Two Good Choices When Wandering Through Apple Country

If you can’t tell Witt from Wynola, you don’t know beans about apples.

Actually, this judgment may be unfairly harsh, because Witt apples, wonderful as they are, also are exceedingly scarce; a few families of the same name grow them on farms in the Midwest.

But Wynola apples are our own local treasure, the bounty of Gravensteins, Granny Smiths, Golden Delicious and Jonathans grown in orchards in this tiny community next to Julian, the handsome mountain town that is the county’s apple capital. This year as always, a good many Wynola apples will be carted to San Diego in the car trunks of families that have spent a day or two loitering in the lanes and byways of Julian and the surrounding countryside.

One of the pleasures of these annual apple excursions is satisfying appetites honed by the bracing mountain climate and the vistas of autumn-shaded leaves. For so thinly populated an area, Julian and its tributary countryside offer a fair range of eating experiences. Among the more enjoyable are the venerable Tom’s Chicken Shack in Wynola, and, in the very heart of downtown Julian, Romano’s Dodge House.

Tom’s history is somewhat more checkered than its red oilskin table coverings, because the Tom for whom it was named died before his partner built the place in the late 1940s, and the restaurant has expanded and changed hands periodically through the years. This process has continued right to the present; the current proprietors, David and Nora Steiner, assumed ownership just two months ago.

Chicken Rules Roost

That chicken rules the roost here is beyond question. This source of the restaurant’s fame and prosperity is memorialized in a collection of chicken statues and paintings spread through the rustic dining rooms; one of the most amusing is the portrait of a rooster executed in painted dried beans. The farmhouse motif continues with lace-trimmed gingham curtains and rough wood walls, and overall, the decor is nothing short of delightful.

The Steiners have expanded the menu to include prime rib roast as well as steaks, rainbow trout, deep-fried scallops and grilled ham steak. But, according to one longtime waitress, the vast majority of patrons still cry fowl when ordering dinner. Roughly two out of three guests order either fried or baked chicken, or sauteed chicken livers; most of them choose the fried chicken.

This would seem the logical course of action, especially for flatlanders who have trekked into the mountains with visions of sizzling poultry dancing in their heads. (The prime rib, much praised by the waitress, would seem to have been added primarily for the local trade to whom Tom’s is not a special event, but merely a quick trip down the road.)

The fabled fried chicken of Sunday dinners past is right here in Wynola, a gloriously crisp and juicy half-bird burnished a lovely golden in hot fat, cooked in a way that keeps it succulent, moist and full of flavor. Part of the extra flavor derives from the fact that the bird is rolled in highly seasoned, as opposed to plain, flour, a simple trick that makes a real difference.

Homemade Biscuits

The bird (like other entrees) is offered with a choice of mashed potatoes or what the menu prosaically calls “country fries.” Choose the mashed potatoes swimming in gravy, not only because they are good in themselves, but also because the skin-on fried potatoes are limpid, greasy and unlovable.

Meals also include flaky homemade biscuits (with honey, of course), apple cider or soup, green salad or Jello, and dessert. The cider, a local product, is tempting, but Tom’s makes a mean soup, especially its long-simmered fresh vegetable version based on the best, richest beef stock. The Jello, encrusted with fruit, dabbed with salad dressing and something of an edible anachronism, makes a nostalgic prelude to the chicken and is quite superior to the forlorn, perfunctory green salad. The dessert selection consists mostly of pies, including Dutch apple, boysenberry (this one is made off-premises, and tastes like it), and a rich egg-nog-flavored cream pie.

The chicken dinners cost $7.25, and other entrees run to $10.95 for a complete, four-course meal. The restaurant also offers daily specials at $6.75, of which the more notable may be the chicken a la king served every Friday and the chicken and dumplings spooned up on Sundays.

The folks in Julian have a square deal in Romano’s Dodge House, because the menu is one of the more attractive traditional Italian lists in the county.

The menu includes the usual ravioli, lasagna and spaghetti that for some people constitute the sum total of Italian cookery. However, it pays far more attention to such handsome presentations as zucchini fritatta (the Italian-style omelet, cooked in a deep skillet and carved into wedges); braciole (thin sheets of beef rolled around a stuffing of onions, crumbs, raisins and nuts, and braised in tomato sauce); homemade sausages fried with peppers and onions, and chicken cacciatore made the old-fashioned way, which is to say without tomato.

Like many rural eateries, Romano’s does not fool around with portions. It simply assumes its patrons are hungry and serves them mercilessly, piling pasta onto immense oval platters, constructing mountainous meatball and sausage sandwiches that tower Babel-like above the plate, and prefacing meals with baskets of yeasty, irresistible home-baked rolls that are as filling as they are delicious. Thus if one stops here for lunch, dinner plans become unnecessary.

Antipasto Good Choice

There are several ways to start a meal, none of them more satisfactory that the antipasto, which is served for two or more guests. This plate (which could serve nicely as an indulgent and even luxurious cold repast for one) includes all the usual items (prosciutto ham, provolone cheese, salami and mortadella sausage) as well as chunks of tangy kaseri cheese, wedges of fritatta, marinated mushrooms and artichokes, and briny, genuine olives--as opposed to the black, woody horrors favored by so many California restaurants. A smaller and possibly more sensible antipasto plate, called the “wine taster,” offers the cheeses, salami and olives, and makes a good introduction to one of Romano’s mountainous heaps of pasta.

The kitchen turns out a good linguine in white clam sauce, the only quibble being that the dish would have benefited from a bit more garlic. Another interesting choice is the fettuccine Romano, a pleasant Alfredo variation tossed with butter, cream and ricotta and mozzarella cheeses.

Romano’s also serves freshly rolled pizzas, based on a medium-thick crust and served with a typical selection of garnishes. Then there is “Willie’s Cowboy,” which tops the pie with cheese, ground beef and jalapeno peppers.

Sicilian Torte

Perhaps because there are so many apple pie bakeries around the corner on Main Street, Romano’s excludes this staple from its dessert list, offering instead its own home-prepared Sicilian torte. This high-rising wonder numbers three layers of cake separated by two layers of creamy nut filling, the whole enrobed in a good half-inch of thick chocolate fudge frosting. In a reasonable world (and especially after one of Romano’s meals), one slice would seem sufficient to feed two or three. After contemplating this dessert for a moment or two, however, it is easy to feel somewhat less than reasonable.

Romano’s entree and pasta prices are in two ranges, a la carte and full course; the latter includes the choice of soup or salad as well as a side dish of pasta. Thus, meals cost $6.50 a la carte to $11.65 complete.

TOM’S CHICKEN SHACK

4354 California 78, Wynola

765-0443

Lunch and dinner served Wednesday through Sunday, closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Credit cards accepted.

ROMANO’S DODGE HOUSE

At 4th and B streets, Julian

765-1003

Lunch and dinner Thursday through Monday, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Credit cards accepted.