Amazing Valentine's Day At Grand Rapids Brewing Company

Ok, before I get into the food a few words on our Valentine's Day dinner there. After thinking about dining at a different restaurant, Mel suggested we eat at Grand Rapids Brewing Company. What a recommendation it was! The place is absolutely beautiful. It has that gorgeous old building look with exposed duct and ceiling work. The inside is predominately a sandy brick color. The tables look like old wood repurposed for a table... almost butcher block in style. The prices are very reasonable for the quality of the food you get. A minute to talk about the service; this was perhaps the best service that we have experienced in a Grand Rapids restaurant. That includes the service we have had at places like Bistro Bella Vita and Ruth's Cris Steakhouse. Our server cleaned the table of dirty silverware and brought new silverware after each course. He was incredibly knowledgeable about the menu making fantastic recommendations and he was always present without hovering or being overbearing. He brought water to the table during the entree without being asked to do so. You could tell he was being genuine and not playing a part to get a tip. Top class for sure.

Now, on to the food!

 Check that, the drinks! They offer this cool sampler of six of their main beers to try, since it is a brewery. For only $6 you get 6 small glasses, between 1.5-2 oz. so you can sample their beers and make a decision on what you like. All were very good, but the Fishladder IPA and Brewer's Heritage Hefeweizen were our favorites.

NOW on to the food... I promise!

For Valentine's day there was a special appetizer (called a Shareable on the menu) of a hand rolled gnocchi with a lamb bolognese. Lamb can be quite strong in taste. Usually it has a kind of gaminess to it. But this ground lamb mated with the tomato sauce perfectly. We could tell it was lamb it we got some on its own, but the strong taste didn't come out. It could as well have been beef if you weren't looking for the lamb. The sauce also had a nice rich tomato flavor that develops after being cooked for a while. Also in the sauce were carrots, celery, onion, and some herbs which I think was mainly parsley but there could have been others in there as well. The gnocchi were the best gnocchi I have ever had. They were potato gnocchi, just to clarify.  The outside was crispy, as they had been fried up in a pan. The inside, though, was creamy. And in when tasted alone we could taste garlic and salty cheese, like parmesan or peccarino, was added to the gnocchi. Honestly, this was amazing and it tasted like it could have come straight from Italy. It was that good. A wonderful start to the meal. 

Mel chose to get the roasted chicken with mashed potato and root veggies, after the suggestion by our server. The chicken was cooked perfectly. The skin was crispy, which was great because crispy chicken skin is delicious. The meat was still moist, which is impressive because it is so easy to overcook chicken, especially the breast, and it turns dry. This was not the case. It also tasted like there was lemon and herbs that were stuffed under the skin as a nice acidic lemon taste in the finish. The mashed potatoes were creamy and tasted like at some point the potatoes were cooked with bacon fat. There was this awesome smokey, salty taste to it that could only come from bacon. There was also a little bit of garlic in the mashed potatoes as well, which could have been from the garlic butter in the chicken running out onto the potatoes. The root veggies consisted of beets, potatoes, and some finely diced caramelized onion. The beets were really good. They had a little bit of sweetness that offset the starchy potatoes. They were also topped with a sage pesto that added a herbaceousness to the veggies. Overall this dish was extremely good and successful  The chicken, mashed potato, and root veggies all worked very well together. 

I ordered the porchetta. It was sausage rolled inside of pork belly and then roasted. It was served on top of a pumpkin risotto with sage. The pumpkin risotto surpassed anything I could have imagined. I say this because usually when I have had pumpkin it is covered in spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg and I usually hate it. Intensely. This was just left alone and was cooked through but still firm, not mush. It was also sweet and complemented the rest of the plate. The risotto was creamy and still had a nice bite to it. It wasn't mushy nor undercooked. It had a nice earthy flavor probably from the stock used to cook the rice. The porchetta was, in a word, pork heaven. The sausage was made in house by the restaurant butcher. The sausage was browned nicely on top and was nicely seasoned. The pork belly though was to die for. The skin was crispy on the outside and the meat and fat on the inside melted in my mouth. It was salty, smokey, and full of porky goodness. It made my mouth very happy. 

First off, sorry the picture is sideways. Second, this is our butterscotch bacon brownie with vanilla gelato. Yes bacon in a dessert! I never would have thought that adding bacon to a dessert would work, but it does in this case. The saltiness added a nice note to the butterscotch, just like it does to caramel. The brownie was dense and chocolaty and the vanilla gelato added a nice layer to the dessert. Seriously though... bacon in dessert!

The other dessert ordered was the German chocolate stout gelato. There was chocolate interlaced in a gelato with a subtle finish of their stout beer. Also there were some pecans in the gelato. Who knew that beer in ice cream could be so good? Yes, beer gelato was good. Whoever put these desserts together is a mad genius. 

So there you go. Our Valentine's Day dinner at Grand Rapids Brewing Company was fantastic. In fact it may have just become my favorite place to eat. I would place this above Twisted Rooster and up there with Bistro Bella Vita and Ruth's Cris for places in GR I have eaten at. In fact, since I haven't been to Bistro Bella Vita in a long time, I am going to have to place GRBC ahead of BVB in my opinion. The combination of service, price, and food place it at the top of my list. 

I highly, highly, highly recommend eating here.

Bar Food!

Another two in one post is on deck for two local bar/restaurants.

The first up is Uccello's. There are several around town. The one we ate at was the 28th and East Beltline restaurant. We ordered a starter of their bread sticks. 

Their breadsticks are basted in butter and topped with parmsean. They are very good bar bread sticks but they can be a little greasy and messy. But this is a bar and it works well for the setting. Paired with ranch and/or marinara they really start to sing. 

We ordered a pizza to split with pepperoni and onion. Uccello's does make a pretty good pizza. I would dare say one of the better pizzas in the area. They aren't really pan pizza thick, but not thin crust either. They are kind of in between. The crust is well cooked and crispy on the bottom without being burnt and does not get soggy. The cheese and toppings are of a good quality. I really like Uccello's, especially late at night after work. Their prices are already good, but when the clock hits 11 you can get on order of breadsticks for around $2 and a small personal pizza for $3.

The second eatery in this post is Saze.... oh wait, they had to change their name. We ate at the Reservoir, which used to be called the Sazerac Lounge. It had been a while since we had been there, and it is one of our favorite places to eat. The prices are very good and the service is top notch. As an example, there was a very loud group of people (I am pretty sure they were hammered) yelling and carrying on. Had it been later at night, say 11 or later, this would have been fine. But it was dinner time and everyone else was just trying to eat a nice dinner. The staff informed their boss and he took care of it. The staff were very apologetic and handled the situation perfectly.

On to the food. 

We started with some breadsticks. They are much cheesier than Uccello's and baked as a whole round of bread opposed to individual sticks. They aren't as buttery as Uccello's. It really comes down to a matter of taste as both are very good.

Mel had their braised BBQ pulled brisket sandwich topped with crispy onions and a slaw. The brisket was so good. It was spicy and sweet and moist. The sauce was killer. The slaw added a nice taste contrast to the heavy brisket as well as some texture. The crispy onions added much needed texture. The bun was really good as well. The chips on the side were homemade and seasoned in house with salt and pepper. They were nice and crisp without being over cooked.

I think the name for mine was fire and brimstone. I honestly don't remember, but it had to do with being spicy. It was too. It had a nice kick to it. I would not say that it was super hot, but then again I ate a ghost chili. But the heat was there. The plate was rice with shrimp, onion, celery, bell peppers, ground cayenne pepper and jalapenos. On top was a jalapeno cream sauce. First off the shrimp were cooked nicely. There were different sizes of shrimp too, with larger shrimp more prominent, but also with little bitty shrimp thrown into the rice. I almost missed they were even in there.The shrimp were not over cooked and avoided tasting rubbery. It wasn't fresh though, as we live in Michigan, not the Gulf coast. In fact, I had a short conversation with our waiter about not being able to get really fresh seafood up here and he agreed that it really makes a difference. The jalapeno cream added a nice extra touch to a good dish. On the side were two pieces of garlic toast.

I enjoy both Uccello's and the Reservoir. They offer good food at reasonable prices as well as provide nice atmospheres for both dinning as well as heading out to for a late night gathering with friends. I highly recommend both. 

A Couple of Home Cooked Meals

It has been a little while since I last posted so I am going to combine two short posts into one.

The first dish is a marinated Korean short rib with fried rice.

The marinade for he short rib was soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, green onion, chili pepper, ginger. It was supposed to be for the night before but things happened and so it was marinated for 24 hours. It really penetrated the meat and added a lot of flavor deep in the meat. To cook the short rib I preheated my cast iron skillet in the oven and then added the rib meat side down so it seared and the bone was on top so all the fat and goodness self basted the meat. It turned out really tender. The fried rice was normal minute rice with onion, carrot, garlic, and spinach. It was all stir fried in a very hot wok. A mix of soy sauce, tumeric, curry powder, dried mustard was added to the rice to finish the fried rice. A dipping sauce for the meat was made of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, green onion. In mine I added finger hot chilis and a Korean chili paste called gochujang for an added kick. The fried rice was nicely balanced with the sweet from the carrot and onion with the salty of the soy sauce and spice of the curry powder, tumeric, and dried mustard. 

The second dish was a pork shoulder that was braised in our new CrockPot. This was a dish that Mel made for us.

I wish I could remember everything that went into the braising liquid, but all I remember was that one f the main ingredients was milk. Regardless, the pork just fell apart. It was very flavorful and the pork was incredibly tender. I never would have thought to put milk in the liquid but it worked really well. On the side was a roasted carrot with balsamic glaze and a gratin potato. The carrots were cooked really well in the oven with a nice little glaze of a good balsamic. The potato was a homemade gratin with cream cheese, some other cheeses (I don't remember exactly which), green onion, and some other seasoning. The potatoes were very good. In fact I would say they were restaurant quality. The potato was cooked perfectly and it had an incredible cheese flavor.