Yummy

We did end up at Joe's Farm Grill yesterday, and it was quite delicious. The weather was perfect. The AZ Republic wrote up a nice article on it:

Residents who attended the Tuesday opening of Joe's Farm Grill broke bread with owner Joe Johnston and his family as they celebrated the first business day of their newest food endeavor.

Within a couple of hours of opening, Johnston said roughly 150 people had enjoyed an item off their American food menu. There were rave reviews on the menu that includes fresh-grilled farm burgers and crispy sweet potato fries, said Johnston, whose personal favorite is the Portobello mushroom sandwich.

Read the rest of the article to get a sense of the picnic atmosphere. It actually did have the feel of a family reunion in a park, with lots of folks who knew each other, asking one another what was good on the menu, picking out a picnic table in a shady spot - of which there were plenty - and lots of laughter and kids running around.

Let me just say that while it looked like there are plenty of items on the menu that might fit under Weight Watchers' core plan (I don't want to be one of those fat and stressed people), there were too many things not WW to tempt, and I admit succumbing. The Mister loved the sweet potato fries, having suffered a dearth of sweet potatoes in his married life, and the onion rings were rather phenomenal. The Sixth Man pronounced his chocolate shake very well done and delicious.

Joe and Cindy Johnston were warm and friendly, as always (does that guy ever get flustered? I've never seen it) and the staff were prepared and handling the crowds with ease. Tad Peelen, one of the other owners, told us that they had served about 1,000 people one day last week, just to get the servers and cooks ready. Once they had served that many, the 300 to 400 they would get yesterday would be a piece of cake. And so it seemed.

Joe is a natural restaurateur, and so I had high expectations. They were not disappointed.