Greg and I spent yesterday afternoon driving around doing things down in the Camden Rockland area. We decided to have a late lunch / early dinner around 4pm and pulled into Cody's Original Roadhouse on Ingraham Hill in Rockport. I had heard about this place when I was at Campbell's getting my hair cut several months ago and had pretty much decided to stay away. It sounded like a rib joint with picnic table style eating, not something that I would enjoy. I am not a bar-b-que sauce on my fingers and on my face kinda guy.

I was pleasantly suprised by the atmosphere at Cody's. We loved the gas pump handle as front door handle. It really got us in the mood for the interior of the place, which is thick with atmosphere. The front room is made from "old" white painted barnboards and the whole space is like walking into a huge old barn clubhouse decorated with old beer cans and bottles, hubcaps, license plates, with some vintage bikes, and other stuff thrown in.

We were shown to a small 2 person booth, which was a bit small. All the booths were decorated with "on the road" fabric, evocative of Route 66 in the 50s. Our window was actually an old loading dock door that had its paneled doors replaced with glass. There is a long straight bar with high stools and lots of beer taps. All in all a very cool space.

There were also crayons waiting at the table for us to draw with. We played hangman and tic tac toe while waiting and waiting and waiting for our burgers. Seriously, there were only about 4 tables full when we got there and our burgers took over a half an hour to get to our table. Our server Mel (who wrote her name with crayons on the butcher paper covering our table) seemed put out that we ordered water and tea and then only had burgers. Our food took over a half an hour to come to the table. It was good, though the buns were huge and so each mouthful was pretty much bun with some burger. And my tea was unceremoniously put on the table with tepid water in the mug and the Salada tea bag on the side....I hate that! The fries were tasty, so the food we good, better than fast food, but not as good as it sounded on the menu where the burger was described as a juicy steakburger. Its probably just a shade better than a Sizzler

When I explored the bottle of Cody's Original Roadhouse hot sauce on the table, I noticed that it was distributed by COR Enterprises of Clearwater Florida. The restaurant is part of a chain! Not that it matters much, but it did color our experience a bit.

So, the atmosphere is cool, a great place to bring your kids cause of all the stuff to look at. I fear that during prime dining hours, the place is loud and crowded. There are peanuts on the table that one is supposed to shell on the floor, so by the end of the night, one is walking on other people's food garbage, not a pretty thought. We would go back for early dinner I am sure, it might be fun with a big group of people. Perhaps our server was having an off day.

Enjoy!
Seth