John Wise

This past weekend for lunch we tried Joe’s Farm Grill in Gilbert, Arizona after a recommendation the night before while eating at Tina’s Ethiopian Cafe – which by the way is excellent. Lunch at Joe’s was good, farm-fresh veggies, locally raised products, and a great location on a small 12-acre working farm made for a nice lunch. But it was afterward, when we were getting ready to leave, that something really grabbed Caroline’s attention. She needed to stop at the loo and returned wild-eyed and excited insisting I follow her back to the restroom. NO WAY, I ain’t falling for that one, tried it myself on some other unsuspecting noobs, but not me. Her excitement and insistence I would have to take a photo convinced me to check it out, and, well, this is the most extraordinary farmhouse toilet one might find during a lifetime of looking. The uni-sex facility features a flat-panel TV showing episodes of the Supermarionation (a form of puppetry) classic “Thunderbirds” and in fancy-schmancy display cases are Thunderbirds action figures – not only all that, but this is also the cleanest bathroom in the world.

OMG, it’s a Peanut Butter Fresh Strawberry and Banana with Pineapple and Chocolate Chip Sandwich on Texas Toast – just what I have always dreamed of. I don’t know if even a child would like the idea of this, maybe it is only something a whacky vegetarian could love – and true to form, my wife did like it. As for me, I’ll stick to the tofu steak with tahini barbecue sauce served up alongside a large portion of tofurkey, slathered in soy bean gravy with a side of Brussel sprouts topped with a bean sprout ragout – a real man’s man of a meal at Joe’s Farm Grill in Gilbert.