Karma Kolache

This place has been in the works for a long time so we were excited to try it out.  I stopped in early on a Sunday and got a sausage kolache, a bacon egg and cheese croissant, a chocolate sprinkle donut, a brisket kolache and a cream cheese danish.  The brisket kolache is their best seller and was definitely different, nice tender brisket and barbecue sauce in the kolache bun.  Good but not sure I would order it for breakfast.  All the others were good examples of their kind, and they have a lot of other choices.  They are open at 5am daily, which is great for getting an early start on a fishing or road trip.  

We've had the coffee on other trips there.  They have a lot of coffee options but the standard coffee is probably not quite good enough to make you choose it over Dunkin or make another stop at Starbucks.  With a little more work it will be a one stop shop.  The people are very nice and friendly.  Like other donut places it is strictly carry-out, they have one little table where you can wait for your order but that's it.  We like it, we'll be back.

My Yelp Review

Graze Craze

This charcuterie board chain just opened a location near us so I wanted to try them out.  Confession here--I'm not big on charcuterie boards.  Thin sliced cured meats left out on the table dry out and acquire a weird metallic taste, which is probably why Subway has now joined its competitors in slicing meats on demand. But I digress.  I tend to graze lightly from charcuterie boards when they are offered, they're just not my thing.  But this place is branching out to offer single-serving meals, so I decided to broaden my tastes.  They offer meal and snack size charcuterie selections ready to go, but when I came by I saw that this location is also trying out sandwiches, possibly trying to move into the made to order meal space.  I got the Carnivore Special and chased it with an Olipop Dr. Goodwin soda.

It was probably early to try the sandwich.  The name makes one think of a big sandwich with several different meats.  What I got was an ordinary-sized prosciutto and provolone sandwich with some homemade dressing and cucumbers on toasted wheat.  Not a lot of meat compared to, say, Jersey Mike's or other fast food sandwich shops, and it didn't bite through real well (kept wanting to slide out of the sandwich).  The flavor was great, you could tell the sauce was homemade.  The business is not set up to make anything in front of you, the assembly is done in the back.  Not sure it was a $12 sandwich.  I had not seen Olipop in the stores so wanted to try it.  They make high-fiber low calorie sodas.  The Dr. Goodwin is sort of like Dr. Pepper but not too similar.  Still, I liked it and liked not feeling guilty drinking it.

They have stiff competition for ready-to-eat meals.  Starbucks two doors down does a version of premade finger food lunch kits that are actually pretty good.  

The folks that own this location are good people, working hard to make an impression in the neighborhood. The presentations on their boards are beautiful, and they have been well received.  If this is your thing then it's worthwhile to upgrade from grocery store charcuterie.

My Yelp Review

Velvet Taco

Our family has been here a few times and we've always enjoyed it.  The tacos are really innovative and the flavors are great.  The beef tacos are very tender and the chicken and fish really eat well.  The menu descriptions are very clever and detailed.  Can't think of any that I have not liked.

The ambiance is interesting.  The place is clean physically and in decor.  But they don't try for much climate control.  The exterior is what it is (way hot right now), and the interior was about 87 degrees when we were there.  I believe this is on purpose, kind of part of the atmosphere, but you aren't going to get out of the heat here.  Another challenge that we have faced every time is that with a large party it's hard to tell which taco is yours.  You get the tacos on a serving tray that holds up to six tacos, and you have to guess from the ingredients which one you ordered.

It's nice that you can order tacos singly, meaning that if you have a smaller appetite you do not need to pay for more food than you can eat.  A single taco and water will come out under $5.

Service was fine, it's counter service and they do a good job of it.  We'll be back for more.

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VFingers Spring

This is a new truck operated by the VFingers company, located in the Plaza de los Food Trucks behind the Gosling Express.  We stopped in the other day to check it out--ordered a 2-piece fried chicken combo, a couple of pastelitos (pizza, and potato and cheese), and a couple of frozen drinks--lemonade and frappelon (half iced tea, half lemonade).

The combo comes with both french fries and arepitas--little rounds of arepa bread deep fried.  The highlight of the meal was those arepitas.  They were crisp on the outside, fluffy and tender on the inside, with a nice salty flavor and great mouth feel.  The fries were ok, but I would take the arepitas over even good fries every time. It's worth checking out the truck just for these, and they sell them by the bag if you want.  Yum!

When I picked up the order I had three pieces of chicken, and was told it was because they were small.  That's not a good sign with deep-fried food, and that certainly held true here.  I got a wing, a thigh and a drumstick. The breading was very tasty and crunchy, but the wing and thigh were dry and tough, basically inedible.  The drumstick was larger and meatier, still overdone but it held up and made it a meal.  I'd be cautious about either the fried chicken pieces or the tenders.

The pizza pastelito was fine, done nice and crisp so the shell had a very good texture.  The filling was a good pizza representation.  The potato and cheese one was OK, nothing wrong with it but I'd probably try something else next time.  The frozen drinks were good representations, icy cold on a hot day and I love the half and half mix.

There's a whole lot on the menu we didn't try, including their signature item, the "fingers" (tequenos).  They have lots of sweets, including shakes, nutella bites and churros, but we just weren't feeling dessert.  The service was fine, and did not take too long.  So while I can't give it a great review now I would absolutely come back to give it another try.

The menu on the website is not up to date, but there's a good picture on Google Maps.

My Yelp Review