{"id":11160,"date":"2011-12-24T20:01:59","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T02:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=11160"},"modified":"2011-12-24T20:01:59","modified_gmt":"2011-12-25T02:01:59","slug":"cheeseburger-soup-and-chefs-blue-plate-lunch-special-rizzos-diner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/24\/cheeseburger-soup-and-chefs-blue-plate-lunch-special-rizzos-diner\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheeseburger soup and Chef’s blue plate lunch special @ Rizzo’s Diner"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wandered up to Court Square and The Barking Lot, hoping to find a food truck, but none were out. “Well, now what?” I thought. Then it occurred to me: “What about Rizzo’s Diner?” The diner on G.E. Patterson has been open two months, but I had not yet made a visit, which is a shame considering my friend and former neighbor Michael “Rizzo” Patrick is executive chef and operating partner. Since it was a nice day, I decided to skip the trolley and make the trek to South Main on foot.<\/p>\n

My server Steven, also a friend and a current neighbor, showed me to my table and read off the specials. I decided to go with the Chef’s Blue Plate Special of the day. It was chorizo-stuffed cabbage, with rice and tomatoes. There were five side items available and I got to pick three of them: I went with the garlic mashed potatoes, steamed spinach, and squash casserole. (The two other choices were steamed snow peas and cheese grits.)<\/p>\n

My food was out fairly quickly, under 10 minutes I would guess. So, this is a place you can go for lunch and expect to get back to the office fairly quickly. I was about to dig in, then I realized… I FORGOT to order the item on the menu that I’d most wanted to try! Folks have raved about Michael Patrick’s cheeseburger soup. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t started with it. I called Steven over and put in an order. The Chef kept my main course warm in the kitchen for me, and the soup was out in minutes.<\/p>\n

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The name pretty much says it all. It’s a bowl of soup that tastes like a cheeseburger. I detected a touch of Rotel, I believe. Quite tasty. I polished off my soup and then it was on to the main course:<\/p>\n

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Really good. I think the spinach was my favorite of the three vegetables, but it’s a hard call because all three were delicious. I liked dipping the garlic mashed potatoes in the sauce that covered the entree. The spiciness of the chorizo was a good contrast to the taste of the cabbage. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable lunch.<\/p>\n

The Blue Plate Special changes from one day to the next, but if you “Like” the diner on Facebook<\/a> you’ll be informed what’s on the menu. The meat-and-three is true to the diner concept, but once you taste it, you know this is no ordinary meat-and-three… rather, one prepared by the hand of an experienced chef. Rizzo’s is open Tuesday-Sunday for lunch, and Monday-Saturday for dinner and Sunday for brunch. I encourage everyone Downtown to get in there and eat some good food and support our friend Michael.<\/p>\n

(Disclosure: When the check came, it appeared that the Blue Plate Special had been comped. That was a nice surprise that I wasn’t expecting. However, I want to stress that the special was worth every penny of its $10 menu price.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"