Review: Check's Cafe

(Credit: Josh Thomas)

With gas topping out at more than $4 a gallon, and pints of quality beer at most neighborhood watering holes even pricier than that, I’m always looking for ways to stretch my dollar when it comes to tasty grub and brew.

Thank goodness, then, for Check’s Café.

On a recent Saturday, my fellow bar hopper and I pulled up a couple stools to the bar for a quick early-evening meal at this Schnitzelburg mainstay. Being my first visit to the family-owned joint, I quickly learned that the Schnitzelburg pub has been around for over six decades, and one glance at the menu convinced me that they haven’t changed their prices much over the years — take, for instance, the $2.60 Bratwurst, the $4.50 double cheeseburger or $3.80 BBQ pulled pork sandwich.

I ordered a Buffalo chicken sandwich ($5.50), and my girlfriend ordered a BLT ($2.75), each with fries (an extra $1.95). But the menu was full of sandwiches and items that barely broke the three- and four-dollar mark.

Check’s also had a fairly decent selection of draft and bottled beer: the usual domestics complemented by a few microbrews and imports. I stuck with one of my local favorites, a pint of the BBC Nut Brown Ale ($3.50).

The bar may not be well-lit, except by the neon signs aligned on the decorative silver trim along the ceiling, but it’s clean, and it does have the air of an old-fashioned café, with the checkered tile floor and a menu hanging on the wall with little plastic movable letters spelling out the food choices.

Scattered around the gleaming wooden bar on our visit were a few obvious regulars, who entertained the two bar hopping Check’s newbies by finding new and creative ways to good-naturedly insult each other while we watched the Tennessee-Florida football match-up on one of the three flat-screen TVs in the restaurant.

The bartenders were friendly and even told us a little bit of Check’s history during our visit. An education and an inexpensive meal? That’s what I call a bargain.

It wasn’t long, though, before we received our meals, and we were both pretty pleased with the outcome. The chicken was well breaded, and the Buffalo sauce was tangier than it was spicy (although it still packed a little punch). Even better, the sandwich was served on a toasted bun. My girlfriend enjoyed her BLT, and the crinkle-cut fries were crispy and delicious.

All told, our bill was a paltry sixteen bucks and change, plus tip. A bill like that — and a place like Check’s — almost make gas prices bearable. Almost.