Taylor Takes a Taste is turning 2 next week! With that, I am trying to post a few things from 2011 that I haven’t gotten to yet. This restaurant stop is from my October tailgating trip to Gainesville, FL. Here is what I found at Satchel’s Pizza.

In October, I made my first trip to Gainesville, FL. I was there to check out the Florida Gator’s tailgating scene as they hosted the Alabama Crimson Tide. You can read more about what I found while tailgating here. Friday evening before the game, I took decided to check out a place I had heard an awful lot about. I have several friends that are UF Alums and upon hearing that I was making a trip to Gainesville, they insisted that I make a stop at Satchel’s. Let’s just say, I have some pretty smart friends.

The outside of the restaurant is an eclectic mix of windows, screens, colors, and mis matching chairs. The coolest part was the VW van turned table. Yes you can eat in it! From first glance I could tell Satchel’s was unique, then I received the menu.

You can tell a whole lot about a restaurant by what they have on their menu. Any menu that has both lightning bolts and the American flag on it is an automatic winner in my book. Looking beyond the obvious awesome color scheme, I noticed two great things. 1. They only accept cash. (some of the best meals I have ever eaten are at places that only take cash) and 2 They tell you that you may have to wait up to 50 minutes for your food. Some would be turned off by that , but I take it as a good thing. I will gladly wait for great food.

I decided to have the small (yes that is a small) Satch Salad and a Mama Slice of pizza.

The Satch Salad is a bowl filled to the brim with red and green leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, apples, red onion, secret house vinaigrette, romano cheese, diced tomatoes, and then sprinkled with almonds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts. Prior to the trip, I had heard that after eating the salad you would be tempted to just order some dressing to drink. That rumor is now confirmed.

The Mama Pizza is a slice or a whole pie with 4 toppings of your choosing. After a long deliberation, I decided to have spicy sausage, spinach, sun dried tomato, and roasted red pepper. All that is loaded onto a slice with cheese and a delicious tomato sauce. With this mountain of toppings, a fork was needed to finish it all.

After eating I took a look at Lightnin’ Salvage Enterprises. This store/junk museum/ music venue is just as eclectic as Satchels. With great food and plenty to look at, Satchel’s Pizza is definitely worth the trip. Next time that I am in Gainesville, I will definitely be returning.

Have a great weekend and Monday, I will have a Taylor Takes a Taste 2nd Birthday and 2011 Year in review.

– Taylor