Percy Street Barbecue

Y'all know I'm not known for going to brand new restaurants right away. I like others to experience them early on while they're still working out the kinks, so I can enjoy them later, once they've got their act together. But in an effort to enjoy a nice Christopher Columbus outing, we dared visit Percy Street Barbecue during their first week of business. I was intrigued by this place due to the central texas style bbq that they promise. I went to grad school in Austin, so I ate my fair share of bbq while I was there. I don't claim to be an expert on bbq, or let alone food, but I do have plenty of experience in this field. And the bbq options in philly aren't all that great. There certainly aren't texas style bbq places around here. So I was hooked. Plus, I had watched this video of their trip to bbq mecca and I was optimistic that they would really be able to pull this off.
The space is pretty gorgeous and big. The menu is simple, and you can even see it written on these giant chalkboards by the kitchen. But this is a nice restaurant. Unlike the genuine bbq joints in texas, you won't see brown paper strewn across tables. But you will get rolls of paper towels to use as napkins. So it's a mix of modern design aesthetic and down home grubbing.
Bottles of water in vinegar bottles are set on each table and you can even get 1/2 gallons or gallons of beer. These come in big brown glass jugs. It's a lot of beer people, a lot. Please be warned. Meats are sold by the 1/2 lb and sides come small or large.
The waitress recommended that for each person, 1/2 lb of meat and two small sides should suffice. We got large mashed potatoes, large german potato salad, two large mac and cheeses, small green beans, and small collard greens. Ok, so the number one gripe with this place is the paltry portions of the side dishes. Mac and cheese only comes in large, and this large is perhaps an elf's definition of large. These are way too small, and the mac and cheese is way too good to be served this small. Please, this needs to be fixed.

The mashed potatoes seemed whipped, but were not completely smooth, so you know it was made from genuine potatoes. I liked them. The large portion was a genuine large portion. The potato salad was good too, but the large wasn't quite large. The green beans were good, and the small portion seemed right. The collard greens were ok, and like the green beans, its small portion sizing seemed spot on. The collard greens could have been cooked down more and probably should be cut up into smaller pieces. It was a bit hard to maneuver the big hunks of green.
Ok, onto the meats! We got everything but the sausage. Everything comes out in a tray and is served with white bread, pickles, and sliced raw onion. The accompaniments are pure central texas through and through, so I was impressed. There were 10 people in our party. We got 8 slices of bread. I'm pretty good at math but that simply does not add up. Are we supposed to cut this bread into pieces and share? Each person should get at least two pieces of bread(or more) on their own. This is how it should be done. There should be no sharing of bread. It's white bread. I think you guys can swing it!

The ribs were ok. As you can see they are pretty big, but ribs are ribs. These are not baby back ribs where the meat falls of the bone. These require work, and it was just a bit too much work for me. But they tasted fine. Now the pork belly on the other hand, the pork belly was AMAZING. Yes, so amazing that I capitalized it all. This pork belly was some of the best bbq I've ever had in my life, but also some of the best food I've ever had in my life. No joke. I could eat this day and night, despite what my arteries may have to say about it. This is the best thing on the menu here. Heed my word. Forget everything else, it's all about the pork belly here!
The brisket was ok. There are three options - moist, lean, and extra lean. We opted for the lean, but even the lean had a bit thick hunk of fat on top. The brisket was good, but it was too charred on the outside. The char is definitely not adding to the flavor. My favorite bbq in general is brisket (or at least it was until I had the pork belly here!) and whenever I've had it in texas, it never had char on the outside. It's supposed to have a nice red ring around the edges due to the smoke, but there should be no char.

Everyone was disappointed with the chicken. R wanted the chicken to taste like oven roasted chicken or rotisserie chicken. She also felt the chicken was dry. No one else thought the chicken was dry. In fact, we found it quite moist and juicy, but it was bland. It was so, so, so boring and bland. It had absolutely no flavor at all. We told the manager none of us liked the chicken and he was shocked. He said the chicken was his favorite thing on the menu. Egads. If plain, flavorless, bland chicken is your thing, then go for the chicken here. If not, then avoid it at all costs. But if you do get it, be sure to bring some kind of sauce for it.< src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1YAluhXevCGOqZn_y0DBDgH-AbMazdoZLen5yuz846u-1shEtqy1OppZE-keSbDP90gBLglI07WA79UpGy8QhUUYjTftcilf6bKwuPSU39Q7__KTJ6rZNmJeuvHbAHA9HpPvIbSYjsw7/s400/percycake.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 354px; " alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407709549668727890" border="0">No one wanted any dessert, except for R. She wanted the chocolate layer cake. Man, was this thing disappointing. We thought the chicken couldn't be topped, but this sure beat it. This cake was dry, dry like the freakin Sahara, and it tasted like yellow cake mix from the grocery store. And not even Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker, I'm thinking generic no-frills yellow cake mix. We passed this around and after everyone took a bite, everyone had to drink. Cakes should be moist. What a cake fail!
But we did end the evening on a high note. We didn't order the pecan pie, but it showed up. I think it helped that we spent a whole crapload of money in their first week in business and that we gave them some honest constructive feedback. This pie was awesome! It wasn't freakishly sweet like some pecan pies I've had before, this was just sweet enough. I wholeheartedly recommend this pie.

So the service needs some work. The amount of time it took for our drinks to come out was not really acceptable. We were just sitting there wondering where our drinks were, for a very long time. This desperately needs to be improved. But the food came out pretty quick, so we were impressed with that. And the servers are nice and friendly. So basically, there were definitely hits and misses with the food here. The pork belly and the brisket are hits, as are the sides, and the pecan pie, but the portions of the sides, the chicken, and the chocolate layer cake are severe misses. But would I eat here again? Hell yeah, as I've been dreaming about the pork belly ever since!

Tahoe Brew Pub

For our one dinner in tahoe, we had a bit of trouble. The places close fairly early, and especially because it was a sunday night, so several of the places we were first going to try were about to close. So eventually, we went subterranean to the Stateline Brewery, with only 20 minutes to spare, and they gladly welcomed us. The place is quite big and takes up quite a bit of the basement of the the little shopping center. It was pretty deserted at the time.
They brew their own beers, and J partook of their wheat brew.
He got the fish tacos again. As you can see, these fish tacos were quite different from the last ones he had. Black beans, instead of refried beans, the rice was completely different as well, and the fish in this one was lightly battered and fried. It was also a giant honkin piece of fish. And he wouldn't stop going on and on about them. Mark his words. Best fish tacos he's ever had.
It was quite cold, so I went with the two soups again, which I tend to do on occasion. First up was french onion soup. Good.
Next up was clam chowder. Also good. This one had hunks of celery, but they were easily avoidable. This had big giant hunks clams too. They're into big hunks of seafood here. Service was great. Our server was super friendly and didn't think it was weird when I ordered two soups. She was also kind enough to take a picture for us. Good food and good beer, can't beat that!

Feelin The Love At South Philadelphia Taproom

I wanted to go back to South Philadelphia Taproom ever since the first time I went. I dragged J there on a quiet tuesday night.

There weren't too many people there, so we had our pick of tables. We didn't get to pick the super low table in front, as it was already occupied. We tried a few beers. Our server was beyond nice, and actually from Ireland, and happily brought us free samples of the beers without us even asking. To tell you the truth, I think he had a little man-crush on J. He didn't bring me any free beer.
J got the burger. Look at that beautiful and giant yellow tomato. The burger came with mustard already on it. Lucky for J, he likes mustard, and he liked the burger. If I had ordered the burger, I would have been livid. It came with a side salad and a bunch of pickled veggies - cucumbers, mushrooms, and tomatoes. They were a bit on the spicy side, and I liked it.

Of course, I got the meatloaf entree, which comes on top of mac and cheese. It was still as good as I remembered. The meatloaf has a nice grilled flavor from the char marks. And the mac and cheese is so super mild and delicious and creamy. And the homemade ketchup just makes the dish. It's different than store-bought ketchup, but perfect for this meatloaf and the mac and cheese. I really should branch out and try other things on the menu here. I guess it's an excuse to go back!

Brauhaus Schmitz And The Boot

Downtown Philadelphia lost its only german restaurant when Ludwig's closed. Recently, a new spot opened on South Street - Brauhaus Schmitz. I really can't stand South Street at all, but for this, I was willing to make the effort. It's a really beautiful spot. Large tables downstairs in the front, booths along the side where the big bar is. There are some more tables upstairs.
Beer, beer, and then more beer. They have a good number on draught, as well as many more in bottles. They also have some wine. But I don't think they have any booze. So if that's what you're looking for, you should pass this spot along.
Something that they have but that should be passed on by everyone is the boot. Yes folks, the boot. It is a giant, giant mug in the shape of a boot. It holds 2 liters. Yes, 2 liters. That's a big soda bottle if you want an idea of how big that is. One person should never drink this much beer. Especially not after already drinking 3 big ass beers. Which is exactly what H/A did. Ok, he only drank 2/3 of the boot, but that was still 2/3 too much. T drank the rest of the 1/3 of the boot. And let's just say that the boot took out both of them. It is so much beer. Sooooo much beer. We passed it all around when we first got it and all 6 of us barely made a dent. Which is a shame, because the beer itself (the Oktoberfest) was so tasty. But no one should drink so much of it. By the time T killed the boot, we had finished eating and were waiting downstairs for the monsoon to subside. As he chugged, the big table in the front cheered him on, and when he finished, everyone clapped. But really people, you should not be encouraging anyone to drink this much beer. Ever.
Some complimentary bread. This couldn't have come out soon enough considering how much everyone had been drinking (without having eaten), so any food in the belly was welcomed.
The kartoffelpuffer and pommes. In normal terms, potato pancakes and fries. The potato pancakes were great, and so were the fries. I just wish there had been more of them. And the curry ketchup for the fries was amazing. I want to figure out how to make this. I don't think it's as simple as sprinkling in a bit of curry powder into ketchup. So if anyone knows, please tell me!
H/A and J ordered the wurstplatte. Basically, it is a pick two wursts platter... with wursts being a type of sausage. They didn't remember what they had ordered, so I have no idea which of the wursts these were. But the big fat pink one on the left was terribly delicious. The one on the right was pretty good too.
The gulaschsuppe, a hungarian beef stew with potatoes, spicy paprika, and red wine. Quite a nice portion for an appetizer serving. And cheap too!
T got the lachs - which is salmon. Served with spargel! You won't find a country more in love with asparagus than Germany. Also some spaetzle. You get to pick two sides with any entree.
I got the sauerbraten with braised red cabbage and spaetzle. This sauerbraten was super tasty, tender, and there was so much of it. And you know me and red cabbage, I loves it. Like oddly so. And the spaetzle was so comforting and beyond buttery. Would you like some german style egg dumplings along with your butter? Ja, bitte!

This was a good time with good food, good friends, and good beer. But the boot should have been avoided. Once the boot was kicked, the evening soured. Because then you have to worry about your drunk friends and what to do with them. Our server had to put up with a lot, so props to Imogen for keeping up. She was a great sport. I would definitely come back here, but avoid the boot. Just say nein to the boot!

Frjtz At Frjtz

Frjtz is a belgian fries, crepes, and mussels joint in the Mission. They also have another location in Hayes Valley. It's a casual place on Valencia. You order your food, get a number, and they bring it out to you. They have beers and booze and other food too.

A grimbergen. We all agreed that this beer was super tasty. It's belgian, and I believe this was a blonde, but as we can all see, it's quite brown. And yummy.

They provide carafes of water so you can hydrate yourself. A enjoyed a hoegaarden while I took advantage of a passion fruit soju mixed drink. Fruity and strong. Yeeha!

The frites! Extremely thick cut, which surprised me. Hot and crispy. With the large, you get your choice of two dips. Amongst us, we picked thai chili ketchup, white truffle artichoke ketchup, parmesan peppercorn ranch, and spicy yogurt peanut. Here's the low down... thai chili - ok and spicy, artichoke - amazing, ranch - eh, it's ranch, and the peanut - thick and peanutty. I think we all agreed that theh artichoke was the best of the bunch. These freis were great. And not greasy either. I was picking the crumbs...

A got the mussels, the thai kind. She loved it. And the leftover broth was enjoyed by all. She even got extra bread to sop it all up.

The rest of us got sandwiches. The sisley - roasted pear, cheddar, gorgonzola, chipotle remoulade, and avocado on focaccia.

The rest of us got sandwiches. The basquiat - grilled chicken, pesto mayo, caramelized onions, swiss, avocado on focaccia.

The velasquez - prosciutto, mozzarella, roasted pineapple, roasted pepper mayo on focaccia. All sandwiches were served with a spring mix salad. Good food with good friends. Not exactly cheap, but worth it! I probably drank too much... ha! Ok, not here, but definitely at Gestalt where we spent the rest of the night...

Deviled Eggs! Canned Beer! Whoo!

July is Picnic Month, and on Wednesday nigiht, Supper kicked off their picnic month with a special happy hour. What was so happy about it? It was a deviled egg happy hour. There were 12 different deviled eggs on the menu, along with specially priced Sly Fox beers in cans. It is a picnic theme, so what's better than beer in cans? Supper does normally have deviled eggs on their menu. They just expanded their selection a bit for picnic month.

There was no point in trying to select specific flights of deviled eggs, so we just tried them all. This is what was offered in each flight:

Black Truffle

Sriracha with pickled daikon, carrot and coriander

Horseradish Egg with steak and roquefort

Curried with roasted cauliflower and mint

Lobster with dill crème fraiche

Deep-Fried Scotch with country sausage

Pistou with ratatouille

Wasabi with uni and crispy nori

Braised bacon and cheddar

Chevre with spring asparagus

Smoked chile with corn-red onion salsa

Saffron with salt cod and roasted garlic

Some close ups of the wasabi with uni and the ratatouille.

More closeups of the cod and the salsa.

I actually enjoyed them all. The filling of most were a bit on the salty side. Much saltier than I am used to for deviled eggs. For the truffle one, it was a bit too much truffle. It's better to just keep most of the truffle out and crumble just a teeny bit on top of the egg. There's also truffle in the egg mixture as well. I don't like stinky cheese, but the steak one wasn't overly overloaded with the roquefort. The salsa one was excellent, so was the ratatouille. The fried country sausage one was surprisingly good. At $9 for all 12 and $3 beers, this was fun, tasty, and cheap.

Tulsa Gastropubbin'

I had an extremely early flight on friday morning, so I spent thursday night in Tulsa proper. Tulsa, the "big city". After doing a little roamin on yelp, I decided to go to FB Oscar's Gastropub which is located near downtown Tulsa. I have no idea about the neighborhoods in Tulsa, but where Oscar's was seemed to have a number of restaurants and clubs/bars and such. And there were beautiful old craftsman style houses everywhere. It seemed to be a pretty cool neighborhood, and it was near the river. The place is nicely decorated and pretty big on the inside. There are two huge skylights with these funky balloon shaped thingies hanging down. There's a big bar with tons of beers and outdoor dining in the front. I asked the bartender if I could only pick one thing, what should I pick, and he recommended the kobe beef meatloaf. I had been eating beef non-stop for days, and I really wanted to go meat-free, but I decided to get it anyway. When I was reading some reviews about this place, other people had raved about it, so I had to go with it. This dish is regularly served with drunken mushrooms and braised spinach. I told him that the two things I really don't like are mushrooms and spinach, so could he just give me something else as a side. He said he would make me happy. Oh boy, did he!

The meatloaf came topped on a heap of goat cheese mashed potatoes. There was some sort of onion compote type thing on top of the meatloaf, which tasted like it was braised in red wine vinegar. And surrounding the entire plate was a melange of stir fried veggies in an awesome asian-inspired sauce. It's like he was reading my mind! Everything on this plate was delicious - the meatloaf, the potatoes, the veggies. Everything had tons of flavor. I loved everything about it. And it was tons of food too. This was one of the best entrees I've had in a long time. The whole experience was impressive - the food, the service, the ambiance. Oscar's has the total package!

Beers At Eulogy

After staying in and making some stir-fry with our german visitors, we decided to go out for some beers. Monk's or Eulogy was on our short list. We drove past Monk's and saw that it was super crowded (even on a Tuesday night), so we headed over to Eulogy instead. There was one table left for us. Score!
The place is owned by Belgians, and there's a number of beers on tap and hundreds of beers in bottles. The menu is large. They have tons of beers from all over the world, but barely any domestics. So don't come here to drink Miller lite.
And like Monk's, the beer ain't cheap. So don't come here if you're looking for dollar beers. Go to McGlinchey's instead. If you want exotic foreign beers, then pick something on the menu, or get recommendations from the servers, and open up your wallet. One of these days, I'm going to have to try their food.

Spending Time...

I'd been to Ludwig's a couple times. Once on the inside to have some beers and some of their delicious pretzel rods, and another time outside for Oktoberfest. Then it went away. And then the spot was reinvented as Time. We stopped by there the other night to have a few drinks.

We were on the bar side, or at least the side without the live music, and I was pleased to find that it pretty much looked like Ludwig's used to. It didn't have the busty fraus wearing dirndls, but the space was still like the old spot. They've got a good number of beers on draft, and then some more in bottles. It's also an absinthe bar. Weird. There was a wall between the two main areas that was covered completely by jar bottoms. It was pretty impressive.

We had already eaten so we didn't order food, but J wanted some grub so he ordered up some mussels and fries. The mussels are cooked up in a tomato base, along with some beans, spices, and sausage. B & K also got some kind of chicken on a stick appetizer, but I didn't get a chance to get photographic evidence of that. They liked em though.

I couldn't resist tasting some of the fries. And I do have to say that they were awesome. I really liked these! These are some of the better fries I've had in Philadelphia. They are a bit on the thicker side, but were nice and crunchy on the outside. I'm not a fan of the soggy thick fry. Service was ok, nothing to rave about.

Revisiting Monk's

It seems like I've been visiting a lot of places lately that I haven't been to in a gazillion years. It happened again when I went to Monk's. I think I've been to Monk's a couple of times. Once was awhile ago and I remember eating something perhaps rabbit-y, trying fois gras for the first time, and also trying the frites. I also remember coming here and trying hoegaarden for the first time. Come to think of it, I've had a bit of firsts here!

We looked at the menu beforehand and both agreed that we wanted stew. They have a belgian beef and beer stew made with local grass fed beef, slow cooked in Chimay Grand Reserve with local root vegetables. How can you not love the sound of that? We told them we were going to share it, so they brought it out in separate bowls and gave us strange but tasty rolls each. I can't really describe the roll, it seemed to have raisins in it, but it wasn't sweet enough to be raisin. Does anyone know? In any case, the stew was delicious! I wish we'd had a giant vat of it, it was so good.
We also got an order of the pommes frites. You have to! The waiter forgot about them, so we didn't end up getting them until after the stew, but that was ok. We didn't mind, we just ate them along with the additional beers. I love these fries, but I just wish they were longer pieces of fry, instead of little tiny stubs. Otherwise, I still love these. It comes with their famous bourbon mayo. Monk's is definitely a beer place, so get ready to drink. Since I was still sick, I didn't really drink much, but the little sips I had were certainly tasty.

We had a great server. He was almost overly friendly and helpful? We started talking about JJ Abrams for some reason and he started going off about Lost and the Star Trek movie and whether we'd seen the trailer. Then later on, he brought over his iPhone and made us watch the trailer on his iPhone. It was bizarre, yet it amused us. We appreciated his enthusiasm!

Pumphouse

M took me out to dinner one night in his neck of the woods, Bellevue. What's in Bellevue? Well, the place is huge. I mean, it's technically a suburb of Seattle, but it's not anyone's suburb. It's a big ass city on its own. It's the second largest city center in all of Washington. Its downtown rivals any large city's downtown. It has a giant mall. Lots of people live there. Anyway, we grabbed a quick bite at the Pumphouse. It's a bar, and not in a particularly attractive location. But once inside, it's homey. You wouldn't expect it to be like that. It's slightly divey, but not in a bad way, definitely not fancy, and without one ounce of pretense. Anyone can hang out here. I got a french dip sandwich. I always have a soft place in my heart for the french dip. I guess I like anything that comes with something you can dip into, especially au jus. The fries were ok. I also had my first taste of a local brew - Mac & Jacks. It's a brewery from Redmond, you know, neighbor to Bellevue, and home of Microsoft. Everybody knows Mac & Jacks around here, namely it's Mac & Jack's amber ale. Namely, it's tasty.

Monk's Kettle Lunch

J was staying in the Mission and he had gotten a lamb burger the night before and wanted to go back for more. The Monk's Kettle is a fairly new gastropub with a ginormous beer selection. They even have an $80 beer. Eek. See all the taps? They have a bunch on draft, and tons more in bottles. Yes, it was in the middle of the day, but when you're in a beer place, sometimes you just have to give in. He'd heard about this beer the night before, so on a Friday afternoon, he ordered the Siamese Twin Ale, flavored with lemon grass and cilantro. It was a bit much for me so early, but it did go well with the food. We got an order of the fries. Oh my goodness. They were like mcdonalds fries. And you know how I feel about mcdonalds fries. You know how everyone feels about them. They were served with 3 dipping sauces which were all fantastic. I really liked the slightly spicy ketchupy one. J got the salmon sandwich. The roll it was served on was way too toasted and crunchy, which made it very difficult to eat. He eventually gave up and ended up eating it with knife and fork. And the side salad was doused with vinegar, as if they forgot the "ette" part. It was edible but bordering on ridiculous. He wish he'd gotten the lamb burger again! I wasn't that hungry, so I decided to go light and got the baby spinach salad. It came with carmelized onions, almonds, and craisins in a light tahini dressing. It was just what the doctor ordered. Service was good, especially when we were first being served by the owner. He was super friendly and helpful. After the surly hipster girl took over, she wasn't nearly as attentive. It got to be a bit difficult to get her attention, and there weren't too many people around either. Also, the food took quite awhile to come out. Surprisingly long. This is why we devoured those delicious fries so quickly. But it's a really cool place, small though, and it's easy to see why it gets packed. For food fans and beer lovers, this seems to be a great place.