sub-par meal we were both very saddened. Dublin Pub is one of our personal favorite restaurants, and we were now forced to write a bad review about a restaurant that we had high hopes for. In the future we would like to come back and get an actual horseshoe from Dublin, but as of now the review for Dublin‘s horseshoe pizza is dismal.

Cheese:67
Meat:75
Fries:85
Overall Score: 66