Mountain Top Grove

when i played baseball as a kid we would have our post-​season banquet here every year and they were always a lot of fun. i went here recently for the first time in about 16 years for a clam bake and while the place still is very nice, the food was kind of a let down. the sandwich rolls they use here are pretty big and the burgers get lost in the bread. they pre-​cook the burgers too and put them in a warming tray with some liquid, so any flavor from the burger gets lost into the liquid and the food becomes bland. not just the burgers but the «pulled pork» and beef sandwiches too. the menu said it was BBQ beef and BBQ pulled pork, and while i didn’t expect the meat to be smoked or even grilled, i did still expect BBQ sauce, and there was none to be found. again the pork and the beef were served out of warming trays with liquid and once they left the liquid the meat dried right out. the pulled pork also wasn’t pulled, it was sliced. the baked potato bar was ok but it would have been nice if they had bacon bits as a topping. so for the clams and steak sandwiches, i didn’t stick around long enough to try them. i’m not big on clams and they were pre-​cooking a bunch of small steaks while i was there (steak doesn’t get served til 1pm), so i had a feeling they wouldn’t be any good. on the plus side, there’s self-​serve soda, iced tea, and lemonade. they also have a beer stand but the only choices are bud light and labatts.
food aside, the place does look really nice. there’s horse shoe pits, a volleyball net, and what looks like an attempted baseball field with and outfield that runs downhill. there’s a pavilion with plenty of picnic tables and a small dance floor. also, be warned, when turning onto hance road it says that mountain top is 300 yards up the road. a football field is 100 yards, and mountain top is definitely not 3 football fields up the road, more like 30 yards haha.