An Audience With Twig At Her Eponymous Diner

In my two previous visits to Twig's Diner, I had managed to show up for a rather late lunch. Today as I was driving through Barberton, I decided to go for a late breakfast / early lunch instead. I pulled into the tiny parking space just outside the diner thinking that it wasn't very full. Of course, I had forgotten to check the parking lot across the street and when I walked inside, I realized the folly of my assumption. While there were no available tables, there was room at the counter, so I took advantage of it and grabbed a seat. The good news was that I finally got to meet the one and only Twig.

Twig was clothed in a multi-hued ensemble and had a personality to match. She was every bit the extrovert I had figured she would be, but she was also a wonderful hostess and concerned owner. As I was finishing my late breakfast today, I had a chance to speak with her for several minutes and I found her to be gracious, informative, and delightful. I don't know if I am making a bad assumption, but my guess would be that she only works until the majority of the lunch rush is finished. My previous two visits had me showing up in the 1:30-2:00 PM range. It would behoove you, gentle reader, to show up when Twig is there because it takes the experience of eating at Twig's Diner and puts it over the top. It turns out that Michael Symon isn't the only one with a distinctive laugh.

By the time I sat down in the restaurant they were officially serving lunch (starts at 11 AM); however, I decided to settle on a longtime breakfast favorite of mine, Eggs Benedict ... or in Twig's vernacular, Twig's Benedict:


Twig's Benedict comes with a side of homefries. Here was a closer shot of one of the Eggs Benedict:


I tasted a bit of the hollandaise sauce that had been advertised on the menu as being homemade. You can see from the photograph above that it was on the verge of "breaking" (where the fat comes out of emulsion and globs of melted butter start to pool together), but it managed to hold together during the course of my meal. The flavor of the hollandaise was quite nice, being a bit more lemony than a traditional sauce. However, in this case, it worked well to counterbalance the fattiness from the egg yolk and the slice of American cheese, which some may question is traditional in Eggs Benedict.

Upon cutting into the egg, all of the wonderful eggy goodness oozed out onto the plate:


This really was a very nice Eggs Benedict. You had multiple flavors and textures happening at the end of each forkful. I had noticed that each of the poached eggs looked very similar, almost as if they had come out of a mold. When Twig stopped by to check on me, I asked her about it. It is common for restaurants to pre-poach the eggs either the night before or the morning before service, keep them cold, and then gently reheat them in water for service. Twig insisted that the poached eggs are done to order at the exact moment that a customer requested them. The downside was that only four could be done at a time this way. I consulted another friend who is in the food service industry and she said that more than likely Twig's was using egg molds which are lowered into simmering water. Whatever method Twig's was using, the eggs were properly cooked and delicious.

Along with my Eggs Benedict, I also received a portion of their potato homefries:


These were cooked nicely and had some great texture to them. I tasted them as they came and while I could detect some seasoning, they definitely needed more salt. After I applied a bit of ketchup to the potatoes, the seasoning issue resolved itself and I greedily shoveled these fried slices of potato into my mouth. My server came around and bussed my plate and silverware and offered me a slice of pie for dessert, but I had other plans so I politely declined and simply asked for the check instead.

The food has been consistently good at Twig's Diner and now that I've gotten to meet the one and only Twig herself, I am convinced that if you are looking for a wonderful way to spend some time eating breakfast or lunch, this interesting little diner in Barberton is the place to go. Even when Twig isn't there, the cast of characters still entertains and of course, the food is just as good. To me, Twig's is definitely a destination type establishment and worth seeking out, especially if you are already in the Akron area. If you aren't in the Akron area, plan a trip, it's worth it.

Extra Helpings: Breakfast At Tiff ... Err, Twig's

Ever since my first trip to Twig's Diner in Barberton, Ohio, I have been jonesing to return. The last time I went it was in the early afternoon and even though I had been told several times that Twig's is primarily known for their breakfasts, I wasn't in a breakfasty kind of mood. But the siren's song of homemade biscuits (or as Twig's spells them, bisquits) and sausage gravy kept calling to me to come back. Having recently written about the biscuits and gravy at another restaurant, I just had this feeling that something special was waiting for me at Twig's.

While it was 1 PM today when I arrived at Twig's, I was still bound and determined to order up some of their homemade goodness. As I walked in, I was greeted by a woman who turned out to be my server. Even before I had a chance to sit down, she had already asked me what I'd like to drink. As I slung my winter jacket across the back of the opposing chair, my server put down the cup of decaf and glass of water for which I had asked:


As she set it down, she told me told let her now if it wasn't hot enough. Apparently the decaf was being dispensed from a thermal carafe and she was concerned that it was too old. While it tasted hot enough to me, apparently she was worried enough that she made a fresh pot of decaf and replaced one mug with another. While the first one had been hot enough, the freshly brewed coffee was far tastier. I'm glad she took it on herself to replace my original cup.

As I looked at the daily breakfast and lunch specials, my initial thoughts of bisquits and sausage gravy seemed to suddenly come into question:


My eyes were drawn immediately to two menu items, one breakfast and the second lunch. The second breakfast special was two eggs, cheesy bacon grits, and choice of toast. The lunch special that caught my eye was the fresh beer battered fish. Oh, man! Knowing that Lent was upon us, I figured I'd be seeing the fish special again over the next couple of weeks. Which left me with the debate over whether to get the cheesy bacon grits special or stick with my original intention of bisquits and gravy. When my server finally came over, we talked it over and I decided on the cheesy bacon grits special with bisquits instead of the toast and then added a cup of the sausage gravy to round out the meal.

Since my meal took a little bit to come out, I did what I always enjoy doing at restaurants, people watch. There were a few other regulars in the restaurant today and they easily interacted with my server, as she was the only one working the front of house today. I mentioned Twig's unique decor in my last write-up and it seemed that my amped up server fit right in with that uniqueness. With that wonderfully warbly alto voice, she felt very Flo-esque from the TV show Alice without all the "Kiss my grits!" attitude. Twig's has a very down-to-earth friendly attitude to it and even when mistakes are made, people seemed good natured and easy going.

Soon enough, my meal arrived at my table:


The eggs were cooked perfectly. They were tender and the yolks were nice and creamy. Sometimes when you order "sunnyside up" eggs, the whites around the yolks haven't completely cooked. Not this time. The only criticism I had, and I consider this one a throw-away, was that there was no salt on the eggs. While I firmly believe that adding salt as one cooks is a necessity, since these eggs were never flipped over on the flattop, the salt never would've had a chance to interact with the heat. Therefore, a little salt added at the table was all that was required to remedy the situation.

At the rear of the plate was a small dish of cheesy bacon grits:


With a consistency somewhere between gloopy and semi-set, the flavor of these grits was quite good. Everything was nicely balanced and you could taste the cheese, bacon, and corn in every bite. I have had quite my fair share of horribly bland, unseasoned grits in the northeast Ohio area and it was quite a nice surprise to find that someone at Twig's realized that grits do need some seasoning, especially if they have entered savory territory (which these definitely had). Unfortunately, with all of the other food I was served today, I could only eat about half of these.

Along with my breakfast platter, I also received a cup of the homemade sausage gravy:


I tasted this by itself before slathering it over my bisquits. The good news was that this was a very tasty gravy. I got the sweetness from the milk and the saltiness and spiciness from the sausage. Not chili spice, per se, but more like black pepper spice. The bad news was that by the time this showed up on my table, it was a bit too cool. I imagine with only one cook in the kitchen, it's entirely possible that the cook served up the gravy and let it sit while she made the rest of my meal. The bisquits themselves were hot and split easily under the weight of my knife. The bisquits were tasty by themselves, but one of the bisquit halves had a bit of a hard spot. However, once I ladled sausage gravy over it, most faults were forgotten. Twig's has some very good bisquits and gravy. Not slap-your-momma good, but probably some of the best I've tasted in the area.

As my server dropped off my food, she asked if I wanted to try some of Twig's homemade jams with my bisquits. Having read some very positive things about these jams, I quickly agreed. While I was prepared for a single jar of jam, what I was presented with astounded me:


All homemade by Twig herself, you have peach and grape in the front and apple butter and strawberry in the back. Not content to try just a single flavor, I quickly employed one of my remaining bisquits as a jam delivery system:


From left to right you have peach, strawberry, grape, and apple butter. From what my server told me, they have the peach, strawberry, and apple butter year round. Other flavors cycle in whenever Twig felt like it. I noted that as I dispensed each jam, the consistency was somewhere between a sauce and what most of us think of as a hard set jam. I tasted each in turn and the one singular notion that I walked away with was the freshness of the fruit. Sure, they were each sweet, but the main flavor you get with Twig's jams was the fruitiness. The apple butter, by far the most viscous of the four, also had a nice bit of spice that reminded me of the holidays.

My sampling now complete, I was just too full to eat anything else. I paid my check and walked out into the bleak, cold February day now completely sated. My server had told me that lots of people use the jams as toppings for their waffles and pancakes and I can completely understand why. Between the wonderful cheesy bacon grits, the luscious sausage gravy and the over-the-top fresh jams, I am convinced that I have found a restaurant that I will be coming back to again and again. Two visits, two successful meals. I suggest if you haven't already given Twig's Diner a try, now is the time.

Extra Helpings: One Hell Of A Reuben At Twig's Diner

By now I should have realized that you should never judge a book by its cover. While I certainly didn't go out of my way to avoid it, until a longtime reader and frequent commenter suggested I try the food at Twig's Diner, it just wasn't on my radar. Which was ironic because while I've known about this tiny little restaurant for at least two decades, had I known what was happening inside I would've already been a long and faithful follower. The original suggestion from my reader was to check them out on Sunday morning for breakfast. While they do serve breakfast during their hours of operation (7 AM - 3 PM every day), when I stopped by today in the early afternoon I was feeling in more of a lunch mood.

Twig's Diner was located at 334 31st NW, Barberton, OH 44203 and can be reached at 330-825-1016. Not surprisingly, there was no website associated with the restaurant at the time of this writing. There was a small eight car parking lot to the north side of the restaurant with ample overflow parking in a larger lot directly across the street. Parking in the small lot was the easy part. Backing out directly into a busy street when I went to leave was fairly tricky.

Here was a shot of the outside of the diner:


The place really does look tiny from the outside, but once inside, it felt much bigger. Seating forty-five guests at a time, the inside was decorated with hats, fifties memorabilia, and lots and lots of photographs of happy Twig's customers. Here was a shot of the lunch counter / entrance to the kitchen:


Attached to the wall next to my table was the following card:


I'm always leery of walking into a restaurant that has miscellaneous tchotchkes randomly strewn throughout the interior. At Twig's Diner, however, I began to understand more about Twig herself (who wasn't there, by the way) through her choice of decorating aesthete. Fortunately, it was nearly dead when I showed up for a late lunch so the floor manager (who also acted as my server) was able to fill me in on the story of Twig's Diner. It seems that Twig was actually just one of several previous owners of this space. Thirteen years ago Ernie, the previous owner, had spruced the place up a bit and put out a "For Rent" sign in the window when serendipity struck. Twig, a seasoned professional in the food and bartending industry, just happened to drive by the building and decided to fulfill a longtime dream of having a little place all to herself. She threw caution to the wind, opened up her eponymous diner, and thirteen years later I now had the opportunity to see why my reader had so enthusiastically endorsed the cuisine.

Here was a shot of the menu my server left at the table:






When I asked my server for recommendations from the menu, she whole-heartedly suggested the breakfast items from the menu. I indicated that I wasn't really in the mood for breakfast right now (it was 1:30 PM after all) and she immediately jumped to the back of the menu where she pointed out the reuben sandwich, titled "One Hell Of A Reuben." Clearly amused by the good humor in the naming scheme, I went on to ask what the soup of the day was. My server prattled off two or three until she came to the final one, lasagna soup. I've heard of stuffed pepper soup, but never lasagna soup. When I pushed her a little further, she basically confessed that one of yesterday's specials was lasagna. Rather than throw it away, they re-purposed it as a soup. Wholly intrigued by the notion of lasagna in soup form, I immediately ordered a cup of it.

Shortly thereafter, this arrived at my table:


I filled my soup spoon with some of the soup and brought it to my nose. The rich smell of long-simmered tomatoes and beef filled my nostrils. I took a bite and was rewarded with ... lasagna! The usual suspects were all there: Noodles, beef, ricotta, tomatoes. In addition there were some thinly-chopped carrots that while cooked through, clearly had not been in the original lasagna the day before. My guess was that the cook started the soup by sauteeing some aromatics, carrots and onion before adding the lasagna "base" and additional broth to essentially make a soup out of it. The soup was hearty and delicious and had I not decided to order a sandwich and a side, I could've probably been happy just eating an entire bowl of it. The garlic bread that accompanied the soup was grilled nicely, but it lacked a nice garlic edge to each bite.

When I was about two-thirds of the way through my soup, my sandwich platter arrived:


I decided to go with the One Hell Of A Reuben and to substitute the homemade onion rings for the fries for an additional $2.59. I'm so glad I did. First, here was a side shot of the reuben sandwich:


Built as a double-decker sandwich, the corned beef was tender and amazingly juicy. I had to make sure I ate the sandwich over my plate as juicy literally gushed back onto my plate. The sauerkraut and swiss cheese were nice, but the real flavor standout was the "special sauce." It turns out that Twig's was making their own 1000 Island dressing for the reuben and it was a beautiful combination of tangy, creamy, and sweet; a nice foil for the strong flavor of the corned beef itself. One of the nice things about Twig's reuben was that the salt was nicely controlled and not too overpowering. Between corned beef and sauerkraut, sometimes too much salt can be an issue. Not here.

To accompany my sandwich, I opted to go with the homemade onion rings:


Make no qualms about it, these were excellent! Probably on par with my other favorite homemade onion rings at Michael Symon's B Spot restaurant in Woodmere. The onion inside the ring was nice and meaty, but cooked perfectly until they were tender and sweet. The exterior batter was crispy, not greasy, and a beautiful thickness. The ratio of the batter to the onion itself was also nice; each bite rewarded me with a nice blend of coating and vegetable. Clearly this was an onion ring to be reckoned with. The only infinitesimally small criticism I had was that while there was salt in the batter, I could tell that they hadn't been seasoned after they came out of the deep fat fryer. They were a hair shy of being seasoned perfectly to my taste. At the same time, on the several occasions that I've had the rings at B Spot, I think they may be just a hair over-seasoned. I will say this for certain: I think these may be the best homemade onion rings in all of Akron and Canton and they give B Spot's a run for their money, too.

I intend to return to Twig's Diner very, very soon. Having now tasted the delicious food available on the lunch menu, I plan to sample some of their very unique and delicious sounding breakfast foods, too. I've been looking for a place with a good version of biscuits and sausage gravy and wouldn't you know it, Twig's has it on their menu and all of it is homemade. In addition, every day three kinds of pancakes are available: Plain, wheat, and sweet potato. On certain days of the week, additional flavors are also available. Belgium waffles, corned beef hash, omelettes, Twig's seems to have what you crave for breakfast. Well, at least what I crave.

Twig's Diner is now solidly on my radar scope and I hope that I can turn as many of my friends, family members, and readers on to it as I can. Highly, highly recommended.