A truck-stop chic diner in Wellesley with food that is worth braking for
Type: American
Hours: Daily 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
Good choices: Spinach and cheese dip; sweet potato fries; mushroom burger; vegetarian chili.
Credit cards: Visa and MasterCard.
Access: Fully accessible.
VIDALIA'S TRUCK STOP
13 Central St., Wellesley Center
(781) 431-0011
Restaurant reviewed 05/21/97 by Linda Matchan
Vidalia's Truck Stop, which you might think is named after an onion, actually isn't. You see, according to the legend on the menu, Vidalia Huchins was 19 when she ran off with Fred Quigley, the local bad boy. Fred got tired of her and dumped her at a truck stop, where she went to work and never left.
Get it? Vidalia's Truck Stop? Now two years old, the ersatz diner is designed to evoke an interstate truck stop - if you can ignore its location in chic Wellesley Center. With 100 seats, most of them booths, Vidalia's is all country-road wall murals and steering wheels and old truck paraphernalia; a huge chrome muffler frames a doorway. Kids who order an ice cream sundae get it delivered in a cardboard vintage car.
The menu is roaring with truck-isms. For the "long haul" you can order one of the "both hands on the wheel" sandwiches ($4.50-7.50) such as tuna fish, BLT, portobello mushroom, and corned beef; or a burger ($5.95-7.95). If you want something more filling, so to speak, there are "Listen To Your Engine Purr Entrees," such as "Mom's meatloaf" ($8.95), a roast turkey plate ($9.95), or crunchy chicken ($8.95), all served with mashed potatoes and a vegetable. Will you be "Traveling Lite"? There are several salads, including the basic garden "Vidalia's salad" ($3.95, $5.95); a fresh, tasty Caesar salad ($4.95, 6.95); and even a customized salad, ha ha, where you can order grilled jumbo shrimp for $3.95 or tuna salad and grilled chicken for $2.25.
Man, those motoring metaphors just keep on truckin'. The breakfast menu (served till 11 a.m. on weekdays and noon on weekends) features the Road Thrill (corned beef hash, two eggs, and home fries, $5.95), flatjacks that are "fresh off the griddle-lock" ($4.95), and the "Brooklyn Bridge" ($9.95), a hefty bagel plate with smoked salmon and capers.
"It's meant to be like something you'd see in Disney World," explains co-owner and manager Mitchell Maxwell, who joined Vidalia's six months ago, following a 10-year-stint as a chef in Florida and five years as a restaurant consultant.
If Maxwell has his way, there will be Vidalia spinoffs throughout the Commonwealth. "We're looking to do others in Massachusetts," he says. No doubt they'll be successful. It's the kind of place that's irresistible to families, with all the crayons and gears and a kids' menu for "little truckers."
And whenever we cruised in, we found the service pleasant - though some of the waitstaff seemed to have only learner's permits. One night, a waitress failed to clear the dinner dishes off the table before serving our dessert. Another night, a waiter couldn't figure out how to get hot fudge and delivered it cold, twice.
Ah, but these are mere squeaks and rattles. Overall, Vidalia's is quite a fun place to park. We enjoyed most of the appetizers: the buffalo dip chicks ($5.95) were super charged, and the spinach and cheese dip with tortilla chips ($6.50) was creamy and hot, though down a quart on the chips. We loved the well-browned sweet potato fries ($2.95), which were about the thickness of a dipstick; they were just a touch over-lubricated. The onion rings ($3.95) were low-test: We felt they had too much beer batter and weren't light and crispy enough.
We tried the vegetarian chili dish ($1.95, $3.95), which was very hearty and not so hot that you'd blow a gasket. The mushroom burger ($6.95) was loaded with mushrooms, reminiscent of the burgers in the drive-ins of our youth. We were less impressed with the chicken pot pie ($7.95), which was served in an offputting paper dish, as though it was purchased in the supermarket frozen food section.
We topped off our tanks with a yummy "high wheeler" ($4.50), a brownie with ice cream and hot fudge. It was quite delicious but we overate and flooded our carburetors. Back to the road for these truckers.
Tips & hits
