In the last day of D and I's road trip, we left Detroit to head back to Pittsburgh. We decided to take a detour and go back to his hometown of Toledo Ohio to grab some grub with his friends that live there. We decided that we will be eating at Tony Packo's because it's a Toledo institution and he said it was also really good as well. Before heading going there, D gave me a tour of his hometown. He showed me the neighborhoods he grew up in and talked about how Toledo is a struggling city finding its way again, albeit not easily. It really made me realize how fortunate I was living in Pittsburgh, since Pittburgh economically speaking is doing better than most other places. That will be a topic for another time and not in this blog. It is a food blog after all.
We met up with his friends and headed inside Tony Packo's. It's an institution because it has great Hungarian food and many celebrities have been in Tony Packo's due to the restaurant being mentioned in Mash Episodes since Jamie Farr is originally from Toledo. I ordered the Cabbage Combo #1. It's a stuffed cabbage that contains ground beef and ground pork along with rice and special seasonings simmered in sour cream, cabbage, and tomatoes. I also got the paprika dumplings as a side dish. The paprika and the gravy were perfectly combined for the dumplings. The dumplings were spicy but not overpowering. The stuffed cabbage was very good and anytime I took a bite of it, it felt like I was at someone's house because you can clearly tell it was homemade and cooked just right with the perfect amount of meat, rice, and seasonings. This is comfort food at its best.
Another thing I like about the restaurant is their uniqueness in the way they get celebrities' signatures. Each celebrity signs a fake hot dog bun and Tony Packo's frames it on a wall in the restaurant. This tradition was started by Burt Reynolds in 1972 and continues to this day. Here are some notable buns. My personal favorite has to be Corin Nemic because he was in Parker Lewis Can't Lose, and he's still considered a celebrity in Toledo. Ultimately that's what really matters.
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