Antique & Classic Cars Blog

Chain restaurants make a mint providing the same thing coast to coast, or continent to continent. B-o-r-i-n-g. When my wife and I hit the roads, we like to hunt down what’s different–a one-of-a-kind restaurant in a quaint little town.

Life in Harmony is a long way from a Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker police romp in Paris.

On a recent run to the deep south–south Minn, that is–we pointed the wheels at Harmony. Its short main street, lined with 1900-era buildings, is a welcome respite from the thrown-up-in-a-month architecture that squats along so many thoroughfares. We ducked into a joint called The Village Square, right on Main Street, after hearing that their homemade pies were worth a visit.

Good tip. While our BBQ beef and pork tenderloin sandwiches were OK, the blueberry rhubarb pie with locally made vanilla ice cream kicked the bejeebers out of anything available in a chain restaurant. This dish alone made the turn into Harmony well worth the time and modest dollars spent.

Village Square pies–worth a turn off the beaten path.

Up a few doors was an old but decorative facade, probably once a bank. The windows were dusty and the tiled front room empty but for a long unused desk. Looked like a great structure for another interesting sole proprietorship, something else to distinguish the town as unique. Yet a hand-scrawled note on a piece of cardboard below the windowsill heralded a different direction for Main Street: “Coming Soon — Starbucks.”

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Car stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.