“Nobody told me there would be days like these”

I am pretty sure that I will discover more food deserts on my quest to eat along the El Line, but as starts on the next stage hitting the blue line this was a pretty souless activity.

The Montrose Blue Line stop, like many, is slap bang in the middle of the freeway, accessed by bridge and is pretty much ‘fridge is empty’ city ‘bring on the hunger’ state USA , not even a hot dog cart in sight.

On days like these I miss the smell of onions and cheap hot dogs from the stalls in New York City or what they call  a “dirty-water dog,” ‘a hot frank plucked with tongs from a metal vat full of warm, salty liquid.’

In all honesty in future I will plan ahead for trips like this and bring sandwiches.

 

So what options were there? over a couple of treks I did my best, but Montrose Blue did not do it’s, although I found a couple of places eventually.

On first inspection the only possibilities seemed to be eating from the gas station on the corner of Montrose and Cicero, although they do sell water at $1 including tax so that was a good find, the next opportunity was a McDonalds on Cicero and about 15 mins walk, West then South from Montrose Blue, but NO it might not be going well but it has to get better than that.

Across the road almost camouflaged by the storage facility I spied something that looked like a food outlet, but it could have been an office, after playing a almost deadly game of human Frogger through the freeway bound rush hour traffic I found myself standing outside Roma’s Italian Beef and Sausage.

 

Inside it was ‘local’ and friendly, Italian Beef seemed to be the choice of the day for most, so I went with the flow and did the same. I had an italian beef au jus, with sweet peppers, and some hand cut fries for about $8 with tax.

Not the greatest, a bit tasteless to be honest, but texturally good and it slid down nicely, the fries were freshly cut and cooked so that was something. Located at 4237 N.Cicero Ave.

OK so that was day 1 of the search, the next attempt I decided to head East back along Montrose Avenue with the explicit intention to eat at the first open place that I found. 20 mins later I reached “Beef and Burger” at 4148 W Montrose Ave.

To be fair this place wasn’t that bad, but it was so far away from the Montrose Blue, I was practically half way back to the Montrose Brown so not sure that I could really count it, but it was the closest I could find open.

In the end I played it safe and went for a Polish with everything and fries.

The fries were good, and it came with a pickle as big as the dog itself, to my amazement the guy sitting next to me was so enthusiastic about his fare that he pronounced “this is so good make me want another one”.

It transpired that he was the owner or at least in charge, even he seemed slightly amused as I proceeded to discreetly attempt to photograph my food or was that bemused. Still not sure.

Anyhow it only set me back $4.50 and the fries and drinks were included so not bad value in pure financial outlay, and another good walk to rid myself of the unhealthy calories although that part of the meal was the best bit.

Still tommorrow is another day and I am ever hopeful that the next stop on the Blue will be of  “great success..yes”