Bonnie & Clyde Brings a Big Menu to an Old Bank Near Jim Thorpe

A creamy crab dip arrives with pita chips, a French 75 waits at the bar, and the walls offer their own diversion: posters and historical material tied to famous criminals. Bonnie & Clyde is not trying to be a generic roadside grill. Set inside an old bank near Jim Thorpe and Lehighton, it gives a meal a little more scenery than the usual stop for burgers and beer.

The interior is clean and full of character without turning the theme into a costume party. The criminal-history references give people something to point at and discuss between courses, while the room remains comfortable enough for a long dinner. Tables, booths, bar seats and counter seating offer a few ways to settle in.

It is a useful stop after time around Jim Thorpe, Lehigh Gorge State Park or the Blue Mountain area, but the menu is broad enough to make the restaurant a destination in its own right. A group can arrive with one person wanting prime rib, another looking for seafood, and somebody else eyeing a wrap or a vegetarian selection, then all leave with plenty of choices.

Bonnie & Clyde covers a lot of ground: steaks, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, pasta, seafood, scallops, crab cakes and vegetarian dishes all appear in the mix. This is not a menu that asks every table to be in the mood for the same thing. It makes an easy fit for family meals, couples, solo lunches, birthdays and larger gatherings.

There are familiar pub-and-grill lanes here, but the kitchen also ventures beyond them. Slow-cooked lamb, Creole pasta and a London Broil special have all made appearances, as has an ostrich steak sourced from a local farm. The ostrich has been described as closer to red meat than poultry, with a slightly springy texture—an unusual dinner order for diners ready to break from the standard steakhouse routine.

Some dishes and specials change, so the more unusual offerings are worth treating as pleasant possibilities rather than permanent fixtures. Still, the range explains why many people come back and order differently: scallops on one visit, sandwiches or wraps on another, perhaps pasta the next time through the area.

Seafood gets more than a token spot on the menu. The crab dip is creamy and notably generous with crab, served alongside pita chips for a starter that can hold a table’s attention while everyone decides on dinner.

The crab cakes are substantial, with a high proportion of crab rather than a lot of filler. They have appeared with snow peas and rice, and in another combination with fries and vegetables. Either way, they are closer to a full dinner decision than a small seafood side note.

Scallop dishes and the Marauders seafood sandwich broaden the options further. For a restaurant with a large burger-and-beer identity, that seafood bench is useful; someone need not settle for a safe fallback order just because the rest of the table wants pub food.

The Bonnie Cut is a 10-ounce prime rib served with au jus, horseradish sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy. It is the sort of straightforward plate that benefits from a kitchen willing to give the supporting pieces as much attention as the beef.

The mashed potatoes and gravy have a distinctly home-style reputation, the kind of side dish people compare to a favorite grandmother’s cooking. That is a high bar for potatoes, but it tells you where the appeal lies: soft, comforting, and not treated as an afterthought.

Even the fries have a particular point of view. They are cooked in beef tallow, which gives them a different flavor and texture from an ordinary fry basket. Broccoli medley and snow peas have also been carefully cooked and seasoned, offering a welcome alternative when a plate needs something green.

Carbon County tortellini has become a recurring menu choice, and the kitchen has accommodated a substitution of angel hair pasta for the tortellini. That small flexibility is handy when a diner likes the sauce and preparation but wants a different noodle on the plate.

Burgers are made with locally sourced beef, and the buns and chips are made in-house. House-made sauces add another layer to the sandwich and burger side of the menu, where a casual order can still have more personality than something pulled from a standard distributor list.

For the table, cheese steak egg rolls provide a Pennsylvania-friendly appetizer detour. Spring rolls, mozzarella half-moons and wings in garlic-parmesan sauce provide other ways to start, especially when dinner is still a few conversations away.

Portions tend to be generous, which helps explain why a pasta order can become tomorrow’s lunch. One group even ordered extra pasta to take home. This is not a place built around dainty plates.

The bar has more than 36 beers on tap, giving the place a legitimate pub side without limiting the meal to beer-friendly food. With that many taps, it is easy for a table to go in different directions—something crisp with seafood, something darker alongside prime rib, perhaps a familiar favorite after a day outdoors.

Cocktails have their own following. The list has included a French 75, Orange Creamsicle, Mermaid Water and Orange Crush, a set that runs from bright and classic to unabashedly playful. The drinks are substantial and flavorful rather than mere menu decoration.

That range matters when a group is split between a beer drinker, a cocktail person and someone focused entirely on dessert. The bar does not force a single mood on the table.

Desserts are prepared in-house, extending the restaurant’s from-scratch touches beyond the buns, chips and sauces. Creamy cheesecake and peanut butter cakes have been among the sweet options.

A slice of peanut butter cake is a sensible way to end a meal after tallow fries, mashed potatoes and gravy, though “sensible” may not be the exact word for it. It is more accurate to say the dessert menu understands that a pub dinner can finish on a properly indulgent note.

The staff helps make a large menu less daunting. Servers are attentive, friendly and knowledgeable about the dishes, with a knack for explaining options and answering the questions that naturally come up when a menu offers everything from crab cakes to ostrich steak.

The room works for a quick meal at the bar, but it also has enough comfort for an unhurried dinner. The old-bank setting and conversation-piece decor keep the surroundings lively without requiring anyone to dress up or make an occasion of it.

The noise level can vary. It may be quiet enough for easy conversation, while at other times televisions and a moderately livelier dining room are part of the setting. The overall tone remains relaxed rather than formal.

Street parking is available, though conditions vary and finding a space can take a little time. It is worth allowing a few extra minutes before a timed reservation, show or outdoor activity.

Walk-in visits have been accommodated without reservations, including at lunch and early dinner, but those experiences do not establish a predictable wait-time pattern. The restaurant has indoor dining, booths, bar seating and counter seating, so the layout offers more than one way to fit in.

Vegetarian dishes or a vegetarian section are available, giving non-meat eaters more to consider than a side-dish-only meal. With the variety of pasta, wraps, sandwiches, seafood, steaks and pub classics around the room, Bonnie & Clyde is well suited to a table where nobody wants to order alike.