Archive for the ‘Restaurant Reviews’ Category
The Oregon Trail: Outbound Flight and Digs
t says: g and I have just returned from our trip to Oregon and it was awesome! We’ve decided to recount some of our voyage here for you because there was a ton of fun to be had, including good food, good wine, and lots of stories. Rather than give you the day-by-day, I’m going to group together some of the like experiences so that it doesn’t seem like we did the same thing every day (e.g. wake up, eat, drink, eat, drink, eat, drink, sleep). Plus, it’ll help us remember what made certain attractions different from others (e.g. the differences between wineries, restaurants, etc).
We started our trip to PDX with a 6am flight to Newark. That’s right: our destination was Portland, but we had to fly east to Newark first for a 1-hr layover, and then fly directly to PDX. This is humorous/stupid for a few reasons. The first is that it’s kind of a waste of time to put up with air travel for such a short commute; I’d bet we’d spend more time boarding and de-boarding the plane than actually in the air. Furthermore, I’d also be willing to bet that a bus would get us to the Newark airport faster at 6am. The second bit of humor/stupidity is the cost. Direct flights from PHL to PDX are in excess of $800, while the above one-stop flight was below $300. I tried to get crafty and find some way to drive to Newark the morning for a flight directly to PDX … and found that that, too, costs over $800. I contemplated just booking the PHL –> Newark –> PDX flight and just catching the Newark–>PDX leg, but feared that they might cancel our seats or something if we didn’t show up in PHL … Alas, we just “went with it” and flew from PHL to PDX via Newark … leading us to the last bit of funny … g and I were super-psyched that we were in seats 8A and 8B for the first leg, because that’d mean that we’d be towards the front of the plane, so we’d have an opportunity to de-board quickly at Newark so we could scramble to our next gate. Turns out that the plane only had 9 rows. Nine rows! This plane was t-i-n-y (e.g. I knew every seat was full because I could easily SEE every seat). It was so tiny that ALL wheely luggage carry-ons had to be checked. As a matter of fact, it was SO tiny that it still had real-deal, legit propellers on the wings! Propellers! Had our phones been on, we would have provided you with a pic!
Fortunately, everything went off without a hitch. We landed in Newark and caught our flight to PDX. At around 4 hours or so, we had confirmation that we were indeed heading west, as this is what the window showed:
pretty mountain!
Now, upon landing in PDX, we were faced with our first real decision: which compact rental car to choose? There was a grey Chevy Aveo. And a yellow Fiat. I was rooting for the Fiat. g was rooting for any car that wasn’t yellow. Conclusion: Chevy Aveo won. I guess we’ll just have to Fiat another time … (we would have taken a picture, however, the dude right behind us in line HAD to go with the Fiat because there was no other compact car available after we took the Aveo, and we didn’t want to rub it in his face). As a sidenote, g admits that had the Fiat been red, she would have done it in a heartbeat.
After this, there was some wine-tasting and some eating, but we’ll get to those in a future posts …
We eventually checked in to our overnight accommodations for the wine country leg of the trip. We chose Abbey Road Farms Bed and Breakfast!
the entrance to Abbey Road Farm
metal chicken sculptures hiding amongst the shade to greet guests
and there’s REAL chickens, too!
see! real live chickens!
the guest rooms are IN these converted silos!
Ok, so the above pic needs some explaining. The proprietors had these old grain silos turned into rooms – and they’re all connected to a common foyer. When we told lc about this, she wasted no time in sharing her opinion that this was insanely gimicky but perfect because there’s a sucker born every minute (thus implying that g and I are suckers). That’s ok lc – we know that you’re just jealous that YOU didn’t get to stay in grain silos. Now, we didn’t take any pictures of our room (plenty of pictures on their kind-of-dated website), but it was well-appointed with a good amount of space, heated floors, jacuzzi tubs, and extraordinarily comfy beds (seriously – it’s the first time we’ve ever had no complaints about beds while traveling). It was actually nice and very clean. Also, the view from our room (the Alpine Room, which apparently has the best view) was pretty frickin’ awesome:
alpine room view on a clear day (and you can see the patio we used for dining) – picturesque vineyards stretch out to the left, but we couldn’t fit them in the picture …
the sunrise in the morning (check out the fog)
So now you must be wondering: “What’s ‘the deal’ with Abbey Road farm?” There’s a farm and there’s a BnB. Together. It’s a pretty cute place! The farm is small but legit (it has chickens, alpacas, llamas, sheep – all roaming about certain sections of the land). The farm’s proprietors, John and Judi, are a super-sweet couple who just really wanted to own a farm and found that they had the means to do so … and so they did! From what we gathered, John (a very nice man) is full of ideals and further allowed to live out those ideals by virtue of having made a crap-ton of money in Las Vegas (something to do with insurance companies and hotel management). However he attained the funds to buy the place, we don’t care, because the experience was absolutely wonderful. We do want to note that John admits that he runs a “Gucci farm” – meaning that while he and his wife have done their best to learn and perform the activities necessary for farming, they do enlist the help of others to make sure things are done properly. I’m not sure who’s idea the BnB side of the property came from, but however it came to be, it’s very well executed. The rooms had everything we needed, the breakfasts were tasty and filling, the price was reasonable, and it was so pretty/peaceful that we often just brought back food to the BnB to eat on that patio while gazing into the distance (it was so much better than staying at a room in some hotel in one of the tiny towns like Dundee or McMinnville). As a sidenote, this property is also next to Trappist Abbey, which John somehow helped to become a perpetually preserved/conserved land, so no matter now commercial Oregon becomes due to the wine trade, he’ll always have trees in his back yard. Brilliant! More sidenotes: they make their own goat’s milk cheese (the lemon zest chevre is AWESOME), and John’s currently trying to bring a farmer’s market to the property for locals and foodies to enjoy.
Trust us: we’d happily go back to Abbey Road Farms in the future – it’s the perfect accommodation for visiting wine country. We hope they’ll still be there next time!
We did send some time in Portland on our trip as well, requiring a one-night stay in one of the city’s many hotels. We got a great deal on The Nines using Expedia so we jumped on it. Here’s the rundown:
–The Good: Super-clean. The staff is super-uber-nice/helpful/kind – it’s like they are trying their hardest to give the impression that they’re the Ritz or something – we give them an A+ for effort. There’s a pretty fancy-looking restaurant in there – we wouldn’t recommend it when there are so many restaurants with such high praises in Portland, but it’s nice to know that there’s a back-up plan.
–The Bad: Their logo, which is apparently a wonkified number “9” is pretty stupid-looking. It’s ok, g and I turned all of the items in our room with that logo (e.g. coasters, pads of paper) upside-down, so they resembled the letter “G” instead. How fitting. They’re also trying way too hard to be chic – resorting to a lot of “first year in art school” type pictures/paintings/thingamajigs hanging on the walls to give them a more “modern”/”hip”/”cool” aesthetic – we weren’t fooled by their faux coolness.
–The Scary/Hilarious: After returning from dinner, we walked into our hotel room only to find that the lights were on, the TV was on, and my luggage was wide open with my clothes all strewn about. My first thought: “HOLY CRAP – WE’VE BEEN ROBBED!!” – my mind started racing through the valuables we had with us (i.e. laptop, iPad, wine, g’s clothes). It turns out that we were not robbed, rather, turndown service had happened, which involves turning on the nightstand lights and turning the TV to some sort of classical music station for ambience. And the luggage … that was just me forgetting to put it away before we left for dinner (or as g would put it: “just being a slob”). g apparently at no point thought we had been robbed and automatically assumed it was turndown service. Oops.
–The Summary: The Nines is a great hotel in a good downtown location, but it does isolate you from the real “culture” or Portland (i.e. anything seen in the tv series Portlandia). Great restaurants are to the east and the parks are to the west, so it’s kind of in the middle of where you want to go to do things, however, it’s close to Voodoo Donuts and Stumptown Coffee and Powell’s City of Books so it’s not like you’re in the middle of nowhere. I feel that if we had to go to Portland, we’d do The Nines again if we found it at a sale price (it’s very expensive otherwise).
Well, that’s it for now – stay tuned for the next two installments: the wine, and the food.
“Square Peg … i like you …”
t says: In my first-vacation-since-freshman-year-of-high-school (and by “vacation”, I mean “a period of time greater than 1 week in length in which I had no work to do”), I have found that I get restless pretty darned easily. I just need things to do! This has been good for reading (I conquered the Hunger Games trilogy and browsed a few cookbooks), blogging, swimming (I got destroyed by Penn swimmers last week), watching horrible horrible free movies on Hulu (as you’ve read), organizing our finances and health insurance, and, of course, eating. Not a whole lot of learning going on here, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to be completely inept when I start my real job in June, but I guess I’ll have to worry about that then. What I lack is a partner in crime. It turns out that all of my friends either have real jobs or are doing someactually productive things that don’t lend themselves to missions like wine-hunting and lunch-searching … Except for today! k texted me out of the blue with a request to go to lunch. In a flash (because I have nothing else to do), I immediately began constructing a list of lunch places I wanted to try. At the top of the list: Square Peg. With Matt Levin at the helm, I was super-psyched to go. For those who don’t know, he’s the genius behind the Tastykake sliders (imagine mini-hamburgers … but instead of bread, think Kandy Kakes). Take a peak, if you dare:
And this is just the tip of the Matt Levin iceberg. The rest of it includes FourLoko dinners, super-awesome fried chicken, and more! Square Peg is supposed to be “comfort food with a twist” (my words, not theirs). I like comfort food. So does k. I like twists. So does k. And with that, we booked a reservation and trekked on over to the middle of Center City. It was time for another t & k adventure (past adventures: zahav lunch, Philly Food Tours)!
May 2012, Thursday Lunch, Party of 2. We were late. I hate being late. Ugh. Stupid cars – let’s just say that traffic/parking on Thursdays around noon absolutely sucks in CC. After crawling for what seemed like an eternity (I was hungry, so my perception of time was a little “off”), we pulled into a parking lot on 9th and Sansom only to find there were absolutely no spots left. Sunuvamotherlessgoat! So we pulled out and searched [at a snail’s pace] for street parking. Fortunately, k must have some sort of super-secret car-moving abilities because on the next block, a car pulled out right in front of us. Beautiful! Good job k!
Sensing that we were going to be late, I called up Square Peg to see if they could make sure to save our reservation despite our tardiness. The female voice on the phone was A-OK with it. Great! We walked in 15 minutes late and indeed – not a problem at all. I was surprised, as lunch was ending soon – but I wasn’t complaining.
After taking our seats, I was faced with a conundrum similar to that which I was in at Talula’s Garden – too many things to try and only one stomach to eat with! French Toast, burger, turkey sliders, pulled pork, and tons of other stuff, too! After much debate, k and I decided that we should be strategic and order two things we both wanted to try and share. Boom. We’re smart like that. Now, reading the menu at Square Peg is fun because with every dish, there’s something tweaked to make it different. If you’re not paying attention, you just might miss it. Take the above: “mac-n-cheese ‘grilled cheese'”. I read it and didn’t even bat an eyelash – but that’s because it didn’t cross my mind this was not going to be just some kind of heavily crusted mac-n-cheese, rather, a grilled cheese sandwich with the cheese replaced by mac-n-cheese; k figured it out instantly. Check it out:
k’s pick: mac-n-cheese grilled cheese + tomato soup
I have to say that I was pretty impressed with the execution of this dish. How the hell did the macaroni stay inside the bread? At first, I thought maybe the mac would be one of those “fake” mac-n-cheeses where so much egg and crumbly cheese is used that the end result comes out friable and not the least bit smooth (I hate those mac-n-cheeses). And it wasn’t all thick-and-congealed and it wasn’t all super-compressed-like-a-panini either. It turns out that this mac was indeed smooth and cheesy, with some good cheesy oomph, and just the right amount of stiction to stay in place. How did they do it? Well, however they did, I liked it! I will say that I think maybe interspersing a few (a very few) crumbles of blue cheese would have stepping up the cheese flavor without sacrificing texture. k felt oppositely, feeling that the grilled mac and cheese was already a bit too rich. So we agree to disagree. Either way, we both felt like the tomato soup was a nice counter-point to the sandwich – punching up the flavors and cutting through what was essentially a super-thick cheese sandwich. Nicely done!
t’s pick: “leftover” turkey sliders + gravy
These next sandwiches were “my” choice, even though k spotted it first. Basically, think of a sandwich you’d make using Thanksgiving leftovers: turkey, stuffing, yams, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Brilliant. While an obvious a combination, and not one that is completely unheard of in restaurants (Smoking Betty has had it for a while), this is the first that I had tasted not in the comfort of someone’s house. And it was awesome, tasting exactly like what you’d expect – with some caveats:
1) The cranberry sauce is chunky. I don’t mind this, but some people are partial to super-smooth cranberry sauce.
2) The stuffing doesn’t have stuff in it. g’s mom’s stuffing, the current adsz stuffing champ, is so chocked full of more than just carrots and herbs.
3) The turkey (and rest of the ingredients) is served cold. This is on-theme, as it’s supposed to be a “leftover” sandwich, and probably allows the kitchen to just pull the ingredients out of the fridge … however, I normally zap the ingredients in the microwave first.
4) The gravy is plain … my gravy is not …
Be that as it may, these were some damn good sliders – we devoured all of em (k ate the big one, I ate the two small ‘uns). Sure, they could have been fussed up a bit more, but to be honest, I’d take these over another boring burger any day. But, if I was allowed to change only one thing, it’d be the gravy (and it’d probably be the easiest to jazz up, anyways). Mushrooms, nuts, herbs, cream of celery, belgian pale ale … anything like that would be a nice addition. Of course, I’m no cook/chef, so what do I know?
Finally, we went for dessert:
dessert = chocolate pudding pie = fudgey chocolate + crumbled pretzels + bruleed banana
Ok, so this one was the most unexpected item of our meal because it didn’t really resemble a pie at all. That kinda stunk because we were really in the mood for pie! On the flip side, the dessert did resemble Barbuzzo’s salted caramel budino in presentation, so that made us happy initially, but unfortunately means that it’s going to be compared to the budino, whether it wants to be or not. So about this dessert … The chocolate was definitely not pudding-like, rather, thick and fudgey. I didn’t mind (I like fudge), but it did require some finger strength to drive a spoon all the way to the bottom of the jar. The crumbled pretzel added some nice saltiness and texture. And the banana (bruleed and salted) was nice touch, too, breaking up the chocolate monotony! But now the problem: if only somehow the banana was somehow incorporated better so we wouldn’t have to carefully dissect it to ensure that each bite had some banana. I don’t know how this could be done – maybe mash the banana into a creamy top layer and then brulee the top? I really like the combination of flavors going on here, but it’s just not put together ideally … which is a shame … because … k chimes in: The dessert in a jar definitely filled my chocolate needs, however in no way compared to Barbuzzo’s budino – the original dessert in a mason jar. t’s back: We recognize it’s totally stupid to think that every layered dessert presented in a glass jar is “biting” off of Barbuzzo … but theirs just tastes so damn good!
k delivers the finale: It was a fun lunch place. I liked the atmosphere and the music. The menu was filled with cute and creative twists on old things you’ve had before. For the most part, the twists seemed like yummy ideas. One exception – I thought the tacos with Fritos in a bag sounded terrible. Our choices hit the spot, though. Not out-of-this-world tasty, but still solid.
t refuses to let her have the last word: Yea, I’d totally go back to see what other kinds of crazy are going on up in there. Lunch, dinner, whatever. There’s some real potential. And the prices aren’t ridiculous, either!
Talula’s Garden crushes brunch
t says: We had heard that Talula’s Garden was now offering brunch – naturally, we just had to go. Oddly enough, it actually took us quite a long time to get there – maybe a bit more than a month? (That’s odd for Olexy-fans like us.) Whatever the reason for the delay, we finally went this past weekend – and we were on a mission! You see, this upcoming weekend, for Mother’s Day 2012, we’re going to do something absolutely stupid – we’re going to have brunch with our parents … in Philadelphia … at a restaurant … It’s. going. to. be. insane. It’s Mother’s Day, it’s graduation weekend, and Dad Vails are in town. Insane, but I guess we’re up for a challenge. In preparation for the insanity, g and I reasoned that we at least had to do some reconnaissance at the brunch candidates – namely the longtime adsz favorite Cochon and new-kid-on-the-block Talula’s Garden. So we donned our service uniforms, packed our hi-tech image acquisition apparatus, and force-marched it to Washington Square … (btw – we went to Cochon recently – they’re still ridiculously tasty).
May 2012, Sunday Brunch, Party of 2. After sitting down, g and I dove into the brunch menu – we were quite hungry from the morning stroll. And it hit us: the menu oozed pure awesomeness. My mind was boggled – there were too many dishes to try: blintzes, pancakes, butcher’s breakfast, pastries, cheese, donuts … I’d say 50-67% of the menu was totally t-worthy. This conundrum was great news, as all of the preliminary reports featured so few dishes that I feared a lack of selection (which would have stunk for Mother’s Day if there was nothing that mom liked …).
After much consideration, g and I forced ourselves to limit our choices to 3 selections – three that we were pretty sure most people in our party next weekend would choose (Party of 12 baby!). Here they are:
breakfast pastry trio + lemon curd + butter + berries
Hidden in the menu was the breakfast pastry trio – as it’s not called that at all. Nevertheless, as soon as we spotted a single item, we knew we had to start with the breakfast pastries. That item: lemon ginger scone. While I’ve mentioned them in passing in Talula’s Table posts (although I’m currently failing to find them right now), I think that this blog has failed to completely capture g’s (and my) love for Talula’s Table’s scones, especially the lemon ginger ones. And if TG’s scones are even 23% as good as TT’s, we would be happy. How did it stack up? We’ve decided that it was almost as good as anticipated. It was a bit cakier/cakeier/more-cake-like than TT’s, which makes for a lighter pastry – but the flavor was spot-on. There’s pluses and minuses to this, though. On one hand, there’s a certain richness that TG’s scone lacks, but on the other, you don’t feel completely full after eating just one scone, so it’s definitely not too much of a letdown because we had more food to eat! And while the muffin and coffee cake (especially with the lemon curd) were also very good (giving Parc’s pastry basket a run for its money), you just can’t beat a lemon-ginger scone, even one operating at 87% of max-deliciosity (you have to try them when they come straight out of the oven at 7am at Talula’s Table in Kennet Square … only then will you understand our obsession).
g’s main = “crab benedict” over fresh English muffin + potatoes
g ordered an egg-based savory breakfast dish … surprised? Not I. This one was featured egg, crab, and some kind of ?tomato-based? Hollondaise/Bearnaise-ish sauce and accompanied by those wonderfully-gold brown potatoes … and it totally rocked g’s socks. It was funny, because although there weren’t massive chunks of crab, that sauce tasted so much like crab it was kind of like what would happen if capo giro made crab-flavored gelato. Ok, maybe that’s not the best picture to paint, but you get the idea – it had a very vivid crab flavor! The eggs were perfectly poached with good yolk runniness. And then there was that English muffin … that English muffin was crazy! We got word from one of our fave TG staff that these were made in house and required some time to perfect before they released this dish – well let me say it was perfect! (I’m contemplating swearing off Thomas’s.)
t’s main = wheat pancakes + bruleed bananas + pecans
What you see before you is my main. The wheat pancakes pictured above were oh-so-fluffy – coming within a hair of the reigning pancake champ at Cochon in terms of thickness, but still pretty impressive! The bananas (with accompanying sauce like a bananas foster) and pecans were fantastic (although perhaps obvious) accompaniments, and reminded me a little of the bananas that Cochon used to put on their Elvis French toast (back when they used to offer the Elvis French toast). Actually, I loved the Elvis-themed toppings so much back then that I frequently asked them to put them on top of their super-wicked pancakes. But alas, they Elvis no more. Ok – back to TG’s pancakes: while “wheat” is normally not a desirable flavor for me (just ask g about my thoughts on wheat bread), it actually added a little bit of a savory pinch in the background of all the sweet on the plate – I liked it! I think overall, the dish needed some salt – maybe a piece of bacon or something, which I guess I should have ordered, myself. Be that as it may, in light of Cochon’s lack of gussied-up pancakes (they only do French toast dressed with sausage gravy on their menu right now – pancakes are a “side dish”, and while they’re still fan-frickin-tastic, they lack to bananas and bacon ice cream of old …), it seems like there’s a new pancake champion in town … Talula’s Garden! Woop woop! Raise the roof! And other such cool exclamations!
And then we were full …
g and I were bummed – there was still so much food our mouths wanted to taste, but our stomachs had had enough! We decided that TG was the way to go for Mother’s Day brunch – not to say that Cochon would have been worse, but there really is something special about their brunch. While it’s not as heavy as Cochon (which g and I like – we were full, but we didn’t feel disgusting), it’s also not as inexpensive as Cochon, so I don’t know how often we can afford to go. I think Cochon will remain our usual adsz Sunday brunch pick, with TG winning “special occasion Sunday brunch”. So great job TG! We look forward to seeing you this weekend. I hope you guys are ready for the crazy that is Mother’s Day.
Supper’s still got those red velvet waffles
t says: I know we/I kind of ragged on Supper’s brunch the last time we went. Sorry Supper, we gotta call it like we taste it. Be that as it may, we did give Supper another whirl recently, and I feel that to make up for the bad things I said last time, I should focus only on good things this time. Fortunately, Supper made that easy for me with their long-time brunch standard bearer:
red velvet waffles (enlarged to show texture)
This time was even better than I remember – the waffles were moister, the sweet cream was fluffier, the sauce and cherries had more of a vibrant punch. I’d say that this is probably Supper’s best brunch dish. So go there. Eat it. And if you don’t like it, then you have no soul (or you don’t like sweet brunch foods). Now if only Supper also had a dynamite savory dish to go along with these waffles (I’m not sure if the burger counts – I’m looking for an awesome egg-based dish I suppose), we’d be able to consider them again for “best brunch” …
alla spina – good fun!
t says: We went to Alla Spina with k and cm and another friend, super-excited to try out some Vetri-sanctioned food without having to pay for “the meal of our lives”. But don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t expecting dishes like from our most recent visit to Vetri, rather, playful almost-finger-food-like dishes meant to be shared and enjoyed in a bar-like atmosphere. Let’s see how they did.
April 2012, Friday Dinner, Party of 5. This is going to be short – and not because I’m lazy. There were just too many dishes on the table (cm used his elephant-like memory and did the ordering) and my own memory has faded some. Be that as it may, here are the highlights:
-Mushrooms: yea, that’s right – “mushrooms”. But not just any “mushrooms” – these mushrooms are what I imagine Zeus would have been served had he ever wanted “mushrooms”. They were crispy and oh-so-delicious – so much so that g ate them. I’m serious. This is huge! g only eats mushrooms in her mom’s Thanksgiving stuffing. Trust me – these will be a must-order if/when we go again.
the puffed pastry thing on the left is the pig pot pie
-Pig Pot Pie: This was my favorite. It seriously made me wonder why on earth anyone would ever use chicken ever again! Imagine a chicken pot pie, but take out the often-overcooked chicken and replace it with succulent pig meat. Furthermore, I suspect the sauce was made far more flavorful by addition of some pig fat. You’re reading it here: I’m swearing off chicken pot pie – Alla Spina has ruined them for me forever.
la-zag-na
-Lasagna: Everyone else’s fave was the lasagna. (I suspect it’s because they are wimps.) It’s no surprise that a Vetri-associated restaurant can make lasagna … Everything was done right even the sauce/gravy! Amazing!
The biggest letdown of the night was most likely this sucker right here:
bacon chocolate sundae
This dessert turned out to be a little hokey. Those chocolate stick-looking things were chocolate-covered bacon … so there was no bacon anywhere else. Boooooooo. The rest of the sundae was unremarkable. This kinda made me sad – I think I might have pouted a little.
Another shortcoming of Alla Spina was the horrendous wine list: a red (Nebbiolo), a white, and a bubbly … and that’s it. Sure, there were lots of beers, but for the bubble-intolerant, you’re S.O.L.. I understand if they want to avoid the “stuffiness” of wine, but I firmly believe you’re going to have to pack at least 3 reds and 2 whites and a bubbly. Come on, man!
Overall, we feel like Alla Spina is probably a good place for bar-like energy in a restaurant – and the food was pretty good for the most part. Sure, Alla Spina’s gonna be a little pricey – not Vetri pricey, but pricey for a bar akin to how Amis is a bit pricey for “Italian food”. Also, don’t forget that as you drink, you begin ordering more and more of these little plates, so that’s probably going to lend to a pretty large bill. Finally, Alla Spina’s located kind of in the middle-of-nowhere (but Osteria and Route 6 are there!), so we won’t be there every weekend, but we’d be happy to go if anyone else suggests it!
Meme: totally 70% worth it!
t says: A long time ago, Savored.com was running this promotion where you could make reservations at any of their affiliated restaurants for free (normally $10 a pop). So I did! At every restaurant I could see myself ever going to! One of the restaurants was Meme, a small New American place that’s so close to where we live that it takes me literally (yes, literally) less than 3 minutes to walk there. And yet, it was the one place that I felt I’d have to push g the hardest to go to …
Why? We went once a long time ago (pre-blog), when they first opened after kicking Melograno out. We brought drb along with some ’05 Bordeaux. While the food was “good” (drb had his first skate wing), we got the feeling that they were still finding their way. Overall, our meals were promising, but pricey. Then we heard that they were only BYO while waiting for their liquor license to come through, which was a bummer, because when it did, g and I never returned because then the food definitely wouldn’t justify the bill … well, that’s not completely true … we returned once … for brunch … and it was yucky. We don’t care what phillymag says, it was not good.
So now enter the new Meme. No, nothing’s changed in terms of who’s running it, rather, this Meme emanates a little whiff of despair – or at least I think it does. I feel this way for a few reasons. First, it’s often empty on weekday evenings (maybe a few tables occupied – or maybe we’re just not looking through the windows at the right time). Second, they returned to BYO. And finally, most recently, they’re now on Savored. Yikes! On the bright side, they do get a lot of PhillyMag press, so maybe that’ll keep ’em afloat.
After much pushing and pushing (g still had that horrid brunch on her brain), g finally acquiesced to a Thursday date night. It was 30% off, so we were looking forward to eating more cheaply than a “normal” date night.
April 2012, Thursday Dinner, Party of 2. We entered and the place was pretty much empty. There was one occupied table and that was it; it wasn’t particularly confidence-inspiring. Nevertheless, the hostess/waitress/server was very pleasant and offered us our choice of seats. We chose wisely and got the party started. Their menu is small, with something like 5 appetizers and 5 entrees, but it covers a wide range of offerings, from meats and fish to salads and bone marrow.
g and I made our selections: g went with the lambchop (whoa! g went with the lambchop? no “tuna crudo” or wimpy salad for her this time!) and I opted for the bone marrow. The waitress told us that it’d be 15 minutes for the bone marrow, and not to worry that we’d be “forgotten”. I appreciated that – I don’t like feeling forgotten.
We chomped on some bread and passed the time with the usual mix of chit-chat and gossip that married couples enjoy. Good times. Not too long later (I didn’t time them), our appetizers landed.
g’s app: lambchop, eggplant, cucumber concoction
I have to say that I was impressed with the size of g’s lambchop. Normally, when I think of lambchops as appetizers (or even as entrees!), I think of little dinky, wussy, lollipop-sized teasers. This one was quite substantial. I’ll let g say a few words …
g says: It was way bigger than I thought, and it was quite good!
back to t: g’s a little pressed for time right now (i.e. she has a real job, and I [kind of] don’t) so she’s a little short on words. She ate it all – so take that as evidence of its goodness. Moving on, allow me to present my appetizer:
t’s app: roasted bone barrow, herb concoction
I hadn’t had bone marrow since eating at Ad Hoc with k and cm some time ago. I was happy to get back on the wagon. Result: it was great!! It had good texture to it, spreading like bitter but still capable of holding together in your mouth. It tasted unctuous (as bone marrow should), with a smoky/roasted overtones. The accompanying herb mixture rounded out the flavors quite nicely. I also liked how Meme didn’t muck around with the bread, letting me focus on the subtleties of the bone marrow, itself. And for a measly $8 (pre-30%0off), I was more than satisfied with the size. Actually, I’m glad it wasn’t cheaper because then I might have ordered two …
After a nice showing on appetizers, g and I got down to business on the entrees. The first thing we noticed when they landed was the quantity: they weren’t holding back! These were legitimately sized portions! I thought maybe for Savored reservations they’d skimp on the entrees, but no, they pulled no punches.
t’s main: NY strip, salad with belu cheese, lentils, roasted onion
As I prepared myself mentally for my cow, I went to the lentils first. They were prepared well with a nice mix of bite and give. It definitely wasn’t the pig-infused bomb that Bibou serves, but at the very least had a good spice that I can’t put my finger on and a meatiness about it to make it seem like the lentils weren’t “just” an afterthought. Good for them! Then I went in for the steak. It was perfectly medium, had good seasoning (some might find it a little heavy-handed with the salt, but I liked it!), and possessed just the right amount of caramelization on the outside to give it some oomph. Once again – it’s not the profoundly-sauced masterpiece that Bibou has, but I was impressed none-the-less, as it was definitely a step above Parc and probably a hair (a very small, very fine hair) better than Cochon. The salad was a little cumbersome to eat (the leaves could have used one or two more passes with the knife), but added some nice bitterness and blue cheese funk to play with the steak. The onion was a little superfluous, but at the very least brought in some sweetness.
g’s main: pork, greenes, polenta, tomato
Now on to g’s dish, which I sampled extensively. I need to give you some backstory before continuing. You see, whenever we go to restaurants, I get the pork and she gets the steak. And very often, I end up wishing I had the cow. This time, we played the game a bit differently: g went with the pork so I went with steak. Now, keeping in mind that I was actually pretty happy with my dish, I was very envious of g’s dish. Her pork was a sizeable portion of well-cooked, well-seasoned (not as salty as my steak) pig that played oh-so-nicely with swiss chard. But the key was that tomato on top. It’s funny because g offered me some tomato and I turned it down, thinking “oh, it’s just another roasted tomato”. She persisted. She was right. This was no boring ol’ “gee-we-should-add-some-red-to-the-dish” tomato. This tomato meant business. The flavor was concentrated punch to the face that really brought out the pig. For me, the polenta was a little boring, but g seemed satisfied with its texture (I wanted a little more flavor … I don’t know of what, but something). Darn. I went with the steak and g still won.
And then there was dessert:
g & t dessert: strawberry shortcake
For dessert, we finished with the strawberry shortcake. Unfortunately, this dessert wasn’t as great as the rest of the food, but it wasn’t bad, either. The biscuit had nice texure, but little-to-no flavor. The strawberries were a bit mushy, reminding me more of the strawberry topping that ice cream shops have for ice cream than real strawberries. We did like the whipped cream, with a nice solid vanilla, creamy flavor. But don’t get me wrong – we did eat it all, so it’s not like we hated it.
In the end, g and I feel that Meme did a surprisingly good job. The food was simple – nothing we had was all that unusual or fussy or novel, but it was well-done for the most part, with some very tasty highlights. Furthermore, by the end of the meal, we were STUFFED. I’m glad we live so close because I could quickly get home and put on some pajamas. Also – the cost wasn’t bad. In total, the pre-Savored bill was around $77. After savored, it’s low 50’s, and then tack on a pre-Savored tip, and you’re mid-60’s. That’s cheaper than restaurant week! (And bonus savings: no cab fare! and BYO!!).
It was such a good deal that we returned two weeks later with dz and smn.
April 2012, Tuesday Dinner, Party of 4. I went with the bone marrow and pork T-bone and they were once again spot-on. It wasn’t a fluke the first time – chef can cook! (The T-bone was a little smaller this time around, but I was still stuffed by the end of the meal). g went with the salad appetizer (which was massive and had some potatoes in it, so it was very filling – dz had to help her out!) along with the pork T-bone. I was shocked when dz put forth some praise for the cod oregenata main that he had (dz isn’t picky, but I feel like for him to suggest that something tastes good without being prompted to do so should be considered an accolade). I don’t know if the beet salad or the salmon that smn had rocked her socks or anything (in the past, she and dz have only been “meh” on Meme), but maybe she’ll share an opinion when she reads this post.
In this humble writer’s opinion, Meme is absolutely worth the Savored price – we can see ourselves going back for weeknight dinner, easily. Now, is it worth the un-Savored price (i.e. going on the weekend)? That’s tough. Looking at only French and New American places, Meme is definitely not going to threaten Bibou. It’s not going to replace Fond. And the list of great BYO’s keeps going if we expand the scope to include other cuisines: Melograno, Koo Zee Doo, Modo Mio, etc. I think that the “fight” really comes down to Marigold Kitchen vs. Meme. It’s funny because I think the entrees are better here than at Marigold, but Marigold has all of those cool amuse bouches, so it’s more like an adventure! So weekend dinners will still be up in the air for us to consider going to Meme. Maybe it’ll be our go-to for some kind of “super-simple” nights? Maybe one of those Fridays when g and I are exhausted, we don’t have plans, we’re wearing boring clothes, and all we really want to do is drink good wine, but we want some properly cooked food to go with it (e.g. why drink a $30 bottle of wine with a $10 pizza?)? I guess that potentially could make Meme our “neighborhood joint”? Hmmmm … we’ll think about it …
“winning dinner” at cochon
t says: I’d like to take the time to introduce our latest cast member: alf. Hiya alf! So, lc and alf were in town visiting the other weekday so I was tasked with finding a dinner spot for the four of us. I had a few requirements:
1) Not expensive (entrees < $20)
2) BYO
3) Red wine compatible food (lc prefers red and I had a hankering for pinot noir)
4) Easy availability (i.e. last minute reservations on a Wednesday)
And while yes, there are plenty of such places in Philly, how many of them could do:
5) Guaranteed delicious
And with that, I knew what we had to do … We had to go to Cochon …
April 2012, Wednesday Dinner, Party of 4. Ahhh, Cochon. Comfortable, casual, homey, and oh-so-piggy. It’s one of adsz’s most under-rated restaurants – if only it was closer to where we lived, we’d be going all the time …
And so, with a bottle of pinot burning a hole in my “cellar” (i.e. the cardboard box underneath our wine fridge), we climbed into a cab and $10 later we were in Queen’s Village, ready for a much-scaled-down pigs-and-pinot feast. Interestingly, the place wasn’t that empty when we had arrived – a good sign because we’d hate for them to go under due to lack of business. Please readers – go to Cochon!
Now … down to business … g and I started with the gnocchi appetizer:
gnocchi + peas + crab + bacon + ?some kind of sauce?
Our appetizer was pretty good overall. The cream sauce with the peas, crab, and bacon was wonderful, but the gnocchi were a little flawed. I feel like they were trying to go for a super-uber-volatile gnocchi like at Vetri, but alas, the pasta came up crumbly instead of whipped/creamy/cloud-like. But don’t take this as “bad” gnocchi, as I assure you that had there been an entire plate of it, I would have been a happy camper to have had it for an entree.
lc’s appetizer, for which I do not have a picture of, was the fried oysters. I need to confess that when she first ordered them, I was hoping that she wouldn’t regret it, because seriously, it’s “fried oysters” – how good could it be? Answer: DAMN GOOD! In my opinion (not that I’m a fried oyster connoisseur, as I’ve had it only a handful of times), these were perfect. The meat was just cooked on the inside and it had a tissue-paper-light crispy breading on the outside. It was as close as one could get to eating a raw oyster … without it being raw. Consequently, Cochon has singly-handedly re-opened my eyes to the world of fried oysters (although now that I’ve said that, I’m sure I’ll be let down by the next 5 places I try it at).
My dish was a “special”:
pork shoulder + mustard crust + Brussels sprouts + lentils
The shoulder was beautifully prepared, with a deeply piggy flavor beautifully balanced with the mustard. The lentils were not quite Bibou-esque in flavor, but respectable in terms of texture. The Brussels sprouts were impressively charred on the outside, just how I like ’em (I think others should note how to do it). In the end, I felt that in the game of dinner, my dish was a winner for sure. So let’s look at the competition:
steak + fries
g went with the steak and fries (with the ubiquitous cochon aioli). The steak was cooked perfectly and well-seasoned. There weren’t any real “mis-steps, and it had some nice bonus smoky/grilled flavors. However, it’s not a very “complex” or “subtle” steak; if I could be sexist for a moment, I’d say this is a “man’s steak” for sure – straightforward, bold, meaty, no frills. Consequently, it wasn’t Bibou-good, but g was still happy with it.
pork tenderloin + dried cherries + nuts + Swiss chard + Israeli couscous
And now enter lc and alf’s main … They ordered a “special” pork tenderloin over swiss chard, nuts, dried cherries and some kind of reduction. The pork is the new most tender pork I’ve ever had (not including pork bellies, which is all fat, so it doesn’t count). Was it prepared sous vide? It sure tasted like it – but what do I know? It had playful sour cherries opposite earthy nuts. If my dish was like a down-and-dirty devil, there’s was the lively-and-cutesy angel. Two dramatically different takes on pig, for sure. I preferred mine, they preferred theirs. Counting lc and alf as one vote (it wouldn’t be fair to allow them to count as two votes), we looked to g to settle the argument. g proclaimed alf and lc the “winners”. No way! We asked the server for a second opinion – he sided with me. Obviously, I’m going to refuse to let lc and alf “win”, so I’m going to say that we co-won dinner.
As you can see, Cochon is still doing things beautifully. If you want meaty meats with pigs and steaks and fat and butter and friedness, then it’s really tough to top. If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you might not find a whole lot here (although they technically do have a vegetarian option upon request). Similarly, those wanting a light-and-fit meal might be disappointed as well. But everyone else should be more-than-happy with Cochon’s offerings. And, between Cochon’s BYO-ness and Savored’s 30% off, going there is a pretty sweet deal, indeed. I hope they continue to get the love that they deserve.
after dinner sneeze 