Cheap Eats: Tasty Home Cookin

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Tasty Home Cookin / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Tasty Home Cookin / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Tasty Home Cookin
3854 S. Tuttle Ave., Sarasota
921-4969 or tastyhomecookinsarasota.com
This is the umpteenth entry in a weekly column dedicated to eats that are cheap. If you have an idea for a place to feature in Cheap Eats, comment below, email me at cheapeatssrq@gmail.com or hit me up on Twitter:@LeveyBaker.

Tasty Home Cookin's 'Tastyburger' / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Tasty Home Cookin's 'Tastyburger' / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

The first thing that stands out about Tasty Home Cookin are the ads. While most restaurants might offer some business cards up front by the register, or sell a few spots on their menu, "THC" (as a friend, perhaps fond of marijuana, once broishly dubbed it) has taken the in-restaurant advertising scheme to the next level.

Small rectangular ads line the bottom of the menu, like at other spots, offering everything from real estate advice to Medicare consultations, but THC doesn't stop there. Ads also shine forth from beneath the laminated tabletops. Need a home inspection? A chiropractor? An estate sale expert? A new metal roof? Funeral and cremation services? THC has got you covered. Even the restaurant's beverage cups come laden with ads for attorneys or companies looking to build your rubber "Dream Dek."

Tasty Home Cookin's ad-laden iced tea / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Tasty Home Cookin's ad-laden iced tea / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Perhaps all that ad revenue is what accounts for the second thing that stands out about THC: its incredibly low prices. "3 Tasty Burgers $2.39" promises the sign out front, which overlooks the scorching T.J.Maxx parking lot where the restaurant has sat since 1990. $2.39? For three hamburgers? Outrageous.

Of course, they're small, sliders in fact, similar to what you might get at White Castle, with a super-thin circle of grilled meat, onion, pickles and cheese stuffed inside a small square of white bread. They're not going to bowl you over, but they're a far cry better than some much more expensive burgers I've eaten in my day. And how can I possibly complain about three sliders that altogether cost less than a green tea latte at Starbucks?

Tasty Home Cookin's apple crisp / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Tasty Home Cookin's apple crisp / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Turns out small and cheap is a theme throughout the lunch menu. You can get fried fish sliders or chicken sandwich sliders for less than two bucks. The fish is what you'd expect: an impossibly perfect square of breaded whitefish, species unknown, stuck inside a bun. Better to go with THC's breakfast menu, which includes a number of ridonkulously cheap biscuit sandwiches. A chicken biscuit sandwich, basically just a large chicken nugget in a warm biscuit, will cost you a measly $1.95.

On the side, go for any number of breakfast options, like grits and hash browns, or your usual diner lunch options: fries, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, etc. The onion rings, at $2.75, cost more than the burgers, but they're better than most O-rings, which leave you slurping up scalding strings of onion and then crunching down on nothing but an empty tube of fried batter. THC's hang together well.

Tasty Home Cookin's grilled chicken salad / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Tasty Home Cookin's grilled chicken salad / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

If you're in the mood for something healthy, check out the lunch salads, surprisingly creative for such a down-home spot. A grilled chicken salad ($4.95-$5.95) comes with chickpeas, cucumber and beets, and the chicken resting atop everything remains moist and flavorful. Dessert options include stuff like tapioca pudding ($1.95) and applesauce ($1.50); the most intriguing offerings are the apple and peach crisps ($2.50). The apple crisp is sweet and flavorful, but amazingly not crisp—soupy instead.

Those prices must keep people coming back. The servers greet nearly everyone with old jokes, questions about school, birthday reminders; the regulars head immediately toward favored booths and tables. THC is clearly a neighborhood destination, an old standby and, thanks to all those ads, an information booth to boot. I was just thinking I needed a home theater! Thanks to a glass of THC iced tea, I now know where to turn.

Last modified: July 28, 2014
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