Day 21: Jinny John's, Macaroni and Cheese

I'd forgotten to mention yesterday that my boyfriend ordered me a sandwich from Jimmy John's the night before. Here's what he got me:

Yesterday, I ate half of the sandwich that I hadn't eaten the night before, and some Kraft mac and cheese.

Day 17: The Library, Drinks

Yesterday was weird.

At lunchtime, boyfriend asked me if I wanted to go anywhere to eat, and I told him I didn't really want to spend anymore money right now, so that I can make sure I have enough money for when I'm in Phoenix next week. He told me he would pay for my lunch, so I agreed.

We ended up going to The Library, which is pretty much a staple in this town. In February, they shut the doors to their old location while they started construction on a new building in downtown Laramie. The new building opened in September, though until recently, they didn't have any of their own beers available (they're also a brewery!).

For lunch, neither of us were in the mood for alcohol, though I ordered an Inferno (a BLT with jalapeno bacon and guacamole) and a side house salad with blue cheese dressing. Boyfriend ordered the same sandwich, though without tomatoes and guacamole. The inferno is probably one of my favorite things to order at The Library, though they also have pretty decent pizza, macaroni and cheese bites, wings, and when they have it - beer.

Side note: never order the hot wings at The Library if you don't eat a lot of spicy food. While they're not unbearably spicy for some people, they are spicier than most wing sauces at most chain restaurants. (I'm also not a fan of the flavor - I think the jalapeno flavor comes out too strongly in the hot wings.)

The Library has an 81% rating on Urbanspoon. The overall reviews on the site aren't terrible - most of the "negative" reviews just say the service is sub-par and the beer is just "okay". We've had issues with service in the past,  but nothing awful since they've reopened.

The one thing I will say about their new location is that it doesn't seem to have as much character as their old location. Their new location has a lot of televisions hanging around the dining area and bookshelves to go with their name - but it's obviously a new building, a much larger one at that, that seems to lack the same "charm" as their old location (pictured below).

I ended up ordering too much food and took half of my sandwich home, which I ate for dinner.

Around 8:00, a friend invited me out (and since I had previously supplied beer for past social functions, she pretty much bought all of my beer). We started at Front Street Tavern, where we drank two pitchers of....well, I can't even remember. The first was a strong, dark stout...and the second was something from Odell. But honestly, I hadn't eaten much that day, definitely not as much as I should have eaten, and I failed to remember the names of both drinks.

However, we did stop in at The Library, because my friend informed me that their new beers are now available! Yay! I had a blueberry pomegranate ale, and honestly...I can't remember how it tasted. It sounds tasty. I want to believe it was tasty. But I really don't remember. I drank way more than I expected last night. Whoops.

Day 2: Bailey's in Laramie, French Dips, Baking Soda

At about 11:15 this morning, my boyfriend sent me a text asking if I wanted to go to lunch while he was on his break at work. He suggested McAllister's or Chili's, but seeing as I had soup from McAllister's yesterday and we go to Chili's fairly often, I suggested that we try something new instead.

Bailey's is located in our town of Laramie, Wyoming. It has an 82% rating on Urbanspoon and it serves mostly soup and sandwiches. I ordered a french dip with banana peppers. They had two advertised soup of the day - potato and bacon and chicken and dumpling. While I was eyeing the chicken and dumpling soup in a bread bowl, I had originally been told by a friend to come here for the sandwiches. And since it is a sandwich shop, I decided I could order soup another day. My boyfriend ordered the Bailey's club, which is advertised as coming with Ham, Turkey, and Cheese.

Now, my meal was alright - nothing that special, but then again, I didn't exactly order an extravagant sandwich. But I'm a sucker for french dips. And this is one of the first places I remember offering me banana peppers on a french dip, and it was a pretty tasty combination (though they could have put more than 2 banana peppers on my sandwich). I also ordered a Pepsi and a bag of Lay's Barbeque chips. Their selection of chips was admittedly disappointing - normally, I would have ordered either Sun Chips or Baked Lay's, neither of which were available.

However, the biggest problem with Bailey's, as it turns out, was their menu, which pretty much had nothing more than the names of the sandwiches - no descriptions of what came on the sandwich or anything. This is not something that's necessarily a huge problem for me, but my boyfriend's "Bailey's Club with Ham, Turkey, and Cheese" - in addition to those three ingredients, also came loaded with lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar, and - surprise! - salami (another meat he doesn't like).

At the counter, he asked what kind of sauces came on the sandwich, and the lady said it came with oil and vinegar. He asked for mayonnaise. And when the sandwich actually came, it was loaded with lettuce and tomato. It since it was shredded lettuce right below the mayonnaise, he literally ended up wiping the lettuce off his sandwich. Not to mention he was irritated about the sandwich coming with salami.

Now, I like salami, lettuce, and tomato. But not everybody does - not to mention the fact that some people have allergies to this kind of stuff (I personally know at least two different people with fairly severe tomato allergies). And while the "Bailey's Club" sounds like a pretty damn good sandwich, I think that they, and every other restaurant, really needs to have accurate descriptions of what they put onto their food.

Interestingly, even their online menu lacks an accurate description of the Bailey's Club. (See below.)

As we pulled out of the parking lot, the boyfriend looked at me and said, "I don't really want to go back there."

Overall, it was okay, but the fact is that there are a lot of places you can get a sandwich in town. It probably would have been better without a lot of the little things - the drinks were small, the selection of chips was small, the descriptions of menu items was lacking, and despite what the above menu may lead you to believe, our total for two sandwiches, chips, and drinks was $22.50. We would have paid just as much at McAllister's or anywhere else in town, and probably ended up with more food.

Interestingly, the Urbanspoon reviews echo similar cries about the price.

"Malfan doesn't know the difference between subway and bailey's and that explains why the other posts say the prices are too hi. If your getting the same as subway then their prices should be the same too. maybe malfan is to focused on the fact that they can get a sandwich with their scooner of mexican beer. This is a review of the food not the alchohol. prices too hi, service sucks, the owner is sexist and needs to be investigated for his selfconduct with female staff. even the great patio isn't better than my own at home. Lastly this is not a laramie staple. keep that out of your food review."

                                                                                    -True Chef, October 1st, 2012

"Good food, extremely over priced and the owner is a jerk"

                                                                                    -wyo_resident, September 8th, 2010

"Over priced!"

                                                                                   -Chelsea Heck, March 31st, 2011

But overall, it really isn't that terrible of a place. Just make sure you ask what comes on your sandwich if it really matters to you.

Finally, I want to add a small blurb about baking soda and urinary tract infections. On my way home from lunch, I started to feel the beginning symptoms of a UTI. Ladies, if you ever feel a UTI coming on, mix 1/2 tsp. of baking soda in roughly 8-oz of water, and it will really help combat the UTI. Cranberry juice is another option, but avoid juices with a lot of added sugar.