Suzi Q's Ice Cream and Stuff -- Cardington, Ohio

I am a sucker for hole-in-the-wall restaurants. If the place also has "an attitude," I'm even more enamored. My last food stop was in Cardington. And unlike those rude cold bastards seven miles to the north in Mt. Gilead, I found the folks in Cardington to be warm, friendly, chatty, truly interested in the fat guy who's clearly out of his mind. "You rode from Cedar Point? Well, bless your heart." "Bless your heart," or the more Southern variation, "Bless your pea-picking heart," is code for, "What kind of dumbass are you, anyway?"

SuziQ's was a great little place. The staff wasn't overly friendly (I am a stranger, dressed strangely, and smelly), but they were business-like -- and they all had smiles. Reminded me a little bit of a passage from one of John Grisham's books about a diner Down South that the proprietor would come to you once you've finished and tell you to get the hell out so someone else could sit down. (He'd probably say, "Bless your pea-picking heart, but if you're done, get your ass out. I'm trying to pay bills here.")

Here's some of their "attitude":

It's hard to make out, but on the menu board behind the, "I Kiss Better Than I Cook" sign (look below the words "I Kiss") is this wording: "ANY THING EXTRA WILL COST YOU EXTRA." I love it. A common sense approach to business!

This was lunch. MAN, was it ever good!