When I was in high school the restaurant at the corner of Walnut Street and Highland Avenue in Newtonville was a KFC/Taco Bell. If you ask anyone who went to Newton North High School, they will remember it fondly as a place they spent free periods or loitered outside of after school.
In the past year that nostalgic KFC/Taco Bell has been transformed into a restaurant called Rox Diner.
This is the second location for Rox Diner; their first is in West Roxbury.
When we arrived on Saturday morning at 11:00am every single table was full. We put our name in with the young hostess who said it would be a 10-15 minute wait.
From the minute I saw the hostess stand and the hostess' t-shirt, I knew I was going to love Rox. Her shirt read "Bred Zeppelin" and all the servers wear shirts that say "I was born a scramblin' man." Too cute!
I also loved the signage right when you walk in. First the Rox welcome sign which proudly says "Newtonville" and then the bottom sign on the hostess stand that reads, "Buy local. Stay Green." Amen!
The right side of the restaurant is all tables for two (which can be pushed together to make tables of four).
I absolutely love the exposed brick walls and the road trip themed art work.
We were seated on the left side of the dining room which is all leather booths. I tried to take a picture, but it was too crowded and I was always in the way!
The manager brought us each a menu and one copy of the special menus. The specials were amazing! A pomegranate mimosa, a manchego omelette, buttermilk biscuits and cherries jubilee challah French toast. Are you drooling yet?
The Rox menu is several pages but has fun whimsical touches and dish descriptions.
There are two sections of the menu that explain Rox's commitment to local, sustainable, green food and food practices. Bravo!
I was happy to see their organic, cage-free eggs come from Pete and Gerry's Farm. I met the guys from Pete and Gerry's at the Stone Hearth blogger dinner and they couldn't be nicer.
We agonized over what to order because there were so many excellent choices. My friend decided to make her own omelette and stuffed it with broccoli, mushrooms and cheddar cheese. Her omelette came with a scoop of crispy home fries and two pieces of sourdough toast.
I went with the manchego omelette, which was the omelette special. From the outside it may look the same as any other omelette . . . .
. . . . but on the inside it was packed with delicious goodies! It came with avocado, jalapeño, manchego cheese and cilantro. At one point my friend asked how I was liking it and I said, "I feel like I have the entire country of Mexico in here!"
The omelette had the buttery taste from the avocado, the bold and distinct flavor of the manchego, the freshness from the salsa and the kick from the jalapeños. I hate cilantro and I was worried about tasting it too much, but I didn't taste it at all. It's only a few days later and I am already craving this again.
Every week the brunch question is - what to order? Sweet or savory? Well, I am on this new kick where I've decided I will not choose. Instead, I will convince my friends to order both by promising them we will share everything. I used this trick at Rox to get my friend to agree to order the blueberry, pecan and marscapone pancakes. Look at these beauties!
The stack of three giant pancakes was stuffed with fresh, juicy blueberries, whole pecans and a creamy marscapone cheese.
I thought the cheese was simply drizzled between the stack of pancakes, but oh no! The cheese was somehow magically inside the pancake! When you cut into it, it oozed out like this:
These were insanely yummy and honestly, not overly sweet at all. We didn't even put any maple syrup on them, that's how good they were.
I have my eye on so many other items at Rox. For one, they make vegetarian hash with sweet potatoes and black beans instead of corn beef. Yes, please! I also want to sample the strawberry and chocolate stuffed French toast and the apple, cinnamon and granola pancakes. I ask again, are you drooling yet?
Though I was sad to see KFC/Taco Bell go after all those years of childhood memories, Rox is absolutely the new star of the neighborhood. Their decor is fun and festive, the staff is friendly and happy to give personal menu recommendations and their food is out of this world fantastic.
Though we went for brunch, Rox also serves lunch, dinner and wine and beer.
Visit Rox Diner at 335 Walnut Street in Newtonville.
