The Stumptown Diner, at the corner of Trade and John streets in the heart of Matthews, has been open since January. A late-afternoon lunch about a month ago brought with it high hopes for a fun find. The diner offered good food served in an upscale yet comfortable atmosphere with generous portions and easyon- your-wallet pricing. The ’50s décor with booths in teal, silver, peach and black, swiveling barstools with bright chrome finishes, retro lighting and slick ’50spatterned laminate tabletops make the place picture perfect.

For lunch I went with comfort food: meatloaf served with sautéed vegetables and whipped potatoes. The plentiful serving consisted of two thick slices of meatloaf topped with rich gravy. The potatoes were creamy and smooth and the medley of zucchini, yellow squash and green beans was perfectly sautéed to an al dente crunch. The grilled Carolina mountain trout proved another excellent choice. Topped with warm toasted pecans and capers, it was lightly sauced with browned lemon butter. Salads came before the meal; dressing was served on the side. The promised rolls never made it to the table, but with the additional sides of jalapeno coleslaw and stone-ground cheddar grits we ordered, we were happy. We left without trying dessert but knew we would be back for more.

We met friends for dinner there on a second visit and elected to enjoy the perfect summer evening dining on the patio. At Stumptown smoking is not allowed in the dining room but outside customers can light up. As a group of nonsmokers, we found the secondhand fumes on the small patio annoying.

Stumped at Stumptown
We ordered appetizers of fried green tomatoes served with a deviled egg salad, fried grit sticks with a shrimp-cream sauce, firecracker shrimp and the diner’s goat cheese and tomato fondue.

The four thin slices of tomato were good but small in comparison to the other appetizers and egg salad that accompanied them. I thought the duo was an unlikely combination but it was an interesting blend of flavor. The fried grit sticks, large for what I had anticipated to be a finger food, were smothered in the thick, rich shrimp sauce. Although the flavor was appealing, the combination of sauce and sticks was too mushy, difficult to share, and more of an entrée than an appetizer-sized portion. The firecracker shrimp and the fondue were my biggest disappointments. One would think that anything called “firecracker” would have a bit of a kick to it; but these were dry, heavily breaded fried shrimp with more of a sweet than a spicy chili sauce served on the side. The fondue itself was good, but the garlic bread served for dipping was hard and cold, and there were no crisped tortilla chips as described on the menu.

At the recommendation of our waitress I ordered the herb-roasted chicken as my entrée, which came with those wonderful whipped potatoes and vegetables I had enjoyed at lunch weeks prior. We also ordered a rack of baby back ribs; the pulled smoked barbecue pork; and the build-your-own-dinner blue plate with grilled tuna steak, cooked rare, with sides of butter beans and macaroni and cheese. The ribs came with sides of jalapeno slaw and sweet potato casserole. The kids in our group ordered chicken fingers and beef tenderloin tips.

The chicken I had ordered was sorely overcooked and the potatoes were much too salty. The tuna steak was good, but the butter beans were like little crunchy rocks and the mac and cheese was a bit crunchy as well. The mediocre mac and cheese was my tip-off that the chef who prepared lunch during our previous visit was not in the kitchen this night. Otherwise, it didn’t make sense that it could be so good one day and so very middling on another. In fact, we learned that Ray Hvasta, Stumptown’s lead chef, had taken the night off.

On the mend
Stumptown management assured me that the problems in training kitchen staff to deliver consistently good fare in Hvasta’s absence are working themselves out. I have recently enjoyed pan-fried catfish, tender twin grilled pork chops, soft and flavorful butter beans and creamy, rich macaroni and cheese. Stumptown’s version of classic American cuisine with plentiful portions at reasonable prices works.

Currently, Stumptown’s selection of beer and wine is being upgraded. Softserve ice cream has just been added to the menu in addition to the chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and cinnamon scooped flavors already available atop or homemade desserts. The restaurant bakes its own bread, and Hvasta uses as much produce from the Matthews farmers’ market as he can. A Monday and Tuesday night children’s buffet featuring baked ziti, chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, fruit, tater tots and freshly baked homemade cookies has proven to be a popular favorite.

Kids can eat for free from 4 to 8 p.m. if parents are ordering dinner as well. Stumptown is also quite well known for its weekend breakfast menu served Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Well-known Charlotte restaurant critic, food writer, cooking instructor and connoisseur of food and wine, Heidi Edidin writes "The Charlotte Weekly: Culinary Corner," a restaurant review or food feature that appears weekly. Contact Heidi with questions and restaurant, food or story ideas by email at heidi@thecharlotteweekly.com.

This article first appeared in "The Charlotte Weekly" on September 1, 2006. "The Charlotte Weekly" is a free, locally owned, independent newspaper that's "About the Community, For the Community," available every Thursday in North and South Charlotte and Uptown.

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