No one likes waiting in line for a table. While standing around aimlessly, guzzling pre-dinner drinks and staring intently at your personal homing device (a.k.a. the annoying beeper thingy they give you at certain mid-grade eateries), you can't help but ponder the question, "why, oh why, didn't I make reservations?"
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Wasteland by William LeGoullon Perhaps it should be called "Waitland" |
It's hard not to feel sorry for local artists who exhibit their works at Orange Table Cafe & Bar in Old Town Scottsdale, because frankly, by the time a party is seated, they're probably hungry enough to gnaw their way through the paper menus. Looking at paintings or photos on the wall is not a priority when your stomach is starting to eat itself.
Of course, the only thing to do while your ass is assimilating into a leather couch during the inevitable half-hour-plus wait is stare at the walls -- good news for photographer William LeGoullon, whose prints were on display during our recent visits. More after the jump.
LeGoullon's photos capture the history of Phoenix-area buildings -- not the shiny, bright Frank Lloyd Wright and Will Gruber-designed structures that politicians and local mags always put on display, but the grimy, dirty, decaying remnants of our past. The buildings we all know are there, but that we fail to really see (like the above shots of an abandoned hotel on VanBuren St.). Rather than portray these dilapidated structures as sad, LeGoullon shows us a sort of quiet beauty in the urban decay.
Nestled among piles of debris and dirt in the old Fantasy Island strip club is a litter stick for picking up trash. Can't you just smell the irony??
Speaking of smells, we have to admit the fragrant sausage-y breeze wafting from the Orange Table is a pretty powerful lure. The short menu is chock full of breakfast specialties, from egg, cheese and veggie scrambles to the signature jalapeno-pancakes. On our last visit, the traditional breakfast platter of sausage links, eggs your way, potatoes and four huge slices of toast scored big with hearty eaters and the $6 fried egg and cheese sandwich on buttered sourdough was a gooey delight. But it's hard to get past the 45-minute wait.
Long dinner lines are easy to justify -- I mean, how many people can actually cook almond-encrusted pork loin with basalmic demi-glaze and truffled mascarpone mashed potatoes? Scrambled eggs and toast, however, almost anyone with a pulse can make. Which means the only good reasons to head to the Orange Table are:
- Too lazy/tired to cook
- You burn mac n' cheese from a box, so making breakfast for four is not an option.
- To check out the cool local art.
