A little hole in the wall

While visiting my brother and sister-in-laws in Halifax, my brother-in-law took us for lunch to a little restaurant named John's Lunch. This was an out of no wear 1.5 story home in Dartmouth, as we pulled up I didn't think anything of it. We got out of the van and walked up to the door to order... there was a line up, like going into a Starbucks in Vancouver. "Usually a good sign," I thought. There wasn't a table available in the place, it looked to seat approximately 35- 40 people, and every seat was taken with more waiting. As I looked at the staff that worked there I could see a resemblance in some of them, so they're a family run business! I couldn't exact their nationality, it doesn't really matter anyways, this wasn't going to persuade my decision of the food.

As we waited for our food people came and left and continued to line up for what was going to be a great feast I could imagine. About 10 minutes later we received our food wrapped in a paper bag, we took it to the van and drove a little ways to a picnic area. We sat down and opened our plentiful bounty reveling our prize. The first bite awaited... *crunch*...*chew, chew, chew*... "mmmmmm", as silence filled the air. Crunchy, moist, oily. Fish and Chips... it was magical. I've never had such a great meal at a little dinner. This is definitely worth the wait, yet how could I have been missing this?? The only place I have to compare this to is Barb and Ernie's old fashioned country inn back in Edmonton. Always packed, always buzzing with customers, the owners entertaining the crowds, handcrafted speicalties flowing like water out of the kitchen. These types of family owned businesses are a dying breed, and yet when someone stumbles across them its hard to believe more and more people aren't trying to create this type of atmosphere anywhere else in the cities. This is definatley what makes these places speical!

Chef Corey