FNSC: Pony Bar

This week's adventure was at The Pony Bar where they specialize in craft beers and everything is on tap.  

This is only half the tasty choices.

And they have surprisingly good food. We were on the fence about whether or not to eat there since there was standing room only even after we'd been there for an hour and it had taken half an hour to even manage a standing spot at the bar. However there were lots of beers we still wanted to try and although they only have a one page food menu there were interesting things on it.

Here I am persuading Todd that there are tasty things on the
food menu that we should try.

Sofia and I had a pretzel to tide us over until Todd and Josh arrived.  We ordered it and then we thought they'd forgotten about us but when the fresh-out-of-the-oven, too-hot-to-eat pretzel with tasty whole grain mustard finally showed up it was delicious!    

Here are our nicely made-up baskets with the sandwiches divvied up.

For real food we ordered the sirloin burger, the short rib sandwich and a fried oyster and bacon sandwich.  It was the short rib sandwich and the fried oyster and bacon sandwich that made me want to order food despite the lack of seats, but the burger turned out to be even better than it looked.  We threw in the burger because the guy next to us ordered one and it looked good, but it tasted great too.  To make things even better all sandwiches came with yummy homemade potato chips and wasabi pickles (outrageously good!).  Needless to say the food lasted only about as long as it took to take the picture before we scarfed it down.  Conveniently, right about when the food showed up we were able to get two bar stools.

From the many choices we ended up ordering these beers:

• Founders Cerise (Olivia) - I liked this because I like fruit beers of any stripe. It had a slightly syrupy flavor of very ripe cherries; a sort of chewy, but not unpleasant mouthfeel.
• Uncommon Brewers, Siamese Twin Ale (Sofia)
• Ithaca, Cascazilla (Olivia) - Not as red as it could have been, but hoppy as promised.
• Stone, Cali-Belgique (Sofia) - Everybody was 'eh' on this but Todd; he really liked it.
• Harpoon, Leviathan Triticus (Josh)
• Harpoon, Potts Landbier (Todd) - flat and uninspired, unfortunately
• Victory, Donnybrook Stout (Olivia) - I'm a sucker for Guinness like beers and I liked this one a lot. The nitrogen gave it a nice creamy head and it was smooth and tasty as promised.
• Shipyard, Pumpkinhead Ale (Todd) - We hadn't had this one in a while and they go a little overboard on the cinnamon and nutmeg, but it's still one of the better pumpkins out there (keep an eye out for a future pumpkin ale shootout)
• Left Hand, Polestar Pilsner (Josh) - flat an uninspired as well
• Two Brothers, Hop Juice (Sofia) - Nobody really liked this except me. I think it would go well with dessert because it's kind of syrupy.

If you ask they'll even give you sheets where you can record your beers and rate them, so of course we did that too.  The only downside to the whole evening was really that the bar was so packed that there weren't any seats until about 7:30 when things eased up and you could actually see across the room.  Note to self: arrive late to Pony Bar.

FNSC: Beer, Tacos, and Bahn Mi

Sofia is developing a knack for making the FNSC a multi-venue adventure.  As our most recent FNSC adventure we started at the East Village Tavern for beers, then stopped for a snack at a La Lucha, and then snagged a table at Baoguette, our final location. 

At the East Village Tavern we had a really fantastic cask ale (Heavy Seas Loose Cannon), an intriguingly named ale (Keegan Ales Four Philosophers) and a couple of others I can't remember.

La Lucha had not originally been on the itinerary, but as we headed out of the bar, Sofia goes "let's stop for tacos!"  So we did and it was a very tasty idea in deed. 

In the tradition of all of our foodie adventures we got four different tacos and split them. We decided to eat and run so we got our tacos to go and headed over to a park bench to enjoy them. They came with little containers of very spicy and tasty sauce - one made with raw tomatillos - and of course, slices of lime. So we dressed our tacos and then dug in.  The pulled pork taco, was good, but a little incongruous as a taco. The grilled steak taco was a great example of the standard taco. The mushroom taco was ok, but a little weird. My personal second favorite was the chile ancho taco which was cheesy chili goodness.

Our final destination was Baoguette where we managed to find space for a Classic Bahn Mi (Pork, Terine, Pate, Fresh Herbs), a Cat Fish sandwich (Cucumber Relish, Pickled Red Onion, Honey Mustard Sauce), and a Sloppy Bao (Spicy Curry Beef, Green Mango, Basil, Lemongrass).  All were very good, but I was glad that was with people who were adventurous enough to try the Cat Fish and Sloppy Bao because I would never have chosen them but they were delicious; perhaps even better than the than the Classic.  To round things out we also got a seafood crepe and on a whim, a sesame milkshake and coffee milkshake.  After all those tasty treats we waddled on home to rest before our next adventure...

FNSC: Beer Table

For Sofia's birthday she chose to have dinner at Beer Table in Brooklyn.  We pulled up at the address to find a parking space right out side (Todd was ecstatic) and then realized that we'd already been there on the park slope bar crawl in 2008.  Since it was several bars into the crawl we mostly remembered that it had had good beer and that we'd picked up a bright green pistachio muffin on the way there that had been surprisingly good. (side note: Todd, slightly tipsy, simply ran off without saying anything and returned with the muffin. He apparently saw it in the window and ran back a few blocks to get it. Good decision.)

As we were siting in the car trying to decide if she should go in and get a table or wander around the neighborhood for a bit while we waited for Sofia, the table in the front opened up and we decided to grab it.  Although it was Sofia's birthday dinner and we'd beaten her there we figured we should pick out a few things to get started so we started off with a Hog's Back Old Tongham's Tasty (cask ale) and a Great Divide 16th Anniversary ale (both on tap).  Both of these turned out to be superb.  Then Todd had already checked out the menu and had his eye on the pickled eggs with jalapeno powder, so when our neighbors order the pickled eggs we quickly followed suit and also ordered the spicy pickle plate. 
We managed not to inhale the fantastic pickles before Sofia arrived but it was a near thing.

Once Sofia arrived the first order of business was to get her a drink and after a long discussion the waiter suggested this terrific beer:

Also among the waiter's suggestions was this beer:

This was my favorite beer of the evening and one of the best beer's I've ever had. It is a very subtle and rich sour beer, complex and interesting without being

We thought about getting the three course meal but since we'd had the pickles and we had a tasty dessert waiting for us we decided to go light, getting just the pickled watermelon and roasted beets from the first course choices and the meatloaf and the butter beans from the second. 

The meatloaf was tasty and spicy as promised, but the butter beans were a really delicious surprise.  I had not voted for the butter beans but Sofia and Todd out-voted me and I'm glad that they did.  Neither of them like mayonnaise, but the whole dish worked really well including the creamy dollop of mayo on top of what looked like semolina bread smothered in beans that were tender to the point of disintegration. (Todd's note:  The watermelon was unusual in that the red parts hadn't absorbed much heat or vinegar and were mostly sweet, but the rind was completely spicy and picked. It totally worked.)  The staff were really nice and even let us have the cake at the table, as well as bring us an unlisted sour ale from the cellar. This venue is highly recommended and a new favorite.

Happy Birthday Fif!

FNSC: Spitzer's Corner

This Friday we hit up Spitzer's Corner, a gastropub with 40 beers on tap! Good beers too. But the beer was honestly outclassed by the food. Definitely recommended for a Friday evening outing.



We had six dishes (descriptions and prices from the online menu):

Pork Fat Edamame (cayenne pepper, sea salt) 5
These were good but not as amazing as we’d expected.  The pods sopped up some of the tasty flavor of the pork fat so they got a lot tastier of you shelled them in the bowl and then coated them in the sauce. 

Heirloom Tomato Salad (organic tomatoes, yellow watermelon, basil seeds, parmesan crisp, drizzled w/ evo and balsamic vinegar) 11
You really can’t go wrong with a heirloom tomato salad.  The watermelon was an interesting addition and the parmesan crisp (although not original) was a good addition too. 

Pork Rillettes (pork shoulder confit, duck fat and herbs, served with toasted country bread) 9
Now that I’m home in front of a computer I can look up what “rillettes” means, but I have to admit that I was surprised that this was a cold spread.  Pâté I’m familiar with, and this was like that, but it was only ok. 

Seafood Sausage (chunks of lobster, scallop, shrimp, monkfish, white wine-butter sauce, chili oil) 11
This was a surpisingly complex and rich seafood sausage.  I hadn't wanted to order it because I thought it would be disappointing but the flavors came together in such a satisfying way that it barely needed the sauce. 

Truffle Mac and Cheese (parmegiano reggiano, white cheddar, fontina, truffles, panko, rosemary and thyme) 11

Yum!  I’m a mac and cheese fan, and this was pretty fantastic.  Truffle mac and cheese has become popular these days, but this was a particularly well done version.  Some places go overboard on the truffles or truffle oil, but the potent mushrooms were a delicious and subtle complement to the cheddar (good work on the white cheddar) and herbs.

Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon (organic fish, caper-crusted, broiled tomato, crispy artichoke, grilled meyer lemon) 19
I’ll admit that I wasn’t in favor or ordering this dish either, but hands down this was the best dish of the night.  Most people don’t know what to do with capers, but this is a really fantastic use.  Capers are mouthpuckeringly salty, but still tasty and green and they lend a perfect briney accent to the salmon in this dish.  The crispy artichoke was delicious!  So crispy and light that you could barely tell that it had been a vegetable, but bursting with flavor and texture.  I thought this would just be the token fish dish on the menu, including a trendy cedar plank, but I was wrong.  Even the fancy lemon was the perfect way to add further flavor to the tender moist fish and compliment the capers.

FNSC: The Meatball Shop

FNSC:  The Friday Night Supper Club. Olivia, Sofia and Todd have the ball rolling, but we're open to new members. This week's adventure was the The Meatball Shop, a restaurant that does one thing and does it well. You can get individual meatballs, sliders, meatballs on a sandwich, and a mashup of a meatball and other ingredients (recommended). Everything we had but the sangria was excellent and I would try it again.  The special meatball of the day was a cheeseburger meatball, with ground beef, cheddar cheese, and bacon. It was good, but the classic beef and spicy pork were both spectacular.  We unfortunately forgot to take pictures, so the menu will have to suffice.

• Sangria (not great)
• Special meatball (cheeseburger)
• Spicy pork meatball in tomato sauce
• Classic beef meatball in spicy meat sauce
• Daily special swiss chard salad
• Daily special risotto with peas and mushrooms
• Dessert:
•   Cappuccino ice cream with a chocolate chip cookie
•   Coconut ice cream with macaroon cookie