Hidden Gems

Contributing editor Jerry Minnich plays "Hide and Seek, finding "five great restaurants waiting to be discovered." At the Ivy Inn, he finds white-linen tablecloths, and "I have not had better fried cod anywhere in town," he writes. "Nick's, on upper State Street, is truly a wonder," he continues. It "serves good, solid food at modest prices, and yet you can usually just walk right in and grab a table or booth without waiting." Taste of Country, on Williamson Street, "seats only 16," but boasts "great homemade soups and sandwiches." At Old Heidelberg in the Pyare Square building on University Avenue, Minnich finds "good, standard German food by people who know German food," including a sauerbraten he deems "perfect, the meat easily separated with a fork." For his fifth tour stop, Minnich lands at the Jet Room: "I ordered poor man's lobster and received three big pieces of cod, a tublet of melted butter, a baked potato, crisp coleslaw, and a huge homemade dinner roll, warm from the oven, all for $3.95." The ensuing 20 years have claimed three of these gems, but Nick's survives and so does the Jet Room, now operated by Farm Cafe veteran Pat O'Malley.