When you get the chance to go out to eat and enjoy a meal at a restaurant, you want good food and good service. Unfortunately for T-Bones in Hudson, their food is great; but their service needs a lot of work.

On a recent Thursday night, I went to T-Bones to try their sliders for an upcoming 5 & Dine article. The sliders, thankfully, were absolutely delicious. However, I had to go through 2 waitresses to get them. My first waitress took our drink order, brought us our drinks, and walked away. Never brought us free popcorn (we were sitting in the bar), nor did she come back over 20 minutes later to take our food order (mind you, it’s after 8 p.m. at night…and we are all starving). I look over to find our waitress in the booth behind us, chatting with another table. I eventually have to stand up, ask her to help us, and after she finishes her story…proceeds to come over and regretfully take our food order. After asking for a new waitress, the restaurant redeemed itself (especially after tasting the food). But let’s hope T-Bones hires a few new helpers.

This morning, I found the secret to making the best and coldest cup of iced coffee: coffee ice.

Dutch Epicure Bakery in Amherst (right across from Joey’s Diner) does not only have the smoothest and strongest cup of coffee in the area, but the owners also found a way to keep your iced coffee from becoming watered down in these hot, humid temperatures. The secret: the bakery freezes coffee in the form of ice cubes, and puts them in your cup, so that when the ice cubes melt, they melt into more iced coffee instead of water. Brilliant. Their chocolate almond scones also deserve some mention, especially because they are made from scratch from a 17 year old recipe. The scones are airy yet full of nutty flavor, and jam packed with large chocolate chips. To see what else this hard-to-see-from-the-road bakery has to offer, check out their menu.