Demos' Steak and Spaghetti House

And we're back! After a couple of weeks off, we headed to Demos' Steak and Spaghetti House on Commerce St.   Demos' is our first chain restaurant, but seeing as they are a locally born, family owned chain (the first Demos' opened in Murfreesboro in the late 80's), we looked the other way.

Easy to find, hard to miss-- on the corner of 3rd and Commerce.

I'll admit I had some trouble classifying Demos'.  Their menu, as advertised, offers steak and spaghetti in a variety of forms, but also includes burgers, sandwiches, and salads, in addition to a few seafood options.  If you're downtown at lunchtime, try out their weekly $4.25 lunch special or daily $5.95 lunch special.  Today, a Greek style chicken spaghetti (weekly special) and a pasta primavera (daily special) were on offer, but none of us were sold on either.

Demos' offers rotating daily specials in addition to a weekly special feature

Most lunch and dinner entrees come with soup or salad and bread.  When the salads showed up, I immediately wished someone had tried the soup.  As you can see from my wilted little plate of leaves here, the salad isn't much to write home (or blog) about.  Pre-plated, refrigerated, and served with a plastic cup of dressing.  I'm not much of a ruffage eater anyway, but this earned a unanimous thumbs down.

: (

Fortunately, everything the salad at Demos' lacks is made up for by their bread.  Oh boy.  Now, if you put cheese and/or butter on it, I'm gonna eat it.  But this bread was freshly baked, still warm, AND sprinkled with butter and cheese. 

If you'll permit me, I'll step on my soap box for just a minute... I'd say a restaurant can make or break itself with its complimentary bread offering.  In fact, I'd venture that most customers would prefer no bread at all to a stale, dry, or obviously pre-packaged loaf in a plastic basket (You'll remember that Coco's committed this crime a few weeks ago... for shame...).   I'll throw out that my second bread-related restaurant crime is stinginess, "I'm sorry, one roll each, then you'll have to buy a basket..."

Anyway, Demos' does it right, and keeps the bread coming.  On to the entrees.

Can you smell that at home? 

I chose a lunch portion of the brown butter and garlic spaghetti, and added a side of "Jim's Famous Spinach."  The portion was just the right size for lunch, and at $4.95 (the spinach was extra), was a remarkable value.  And I can see why Jim's spinach is famous-- Yum.

Brown Butter Garlic Spaghetti with a side of Jim's Famous Spinach

Garrick opted for the Italian sausage and spaghetti with marinara, and Ethan went with the lunch portion of lasagna.  While the lasagna portion seemed small, the quality of both meals was above average.  None of the pastas were house-made, though, as Demos' apparently relies on the dried versions.

Italian Sausage and Spaghetti with Marinara

Lasagna (lunch portion)-- yes, it's under there!

Our overall impression of Demos' was positive: the atmosphere is more comfortable, and the staff more friendly than your average chain restaurant.  However, the lackluster salads and the premade pastas earned them a just-better-than-average 3.17 (two 3's and a 3.5).

Tasting next week:  Edley's Bar-B-Que

~B