Putnam,CT

Ahhh. Putnam, CT

The Town that was once a trash heap now actually has some appeal. On the map now for it's cluster of downtown antique shops. A nice little area. I don't feel afraid to walk the streets and actually LIKE living here. The Jewel in the armpit of Connecticut. Here are a list of places that I have been to and my opinions of each.

Food:

Athens Pizza - 140 school st. - 928-5877 - Well the food has always been pretty good. 7 bucks a grinder though when I had it delivered around the corner. The Grinders were just NOT WORTH SEVEN BUCKS! I may do pickup again someday, but the end of delivery.

Bar-B-Q hut - 1 Mechanics - 928-6499 - Ok. The owner seems nice enough. I thought the ribs were rich, but tasty. I have no proof, but I think I got a bad batch and felt a tad sickly after eating there. So I have not gone back. I may give it another try again, As they have won awards, but perhaps just not my taste. I want to state again. I really liked the owner. He was quite nice and I don't see anyone else complaining. So let us say it's just me on this one. I would suggest it to others to hear what they have to say.

Bill's Bread and Breakfast. - 149 Providence st. - 928 -9777 - Ate there once. I recall the french toast being not great, but I have been hearing raves about the place. I'll go back soon and update. People who worked there seemed nice. I'll get back to you. Went again recently. Again not impressed.

Center Pizza - 229 Kennedy dr. - 928-4242 - Never been there. I'll try it and report.

Empire Buffet - 62 Providence turnpike - 928-2101 - Had takeout once. fair. I like Jade Garden better.

Rachael says that she saw one of the cooks smoking while cooking the food.

The Harvest - 37 Putnam rd. - 928-0008 - The waitress was piss poor for this price range, but there is a fantastic chef behind the scenes. The food was way beyond good. This is a reservations only restaurant. The sushi was excellent. It takes some time to get your order, but well worth the wait. Like I stated before. Both times I went I got the same blonde waitress. She was not really friendly and the first time I went she screwed up my order. All of the other servers seemed genuine and helpful. Regrettably. We got this girl twice. I would suggest going. Just request anyone but that blonde. The deserts were to die for.

Kentucky fried Chicken - 64 Providence turnpike - 963-7737 - What can you say about the chain. I crave greasy chicken every now and then. It's pretty clean and I haven't had any problems.

Mc Donald's - 6 Providence Turnpike - 928-5008 - Until recently. The WORST Mc Donald's ever... Well in competition with the one in Brooklyn. It seems to be getting better. The current crew seems to be nice and competent. You know how it is at these places. There are very few lifers so HEAVY turnover. They always seem understaffed. The Food can be good. I would say lately. about 75% of the time it's OK. ( For Fast food )

Nikki's Dog house - 928-0252 - Decent place. Just moved up the street from where it was. Hot dogs. I go here about every 6 months for a change of speed.
the decor is that of the old train theme. It's clean. good location. If your strolling around Putnam on foot. I would suggest it for an inexpensive treat.

Pete's Drive in - Rt. 44 - ( actually in Pomforet ) - 928-6961 - Now not really Putnam, but really good food. More picnic tables. Oldies music. Drive in. Get some ice cream or food. Save being next to a busy rt. 44. A heck of a view. Suggested.

The Pickled Pepper cafe - 172 main St. - 963-0401 - Every time I went by. CLOSED. There were people in there. The door was open. They said " We are closed. " Rudely I might add. I read the hours last time I stopped by. Open until 2:00 pm. Honestly. After the last attempt. I doubt I will ever attempt it again.

Rogers Place - 244 providence st. - 928-3328 - Never been. It's down the road too. Get back to you.

Someplace Special - 58 main st. 928-6660 - Ahhhh. Well this will be the last time I ever eat there. I generally order delivery from this place. The prices are a little high. Now I spent like $2000 on food there in one summer. The service never got any better. The delivery is almost always late. They forget things. Have been screwing up orders. We now call it Someplace Wretched. I used to like the Taco wraps, but even those have gotten expensive and ill prepared. ( Ahhh. That had to have been the sickest looking pickle I have EVER seen in my life. I want to say again. They screwed up my order 6 out of 8 times. They are generally rude on the phone taking the orders. Save a nice old woman who works the day shift, and one of the stampede of girls were nice. Most whom are seriously in need of a good ____ !
I don't think I will ever eat there again. I would stay away from this place like the plague.

Rachael Mard says that the food is generally good but the service " SUCKS " Over an hour to get delivery. An hour to get food while seated inside. The owner generally hires relatives. Hence the bad service. She says that they need to LISTEN to what is being ordered. and write it down correctly.

Putnam house of Pizza - 364 School st. -928-0777 - Nothing extra ordinary. Inconsistent food, delivery, and service. I don't go there no more.

Subway - Rt. 44 Putnam - 928-2420 - Well. It's subway. Pretty good. Mixed reviews on service. Some are nice. Some are not, but hey it's subway.

The Village restaurant - Woodstock rd - 928-0230 - Good bar. Most of the stuff I tried was fair I guess. I had to wait a long time for the food every time.

Wendy's old fashioned hamburgers - 66 Providence Turnpike - 963-9542 - See McDonalds with square patties and actual vegetables.

Pyzzzzz - 8 harris st. - 928-7424 - Authentic Pizza white and red sauce. The food is excellent. Located in a hidden corner of Putnam. I don't see how they can keep business coming in, but still my highest recommendation for the food. Dining there was pleasant. The chairs I remember a tad uncomfortable. Wait staff pleasant. Cash only.

J.D. Coopers. - 146 Park rd - 928-0501- Sports bar and restaurant. I have only been in the bar twice. Seems to be all the rage. ( I'm not a big sports buff myself. ) Worthy of being mentioned simply because the Prime Rib is awesome. Almost everything I have tried has been really good. The only place that does a better prime rib is 30 minutes away. Everyone who works there is nice. The restaurant side is typical Putnam, antique, but still very classy. Suggested highly.

Mike's Stand ( Deary Bros. ) - 12 Intervale - 928-1191- It makes me think of a very authentic beach stand. A small red hut with windows all around it. It's not really an eat in restaurant as the seating are picnic tables outside. The scenery is pleasant enough and it does bring me back to my youth. The local AM radio station played over an old metal speaker. The sign may need restoration. ( I offered to do it, but never got a call. ) This little shack of love makes some of the best red and white clam chowder I have ever had.
( Worthy of the old Rocky point chowder and cakes. ) The clam strips are the bomb. The employees are nice. Food is served timely. For desert. ICE CREAM. what flavor? I'm certain they have it. Some of the best frappes and shakes and sundaes. I would suggest this for a nice warm sunny day. I eat there about once a week during the summer.

Jade garden - 243 Kennedy Drive- 928-5351- Well Chinese. I would say pretty good. Better than most places in the area. Food is served quick and service is always good.

Coffee Express - Ohhhh. This place sucks. Every time the girls are rude and never smile. My coffee was cold the doughnuts terrible. I don't know why this place is so miserable, but I am so not going back ever again. I'm trying P.J.'s up the road. The drive through seemed convenient at first until the service overall drove me away.

Savage Systems - I am listing this as a restaurant because the coffee was better than the service as a computer store. You guys get the WHOLE story with this one. He really put a hair across my ass.

    The open up. I think. An internet cafe. Cool. Oh and they do repairs and sell a few things. Kick Ass ! Well I went in when my presario crashed. Well he kind fixed it, but I had to bring it back like three times to get it useful again. I figured, well That's OK. I'll give him another shot. I say to him " My girlfriend likes the Sims. She wants to play without it crashing every three minutes. " He says. OK. Here is a deal that you will like. A computer for $350.00. ( Essentially a new motherboard and a case he just swaps the CD drive - Floppy - and hard drive from the other one. ) Cool. I'll do it. get it home. Nothing runs on it without crashing. NOTHING. I bring it back. Again and again. It NEVER played the sims for more than a minute before crashing. So I just gave up. I figure I would take out the parts and put it into my old computer. The hard drive was held in place by the case. With no way save a hacksaw to get the damn thing out. No screws. No Sliders. No joke. Now I'm sick of fighting with this thing. So I placed it in the studio to play music off of. It's a glorified jukebox.

    The BITE. Now I will never do business with the man again. He seems more interested in impressing the local school kids with his band and his coffee rather than his business clients with his skill and pro demeanor. I purchased recently a dual xenon 2.1 ghz machine with a SCSI raid systems and Toaster editor. $9000.00 worth of gear. He could have sold me the same system for $10,000 and made a profit of a grand. Had he actually fixed things in a timely manner. Made a genuine attempt to show that he was concerned about me as a customer. ( Sorry. He did give me a free coffee upon entering my third time with the junk he sold me. ) Nor did he offer to refund the money for a product that never worked.

    Now I know that any windows PC is going to crash occasionally, but the owner of this " Business " should never let a machine out of his store unless it can perform the tasks the owner needs it for. It would not play any of the games my GF wanted the machine for. So now she plays her " Sims " when I'm not using the editor. I give him three years until he's out of business, unless he's riding an inheritance or settlement. Either way. Get coffee here not repairs, computers, or advice.

OK. This whole thing has escalated since my original post. Eric. The owner of Savage Systems. Sent back a few e-mails asking me to remove this review. I offered to do so if he refunded me for the machine....

HERE is the e-mail and a play by play of what happened.

Watch Eastern Connecticut Cable to see the story on TV.

Convenience :

    Well. I'm not going to list numbers but I'll give you some basics.

    There are three 24 hour convenience stores within a mile of where I live. I as the opinionated fool that I am. Will now review all three. Keep in mind I almost always stop at the one on the way out or on the way home. Hence the convenience part.

    E-xtra mart - I rarely get gas there as it's a tad overpriced, the service is always pretty good. the employees are nice. ( I know many by sight, bit I am terrible with names. ) They run out of 2 liter bottles of coke a lot. They always have my smokes though and generally ask " How many? " when I come in rather than what brand. They have sales on Coke that are WAY cheaper than the Stop and shop up the road. So I always load up. They stopped selling Evian though. ( Hey the WATER may come from france, but sheesh. I like it. ) I go here most of the time.

    Chuckys - Right off Exit 97. Handy and generally packed during the day. They obviously get tons of traffic cause they run out of things often.. It's a smaller store than e-xtra mart so not as wide a variety for groceries. I tend to stop here nightly. If they are out of smokes. THEN I go up the road to e-xtra mart. There are like Three really nice employees who work there. I like the guy who works the late shift the best. He works hard and never gives me a problem when I spout my life stories at him. I don't want to date him or anything, but nice people should get praised for staying nice in toady's U.S.A.

Cumberland farms - I like the people who work there. The store blows though. Never any milk or soda or whatever I am looking for. They do last I check stock Evian so that's a plus. Gas is cheap. Again it's a drive by thing.

The Bars:

Now I'm not much of a bar man but I do go out from time to time. I won't bother listing all of them. Actually I'll just list one of them.

Rick's Billiards - Now I'm going to be fair about this. If you want to play pool. This is the place to do it. The tables are in great condition. I really do enjoy it there when it's not too packed. They opened up the back area so there is plenty of space now. I do like the fact that they host bands from time to time. ( I'm not fond of loud music, but I know the younger consumers like it. )

My only gripe... ( Listen up Rick ) is that the damn bar is too tiny. Now for those who have never been. I don't mean the size of the establishment. I mean the actual bar where you order. Make that sucker LONGER! On a busy night It's almost impossible to get to.
( You could be moving more drinks if you do this too. )

They stock Petrone ( A high end Tequila ) and generally Corona. Which makes me and my crowd happy. Now on a side note. The weekends bring in really hot girls. Now this means there are a few fights over those hot girls. This is not the fault of the establishment.
This is just what happens when you have a great place. It brings in the good folks and the bad folks. Now I have been to every bar in this town, but I keep going back to Rick's, because simply. It's a clean place that gives me something to do while I drink. I happen to like playing pool, cute girls, Petrone, and some elbow room.

Overall. Save my buddies at the Rain Desert. This place has my seal of approval.

A recent update. It seems not everyone is please with my website and opinions. I got an un signed e-mail. So out of fairness. Here it is. :)

just wanted to let you know as a citizen of putnam CT your webpage sucks!

i really cant see you even making a movie if its going to look like that why not put somethought and graphics into it?

then you have these stupid sections where you think people care about you pohatton street opinion! you cut up businesses but yet you live on this street LOL. your real famous.

Interesting comments to be sure. Some real intelect here.

I'll expand on this as I partake of this lovely little town more. Until then feel free to e-mail me and let me know your opinions of these places. I also welcome the businesses to respond if they care to. I'll post both positive and negative letters. Don't bother trying to sue. It's all my opinion and if it helps or hurts your business . I'm standing by it.

To everyone in general. learn to be even more pleasant. Keep trying to be happy and live and let live.