Category ArchiveEverywhere Once |

BYOB Bar

by Brian on February 11, 2011 in Florida, Food & Drink

Key West is known for its bars, but Peppers is the only one I’m aware of that encourages patrons to bring their own beer and chicken wings. Serving up over 100 different sauces, marinades, dry rubs, dips and salsas in their tasting bar, Peppers is a truly unique retail experience. Our “bartender” lined up shot after shot of sauces, twenty in all, to be sampled with complementary tortilla chips. We started with sweet and smoky barbeque sauces and gradually increased the heat.

By the end I had progressed all the way to Melinda’s Original Naga Jolokia Pepper Sauce. The Naga Jolokia pepper, also known as the Ghost Chile, is the hottest pepper in the world. With a whopping 1 million Scoville Units it contains the heat of 200 Jalapeños. That is one mean pepper, and Melinda’s is one mean sauce. I love spicy food, but I had to throw in the towel after a small taste of that one, which isn’t even the hottest sauce in the bar. Maybe with a little training, I can come back and take on the whole line up. But for now, No Mas!

Worth the Wait

by Brian on February 10, 2011 in Florida, Food & Drink

Cuban Coffee Queen is a small shack of a restaurant in downtown Key West that reminded us of the much hyped Red’s Eats of Maine. The one big difference between the two is that Cuban Coffee Queen lives up to its reputation. Here, the food is actually worth the wait. For exactly half the price of a Red’s lobster roll, we had a deliciously slow roasted Mojo pork and provolone sandwich with horseradish mayonnaise and a café con leche (the Cuban version of a café latte).

We waited about 45 minutes for our sandwiches, which seemed like a really long time considering there were only a couple of other people milling around the stand. I know we’re on island time, but that’s a little ridiculous. We soon discovered that locals were to blame. People who knew better called in their orders in advance. So while only a few of us stooges waited patiently outside for our food, the order tickets above the cook’s grill ran the length of the shack.

So one of the things to pack for your next Key West trip is this number: 305-294-7787. Call ahead for some great sandwiches down by the docks. Or better yet, have them delivered.

New Year’s Resolution

by Brian on January 3, 2011 in Food & Drink

Courtesy of Travel Channel, Man v Food

The Travel Channel’s Man v. Food is a disgusting show that highlights something truly disturbing about American culture. We, of course, love it. Mostly we love its gastronomic arm-chair travel to the country’s craziest, and most innovative, comfort food joints. We rarely watch a show without thinking that we need to get to one of the featured restaurants, diners, or sandwich shops. And if there is one thing we specialize in, it’s getting places. So that is what we’re going to do.

Last night was the last straw. An episode on Richmond, VA, featured a handful of great places we somehow missed when we passed through just a couple of months ago. Among them is the Black Sheep, serving up one of the most interesting sandwich menus I’ve ever encountered, under the moniker “The War of Northern Ingestion.” Anyone else craving a jerk barbecued chicken sandwich with roasted banana ketchup and peach chutney on French baguette? I have no clue whether it’s any good, but I know I’ve never had anything else like it, and I want one.

This year’s resolution is to never unknowingly miss such opportunities again. So we’re consulting the Man v. Food travel guides for all of our future stops, and have already compiled a seven page list of potential pig-out places.

Here’s to a happier, and heftier, 2011!

Getting Our Pig On

by Brian on November 11, 2010 in Food & Drink, North Carolina

We’ve been mostly making our plans on the fly, with only a vague idea of where we’re heading. We found ourselves in Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina, partly because it lies in the southerly direction we’re heading, but mostly because it was chosen in 2008 as America’s Foodiest Small Town by Bon Appétit. But somehow the good folks over at Bon Appétit forgot to mention one of the things North Carolina is best known for: Barbeque. And we’re not just talking about any barbeque, but “eastern style” que, which is surprisingly impossible to find anywhere in the northeast.

To the uninitiated, eastern que includes three basic things. 1) It has to be pork. You can find chicken and beef on the menu, but when you ask for “barbeque” you get served some part of the pig. 2) It has to be slow cooked over wood or wood coals. 3) It has to be served with a thin vinegar based sauce, which may or may not contain some tomato. The result is different enough from what most of us “Yankees” consider barbeque to warrant a special trip to check it out.

Allen & Son plays the part of a modest down-home eatery, located some twenty minutes outside of downtown Chapel-Hill in a seemingly rural section of the city set directly across from railroad tracks and adorned with a weathered sign and emanating the smell of hickory smoke. Inside, patrons seat themselves at tables with plastic checked table cloths and eat under the watchful eyes of a 10-point buck mounted on the wall. But its reputation for great que has spread far from these humble settings and encouraged us to venture out of our way to give it a try.

We both order the first thing on the menu, the “barbeque plate.” Soon enough we’re served up an entrée of pulled pork (no bun), hushpuppies, coleslaw and an iced tea; sweet of course. The pork comes without any sauce, but it is so well seasoned it doesn’t need any. An old ketchup bottle stands on the table holding Allen & Son signature sauce for those wanting to spice things up a bit. Momentarily forgetting where I am, I grab the bottle and give it a good squeeze expecting the thick resistance of traditional sauce. Instead, a thin marinade gushes to the plate. No worries, it’s fantastic; hot and spicy with tons of cracked pepper and a distinctive vinegar bite. This is nothing like any BBQ we’ve had before, which is exactly why we’re here.

The slaw has some of the same vinegar overtones and is a perfect complement to the meat. The hushpuppies are the stunner, though. Crisp-skinned and well-seasoned, they have a surprising hint of sweetness that almost qualifies them as dessert compared to the heat and vinegar of the meat and slaw. But no amount of sweetness was going to keep us away from the peanut butter pie, which was a perfect way to end a great meal.

Continental Divide

by Brian on November 3, 2010 in Food & Drink, Virginia

By snafu or serendipity, we ended up dining at Continental Divide in Charlottesville. My lovely editor, Lisa, at National Geographic Books knows the town well (go Cavaliers). She recommended that we try Continental Divide, but, it turns out, she had actually meant to suggest we go to another, more upscale restaurant called C&O located on the Downtown Mall.

Given the choice, we most likely would have opted for Continental Divide. It reminded us of some of our favorite places in Hoboken—casual atmosphere, tasty Southwestern-style food, interesting beer list, and excellent margaritas. It was soft-shell tacos all around, pork for Brian and beef for me. (I was sold as soon as I read the word “brisket.”)

Continental Divide’s cheeky motto is “Too Small, Too Crowded, Too Loud, Too Bad.” We followed the first two pieces of advice from a poster on Yelp.com: “Do as the locals do, go early, go on Tuesday and go often.” He was spot on, as there was no wait for a table. Add to it all a clandestine location—the restaurant name isn’t anywhere to be found, just a neon sign demanding “Get in Here”—and it was a C’ville highlight. Thanks, Lisa!