Cheap Eats - Fun on a stick

Just when I’m starting to think there’s nothing new under the sun, I encounter a place like Justix — an unexpected, fun and totally novel experience. The restaurant’s enterprising co-owners, John and Cindy Lupi, have created a concept that very well could be the next Chipotle (the website is already advertising franchise opportunities). It’s all about the stick at Justix — everything (including dessert) is served kabob-style on a wooden skewer. Even the decor pays homage to the stick theme. If you ever played pick-up sticks as a kid, you’ll appreciate the colorful wooden sticks encased in the acrylic tabletops.

Stick It to Me: A menu printed on the wall lays out your options, which include grilled meats or tofu, along with an assortment of side dishes such as sweet potato sticks and ginger slaw. Wall-mounted menus can be intimidating since they leave you standing there dumbly gazing upward as the folks behind the counter watch you expectantly. What really threw me at Justix was trying to decide which of the more than a dozen sauces I should pair with which stick, but then I realized that I didn’t have to choose just one — I could sample them all.

Hitting the Sauce: The sauce bar at Justix is a thing of beauty. Pumps dispense a mind-bending assortment of sauces, from more mundane choices like honey mustard to inspired ones like a mint-orange glaze that’s peppered with bits of orange zest. All of the sauces have fanciful names like “Pickled Pete’s Pepper Jelly” or “Smokin’ Chipotle Sour Cream,” and all are made in-house.

Mix it Up: I opted for a sampler of salmon ($5.95), chicken ($5.25) and tofu ($4.95), and of the three the salmon was the runaway winner. The moist fish hadn’t been overcooked, as the chicken had, and sauced with a tangy-sweet teriyaki, its flavor sprang to life. I also liked it dipped in a kicky wasabi cream sauce. The chicken was dry and tough, but liberal dunking in sweet peanut-cilantro sauce revived it somewhat. Grilling imparted a mild smokiness to the tofu stick — it, too, was tasty dipped in teriyaki glaze. Pork and beef fell somewhere in between the chicken and the salmon — a little bit tough, but nicely seasoned and grilled.

Show Us Your Sweet Side: If you’re partial to sweet potato fries, you’ll want at least one order of the sweet potato sticks ($1.25). I love that salty-sweet combination — they’re crispy and delicious here. I didn’t like the ginger slaw ($1) quite as much. Raw ginger is one of those culinary bullies that can overwhelm the other flavors in a dish. The slaw had a nice crunch to it, but all I could taste was ginger. A side of basmati rice ($1) tasted like it had been sitting in a warming dish too long; the grains were dry and almost crunchy. But a dousing of peanut-cilantro sauce did the trick. I’m wondering if all my problems could be solved by pouring peanut sauce on them.

Meats grilled to order; fresh and imaginative condiments; quick, friendly service; and a dirt-cheap price tag? This is fast food re-imagined. Watch out, Chipotle: There’s a new kid in town.