Sparky’s** is the happeninG American Diner in Chennai. aYou can find it at Spur Tank Road opposite WUS.The “mission statement” saysit all – “never trust a skinny chef”. And when we met the owner, I guess he isthe chef as well, we saw that we could really trust him! They have really gone all
out to give the place an all-American look. All around you on the walls you can see car number plates, street signs, posters, baseball pennants, a surfboard andwhat have you. Under the glass tabletop, are baseball cards and post cards.Statues of a cowboy , and Indian(American Indian, too be sure), a pirate, complete with eye patch and wooden leg, a jazz band are scattered around. I think I saw a real saddle as well.
The Sunday afternoon crowd was obviously enjoying itself. That a number of Americans were
around assures us that the food is authentic; the laughter and looks on the diners’ faces assure us that the food is good. The “Hi”s and “”How are you?”s was evidence that lot of the people knew
each other and were regulars. If so many people kept coming there and were so cheerful, the food had to be good.
The menu takes a while to read; it lists American, Cajun. Mexican, Italian and Hawaiian besides soups, salads, starters, sandwiches and burgers. Choosing is tough but we mange to zero in on a couple of dishes while mentally marking some stuff for future visits.
My wife decides on Country Fried
Steak - cutlets of beef steak coated covered with white country gravy. It is served with garlic mashed potatoes and
vegetables with the house salad with mayonnaise and honey. (I hope I got all of
that right !). Its priced at a reasonable Rs 180.
I ordered Jamaican Jerk Chicken,
which was a bit spicy and tangy and was served with Cajun rice, priced at Rs
- The food was delicious and one had to take words like Cholesterol
temporarily out of the dictionary and dig in and enjoy oneself.
The portions were large and
I mean large! I could not finish even half the Cajun rice that came with my
chicken. For people like my wife and me
one dish would have been more than enough.
The stuff on the kids menu, at around Rs 75, will
probably leave some adults reasonably well fed !
We bravely stuffed ourselves
and enjoyed every minute of it. What we could not eat, in spite of our best
efforts, found itself in a doggy bag along with the Cheesecake we had ordered.
(Its another matter that our lil doggie never gets to see any of the contents
of our doggy bags !). Talking of dogs, someone told us that the restaurant is
named after the owner’s late dog, a fact that endeared the man to us, as did
his habit of walking around, talking to people and making sure everyone has a
good time.
To top it all, the Sparky’s
bill gets you a ten percent discount on the already reasonable prices at Coco’s, the
craft and gift shop next door. This establishment, which is also named after
the owner’s late dog, has a nice collection of jewelry, pottery, curios and
books.
We will
certainly go to Sparky’s again - the
only problem is that repeated visits may lead to the “unskinny” chef being
matched by his customers !