Get Me Out of Here!

Still super busy on Friday and starting to loose my mind. Rescued from a bad lunch alone by Twist and Awesome CoWorker. She suggested a Belgian joint a few minutes from downtown. No idea what part of town it was. Brussels Cafe was the joint.

SO TOTALLY my kind of place. First, decor is kind of divey, no offense. Second the owner waits on you and she is totally all business. Finally and most importantly I have found where to get a good grilled cheese sandwich that is not my house! Woot! How happy am I? Delirious. All three of us got croque Monsieur. Lovely cheese and ham combo on well buttered and crispy bread. Nice side salad with homemade Dijon vinaigrette and a generous portion of pomme frites each. Every bite of this food was heaven. The end. I really can't say much more than that. Plus the good company helped me get through the afternoon. So thank you both for that! When ACW goes on maternity leave I'm not sure what I will do. I may have withdrawal. Sigh.

This was a first visit but I will go ahead and give Cafe Brussels (yeah yeah I wrote it the other way above. ) a 5. Obviously recommended.

So So Busy

As an example of how busy my week has been, I ate lunch twice on Wednesday. Took leftover Brothers pizza slice that I had at noon. Two hours later I was thinking I needed to get lunch before everything closed. Went to Starbucks for artisan veggie sandwich and a latte. Wasn't until around 6 when I was discussing lunch with Hubs that I figured it out. Sigh.

Thursday had work lunch at Capitol Grille. Downtown. Never been before. Lunch ambience was totally lame. Huge dining room that is very cluby looking with black and white leather. No one was there. Maybe two other tables besides mine. I ordered soup and sandwich combo with tomato soup and the Frenchman sandwich. The description on the sandwich sounded kind of disgusting which naturally made me want to try it Something about chicken and sautéed onion with goat cheese and dijonaise. I don't remember what else. Also let me say I probably eat a chicken sandwich maybe once a year. I don't like them as a rule.

Oh. My. God. I would never want to eat there in person again but I may have to find out if Capitol Grille does takeout. Holy smokes that was a good sandwich. Chicken was moist and juicy. Flavors wee good. Bread was fresh and toasted and buttery to perfection. I was totally shocked at how good this sandwich was. Soup on the other hand was not so great. I ate a few bites and left it. It tasted like someone had soaked some smoking chips in it overnight. It had a weird kind of smokey chili undertone that was just not working for it. Like at all. Server did not say anything about all the soup I didn't eat. We all know that is a big pet peeve of mine.

No dessert. Had to get back for a meeting. So actual Capitol grille I will give zero to. The Frenchman sandwich gets a 4. I only recommend the sandwich. Nothing else about Capitol Grille.

Nothing

Monday was so busy I ended up not eating anything at all for lunch.  Dinner was pancakes and sausage.

Last time I made link sausage (which I don't do very much. We tend to go bacon) Hubs freaked out b/c a) I cooked it per directions which was in a skillet with some water and b) I didn't peel the skin off the links.  What?  Apparently I'm supposed to know he doesn't eat the casing on sausage.  In my defense that is kind of nuts and kind of random and therefore not easily remembered.  It's not like him forgetting that I eat ketchup with my fries or don't get onions on my MCD burgers.  But whatever.  So this time I peeled the stupid casings off and cooked it.  Without any water.  If he would just eat the microwave kind it would be much easier.

Today is not looking much better.  It's 2pm, I forgot to bring my lunch.  So far I have only had a clementine to eat and coffee from Chik Fil a that I have been nursing since 8:30 this morning.  Yeah it's kinda gross I guess.  So what?  Anyway, lunch alternatives at 2 are pretty bleak.  No one seems to be having lunch meetings so far this week either which is a bummer.  I suppose I have to go to the deli in the lobby and forage for food.  That means I will likely end up with a Kit Kat.

Oh- by the way- St. Patty's Day I ended up having a corned beef Reuben from Arby's.  Yeah, I'm not really sure why they started selling them either but they are GOOD.  Better than most of the crappy reubens around here at any rate.  I really wanted some colcannon but I would have been the only one to eat it so didn't bother making any.  I'd give the Arby's reuben a 3.5  I can't go higher than that b/c its a million calories so I can't eat it as much as a 4 would suggest or require.

Yodi Out.

Ed. Note:  I had a Kit Kat in my hand but ended up putting it down and got a bowl of Frosted Flakes instead.  Nutritionally prob. about as bad/good as a Kit Kat.  Just psychologically made me feel better.  And milk was involved so it was marginally healthy.

More BBQ . . .

Barbecue madness continues this week! Today tried Oak Leaf smokehouse with Awesome Coworker. Not sure I had been to the east end before either so it was an overall new thing, and considering how much I always enjoy new and funky, it was awesome.

To its credit OL had a mea culpa on its chalkboard fessing up to slow food prep while it got up and running since its new. Also on the board were some good looking side items. Of note were German potato salad and purple apple slaw. ACW got pulled pork with potato salad and I went with sausage and apple slaw. Sadly OL was out of sausage so I defaulted to chopped brisket. Isn't that what I had yesterday? Yes. Yes it was.

I asked for sauce on my sandwich ad on the side and only ended up with a small bowl on the side. No sauce on the tables was a serious bummer. Sauce was good. Sweet with a peppery kick. But I like a lot f sauce and what I got wasn't nearly enough for me. Purple apple slaw was combo of apple with purple cabbage. I liked the texture and crispness. Light mayo dressing was pretty mild. Some apple cider vinegar would have kicked it up some and made it more interesting. The apples were good but not quite enough. Maybe if the apples had more flavor?

ACW generously let me have a bite of her potato salad. Let me tell you it was the real deal. No mayo or mustard. Served warm with a good tang. Potatoes cooked perfectly. It was heavenly. I was super sorry I didn't get it as my side.

Before I forget, my brisket was delish. Not quite the smokiness of Brisket House but tender and juicy the way it should be. No gristle and barely any fat. Awesome's pork was not bad although it seemed on the dry side to me. Flavor was good though. With the sauce, both were fantastic.

Never at a loss for things to talk about conversation was lively and lunch was over too soon. Back at my desk now wishing I had another orange Jarritos.

I think Oak Leaf might put off too much of a gourmet vibe for Chungry. I doubt he would like it.

I plan to go back for the chocolate cake.

3.5 and recommended.

Pizza Pizza!

Tuesday was pizza with Twist. I made him run an errand with me downtown and go to lunch. Choices were not the best. We ended up at Russo's pizzeria. Slices are solid and they are gigantic. Lunch special of slice and a salad was $7.95. Throw in a drink and pizza lunch was $10. I am inherently cheap so this kind of freaked me out. Especially the soda. Seriously, $2 for 3 cents worth if soda.? I am probably behind the times on lunch prices though. I still think I can buy lunch for 2 bucks like in high school.

But I digress. At home I seem to always be sharing cheese pizza with the Nippers so I thought I deserved something I wanted. That's right bitches, I got a slice of Hawaiian pizza. Woot! SO good. Nice Canadian bacon and pineapple ratio. Great crust. Very satisfying and such a big slice I wasn't able to finish it all.

Great to catch up with Twist too although I kept forgetting to ask if he saw the latest episode of "girls". And now on Friday I never did get around to that. Bah.

So whileI'm not sure if I'm overreacting to the price (but I am guessing I am) I can whole heatedly recommend the pizza. 4 microwaves for Russo's!

Spring Forward . . .

The time change has me feeling somewhat like a zombie today- i.e. super tired despite 3 coffees this morning.  Got to work and had a long staff meeting then went straight to lunch after with 2 of my esteemed co-workers that I do not often have the pleasure of lunching with.  One of them had a crappy week last week so she got to pick where to eat.  She chose Brisket House and off we went, narrowly surviving some questionable garage maneuvers.

A rack of wood near the door of a BBQ joint is a good sign I think.  I hadn't had a chopped brisket sandwich in forever so I dialed up one of those.  no sides.  Got a huge sandwich about 5 minutes later.  It was accessorized with onion and pickle.  Not sure I would have added those but whatever, I tried it.  Not bad.  Slathered on some sauce and it was on.  Really enjoyed the brisket. Right amount of fat, great smoke flavor (my hands still smell smokey) and the bun was buttered and grilled so it had that crispy edge to it.  Sauce was sweet but also had lots of vinegar to give it a good tang.  And, I ate the entire freaking thing.  I'm thinking I will try not to eat dinner.  It was a really big sandwich.  Very pleased all in all with the brisket!  The Ladies Who Lunch were also excellent and it was a good catch up.  I have heard some people take issue with BH (named Chungry), and in fact my instagram post of my sandwich got an immediate comment.  Not sure what Brisket House ever did to him.

I'll give Brisket House a 4 and recommended.  AND- it's a beautiful day and not hot and humid.  Yay me!

Just Meh . . .

Staff meeting today meant free lunch. Woo free! I like free. Word on the street was fish tacos. Sorry, what? Fish tacos seems like something that kind if needs to be eaten right out of the oven. Or whatever. Not after its been toted half way around town in a truck or on a cart on the street. Anything hot that requires delivery is kind of sketchy if its not pizza.

Ended up we had a choice of fish, steak or chicken. I had some steak and fish. Tortillas out of the bag. Not homemade so automatically a suck factor to deal with. Huge pan of black beans. Some rice and lettuce also put in an appearance. We had enough dressing to paint the room with and barely any lettuce by comparison. Fish was bland. Steak was ok. Tortilla not worth mentioning. Good guacamole. After the meeting broke up a tres
Leches sheet cake was discovered under the leftover debris. Kind of like in 16 Candles when that party breaks up and what's his name finds Anthony Michael Hall trapped under the coffee table. Yes that was an 89s reference. I'm old. Deal.

Cake was pretty good but very buttery. Borderline too much butter which I didn't think was possible for me. In toto just meh.

Berryhill, 3 maybe recommended if there are no other choices.