Review: Still Four Corners in Rutland, MA

                                        

I always enjoy a well-designed outdoor dining space and this nice country restaurant fits the bill. There's a bit of a trick to the driveway but once you can actually see it by the Mobile station on the highway, Bob'your uncle. This is a seasonal place, so check the web site for opening and closing dates.

The restaurant is back from the highway and has good signage to help with getting to the right place to order food or ice cream.  It has a screened porch and an open shaded deck and a full sun deck.  So on a hot summer day it's a nice place to hang out while enjoying the food and frozen treats along with your friends or family. There is a full history of the place on their website, so if you want all the details, make a visit. It is clean and very well kept, and that along with the nice out door seating makes it an attractive spot.

There's a lot of menu to try. There are vegetarian options and since the whole menu is online, you can check before you go to see if everyone in your group should be able to find something. Sandwiches, wraps, casadillas, seafood, chicken and daily specials line up to make for a good variety.  There are 10 different kinds of burger and a variety of sandwiches and Coke products for drinks, plus tea and coffee. The service involves order and pickup windows, and I found that the staff is both cheery and helpful. 

 In my experience everything is ok, and I mean that in the sense that it's ok to eat and also in the sense that it's not anything I would rave about. If I would take a McDonald's as the standard, I would say that Still Four Corners fits the standard almost perfectly.  You can pretty much tell what you are going to get, nothing above or below standard. If I think "taco salad" I'm going to be able to imagine perfectly what the taco salad will be like. The same goes for "loaded tater tots". When you look at the meal in the photo above you can tell exactly how it will taste. So I'm guessing that's largely why it's popular. Also the ice cream list has a good variety of flavors without being overwhelming or silly. And there's sherbet and frozen yogurt, but not a wide variety of flavors in those treats. And yes, there are frappes, floats, and something they call a cooler, which is sherbet and soda.  I took a bit of time with a couple flavors of those on sunny days.

It's been bustling every time I've stopped in. The outside setting makes for a great place to hang out with friends in the warm weather. Beers and wines are also available. It will definitely remain on my mental list of ok places to go for a pleasant meal. The menu looks to me like it has been carefully shaped to make sure that everyone in a family is going to find something that they like, which is really good when everybody wants to go somewhere casual to eat.  The variety of outside settings make it a very good place to take children. 

All in all it's a nice place.  I'll be going back when I want to sit outside and enjoy some casual eats.

https://www.stillfourcorners.com

224 BARRE-PAXTON RD.

RUTLAND, MA 01543

Let me introduce myself...

 

My home base is the region called Central Massachusetts.  It's fly-over country, and that's good.  There are beautiful farms on rolling hills, which in general means world-class fresh food, and we are lucky enough to have large markets nearby to support organic agriculture. Northeast Organic Farmers Association/ Mass is centered a couple miles down the road at the moment, so there are all kinds of workshops and other kinds of farming related activities close to home. Most of all, there is a real thriving culture of producing good food.

After writing a blog about food around Albany, New York for several years I moved to Massachusetts.  It takes a while to figure out the food scene in any given place, so I have been roaming around Massachusetts for a few years - enough time to begin writing about what's happening here.  My project is to prowl around the state and report about farms, food, and restaurants. Since Massachusetts is so tiny, I'll be going beyond the immediate region to explore as much as I can of this adorable little state.

The restaurant scene bears some study. The state of Massachusetts doesn't have big theme parks and gaudy vacation spots so much as charming New England villages with commons and little boutiques. Tourists tend to want quick food but also the extraordinary, so I'm looking forward to sampling and writing about all of that. But I've also been living in a region where hardscrabble farmers and working people aren't really interested in the fancy stuff and have inherited a disdain for ostentation.

I'm hoping to write stories that will describe all our foodways, modern and not so modern. We've got everything from the awful to the glorious in Massachusetts, so my mission is to help readers enjoy learning about what is here. There will be reviews of restaurants, reports of food festivals, tasting tours of the region by types of food, farm tours, reviews of farm stores and stands and probably things I can't even imagine at this point.