September 13th 2013: Lunch in Shirley, Dinner in Holliston

Today at lunch, I decided to head out to the town of Shirley

Old Fire Engine,
8 Leominster Road

President Building, 17 Leominster Road

Engine Hall, 1 Harvard Road

for lunch at Piccolino's Restaurant, a typical bar restaurant at 4 Mill Street in town. I passed by a few places in town along the way.
 At the bar, I ordered the Seafood Chowder for soup,

the  Hawg Wings (tender pork legs grilled with Spicy BBQ sauce) for appetizers,

and the Vermont Burger  (0.5lb Angus burger topped with hickory smoked bacon and Vermont cheddar) with seasoned fries for my main dish.

The chowder was alright I guess,  while the legs were actually pottery tender and went well with the BBQ sauce. Unfortunately, there was no sauce on the burger, which made out really plain and I had to salvage it with ketchup.

Overall, not a place worth coming back to for the food.

After work, I decided to head into the town of Holliston for dinner, passing by the town of Millbury,

New Creation Baptist Church

then going to find the historic manmade cave in Upton at the Upton Heritage Park at 18 Elm Street, which I missed out on the last time I was here. This time, I managed to find it.

 The "cave" itself was pretty small, but strangely devoid of any wildlife, so I wasn't bugged in any sense of the word the whole time I was inside taking pictures of the round enclosed space in the dark.

From here, I visited Fiske Millpond on the corner of Fiske Mill Road and Pond Street,

before I headed into Hopkinton to visit Sandy Beach on the shores of Lake Maspenock at the end of Hayward Street.

I also visited the Ice House Pond at ~66 West Main Street.

Finally it was time for dinner at Casey's Publichouse in Holliston. Again like at Piccolino's, another typical bar restaurant. Here, I had $40 to spend, which meant having to get a lot of food, including the French Onion Soup (Home Made Onion Soup baked under a crouton with Swiss Cheese),

the Grilled Blackened Kielbasa (butterflied smoked kielbasa, dusted with blackened seasoning and served with horseradish sauce),

the Jamaican Jerk Wings,

the Pub Burger (2 8oz All Angus Beef Patty grilled to your preference, topped with 4oz of our smoked pulled pork, applewood bacon, BBQ sauce, coleslaw and cheddar cheese with sweet potato hand cut fries)

and finally the Oreo Pie (Vanilla Ice Cream and Ground Oreo Cookie served in Pie Crust). 

The soup was just alright, while the wings were disappointingly bland. The kielbasa was salty, but pretty good, especially with the horseradish sauce, while the burger was pretty massive and I could hardly finish it at all. The sweet potato fries were really soggy though. Thankfully, the dessert helped to salvage the meal, but my impression of the place is already set. Definitely not for me.