Boston Restaurant Blog >> June, 2007 >> blog entry

Boston Restaurant Blog -- June, 2007

This blog entry is from the Boston Restaurant Blog, which is a feature within the Boston's Hidden Restaurants site. Use the blog links above to see the rest of the entries from that month or to return to the main blog page, or use the green buttons to access the rest of the Boston's Hidden Restaurants site. And feel free to use the "Post A Comment" link under the blog entry to reply to us; your comment just might end up in our restaurant blog!

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Food Trip to Lawrence, Lowell, and Merrimac

Last year, a friend of mine and I did a memorable food trip to Connecticut, hitting some of the greatest roadside dining spots I have ever been to. And earlier this year, we did a short trip to south of Boston that was also an interesting food trip. Well, yesterday, my friend and I decided to do a food trip to the Merrimack Valley, including Lawrence, Lowell, and Merrimac.

We started the trip off by grabbing a couple of slices of Sicilian pizza at Napoli, a tiny pizza place on Common Street in Lawrence's "Little Italy." Now I had been to Napoli many times over the past few years, but my friend hadn't, and he was greatly impressed by these incredibly cheap ($1.25) squares of pizza. And while I like the pizza at Tripoli Bakery (which is across the street) a little better, Napoli certainly holds its own, with a sauce that is slightly less sweet than that at Tripoli, but nearly as delicious.

Our first meal done (at 11:15 AM, by the way), we drove across the Merrimack River to Sal's Pizza on Merrimack Street. I won't get into details, as we have a feature on Sal's, but I will say that the pizza was as good as ever, which is to say, very, very good stuff indeed.

After Sal's Pizza, we drove across town to Lawton's, a rickety old hot dog stand on Canal Street that sits precariously on a sidewalk overlooking the canal in Lawrence's historic district. And when I say it sits on the sidewalk, I do mean it literally SITS on it; in the middle of the place, right where people place their orders, sits a fire hydrant (no joke). We walked past the hydrant and ordered a couple of hot dogs. The folks behind the counter cook the dogs in a rectangular tin that is filled with oil, and it appears that they add some secret ingredients to the oil as the hot dogs cook. And while the dogs are not technically "rippers," they do come close to bursting open in the oil. We grabbed our orders and took them back to the car. The result? Perhaps one of the top 2 or 3 hot dogs either of us have had anywhere.

Leaving Lawrence, we knew that it would be tough to top Lawton's, but Skip's Snack Bar on Route 110 in Merrimac came mighty close. As we pulled into Skip's, the first thing we noticed was the cheesy but oddly appealing neon sign announcing that we had indeed arrived at Skip's. Once inside the place, we ordered burgers and fries, grabbed a table in the rather Spartan dining room, and proceeded to have the type of griddled burgers that most snack bars can only dream about making. These burgers were high quality meat, and had just the right amount of grease to make them absolutely delicious. The curly fries were also excellent, though some were a bit undercooked. After we finished, I wanted to grab an ice cream there, but somehow had the willpower to resist, knowing that we still had more food to eat before the day was done.

We were hoping that after the terrific meals at Lawton's and Skip's, our streak would continue in Lowell. But alas, it wasn't quite mean to be, as Elliot's Famous Hot Dogs on Elliot Street was a bit of a disappointment. The steamed hot dogs at Elliot's were decent enough, but mine had a slightly sickly yellowish tinge to it, and the cheese within the bun was not melted at all. Plus, the fact that we drove for about 35 minutes in order to spend 45 seconds downing a basic hot dog seemed, well, ridiculous in retrospect. On the up side, however, the woman behind the counter was as nice as could be, and the local character at this sad-looking place on a side street near downtown Lowell was something that I won't soon forget.

Elliot's was to be the last stop of the trip, but we decided to do something that probably would cause many folks to scratch their heads; we went back to Lawton's for more hot dogs. In fact, the women behind the counter literally did scratch their heads when they saw us again, but if you have ever had a hot dog at this place, it's not so difficult to explain our rather rash decision. Lawton's was indeed the overall winner on this trip, and will soon be featured on Boston's Hidden Restaurants, so stay tuned...

Related Blog Entries: hot dogs, Lawrence restaurants, pizza places

Posted by MH, Boston's Hidden Restaurants, on June 5, 2007.
RSS | Post A Comment

1 COMMENT:
C.S. said:
I definitely love Skip's. They have the best fries and burgers...NO ONE can top! I wish I lived closer, but I'd probably end up going everyday! I must admit, the staff is really friendly too. It just has an overall great atmosphere!
Posted on 5/5/08

POST YOUR COMMENT:

Please note that all entries added to our site become the property of Boston's Hidden Restaurants, and they will be subject to editing. Also, not all entries will be added to our site.