Today's adventure begins as I leave Boston over the Tobin Bridge to Route 1 North to Middleton. I go by giant box stores and chain restaurants I've only read about. Although people drive fast in the city, outside the city they're worse. When you slow down to pull off, you're lucky they don't take you out although sometimes they do. People love shopping here, I can tell, and it's enchanting because parking is free and there's so much of it.
It's hard not to notice that the word "eatery" is big along Route 1 and we're not being snippy. As I pull in to Maggie's Farm parking lot, I see the Sol Bean Café next door and yes, here's another sign that says not just eatery, but 'healthy eatery.' Anyway, I've arrived much too early. Sadly, there's no bookstore, no market, no place to window shop, so I drive back a couple of miles to Home Depot. I manage not to buy anything. The parking is intoxicating.
Maggie's Farm: Bob Dylan wrote a song by this name in 1965. While I like '60s tunes too, the surfing ones like 26 Miles and Surfer Girl, the lyrics to Maggie's Farm describe a sad worker scrubbing floors, underpaid and fined. I'm sure Maggie's owner Mark McDonough knows something I don't. Anyway, I thought it might be farm-ish if not an actual farm but it's not, although their logo has a sheep wearing sunglasses. On their site it says they purchased "a classic 1953 International Harvester tractor to become the icon of the restaurant" but I didn't see it. What is certain, however, is that I'm very, very near a farm.
Still waiting, I see hungry people getting out of their cars. Without exception, every person is wearing shorts. People tell me I should wear shorts, they're so much cooler. Not really. Besides, isn't someone responsible for keeping America beautiful? Those people also say: 'It's summer, enough with the black,' and I remind them, I'm from New York.
Okay, we're seated at a high top and boards of sandwiches are going by that we must have. Patricia, our server, describes what she's serving and after talking about how someone at the table is always ordering BLTs, we order one BLT ($15) and one Cuban ($13). (At dinner, there are maki rolls; one is called T & A that thankfully turns out to be tuna and avocado.)
Dilusha has the Cuban. I'm calling it an American Cuban since it comes with a really big salad that she eats first. Here's what Wikipedia has to say: "A traditional Cuban starts with Cuban bread. A coat of yellow mustard is spread on the bread. Then roast pork, glazed ham, Swiss cheese, and thinly-sliced dill pickles are added in layers. . . it can be toasted in a sandwich press." I can't say where the bread came from, it has Maggie's own pickles, roast pork, cured ham, and Swiss and it's not pressed but it is nicely starched and she likes it, which in the end is all that matters.
The purist's BLT comes with a crabcake. Maggie's menu calls it a crab BLTA which seemed odd when I read it. The A is for avocado. I know, it's confusing. It's here on a ciabatta and the crabcake is not next to it . . . it's on the sandwich.
The tomato and avocado are very good, the bacon's from someplace important and you can see how nicely it's put together. People, it's not called a BLT for nothing. I took it off: the crabcake, that is, I took it off. It was fine on the plate all by itself. We agree the creamy cole slaw is top notch.
We're considering dessert if only for chocolate and Dilusha's photograph. Too bad, we ate so much that in the end, we can't. I check now to see what they have but nothing's listed, just "daily chef's choice." On the dessert page, however, I do learn they serve two bourbons and nine Scotches. I guess in a pinch that would work so long as you weren't hoping for chocolate cake but maybe they do have cake and with any luck, it would be chocolate. Be sure to head home before rush hour.
Maggie's Farm
119 S.Main Street (Route 114)
Middleton, MA
978. 539. 8583
© Photos by Dilusha De Tissera. Kitty Kaufman is a Boston writer. See more of their food adventures at Corporate Edge: Let's eat already