We tried two new restaurants during our Staycation. Here are my reviews of each restaurant experience.

Metropolis Café:

We arrived around 1 for a late lunch. The restaurant was empty, so we were told to go ahead and seat ourselves. We were quickly approached by a waitress who got our drinks quickly (water for me and a black & tan for Derrick).

We were excited to see calamari on the menu, and we always have to order it when we see it. Though it was really good, with a light batter and subtle flavoring, I would not recommend this particular appetizer for “calamari beginners”. Very often people are grossed out by the texture of squid. I am not. But it had an olive oil coating underneath the fried batter that made it feel much more tentacle-y in your mouth than other kinds of calamari.

I’d been craving a gyro for months, so of course I ordered myself one. The lamb/beef meat came with lettuce and tomatoes on a pita. The sauce was on the side, which I appreciate, but it was difficult to spread on the pita because the pita was loaded with goodies. It was delicious and came with a side of curly fries, which might be my favorite curly fries ever.

Derrick ordered a kabob platter with steak and chicken. It came on a bed of basmati rice with some pita triangles off to the side. He thought the chicken was a hit. He did wonder if the seasoning of the dish as a whole was a little limey. The next day, we were able to use his leftover steak and veggies in a breakfast scramble, and the flavors worked well with eggs.

BoJo’s Boardwalk Café:

After being turned away at PJ’s because they were “closed”, we headed across the street to BoJo’s. We were meant to end up here, and I’ll always regret not going there earlier.

We happened to arrive during happy hour, when drinks are half priced. Derrick got two Sam Adams in bottles. Strangely, despite their large beer selection, they don’t have beer on draft. I got a “Week on the Beach” drink, which was a pineappley drink very similar to the Pineapple Express drink I had at Planet Hollywood on our honeymoon. When I asked the waitress about the drink, she didn’t know exactly what was in it, so she went and talked to the bartender and brought me back the whole ingredient list.

Derrick and I both ordered the Admiral Platter, which seemed like the best deal for us wanting to try a variety. The Admiral Platter comes with the fresh catch of your choice ( I got salmon and Derrick got mahi mahi), shrimp, scallops, lobster cake, and two sides (I got salad and fries, and Derrick got steamed veggies and fries). Our meals were wonderful. I think the scallops really stole the show. They were big and juicy—four bites each. We’ve only ever had scallops like this at Fripp Island. Who knows where they came from—not Lake Sinclair!

The service was wonderful. Quick too—Derrick and I were out of there in 45 minutes, even with our drinks and feasts! BoJo’s has a great, relaxed, lake-house atmosphere, and it’s definitely the best seafood option in Milledgeville.

As part of our staycation, Derrick and I wanted to go in all of the downtown shops we’ve ignored during our two years in Milledgeville. We explored Red Door Antiques, Auntie Bellum’s Antiques, The 42nd Floor, and Villane’s. I’ve decided to review Villane’s, since it is the only store I purchased items from, and because the shopping experience has bothered me more the more I thought about it.

Outside, there was a sign that said purses were 40% off. When we entered the store, one of the employees was having a conversation with another customer about how they were considering getting rid of their purse section and expanding their jewelry section. Derrick and I started in the front and worked our way to the back, but I was very excited by some of the first earrings I saw at the front of the store. They were small flower studs, and I’d been eyeing a similar pair on Etsy, though these were metal and the ones I’d been looking at were plastic. The flowers were in all colors of the rainbow, so I chose an aqua blue pair and then decided that I should also grab a purple pair. The earrings were $3 each, so I was getting two different pairs of earrings that I could wear with different colored outfits for only $6—a steal.

The store’s jewelry selection is really nice for Milledgeville. There were lots of owl necklaces, elephant pieces, and trendy scarves. There was a cool snake bangle that I tried on. There were some nice sea horse earrings that I considered buying. Everything was reasonably priced.

But my check-out and after-store experience keeps me from thinking that I’ll ever return to Villane’s. I tried to make small talk with the check-out woman, explaining that I’d wanted earrings like this for a long time. She was only concerned with how much the similar earrings on Etsy cost (no biggie; at least from a business standpoint, her interest made sense). When I handed her the earrings that I’d picked out, she reached over to the side of the counter and grabbed a “master earring sheet”, and she pulled off an aqua pair and a purple pair from this sheet, wrapped them in tissue, and put them in a little bag. I thought it was strange because I’ve never bought earrings and seen this happen, but Mom told me this does happen occasionally.

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