Novrozsky's: Good, a bit soggy and guys watch the jewels

A personal disaster was narrowly averted today as I stood in a long, slow line waiting to order a buffalo burger at Novrozky’s here in Beaumont. That’s not to be confused with Roznovsky’s, also a hamburger joint, some 90 miles west in Houston.

Now since I’ve mentioned two restaurants it might look as if I am about to do a review or something. I will get to my short review of the former after the averted disaster.

Several women came in with three or four little golden-haired girls and joined the already long lunch line. I must have waited 10 minutes since the restaurant, at its busiest time of the lunch crowd, had only an average of 1.5 women taking orders. It is easy to imagine that having to stand in a long line, that a bunch of little children are bound to become restless and bored. That is what apparently was going on with this one little girl behind me as I stood somewhat sideways watching a NCAA March Madness games on one of the restaurant’s TV screens.

Blondie was, of course, cute as a speckled pup with a pink ribbon tied around its neck. Or a little pit bull pup with a spiked, leather collar around its neck, if you happen to be of the gangsta variety. The little girl was about waist-high to me which meant that if she was to start doing windmill-type motions with her arms and hands she could very well hit some guy where it might have just hurt like the dickens. I wasn’t hit there but I was accidentally struck once at a location too close for comfort. Thankfully the errant slap from little windmill girl didn’t hit me there because that would have been embarrassing as hell and someone would have probably pulled out a cell phone and took a video of me being bent over in agony where it would have ended up on You Tube.

Now you are probably asking why I am telling you this? I would imagine most men would not like to talk about being racked by a 10-year-old girl in a public place. You already know my feelings. But I say this to issue a warning to some of you parents of younger children out there.

I know a parent can’t prepare for every inevitability. However, had the mother or person who was supervising this child seen what happened — and  I am not sure that she did not — she might have issued an apology or asked her child to apologize. Obviously, I could not say anything lest I be ostracized at the very least, or perhaps even accused of something unseemly. And it wasn’t even my fault!

As it was, the group of parents didn’t even notice in the five or so seconds in which it occurred that I picked up the kid by her hands and swung her around like a Tilt-o-Whirl. Boy, did she stagger around for awhile afterward. The parents just went on talking and didn’t even notice. Only kidding!

On to the food. It was about an hour before my food was ready. That’s kind of slow even for Novrozsky’s. I guess they keep low overhead by putting all the personnel back in the kitchen instead of out front. Seriously, they could have used one more person to handle the crowd. I saw one party of six-to-eight leave because of the long line. Of course, my back and feet hurting didn’t help.

After finally getting the food it was good, as it usually is. However, the bottom part of my wheat bun was kind of soggy. I am not sure the reason for it unless the lettuce was unusually wet. Nonetheless, after waiting for an hour for my food, I wasn’t about to go back and complain. They did run out of unsweetened tea, which I mentioned to the hired help just after ordering. I wasn’t keen on spending a long period of time without drinking what I had ordered, especially after almost $2 for it.

The tea was ready only minutes before my burger and onion rings. I know I shouldn’t eat onion rings on my diet and with diabetes and all. But it’s something I do once in awhile. I’ll try to do better, I promise. Hey, at least I don’t smoke anymore. The onion rings were fantastic. And the burger was good. A good buffalo burger with fat-free cheese is what it was. The burger itself is low in fat, or so I am told, and missing is supposedly some of that other stuff not good for you in beef. I still like beef, especially beef hamburgers.

Novrozky’s, with an “N,” can be found in a number of Southeast Texas towns and in Southwestern Louisiana. I recommend them including the one where I ate today on Dowlen at Folsom in the Kroger Shopping Center. I would suggest you get there ahead of the lunch crowd or just after. They do have a drive-through and have take-out orders, but you are pretty screwed either way if you go at the height of lunch time. If you have the patience and aren’t afflicted with back or any other kind of pain that might erupt from standing and waiting in line for long periods of time, then I would naturally suggest you either come back or go somewhere else.

They’ve got great burgers as long as they aren’t drowning in wet lettuce or something else. They are also a little pricey for hamburgers in this area, almost $13 for my buffalo burger, onion rings and a drink. They are among the best, non-national, of hamburger places in Southeast Texas.