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

Burger King's Angry Whopper

First of all, let me start by wishing everybody a Happy New Year! I hope your holiday season was filled with good friends, family, good times and most importantly, good food. I am glad to be back and blogging with this first entry of the new year. I have had a lot going on over the last few months, but am energized and ready to eat some good food and tell you all about it. Which brings me to today.

I had to get some blood work done during the lunch hour for an upcoming doctor's appointment next week, so I have been fasting since about 11:00 last night. (Congratulations to all of the Florida Gator fans.) In an effort to grab something very quick and get back to the office, I decided to head to Burger King to check-out the XT Steak burger. However, once there I saw the signage for the Angry Whopper. I have not seen a television spot for this burger, but Nick did tell me about it the other day. He had seen the commercial. Burger King is onto something with this burger.

The Angry Whopper is the same patty of meat and bun, but it is what is on the burger that makes it angry. They top this burger with Angry onions, jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes mayonnaise and an Angry Sauce. This is one spicy burger and it had me sweating. I was probably on about the second bite when the first few beads of sweat made themselves known on my forehead and the bridge of my nose. Oh, what a feeling! For once, I am happy to see a chain create a "hot-n-spicy" product that truly lives up to its moniker. I feel that too often they call the product "hot-n-spicy", but the end-up playing to the masses and toning it down to widen the customer base.

Those that know me are aware of my love of spicy food and also of having my food served to me hot. The thing that is good about the Angry Whopper is that it targets the heat aficionado, so that means there aren't a lot of these sitting in the bin waiting to be ordered. Mine was made fresh and served hot of the grill. I cannot tell you the last time that has happened. Anyway, the burger has great flavor, it is hot and spicy, but not so bad as to mess-up your afternoon. I will definitely be going back to get one before they take this off the market. My guess is this will be one of those burgers they bring back from time-to-time to spur sales. The XT is next on my list as those looked pretty good to me when I was there today.

I am going to have to give the Angry Whopper four out of five Stiffey's for its heat and intense flavors. This burger is the real deal. I hope you try one soon.

Eat, drink and be merry!

Harry