Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Grubsteak


On our last night in Salt Lake City, Dave decided to take us up to Park City to a steak restaurant. It was a beautiful ride up to Park City for us Florida boys to see all of that snow. I enjoy seeing the snow about once a year and particularly like it when I don't have to deal with it. It was great to head up there and see the sites.

We get to the restaurant and are led to a nice table in a cozy room. I know that this place has enormous potential as you just get a great feel that they know what they are doing when it comes to steak. However, I have a problem. I am not that hungry. I am almost in a panic trying to determine what I am going to order and how this is going to play out.

Matt and Dave order the mixed grill, which is a skewer of venison, buffalo, caribou and elk. Nick orders the filet, which he always orders when he has steak and given that I am not that hungry, I just decide to go for the bacon cheeseburger. If you have read this blog before at all, you know how I feel about soup. The soup on this night is a cream of wild mushroom soup with rice that I figure I have to try. It is a wonderful soup full of plump mushrooms, perfectly cooked rice and a luxuriously smooth base. It was really good. The guys are all gone from the table getting their salads that come with their entrees as I am eating my soup. They all seem as satisfied with the offerings on the salad bar as I am with my soup, so all is good so far.

The entrees arrive and I can see that the food looks great. I notice that Nick grabs his fork to set his filet for the first cut. The fork sinks all the way down through the filet without much pressure given it's incredible tenderness. All of a sudden, I am wishing I would have gone for the filet. Did I mention that I was not really that hungry? Well, I obviously did not pay attention to the menu when ordering my burger. This thing weighs in at a full pound. The bun would serve me well as a small hat and I also have an order of fries to eat. Matt and Dave are in heaven with their mixed grill and I have to say the meat does look really good. Putting all else aside, I try my best to eat my cheeseburger. It is cooked exactly like I ordered, medium rare. The beef had great flavor, the bacon is tasty and the cheese is gooey and delicious just like I like it. However, there is just too much for me to eat. I am able to only eat half of the burger and really hate wasting food. There is absolutely nothing I can do on this evening to finish all of my meal. I am stuffed.

We all finish up and prepare for our ride back through the beautiful countryside of Park City and Salt Lake. I am so full at this point that I am almost falling asleep in the car on the ride back to the hotel. The Grubsteak has definitely lived up to everything Dave said it would be. Once again, Dave has done a great job in introducing us to some great flavor of the area.

I have to give our trip to Grubsteak five Stiffey's. Great food and a great atmosphere make for the best restaurant experience during our trip to Salt Lake City. You have to venture out to Park City to check out this great location if you ever find yourself in the area.

Eat, drink and be merry!

Harry

Moochie's Meatballs & More


During our visit to Salt Lake City, we had the benefit of having one of our co-workers actually based in this fine city. Dave was under a lot of pressure to take us to some of the great restaurants in his city and I know he knows what a food snob I can be at times. The pressure was definitely on!!!

We asked Dave where he was going to take us to lunch on the second day that third day that we were there and he said, "Moochie's." I had heard about Moochie's from the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show previously. On that show the thing that I remember them being famous for was their cheesesteaks, but the restaurant is really famous for their meatball sandwiches. Given that I am always on the quest to find the best cheesesteak I can outside of Philadelphia, I had to get after one of them and skip the meatball sandwich. Although, I didn't even know about their prowess in the area of meatball sandwiches until after I had left, so it wasn't an issue. More about the meatball sandwich issue later.

We get to Moochie's and I notice this place is small. Seems Moochie's started out as a pottery store and the proprietor decided later to add the sandwich shop. It clearly fits into the dive category of the show previously mentioned, but that is all right. I love dives. Seating is limited and it as much too cold to sit outside on the day we visited anyway. We were lucky to find a table, but one of our party had to sit at the table behind us with some very nice Salt Lake City folks that welcomed Matt to their table.

Everybody in our group went cheesesteak and the only decision was six or twelve inch. Most went twelve with Clyde going six. We got our sandwiches as part of a combo, which includes chips and a drink. The sandwiches showed up after a very quick wait of only a little over five minutes and they were busy on this day. My guess is they stay pretty busy all the time. The bread was authentic just like you would find in Philadelphia and the steak was nice and tender with a generous spead of cheese on each sandwich. When you order, all sandwiches come with grilled onions and you have to tell them if you also want peppers or mushrooms, which costs extra. We all went with just the onions. While I thought the sandwich was great, I did think my onions were just a little overcooked and bitter. Not enough for me to not like the sandwich, but just enough for me to note. It was a good lunch.

I have to share with you a little story regarding our visit, which I discussed with some friends of mine. I was at the Budweiser Shootout upon my return to Daytona Beach and telling my friends, Kelly and Kelly from NASCAR, about our meal. These girls can appreciate a good meal, so I knew they would be interested to hear what I had to say about Moochie's. I was telling them about the fact that Moochie's is famous for meatball sandwiches and cheesesteaks and about the fact that I had only eaten a cheesesteak on my visit. Kelly from NASCAR speaks up and says, "You should have gone six inch meatball and six inch cheesesteak." This is a girl truly after my own heart. This would have been a great approach, but Nick brought up an interesting question. "If you go six and six, which do you eat first for maximum sandwich enjoyment?" Since going in the thought was that this was a cheesesteak place, I think you have to go meatball first and then your six inch cheesesteak as your entree so to speak. It's not something I can comment on from experience, since I didn't do it that way, but I think that is how it has to be played.

We had a great lunch and Dave came out of it a hero. He still had a couple of dinners to take us to, but his reputation at this point was definitely intact. I have to give our visit to Mooche's four Stiffey's and encourage anybody visiting Salt Lake City to seek out this great sandwich place. It is definitely worth the trip and the prices are right.

Eat, drink and be merry!

Harry

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Macaroni Grill

I know what you are thinking. "How the hell did you end up at the Macaroni Grill when visiting a city like Salt Lake." Well, let me explain how this all came to be.

The conference on the first night ran until 8:30. If you have never been to Salt Lake City, you will find that many places there close pretty early during the week. By the second night we were joined by Clyde who was feeling Italian this night. We looked at our trusty map provided by what has to be the most nervous concierge in the city of Salt Lake and decided to head a few blocks away to Cafe Toscana. Dave decides that we should walk to the restaurant, as he says it is only a few blocks away.

Let me take a moment to tell you about the blocks in Salt Lake City. They are nothing like the blocks you are used to walking in New York City. These blocks are huge. As a matter of fact, a cabbie told us that seven blocks equal a mile. And did I mention that it was cold in Salt Lake City last week? We finally get to the location where Cafe Toscana was supposed to be located, only to find that it is a victim of our troubling economy. They have closed down. Needles to say, we were bummed and freezing.

We had passed a Macaroni Grill along the way and decided to hump it back there for what is now a late dinner. We got in at 9:45 when they were closing at 10:00. I have to give it to our server in that he did a great job even though he knew we were causing him to stay later on his shift.

I have to give the Macaroni Grill their props in that the food is very consistent. The vodka rustica I got was exactly like the dish I have gotten at any of their other locations. We all had some great food and the evening was saved. I do have to call Clyde out on a faux pas he committed when he told the waiter he wanted parmesan cheese on his shellfish. One should never get cheese when ordering a shellfish dish. Just thought I would share that little bit of knowledge with you.

If you are looking for a good Italian meal at a good price, the Macaroni Grill is a safe choice. I love the place to be honest. So much so, that I get hammered by one of my employees named Elizabethe whenever I suggest we go there for a departmental lunch. I am going to give our visit to the Macaroni Grill four Stiffey's. Good food, good service and a quality experience says it all.

Eat, drink and be merry!

Harry

Red Rock Brewing Company


I spent the last week in Salt Lake City attending the INTIX conference with Nick and went excited about the dining prospects that awaited me. We have a co-worker named Dave that is based in Salt Lake City, so we were anticipating him taking us to the best dining experiences the city had to offer. I admit this was quite a bit of pressure for Dave, but he came through with flying colors.

On the flight out I read through the Southwest Airlines magazine and saw the Red Rock Brewing Company was listed as one of the best brewing companies in the country and decided we should hit that the first night since it was not far from the hotel and Dave couuldn't join us for dinner that night. We met up with Matt who was also attending the conference, but flying in from Wisconsin.

Now, I am not a big fan of brewing companies for dinner as I feel that the only thing that separates them from each other is just the beer. The food at these places seems to be marginal at best. I have never gone to a brewing company and left thinking I have had a great meal.

We got in around 9:00pm and were seated immediately. They had a pretty good crowd going for a Monday night even though this was the Monday following the Super Bowl. I wasn't really hungry, but knew I had to give something a try. Nick ordered some onion rings (his favorite) and I ordered some wings to start. Both the onion rings and the wings came out very quickly. The rings were huge with a lot of batter and piping hot. The wings were marginal at best, but they worked in a pinch. For my entree, I ordered a burger that turned out to be nothing more than a patty melt inside of a pita pocket. What brewing company in their right mind serves a burger in a pita pocket? So now I am jammed-up!

I cannot really remember what Nick and Matt ordered, both thought their food was all right, but nothing special. Nick is on a holy grail search for the best tuna salad, so I have to guess that he may have had the tuna. Despite the fact that I was eating a burger in a pita pocket, the meat was flavorful and cooked medium-rare like I ordered it. The waitress had warned me that the patty would be thin and it might be hard for them to get it medium-rare, but they did it to perfection. The burger came with fries, which were hot and tasty as well.

The one thing we all agreed upon was that the in-house brews were wonderful. They do a great job with their beers and have a wide variety. I would encourage anybody that visits Red Rock Brewing Company to definitely have a beer even if beer is not your usual drink of choice. You should definitely be able to find one you will like.

The service is great here, the atmosphere jumping and the room was loaded with beautiful women. I would probably go back there again for the great beers, but would probably eat somewhere else first.

I found Salt Lake City to be a wonderful city with extremely nice people. I noticed a lack of brothas and sistas in the city, but have to assume that is due to the cold weather. This was the coldest weather I have experienced this year. It is beautiful out there, but very cold. That's just not how we roll.

I have to give Red Rock Brewing Company three Stiffey's. If you find yourself in Salt Lake City, go to the Red Rock Brewing Company for the beer and expect typical bar fare.

Eat, drink and be merry!

Harry