C&C Market; East River Rd.

How’s this for dedication. Your hero’s, the Plate Debate Team, was so astonished by the last trip to C&C’s that we felt it needed a return visit just to verify. If you remember, we expected this one to be the worst and it ended up exceeding expectations. Prior to having this plate, I wouldn’t have even bought a Coke in this place but looks can be deceiving. C&C’s is the Mid-major Cinderella team that somehow winds up in the final 4 (ala George Mason University in 2006). Nobody felt comfortable picking it in their bracket but just like GMU, it works as a team and the sum is greater than the parts. Speaking of those parts, there’s an extra one! That’s right people… 3 SIDES. This is like a garbage plate power play! We got homefries, mac salad and french fires. The two burgers on top were good, cooked well but not overdone. The homefries were the small, square kind that surely came frozen in a large bag. They were good though. The frieswere steak-cut and delicious, the mac salad was really good too. Drawbacks to this one? The meat sauce was very typical; nothing spectacular just your run-of-the-mill sauce. Also, they gave us about a tablespoon full of it so there wasn’t enough. The other drawback… no bread.

Overall, C&C’s delivers a good plate. The best part about it is its size. It’s freakin huge. It could feed Cecil and Prince Fielder for a day. But like so many Cinderella teams, it’s going to get trounced in the final four by a Kansas or UNC. In the mean time, enjoy this underdog of a plate and don’t be afraid to stop at C&C’s, it’s on East River Rd across from the RIT side entrance. Tell ‘em Large Marge sent ya. (Cost – $8.05)

JTB’s Pizza & Grill; Scotsville-Henrietta Rd.

I know what you are thinking. Where the hell is JTB’s? It’s the “house” restaurant for Riverton Golf Course in West Henrietta. Golf course restaurant? Blasphemy! These are normally reserved for drunken golf dorks who drive H3’s and ritually ruin your threesome outing by asking “hey, need a fourth?” at the 1st tee. You know the guy, he’s got $4000 set of new Calloway’s but bitches for 9-holes about how much his kid’s orthodontics cost. What an a-hole. Thankfully, there aren’t many people in there on a Thursday at noon besides retirees who woke up at 4am to “beat the rush” and a few hardcore alcoholics who live in a shack out back. I’ll tell you what else lives there…The Trasher! And thrash it did. The Thrasher is their version of the plate and it was as close to perfection as we’ve gotten so far. I’ll hit you with the drawbacks first since there is only one. It only came with one burger. That affects the score but in itsdefense, it was a large, perfectly cooked burger. Now for the purely good stuff; I can hardly contain my giddiness! HOLY SHIT THIS WAS GOOD! Hot sauce was a mix of classic meat sauce with chicken wing hot sauce. It went together like hookers and blow. The mac salad was almost filler free (carrots/celery), well cooked and well portioned. Homefries were the square kind that you could probably find in your grocers freezer but appeared to be cooked on the griddle for a little extra crispiness. They were delicious. To top it off, it came with a large piece of fresh bread that was buttered and garlic’d. That’s what I’m talkin’ about! Several of us were speechless after this one. If you love plates, you will love JTB’s. So ditch your plans to go to that stupid wedding you wife is dragging you to next weekend, grab your clubs, a six-er of Genny, a good buddy, and go shoot 9 at Riverton. When you’re done, plow through a Thrasher and send“golf-guy” my regards ninja-style. How do you get there? Drive to heaven, it’ll be on the right. (Cost - $6.50)

Elmwood Inn; Mt. Hope

Elmwood Inn – Due to it’s proximity to U of R, I want you to think back to your college days for a moment. Imagine you are at a bar or house party (or if you went to Oswego, both). You are making good progress with a nice girl and you think you have a reasonable chance at glory. All of a sudden, her friends wisk her away and you are left with a half cup of Golden Anniversary and a sick feeling in your stomach because you just pretended to like Dave Matthews for the past 2 hours. Prospects are grim, so you head back to your dorm and decide to mack on the easy, slightly unattractive chick who lives on your floor and is a sure thing. In the morning, you are reasonably satisfied but you definitely won’t be calling your boys to brag. That sums up the Elmwood plate. For those of you who spent too much time in college playing uecker and NHL 94, this means it was average. First off, no homefries option. Ugghhh, how many times do we have to go over this. The mac salad was kind-of tacky and not cooked enough. The burgers were bad; they came out looking like overdone microwave sausage patties. To top it off, no bread. On the other hand, the fries were awesome. Perfectly crisp and fresh. The hot sauce was good too. Plate-a-saurus said it burned a little hole in his stomach. Danny Sidedish said it tingled in his mouth. We are betting that’s not the first think that’s tingled in his mouth! (Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking pop rocks here people). The wide-mouth ketchup bottle was a plus too. In the end however, this all amounts to a pretty average plate at a convenient location. Thank you Elmwood Inn for being the whore on our dorm floor that we settle for at 2 a.m.

Jay's Diner; West Henrietta Rd.

You know when you walk into a place and just know the food will be good? That’s what happened at Jay’s dinner. It’s a 1950’s themed diner on W. Henrietta Rd. across from Rochester’s favorite auto break-in lot, Movies 10. It was packed with the Henrietta lunch crowd none of whom had a waist size less than 40 inches. Good sign. This one came to $9.75 just like Woody’s II but it came with a drink.

Back at headquarters, we unleashed the contents from their Styrofoam prison and we all saw the light. It was the same feeling you get when the semi-attractive, afternoon-shift girl at the Mirage finally lifts the hood for you: glee! Upon first glance one member of the panel uttered “I would have sex with that”. Overshare? You bet; but we were in for a treat.

What made this one a winner? The burgers were HUGE Rochester, HUGE! It came complete with breakfast style homefries and delicious mac salad. It also featured two slices of Italian bread and a pickle spear. The homefries were amazing. Perfectly cooked, perfectly textured… all around awesomeness. The mac salad had the perfect amount of mayo and not a lot of filler (celery/carrots). The onions were crisp and tasty too.

Here’s what kept the Jay’s plate from perfection: like crack cocaine, I just wanted more. The home fries were great but there weren’t enough of them. Admittedly, the hot sauce was on the average side but it was still good. One member (Dan) pointed out that the mac salad wasn’t that great, it just seemed good because of the Woody’s II debacle. He rated this one average and yet, at the end of the tasting, he said “anyone gonna finish this one?” and managed to jam the last 1,000 calories into his face in two sporkfuls.

So what keeps this one from being a 5-out-of-5? Mostly Dan. But there’s always room to improve and we recognize that fact so this one gets a 4. If you live in Brighton or Henrietta, you can’t go wrong with this place. And it’s open 24 hours. Thank you Jay’s Diner; you saved the day my friend.

Woody's II; West Henrietta Rd

When you think of number 2, think of Woody’s II. This plate was a culinary disaster. Let’s start with the pick-up. Woody’s II occupies the former Ponderosa on W. Henrietta Rd. I never thought I would long for the days of Salisbury steak and never ending sundaes but today I did. I walked into the totally empty building where I was forcefully told to go to the bar and pick up my takeout order (as if I should have known). The raspy, middle aged bartender charged me $9.75 for the plate. I gave her a $20, she gave me a 5-and-five-ones back as change which to me is code for “give me a f’n tip!”. I consider myself a good tipper, so I obliged and gave her a buck even though I really did all the work.

The unveiling happens about 20 minutes later. It comes in standard Styrofoam with a green & white checkered lining paper (how adorable…not!). Let’s start with the negatives, because there are a plethora of them. No homefries option here so it comes with french fires. The fries were soggy, like the ones you overindulge in at your local fireman’s carnival. There’s no bread (even stale bread is better then not offering bread). Worse yet, the mac salad tastes like poop flavored shit. It is the worst mac salad we’ve ever had. Soggy, soaked in too much mayo, and just rank. The mac salad residue oozed all over this plate rendering it nearly inedible. Bad fries, bad mac; that’s 2/3 of a plate that is unacceptable. The burgers were OK but most of us didn’t remember anything about the burgers because everything else was horrendous. There were two of them so that was a plus. I guess the one bright spot was the hot sauce. It was way different. At first taste, you wanted to throw it back up but by the third bite, we were all enjoying it. It had small chunks of red pepper and lots of grease in it. There was good heat and not a lot of sweet. No cinnamon after taste in this one. So if you like a spicy unsweetened sauce, this one is for you. Guarantee you’ve never tasted anything like it. Also came with 4 pickle chips.

Woody’s II comes at us like the “joke” American Idol contestant on the tryout show that thinks she can sing. It’s amusing to watch but in the end, nobody benefits. For this we give Woody’s II a 1 out of 5.