My Year in Food: Max & Erma's, November 21, 2014

I'd planned to eat potluck at book group last night, but the RSVPs started dropping like flies in the afternoon until it was down to me & my sweet wife. So, instead, we went out candle shopping and to dinner at Max & Erma's. When I was a kid, living about an hour from Columbus, Ohio, my family would sometimes make trips up to German Village for the day. There was this funky restaurant with great burgers, soups, & sandwiches, plus all kinds of cool vintage memorabilia all over the walls and ceiling, before that was a thing. It was called Max & Erma's and I really liked it. It was fun & yummy. Much to my delight, over the years, the restaurant became a small, local chain and we got them closer to home.

When we moved to Michigan last year, I was sad because I would miss the chain. There'd been one about 5 minutes from our Columbus-area house and it was our go-to for nights when it got too late to eat anywhere else before we got a chance for dinner. Let me tell you, I was pretty happy to see a Max & Erma's in a little shopping area about 20 minutes from our new Michigan home. We've only been there a couple of times in the year we've been here, but we're never sorry we went there.

Last night, I was a little worried we were going to have poor service. Our waiter seemed pretty ditzy. We laughed and joked to each other about saying to him, "Dude, are you high?" He certainly seemed it, but he ended up being a pretty decent waiter, air-headed though he was. I tucked into a Buffalo chicken sandwich and Jeannene had fish & chips. Good stuff. I was disappointed with this location's warm chocolate chip cookies, though. They were really thick and lukewarm. I know there are people in this world who see no fault with any chocolate chip cookie, but I am picky and really only love them if they're still warm and chewy. These were a mite too cakey for my taste. Ah, well, better for me not to have cookies, anyway. The sweetest part of the experience, anyway, was to see an adorable little boy on his way back from the sundae bar, his eyes shining and his mama smiling at him.