Surprise, surprise surprise!
Charlie’s Throttle Stop
7121 Dixie Highway
Fairfield, OH 45014 | 513-874-6111
www.charliesthrottlestop.com
American pub fare is popular but rarely surprising. We all know what the menu items are going to be when you walk in. Appetizers: mozzarella sticks, loaded potato skins, poppers, cheese fries, wings. chicken fingers & chips. Sandwiches: several “specialty” burgers that amount to not much more than pre frozen patties topped with blue cheese, pepper jack, fried onions and BBQ sauce of some sort. Entrees: there is always a “Blackened” chicken dish (just some store bought fake Cajun seasoning sprinkled on top). Pasta with the same, Sam’s Club fish, a ribeye or strip if your lucky. Standard salads and off the shelf desserts follow. Nothing new or interesting at all. I always wonder why everyone sticks to the same old same old all across the city. I search for the good, the interesting, the not often found. I found it at Charlie’s Throttle Stop.
At Charlie’s I found quite a few surprises and some cool twists on the industry standards as well. Take for instance the wings (top right, 10 for $10.30). I can easily eat ten wings. If your at Charlie’s and you order 10 wings, you’d better be hungry. They’re massive whole wings (not segments) I’d say four (6 bucks) and a side is a hearty meal for most. The buffalo behemoths are special ordered baby. They make “normal” wings look like a starved sparrow wing. Crispy & juicy too, and a flavorful spice cooked in. Truly not often found.
How about Hog Wings? Now these are definitely different. These tender pork pieces are not just a surprise they’re a whole new specialty altogether. Bone on special secret order pork cuts roasted to a slight crisp and juicy as hell carrying a BBQ kick. The photo (top left) just doesn’t even do them justice. Awesome and for $6.45 you will never look at any Fairfield fast food joint at lunch time the same again... there’s no doubt about that man. If I was a server at Charlie’s I’d push them on every pork lovin’ person that would listen. They’d thank me for it too.
Charlie’s does have the usual list of beef burgers (1/2 pounders across the board, $6-7 or so). To add the surprise in, he also features an off menu, one of a kind specialty burger as well. It’s always different. They get served with a survey and after much technical study, Charlie runs the crowd faves as specials.
My burger special was a “Sweet Burger”. It’s internals were standard, the secret was in the sauce and the sticky upside down bun. Sweet, savory, tangy and unusual. If you dig Monte Cristos you’d dig this.
Dig deeper and you discover Charlie’s Throttle Stop has a surprise in every category. And the prices are as low as fast food (aside from the freakin’ dollar menu... you bastards!).
Thick pizza-ish crispy quesadillas (~7 bucks), fried pickles, grouper strips and stuffed fried pretzels stand out in the apps. The Haddock (bottom right) is for only the hungriest (or to share), the 3 cheese “Grown-Up” grilled cheese and the “Bulldog” (award winning slow smoked pulled pork samiches served with homemade slaw and side for $7) keep the sandwich list interesting. In the salad section you’ll find creamy chicken and tuna salad (an employee fave). There’s even pizza too.
On the last page you find Charlie’s “Heated Sugar Cream Pie”. There’s nothing else like it, or better. For $3 bucks you’ll get a second one to go to (watch and see).
For more on Charlie’s Throttle Stop just go there
or take a peek at his cool site, it’s full of surprises too. Including the names on the live band schedule.
