Jacks Grill

Main Street
Housatonic, MA
www.jacksgrill.com

Jacks (no apostrophe) Grill - I love the idea. It has a comfort food menu - pot roast, fried chicken, mac and cheese, chocolate pudding, Toll House cookies. It's decorated with old board games, toys, and lunchboxes. What is not amusing about dining next to Welcome Back Kotter lunch box? There are twinkly white lights on the walls and a model train circling overhead, with a real whistle kids can blow if they ask the waitstaff.

I love the idea. But the reality? Unfortunately, another mediocre story.

I went to Jacks several weeks ago with my friends J and D, who recently bought a house around the corner. Perfect! Wine and cheese at their new home and then a quick walk down the street in the crisp autumn air to the warm and welcoming restaurant. The atmosphere is pleasant, no question. The service was quite friendly. But the food is just like most home cooking - this side of serviceable. I had the house speciality pot roast, which was good. I had the open-faced sandwich for $9 and I was very full. I am not shy, retiring and ladylike about portion sizes, so it was hard to imagine just how much more food you would get in the $18 entree portion and not end up with a large amount of leftovers. The sweet potato steak-cut were actually less delicious than the thin shoestring variety served in my school's dining hall. They pride themselves on local produce, but they seemed frozen to me - maybe it was fresh but tasted like frozen - ? Category = fine.

However, J's ordered the crab melt and I have to say I could have produced it in ten minutes in my kitchen, and it would have looked the same on the plate - an English muffin with crab salad and melted cheese in between, some fries thrown on the side. Home cooking and not in the best sense. J reported that it tasted like it looked - like lame-ish overpriced homecooking. D had the chicken pot pie and for some reason, there is a trend in the Berks of not presenting an actual pot pie, but putting chicken a la king in a bowl and putting a piece of puff pastry on top (this was the same presentation my dad had at the Morgan House in Lee). She also reported it was fine but overpriced for what it was.

I will say, in Jacks(no apostrophe)'s favor, the chocolate pudding was delicious. Much better than the stuff from a can. It might, MIGHT, just lure me back again.

Jacks is seasonal and it about to close for the winter. You can enjoy the chocolate pudding again next spring.