The Chubby Rose

I'm fighting with myself as to how to review this place.  

Is this place even a restaurant or your grandmother's kitchen?  If the later than I'd have to give it 5 stars, if you're expecting a restaurant than maybe 2 stars based solely on the quality of the food.  

The verbal menu on the day I visited had 2 things - BLT or Breakfast.  Breakfast: 2 eggs cooked perfectly, with thick crunchy bacon, lard cooked potatoes, and regardless of the toast you ask for you get what is given to you.

Coffee, or tea, or cans of soda to choose from.  You have to get up and get your own drinks.

It's an experience, that I'm glad I encountered, but most likely choose to go elsewhere in the future.

Weird yet tasty place. The vibe is just awkward - as is the service. Not sure if i can describe this place as "clean".... but I did make it out alive. It made for some good stories - I dined with three others and we still talk about it. I would say to check this place out if you want to do something different. The food was good and fresh - service slow.... coffee blah.... Pancakes - yum! Doesn't really fit in with the area it is in but it works. I would go back. Trying to paint a realistic expectation for ya'll!

This is the kind of place you would never know was there unless somebody told you. It didn't look too promising from outside, but I was meeting with a Hopewell resident for coffee early one weekday morning and had not only been given explicit directions, but had also been told that this was the best coffee in Hopewell and a special experience all the way around.

So it was. Walking into Chubbys was like walking through a door in time, back to the fifties when every luncheonette had a counter with stools a kid could rotate and go round and round on. The place was clean as a whistle, warmly welcoming, and a sentimental journey back to wonderful childhood memories of places long gone.

The coffee was, as promised, hot, fresh,and excellent American-style brew.. Chubby ( who is definitely not chubby) presides over the coffeepot herself and infuses the place with personality and warmth, chatting and smiling as she passes among her  customers.

I have to admit I only had coffee that morning, but I watched plates of eggs, perfectly done bacon and crisp home fries being carried to tables occupied by happy locals who were obviously regulars.  The smells were yummy  and on one of her coffee refill runs, Chubby gave me a smidge of home fried potato just to try.... it was divine..... crusty but not greasy, perfectly cooked, and melt in your mouth hot. I can't wait to go back for more.