Underrated US Cities | Page 14 | The Boneyard

Underrated US Cities

BigErnMcCracken said:
I dated a girl from Vanderbilt way back when and she had a friend who lived on (in?) Lookout Mountain. Surprisingly nice.
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When I think Lookout Mountain I think Roscoe Tanner. Fastest serve in tennis for a time.
 
bendm said:
it's changed a lot even in the few years since i left, never mind since you took the bar in the 80s?? lots of people moved over from SF after getting priced out. it's now a more expensive city to live in than seattle:

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It was 1997 (third bar exam), I'm not ancient! I confess I haven't been there recently. The hills to the east were always expensive and have lots of nice homes. Kind of like LA really.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
I rarely argue massive generalizations like "[name of city] has bad food", but I am willing to die on this hill. Houston sucks. I am sure that the 4th biggest city in the country has some restaurants that don't suck, but overall, it sucks for food. I had a great lunch in downtown Houston at a place that must have cost $100 a plate for lunch 8 years ago. It was a perfectly fine lunch, as you would expect from a place that charges $100 a plate. What makes a city's food terrible is when the vast majority of the regular places suck, and they all sucked when i went there. Pro tip: NEVER order pizza in the Confederacy.

When a city has great food, you can walk into some random take out place and it is awesome. Take Chicago. I ordered BBQ on the South Side through bulletproof glass that must have been 2" thick, and it was incredible. Another time, I stumbled up to a burrito take out counter in Bucktown that was so small that only about 5 people could stand in the place to order, then you had to wait outside for your food. In freaking Chicago. In the winter. The there was a big crowd at the place at 1 am. My burrito was $6 and is still the second best fast food Mexican I have had anywhere else on earth, including Mexico. The best fast food Mexican I have ever had was a burrito shop in Lincoln Park. I went to a sports bar by Wrigley targeting tourists, and it is still one of the best philly steaks I have ever had. THAT is a city with great food.
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Do you remember the names of any of these places in Chicago?
 
superjohn said:
Do you remember the names of any of these places in Chicago?
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BBQ - I believe it was on the corner of 53 and S. Dorcester, but I doubt it is still there. It is all hipster places now in that neighborhood.
Bucktown - don't remember
Lincoln Park - Taco Burrito Joint #2. It was on the corner of Wrightwood and Lincoln. It is gone now, but it was the best fast food Mexican in the entire country. Let's have a moment of silence.
Wrigley - Cubbie Bear. Tourist trap bar with super hot waitresses and great food.

I was in Chicago 2 years ago, and the local takeout was still incredible. I was staying in Old Town.

Edit: I forgot Heaven on 7. That place is freaking incredible. Cajun, and the one I went to was in the same building with a movie theatre downtown. Pro tip: Don't challenge the waitress with "do you have anything hotter" when it comes to sauces. You will regret it.
 
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Adding a category: Cities that are EXACTLY like you expect them to be:

1) Toledo - small, dying city that is putting up a fight against its decline and doesn't completely suck, but I would not want to live there nor do I plan on returning for work anytime soon.

2) Detroit - I was struck more by the emptiness than it being a scalitohole. It is like Waterbury but 20x the size. The suburbs are still really nice and really affordable for high end suburbs of a major metro area. You can buy 6000 sq. feet on the lake in Grosse Point for just over $1MM.

3) Dallas - Generica with a tiny bit of Texas flavor on a massive scale. Everything is a little overpriced and the place is a pain in the butt to get around because there is not really a downtown.

4) Austin - If you take the arrogance of Silicon Valley and multiplied it with Texans certainty that their state is the best and everywhere else sucks, you get Austin. I like the music and food, and the economy is incredible, but the people are a little much.

5) Oklahoma City - A third tier city in every way imaginable.
 
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bendm said:
another city with no business having a pro sports franchise.
kings should have moved to vegas
grizzlies should have moved to kansas city
sonics should never have left
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Almost. Kings should have moved back to KC. Agree on Sonics and OKC being unworthy.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Almost. Kings should have moved back to KC. Agree on Sonics and OKC being unworthy.
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fine kings to KC and grizzlies to vegas. it's just that the maloofs were casino owners and did try to move the kings to vegas but the league foolishly stopped them thereby dooming the franchise to small market mediocrity
 
bendm said:
definitely not underrated. perhaps the original new england "ski town"
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I don’t ski though. I just went there to see the sights. It was a really cool town. Would have been better if the restaurant’s on top on the mountains were open. As well as the sight-seeing gondola lifts. Diana’s baths was a really cool place. Food was great there too.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
I dated a girl from Vanderbilt way back when and she had a friend who lived on (in?) Lookout Mountain. Surprisingly nice.
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Nice. I lived there for 2 months while working a project for work. The views from the incline railway up there are phenomenal. I’ve found the people there to be very nice as well. If you’re the outdoorsy type it’s a great place to live or visit. Big fan of Chattanooga.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
BBQ - I believe it was on the corner of 53 and S. Dorcester, but I doubt it is still there. It is all hipster places now in that neighborhood.
Bucktown - don't remember
Lincoln Park - Taco Burrito Joint #2. It was on the corner of Wrightwood and Lincoln. It is gone now, but it was the best fast food Mexican in the entire country. Let's have a moment of silence.
Wrigley - Cubbie Bear. Tourist trap bar with super hot waitresses and great food.

I was in Chicago 2 years ago, and the local takeout was still incredible. I was staying in Old Town.

Edit: I forgot Heaven on 7. That place is freaking incredible. Cajun, and the one I went to was in the same building with a movie theatre downtown. Pro tip: Don't challenge the waitress with "do you have anything hotter" when it comes to sauces. You will regret it.
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Tony's Burrito Mex is the same people from Taco Burrito Joint #2, same food. It's at corner of Belmont and Damen. I'm trying to think of the Mexican place in Bucktown you're thinking of, that's where I live.
 
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nelsonmuntz said:
5) Oklahoma City - A third tier city in every way imaginable
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Care to elaborate? Might have to travel there in the near future. I was looking forward to visiting it but I guess I should reconsider that excitement.
 
San Diego is a real weird one for anyone to call underrated, so how bout Carlsbad just north of it? Tiny beach town with a neat little downtown area. Nothing spectacular just a cool spot that has the CA vibe but way less people.

And on the subject of totally not underrated CA towns I vote for Carmel. Super schwanky beach town with tons of money but great food, cool galleries (if that's your thing) and of course sits right at the northern tip of big sur
 
Nashville is trash; wannabe New York City. There is no reason to visit there unless you have family down there or are watching a game at Vanderbilt.

Tennessee sucks in general.
 
BPT2Storrs said:
Care to elaborate? Might have to travel there in the near future. I was looking forward to visiting it but I guess I should reconsider that excitement.
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Food is mediocre, downtown is mediocre, people are mediocre. It doesn't suck, but there is absolutely nothing compelling about the place at all.
 
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storrsroars said:
You're never going to get me to argue that Chicago Mexican isn't great, it is IMO, undebatable, unless you want to drill down to specifics like street cart fish tacos.

But in Houston, you can swing a cat around and hit a half dozen really good SE Asian dives where you can eat well and relatively cheaply. Especially Vietnamese/Cambodian. I'd even venture to say that if one really loves that cuisine, Houston is a destination city (unless you're on the West Coast, where you head to San Jose or Garden Grove). For BBQ, yeah, you're probably best off sticking with known quantities like Gatlins, Pit Room, Pinkerton's or Roegels.

There's a whole lot of "when in Rome" that applies to eating well and cheaply in the US while avoiding chains. If you're trying to find good pizza in TX, FL, AL, TN or even a food city like NO, and expecting that to rival the pizza belt, you've got warped expectations. Read the room.
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The only reason I ordered pizza in Houston was because I was working late and the other takeout places near the hotel I was staying at looked worse. I would use TripAdvisor if I went back today, but sometimes I just need a quick bite and don't have time to find the great hole in the wall. I end up with average food for the city, and "average" food for Houston is pretty bad.

My issue with Houston is that a rapidly growing city often has a lot of crappy restaurants because the restaurants don't need to be good to stay in business. The competition in a slower growth town like Chicago, New York, Boston or San Francisco is brutal, so restaurants need to bring their A game every night. In Houston, there are more customers than they can handle, so many restaurants mail it in.
 
BPT2Storrs said:
Care to elaborate? Might have to travel there in the near future. I was looking forward to visiting it but I guess I should reconsider that excitement.
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It's flat, mostly new and recently created. I find all such cities lack some character. But most aren't bad in any way. Oklahoma City Hotels, Things to Do, Restaurants & Events (visitokc.com) Have not spent much time there. A friend goes every year for some big equestrian event in the fall.

My worst ever business trip was to Ottawa. What a dreary and awful place.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
The only reason I ordered pizza in Houston was because I was working late and the other takeout places near the hotel I was staying at looked worse. I would use TripAdvisor if I went back today, but sometimes I just need a quick bite and don't have time to find the great hole in the wall. I end up with average food for the city, and "average" food for Houston is pretty bad.

My issue with Houston is that a rapidly growing city often has a lot of crappy restaurants because the restaurants don't need to be good to stay in business. The competition in a slower growth town like Chicago, New York, Boston or San Francisco is brutal, so restaurants need to bring their A game every night. In Houston, there are more customers than they can handle, so many restaurants mail it in.
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And chains dominate in such places, even local chains. That one good spot in the older part of those cities will spread out with the growth in additional locations.
 
huskiesNhoos said:
San Diego is a real weird one for anyone to call underrated, so how bout Carlsbad just north of it? Tiny beach town with a neat little downtown area. Nothing spectacular just a cool spot that has the CA vibe but way less people.

And on the subject of totally not underrated CA towns I vote for Carmel. Super schwanky beach town with tons of money but great food, cool galleries (if that's your thing) and of course sits right at the northern tip of big sur
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On what planet is Carmel underrated? I would move there tomorrow, if i could afford it.
 
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BigErnMcCracken said:
This. It’s like walking around an amusement park or a movie set. Big Sur and that whole coastal area is physically gorgeous - it doesn’t get much better than the Post Ranch Inn for a weekend getaway - but Carmel itself is skippable.
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Probably not a popular opinion, but I prefer Capitola by the sea. The area isn't quite Big Sur like, but the town is more fun.
 
HuskyHawk said:
It's flat, mostly new and recently created. I find all such cities lack some character. But most aren't bad in any way. Oklahoma City Hotels, Things to Do, Restaurants & Events (visitokc.com) Have not spent much time there. A friend goes every year for some big equestrian event in the fall.

My worst ever business trip was to Ottawa. What a dreary and awful place.
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I had to visit Ottawa a few years ago for a work trip.
I will say that for a nation's capitol, it was a bit underwhelming....the whole capitol area makes you say "hey, that's all there is to it? for the whole entire country? really?"
But, i kinda liked the city. The whole canal area was charming. I ate some excellent poutine. The people were really nice. And, for a city, it was exceptionally clean (like an order of magnitude cleaner than a NorthEastern U.S. city)
 
pepband99 said:
On what planet is Carmel underrated? I would move there tomorrow, if i could afford it.
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huskiesNhoos said:
And on the subject of totally not underrated CA towns I vote for Carmel.
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specifically said it wasn't...but san diego came up which is probably the pinnacle of not-underrated cities, hence the mention with disclaimer
 
Hey Adrien! said:
My wife spent two weeks in Carmel. It's "whimsy" was too much for her. Hobbit vibes.
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"Is it illegal to wear high heels in Carmel CA?
Permit Required to Wear High Heels

Though often mistakenly thought of as an urban myth, the municipal code of Carmel bans wearing shoes having heels more than 2 inches in height or with a base of less than one square inch unless the wearer has obtained a permit for them."
 
UcannUconn said:
San Diego is a good call. The main issue is the cost of living, at least in the desirable areas like north county, is totally out of control. Like 3k rent for a nice place. But still easily the best area of CA to live.
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I know between 10-20 people who work in San Diego but after giving it a try to live there a few years, they all picked up and moved to LA. They do the 1 hr. commute south.
 
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