just had a pleasure of stopping by this local hot spot on a Saturday night last weekend. we were driving up M25 en route to port austin, and stumbled upon the first really big intersection (25/142) and with the sounds of growling from our stomachs, thought this was the best we'd find (it was a little past 8pm).
looking around, we saw little caesar's open. decided to go to the only other place that was open - Smalley's. it was pretty crowded when we walked in (there were a couple of big parties seated at tables and most of the seats at the bar were taken).
sat at the bar, ordered a burger, and i have to say it was one of the better tasting burgers i've ever had. the patty was just amazing (maybe even better than umami or fo burger). i wanted to stay for a bit longer, but the fact that we still needed to get to port austin and my buddy not feeling too comfortable there made for a hasty exit.
overall a pretty good food for good price. a burger and a philly cheese steak sandie with 2 drinks came out to about $21. paid $30 and left.
my friend swore he felt like if we stayed longer, we'd been the next vincent chins. i highly doubt that (the owner and the waitress were friendly). but we did get some seriously weird stares when we walked in.
As someone who married into a Thumb family, Smalley's is an institution that I learned early on is treasured in HB. Not too hard to see why, with Sam's somewhat recent improvements.
* Green and white decor for the Sparties. Go Green!
* Decent bar menu selection...and all I sampled were tasty (cheeseburger, The Swartz, Philly cheese, fries)
* Shuffleboard, pool, jukebox
* Very affordable beer 'n booze
Smoking is allowed, and that totally blows. But all in all, a good bar experience.