The Lunch Bunch has decided there's a pretty good reason why the Do Drop Inn in Harrison has survived for decades while untold numbers of bar/restaurants have come and gone: The Do Drop serves tasty food in large portions, and customers don't need to refinance the house to pay the bill.
Despite its name -- oh-so hokey and calling to mind some 1950s hillbilly joint with pick-ups out front and Ernest Tubb blaring out of the jukebox and through the screen door -- the Do Drop actually has more sports-bar ambiance and than dive atmosphere. It's an open, friendly place with lots of regulars. And, as we said, the food's good.
We easily could order the Taco Fries ($5.95) as an entree on a return visit. This splendid platter features waffle fries topped with ground taco meat, a cheese sauce and zippy peppers for good measure. The no-grease crisscross fries provided an excellent bed for the seasoned meat and generous drizzling of cheese sauce. This piled-high pleasure is one to share.
The Spicy Buffalo Chicken Wrap ($4.25) is a tidy sandwich wrapped in a honey-wheat flour tortilla and stuffed with diced chicken breast made spicy by a healthy dose of hot buffalo-wing sauce, lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing. We could only eat half, but we -- excuse the pun -- wrapped the rest to take home.
The best thing about the French Dip Hoagie ($3.75 half; $6.95 whole) was the fresh hoagie bun it was served on. Thin slices of roast beef served on a fresh bun makes the sandwich just right for dipping in the warm, beef-flavored broth.
Order the whole Italian Hoagie ($6.95) only if you're very hungry. It's loaded up -- ham, salami, capicolla, pepperoni -- and baked on a fine Italian roll. And don't forget to ask for a little Italian dressing on it. It's the perfect touch. It's delicious and big; our Italian-hoagie guy took half home for dinner.
The Chicken Club Salad ($6.95) was good-sized, but that¹s because there was a good bit of lettuce -- iceberg lettuce. This Lunch Buncher doesn't like iceberg. A selection of greens -- endive, escarole, spinach -- might have been more appetizing, more colorful and perhaps more appropriate to the classy name of the salad. The tomatoes were winter tomatoes -- colorful but tasteless. There was ample chicken, which was cut in strips, but it could have used a little more seasoning, and there was plenty of Swiss cheese, also cut in strips. There were two crisp slices of bacon, a couple of pimiento-stuffed olives and hot peppers for variety. The light Italian dressing was bland.
The Capicolla Hoagie ($6.95) is a satisfying blend of lean Italian ham, melted mozzarella cheese and vegetables toasted on a fresh hoagie roll. These things often tend to be overly oily, but the Do Drop Inn version has only enough oil to bring out the flavor, not soak the bread. The sandwich, true to the nature of spicy Italian ham, has a kick but not enough to put off the great flavor. We couldn't finish this one, either.
Whoa! Easy on the onions. The White Pizza with Shrimp ($9.95) had plenty of bite-sized shrimp, but the layer of onions overwhelmed them. This looked great. It wasn't.
The Cheeseburger ($4.25) -- a full 8-ounces of beef on a homemade Kaiser roll -- was delicious. The roll had to have been baked that morning.
The Onion Rings ($3.50) were a bit disappointing. They tasted fine, but you had to eat them with a knife and fork. The batter was too light to support the weight of the large onion rings, and you couldn't eat them with your fingers. They were mushy, not crunchy.
The Turkey Club ($5.25) was good, especially the garlic focaccia bread. The sandwich was piled high with turkey and ham, Swiss cheese, tomato, shredded lettuce and mayonnaise. It was huge, roughly 8 inches by 5 inches. At first glance, we thought we'd never eat more than half. We were wrong.
All in all, the Do Drop was a fine experience. With its extensive menu -- there are more than 100 items on the menu including pasta, seafood and steak -- finding a good meal should be no problem.
Compiled by Carol Pinto-Smith, Rebecca Killian, Matt Provenzo, Sis Reola, Jeff Domenick, Eric Felack and Debra Duncan. Meals are paid for by the Valley News Dispatch and are unrelated to advertising.
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Do Drop Inn
