Austin Day Trip to Hoover's Cooking

Earl and I decided to head out to Austin, Texas for lunch. We really had no plans, and we weren't sure what we were even going to do, but yesterday I happened to find a place online that sounded really cool:  it's a wax museum with figures from famous horror movies, so we decided to hit the road and head to Austin for the day. Of course, no trip to anywhere is complete for Earl and me without stopping for lunch first. Now usually when we go to the Austin area, we just head to Driftwood, Texas to the Salt Lick Barbecue,  but today we decided to try something different. Thanks to our good friend Yelp.com, we chose a place called Hoover's Cooking, which had fairly decent reviews and was the type of diner or Texas cafe we like. I was especially happy that it was a meat and three place. A meat and three is a restaurant that serves an entrée with three side dishes of your choice, and there were a lot of side dishes on the menu at Hoover's Cooking. For our entrées Earl and I both got the chicken fried steak,  a Texas staple. We opted for the small portion, but that was plenty big for us. For my three sides I chose mashed potatoes and gravy, butter beans, which some people call lima beans, and jalapeno creamed spinach. I also decided to order one extra side, which was a dinner salad with garlic ranch dressing. For his sides Earl chose okra and tomatoes,  mashed potatoes and gravy, and mustard greens. He also elected to get a salad and asked for blue cheese dressing. Both meals came with a corn muffin and a cinnamon biscuit. Before we start talking about the food, though, we need to talk about the atmosphere. It was a pretty nondescript building on the outside, and the neighborhood didn't exactly look welcoming either,  but the inside was nice and homey. The only problem is the young man who seated us decided to seat us next to a very large party with five adults and four or five disruptive children. They were all very loud, and several of them were running around the table. One of them actually knocked over a large glass of tea, and it splashed Earl on the back. He was not a happy camper, especially since the kid's mother never apologized. The adults paid no attention to the kids except for one who gave a half-hearted "Shhh" once in a while as though that would do any good. Usually, I'm the grumpiest one when it comes to children in a restaurant, but Earl was not happy at all with the spilled tea, lack of an apology, and the screaming and running. He said, "If those kids start throwing food, I'm going to lose it."Back to the food, the salads came out, and the first thing we noticed is that they were fairly large salads;  unfortunately,  the bowls they were served in were way too small, and the salads were falling out. The salads were basically Romaine lettuce, some purple onions,  and two large quarters of tomato.  The salads were served with two different kinds of crackers, which I thought was strange: one was regular saltines, and the other was wheat crackers. By the way, we both ordered iced tea to drink since according to Dolly Parton in Steel Magnolias, "it's the house wine of the south," but we got it unsweetened, which is not very southern. The salads were good--very fresh,  and the lettuce was nice and green; the purple onions, which are usually hot, were actually sweet. We were both particularly impressed with the salad dressings,  each of which was homemade.  After we finished our salads, a server, not our waitress, brought our entrées. The chicken fried steak was pretty large. It had the typical white gravy you see in the south, and the three sides were served in bowls.  First, the chicken fried steak was very tasty; the breading was not too thick,  and it was fried well. The gravy had a nice flavor unlike some that end up tasting like wallpaper paste.  As for my sides, I really liked the butter beans, and the mashed potatoes were real with the skins on and had more of the cream gravy.  I did not like the spinach I ordered.  It was supposed to be jalapeno creamed spinach, but it had an odd taste,  and I didn't like the consistency,  which was too much like baby food. I tried to doctor it up with some vinegar pepper sauce,  but I still didn't like it. The corn muffin was ok, but a little dry,  and I found that cinnamon biscuit very strange. It didn't seem to go with the savory meal. Earl thought the same thing. He liked all his food; I know because he ate everything, and I didn't hear him complain about the food, but he did mention the cinnamon biscuit. The waitress came back several times to check on us,  which is always a good thing. She asked us how we liked the food,  and we told her that we liked it fine;  I didn't mention the spinach. In the meantime, the loud group had left, and Earl told our server that it was so nice to be able to talk to each other now that the loud family with the children had left. We explained to her that typically when two people are seated,  it's not a good idea to seat them next to a large group,  especially one with several children. She apologized and said that there was nothing that she could have done because it was very awkward for her. She also said the same situation had happened earlier that day. I told her not to worry about it. Meanwhile, Earl went off to use the restroom, and while he was gone, a man came over and introduced himself as the owner of the restaurant. He said he had heard that we were upset about the loud people,  and I told him that was not the restaurant's fault because he didn't have any control over that. He apologized anyway and offered to give Earl and me free desserts. We were so full I turned them down.  He asked me how I liked all the food, and I said I liked it, and I told him that we had driven up from Texas City to spend the day, and when I said Texas City, he told me he used to work as a football coach at Texas City High School back in the 1970s. He asked me how the area had changed, and I told him about all the development on IH-45 between Texas City and League City; then, Earl returned from the restroom,  and I told him that this gentleman was the owner and that he had apologized about the noise and told me that he used to be a coach at Texas City High School. It's a small world. Earl paid the bill, and the waitress told him that the owner had given us a discount,  which was very nice,  but he really didn't need to do that. If we are back in the area again,  we will definitely try to return. Hoover's Cooking has different lunch specials every day, and some of them sounded really good. I give Hoover's Cooking 3 1/2 out of 4 stars. Remember, we're Steve and Earl, and we'll drive for food.