Summer Food and Folly

Because the summer has dragged on long and hot with few days away or even days for elective fun, I decided to indulge a bit, going out to eat and drink multiple times during restaurant week, even though the week has been rather hit and miss in the past.

I took photos of some of the food and posted them on Facebook. The first night of restaurant week I persuaded the husband to join me and picked a spot where he could be comfortable--Slows BBQ at Downtown Market. We each selected a draft from their list (not a brewery) and ordered a sandwich each, for the 2/25 price that was featured. The deal also included a cheese dip with toast points that was delicious. My Yardbird chicken sandwich was scrumptious, better than the BBQ beef sandwich. We ordered a side of potato salad as well and it was all more than I could finish. We had a lovely young waitress and sat by the window in the uncrowded Wednesday evening venue. Even though it was not a gourmet menu made special for restaurant week, it was satisfying, with reliably palate-pleasing basics.

The week ended up being as much about the brews as the food. My interest in craft beer ebbs and flows, but I went to two new breweries and felt compelled to sample their stuff, even reverting to a flight of four samples, like back in my year of beer!

Flight at Big Boiler Brewery

So at Slows I choose a Left Hand Brewery milk stout on nitro that went down smooth. The husband enjoyed a brown ale from Trailside in Allendale, brewed especially for Slows--Don't Slow Me Down.

Lunch at Rose's with J. and O.

I also went to lunch at Rose's (lunch not included in restaurant week) with friends and was intrigued by the "sunken piano" ale which was featured on the draft list, which falsely claimed it was from Founders, but actually was brewed for "A Taste of East Grand Rapids by Saugatauk Brewing Co. and was featured in 3 or 4 EGR restaurants. I am trying to expand my palate, with gose beer and even some IPA's! I have come to enjoy Founders Green Zebra, a watermelon gose which is great on hot summer nights. I am told that there are some interesting New England IPA's that should be explored.

Is there really a piano at the bottom of Reeds lake??

On Friday afternoon J. and I enjoyed the shaded area of the upper level garden patio deck at Rockwell Republic. downtown. Parking was tricky, but the restaurant gave out vouchers for the parking garage nearby. They also had a good draft list and after several overly-generous samples from our waitress, I choose some kind of stout--I think it was the barrel aged milk route stout--but I have almost no memory of it! (No photo: it didn't happen.)

Then there was a funeral memorial service... I took J. out for a late lunch in Lowell at another new brewery which featured special restaurant week menus for both lunch and dinner.  It was not busy in the middle of the afternoon and the manager and waitress were friendly and accommodating. Also, the food was actually tasty. I had clam chowder and sampled J.'s flash fried risotto balls in a marinara sauce. My main course was a large salad. And I had the flight pictured above.

Melt in my mouth Filet Mignon at Cygnus

Also, we were invited to a retirement dinner on Saturday night for Judge J. It was the first Saturday night of restaurant week, but the menu was pre-selected for the venue. The filet was so tender and the dessert so pretty. But the small room up a floor from Cygnus was hot and crowded and never really cooled down with 35+ bodies in the tower in the sky.

So fancy!

I visited one more new-to-me brewery, with O., on the second Friday night of restaurant week with again, an interesting draft list from a Detroit brewery transplant, Atwater. I had a (slightly) sour and salty What Gosearound that was a refreshing and easy-drinking 4-percenter.  O. tried a Whango (mango) fruit beer but couldn't detect much mango in the Whango! The food was mostly good and the husband enjoyed the leftovers, but it was nothing that special for their high priced restaurant week dinner choices. We stopped at a cone shop for a single dip of Hudsonville ice cream on the way home and that filled all the remaining spaces in our culinarilly-disappointed stomachs for the night.

And so it is time to eat (and drink) less--and simply, at home (for a few days!). Yesterday we had crock pot beef roast with store-made mashed potatoes ... and it made the husband very happy.