Food. It’s not only essential for our survival, but it tastes good too.
So we’re always in search of trying out a new place for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Who wouldn’t want to get paid to eat?
But since this is the hidden gems issue, we couldn’t go to any old place. It had to be off the beaten path – some place that people might be surprised to know exists.
We had heard about Elizabeth’s Kitchen before, but never knew it was located in the basement of the State House until recently. So much for our investigative reporting skills.
And since we were just at the State House not that long ago for a tour and didn’t know about it, it’s safe to say it fits in the off the beaten path category.
When you walk in the front door of the State House, go down the hallway to your left. Soon you’ll see a set of stairs, go down those, but be careful if you’re reading this at the same time.
Take a right at the bottom of the stairs, and another right and you’ll see what looks like a cafeteria – keep walking in that direction.
There will be a menu on the wall to the right before the entrance. It’s got all kinds of sandwiches and wraps, burgers and fried foods, soups and salads. They even serve breakfast.
While many options looked good, we went for the buffalo chicken on a wheat wrap. It came with lettuce, tomato, celery (which we had never had on a sandwich) and blue cheese dressing. We opted for shredded cheddar instead of bleu cheese, and added an order of onion rings for good measure.
From what our sources told us, during sessions, Elizabeth’s Kitchen is quite busy during the lunch hour, but it was quiet last Tuesday.
While I waited for my wrap, I grabbed a glass of free ice water and sat down at a spot with a view of the TV.
The wrap and onion rings didn’t take long at all and smelled delicious. There was a even a pickle on the side.
The wrap had a nice balance of spice and crunch (thanks to the celery and fried chicken tenders) and the cheddar was a good substitute.
It got a little messy at the end of each half, due to the buffalo sauce and tomato collecting at the bottom, but it didn’t stop us from finishing it.
The onion rings were the smaller, more crunchier kind and couldn’t have gone better with the wrap. They were crisp and light, just the right balance of onion and batter.
There was a bunch of other things we would have liked to try as well, but there’s only so much in our food budget. But that’s okay, the next time we visit a legislative session, we’ll pop down and try something else.
