Restaurant Name	Pontiac Lake Inn
Address	1775 N Williams Lake Road
City, State ZIP	Waterford, MI 48327
Phone	248 666 1436
Website
GPS Coordinates	LAT 42.66791 LONG -83.436041
Restaurant Atmosphere	Biker Bar
Chili Heat	None
Chili Flavor	None
Chili Texture	Average
Chili Prices	$3.00 for a bowl
Chili Fixin's	Basket o' Crackers.
Comments by Matt Fuerst Rating: 4	The Pontiac Lake Inn or the PLI I had a lot of hope for. It was one of those eureka moments where I had a flashback to my childhood... Oh yeah, that dumpy biker bar! They totally would have great chili!. PLI is known for their massive hamburgers, their speciality is the PLI Burger containing a full pound of meat. Yeah, that's kind of a gross thought. I was only in the PLI once previously, and only one thing really stuck with me: on the walls were polaroids of the female biker customers flashing the camera. Awesome. Me and Mark really are biting the bullet for you people... we go to these bars in the afternoon and fit in about as well as Clark Griswold in downtown Chicago (obscure Vacation joke alert ... F*** YO MOMMA). There's always 10 workers sitting at the bar, half of them bleeding the other half still frostbit all drinking beer while we come in and order our spring waters and chili (ok, just kidding about the spring water). Anyway, this one was particularly uncomfortable as I bellied up to the bar and ordered 2 bowls of chili and 2 "Junior" burgers (since neither of us were up for a full pound of beef post chili). Immediately I was picked on by the worker (already on his 3 High Life) - "You gotta get the PLI Burger Son!" (thus inferring I am total puss for getting the Junior). I'll just leave it at that. Anyway, on with the chili. Disappointing. Once again, the normal stuff happened here.. they bought a gallon or two of "coney/chili sauce" from their local warehouse, then throw in their own "special recipe" which consists of (A) a can of kidney beans or (B) 3 tablespoons of salt. Sometimes, rarely, (A) AND (B). On the "coney sauce" scale, this stuff was pretty decent, far better than say a Circus, Circus (Still a chili trek low point.) but not good, real chili either. Honestly at this point I feel a little beaten down. Our last few trips to new joints have just been met with "coney sauce" variations. Will someone please make a real bowl of chili for a brother.
Comments by Mark Everest Rating: 2	Matt had been bugging me to go to Pontiac Lake Inn AKA PLI for awhile so I finally gave in. He even called ahead to see if they served chili which is more than I could ever expect out of him. PLI is a lot bigger that I thought it would be by just looking at it from the road formally known as Williams Lake Rd. Inside are a couple of pool tables and a long shuffle board which also acts as a cover-all storage area. Very classy. The sign next to the bar is the menu. On it, among other items, is the PLI 'Pounder' and the Heart Attack Burger. While normally this would sound quite inviting, they just couldn't be done with a bowl of chili. We each decided on the 'JR' burger. At the corner of the bar, there is a sign telling you that this is where you will order and pay for your meal. It was pretty funny to watch Matt step up to the plate and order the two bowls of chili and two Jr burgers. How gay. It was even better to watch the large man, who just selected lynyrd skynyrd on the juke box, try to socially pressure Matt in to getting the 'man sized' burger. "You gotta, you gotta. It's this big - come on you gotta!" The chili came in a nasty styrofoam cup and a plastic spoon. Great. It wasn't exactly cony sauce but it's a very close relative thereof. Beans and stewed tomatoes where thrown in there to make it 'unique'. It wasn't. Blah. The burger turned out to be a pretty good sized one. It would have been better if the bartender/waitress hadn't brought out the condiment caddy which was absolutely disgusting. The open crusty bottle of Tabasco sauce and the warm mayo squirty thing with a hair on it was disturbing. Then watching Matt eat pickles out of the supplied styrofoam container of pickles by hand was enough to make me want to rush back to work. Give PLI a try if you want to play shuffle board. There are a million other places to go if you want to eat without getting food poisoning.