Executive Lounge

Some businesses are so good they need no advertising or signage. For this review, I can only give you an address, directions and landmarks. Head west on Government, pass Azalea Road and on the left is Diva’s. Do not stop there as you cannot eat their crabs, put you could certainly pick them up. Two doors down from Diva’s past the Pink Panther Energy Drink outlet, and across from Skyline Lanes, The Executive Lounge sits high atop a paved hill. There is a large skeleton of a blown-out sign out front. Look for a full parking lot.

There is no reason to be scared. It will be packed at lunchtime but there are plenty of tables. The waitresses are friendly and the clientele, while mostly male is made up of working men and casually dressed professionals. I did not run into any executives, maybe they were spending their lunch getting lap dances two doors down. There are two rooms in the lounge, one completely taken up with a large bar, which is where you pay before leaving. The other is a large dining area that appears to turn into a karaoke and/or band area at night. The tables are covered in patchwork oilcloth, close enough to borrow pepper sauce from your neighbor yet not intrusive on conversation.

The first amazing thing is that all of their meals come with a drink and tax, none over $7! And their food makes the offerings at any other meat and vegetable place taste like high school cafeteria food. Gosh, I need to have a bad food experience sometime soon, you are all due one. Mind you, I do not look for them, but they can be fun sometimes.

I digress.

Everyday is slightly different at the Exec. There is a standard menu that features plated items, with the top three changing daily. It is extensive, but I will hit the highlights. Every day you can get a grilled chicken breast, hamburger steak, fried pork chops, fried oysters or shrimp, for example. All of them come with two vegetables and they have a four-selection, just vegetable plate. There are also chef and grilled chicken salads along with sandwiches served with French fries.

On the day three of us went in, the daily items were beef tips over rice, barbeque country ribs and the teriyaki chicken breast. Plates constantly were hoisted past our eyes as we tried to decide – all of them loaded up with food. The teriyaki chicken, hamburger steak and ribs, along with great looking hamburgers seemed to be the most popular. The hamburger steak alone looked to be about two pounds of beef, no lie. Two people could certainly split this choice. While the teriyaki chicken did not seem to me, upon perusal of the menu, to be something special, once I saw it I almost regretted banishing it before my lunch arrived. Our waitress, who was easy on the eyes, gave us some suggestions and served us tea while we made our decisions.

Without being exhaustive, the vegetable list is complete. Among the usual suspects are field peas, macaroni salad, cream corn, white limas, cucumber salad and butter beans. You can also get a side salad (but cheese on it will be 50 cents extra).

The lady with us ordered the Barbeque Country Style Ribs – almost a full slab of tender pork puddled with a tangy tomato sauce, like true up-country ribs. She also tried the potato salad and cole slaw. Chunky and with a well balanced mustard-mayonnaise dressing with a hint of pickle and some eggs, the potato salad was just like my grandmother’s (actually “stepgrandmother”), one of the few things that have made her tolerable. Our dining companion’s cole slaw was sweet with thinly chopped cabbage. The meals are so generous they have to be served on platters.

My two Fried Pork Chops were way too much for me to eat, but I could not take one home with me. It was just too good. Left in the fryer or pan just long enough, these two tender cuts had a hot, greasy skin of flour that, in combination, tasted sublime. Creamy, homemade mashed potatoes with ladled brown gravy were piled high in their bowl and hard for me to share with the others. The turnip greens were likely not fresh, but few places are. But they had been well seasoned and were a worthwhile choice.

The third diner selected the Six Fried Shrimp with French fries with a green salad and macaroni and cheese. The fried shrimp were of nice size, fresh and fried just as well as the pork chops. The fries looked rather pedestrian, run of the mill but he raved about how good they were as well. The macaroni and cheese was velvety with the tender pasta clung together in a cheddar sauce. The green salad was your typical iceberg with blue cheese, passable and good for roughage. All of the meals come with cornbread, baked soft on the inside but with a crackling exterior.

Five desserts or “sweets” as they are labeled glaringly appeared at the bottom of the menu. Pecan pie, chocolate French silk pie, cheesecake, Italian cream cake and pumpkin cream pie all vied for my attention. She volunteered that while these were not made on location, the owner does pick them up from a local woman each day. I decided to ask our waitress to bring us her two favorites. The Italian Cream Cake was ice cold, and more like pie than cake, with a light, pudding-like texture. My fork went into this one more than the others, I think that I actually hogged it a bit as the three of our forks collided often. The Pumpkin Cream Pie was not an obvious choice for a hot August and we were expecting something more in line with Thanksgiving. A smooth, not dense whipped layer of subtle pumpkin was tucked under a mountain of freshly whipped cream. Even if you are stuffed, I recommend that you at least split a dessert at table.

There were so many cars that we had to park in the Pink Panther Energy Drink lot. My only regret about our experience is that no one was in the building as I needed something to get me through the afternoon. When you go, do me a favor and pick me up a sample. Just don’t get a take-out from Diva’s.

Kinnon Phillips is Lagniappe cuisine editor. Contact him at kphillips@lagniappemobile.com.

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