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The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

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Same old name, new Old Pro

Do you want to win a trip to Las Vegas? Well, according to Old Pro bulletins, you can compete in the 2nd annual mini cheeseburger eating contest or ro-sham-bo contest to win a trip to Las Vegas.

With Old Pro being the oldest Palo Alto restaurant, established in 1964, it is surprising that it has gone unnoticed by many at its El Camino location. Now, Old Pro has a second location on Emerson Street in downtown Palo Alto between University Avenue and Hamilton Avenue. Expectations are high for this additional restaurant as it tries to fight its way to the top of the lists among many other hip downtown spots.

According to Steve Finchek, a manager of Old Pro for 10 years, management is not attempting anything extreme to distinguish the new restaurant from the other Old Pro. The modern and more accessible site attracts different types of crowds, as the El Camino site mainly received its business from loyal local customers.

To keep neck and neck with other trendy spots downtown, it also opened a full bar with hard alcohol and has an hour later closing time of 1 a.m. It seems that the main differences between the new Old Pro and the old one have come about due to the new one’s competitive location, though the only main competitor seems to be Nola’s next-door.

Certainly more refined-looking, the downtown Old Pro’s atmosphere is modern yet classic. The deep blue walls are offset by chestnut brown beams holding up high ceilings with classy skylights, and are wallpapered by hundreds of framed Sports Illustrated magazine covers, college banners, and sports posters. Red bulb track lights line the ceilings, each table has an individual lamp, and additional wall lighting provides a dim yet friendly environment. Weathered wooden tables and chairs as well as black leather booths and high barstool tables provide numerous seating arrangements in addition to the popular full bar seating.

Though not very busy from 7 to 9 on a Friday night, the loud scene features all genres of modern music including howling voices of evidently drunken pool player’s. With 14 24" televisions and two large widescreen televisions, it is obvious why the place is famous for its sport entertainment and early breakfast openings during football season.

The sports motif even holds true in bathrooms, where you can find swimsuit editions of Sports Illustrated on the walls of the men’s room, yet a not-so-special woman’s room. In fact, the woman’s bathrooms are certainly nothing to be proud of, as they do not have an obvious clean or pleasant feel.

When the menus arrived, the variety of options was surprising for a so-called sports bar. Although the place is known primarily as a bar, the manager claims that only 40% of business comes to drink and 60% comes to dine. There is a huge array of meat choices including burgers, steaks, sandwiches, although there are some vegetarian sandwiches in addition to appetizers, salads, soups, and chili. Old Pro even serves a low-cost lobster and has about 16 different choices of original pizzas such as "Snorkel Bob’s huge Hawaiian pie".

Service was respectable as the faded jeans and green tee shirt clad waitress asked us four times for our order and there was only a 10 to 15 minute wait for the food to start arriving.

The appetizers were all standard yet quite pleasing. The Caesar salad ($5.95) with crunchy croutons and a strong, creamy dressing may be a little over-wet for the likes of some, yet the flavoring was delicious. No arguments can be made about the excellent buffalo wings ($6.95) where neither spice level nor the juicy meat was overdone. The Golden Breast Chicken Tenders ($6.95) were crispy and satisfying though the battering was very thick and their lack of honey mustard sauce was disappointing, ranch just wasn’t the same.

The Old Pro hamburgers and cheeseburgers ($6.59) were gratifying though slightly bland in taste and dry in texture. A creative twist on the typical burger, The Big Kahuna Burger ($7.95) with sliced and sautéed mushrooms and chunks of pineapple was lovely with a unique taste and a more juicy texture. Last of the burgers, the Old Famous Chili Burger ($7.95) was nice, yet surprisingly somewhat tasteless. All of the buns on the sandwiches could have been a little more toasted as opposed to slightly soggy, yet they had an overall appeal and were satisfying.

We were disappointed that out of seven of us nobody ventured to try something other than a burger, so we ordered a Smoked Bacon and Ranch Pizza ($5.95 for personal) which was definitely very good and a treat which none of us had tried before. The crust was tasty and perfectly cooked and the sauce-to-cheese ratio was where it should be.

Unfortunately the portions were huge, leaving none of us room for desert, but we gawked at the menu and it’s intriguing choices. The Ultimate Warm Chocolate Brownie sounded hard to go wrong with and the New York Style Cheesecake looked and sounded like a great pick. The most interesting option was the Flaming Tableside S’mores, which hopefully tastes as fantastic as it sounds.

After dining, feel free to play a game of pool with some friends, head upstairs to the game room, which features a few arcade-style games and an air-hockey table. Make Old Pro an experience, not just a meal to satisfy your human biology.

Old Pro has a generally excellent appeal not only with its dimly lit near-club atmosphere, but its eclectic food offerings were of high quality and the service was not worthy of criticism. The only main complaint would be of the "no refills" rule for the highly priced soda ($1.75) and the sketchy looks of the upstairs woman’s room. My favorite part of the meal would have to be the garlic fries that will leave you in dire need of a breath mint, but are a terrific addition to your meal and comes as an included side to most.

The site claims they try to attract all members of the Palo Alto community. Crowds in their twenties tend to swarm in later at night for drinks or a bite to eat and co-workers often get together here for a few beers after work. It even supports the Palo Alto Little League and YMCA and teams are welcome to come in for lunch and are served free pizza.

Open for lunch and dinner daily from 11:00 am to 1:00 am, I highly recommend giving the new Old Pro a try unless you are looking for a quiet, less active scene for a family dinner or romantic date. Otherwise, I say round up your friends, boyfriends and girlfriends and enjoy some time at Old Pro.

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