Walkabout 2008: Day 11 -- The Pittsburgh Grub Crawl

Matt had been promising a great grub crawl in Pittsuburgh, and he delivered.

Penn Brewery
Cool little place. I had there Oktoberfest and their Dark -- both very good.

Strip District
No titties bar like I expected. Just a lot of good food. It was very reminiscent of Pike Street Market in Seattle. We had the best sfogliatelle I've ever had there and a very good pepperoni roll.

Church Brew Works
Another brew pub and a place I had seen mentioned on several foodie shows. So I was very excited to finally see it.
Why can't Dallas be like this. Thanks TABC.
We had the pierogi pizza and I drank their Pale Ale (it was ok) and their Mole Porter. Wow did that thing have a spicy kick. Very good. Here

Coal Hill Steakhouse at the Grandview Saloon
Here is where most of the great pictures of Pittsburgh were taken. High atop Mt. Washington, Coal Hill Steakhouse has an amazing view of the city. We didn't eat here, but I did have a couple of Yuenglings.

Gandy Dancer
Cool bar inside Pittsburgh's old train station. We tried their crab cake (pictured, good) and had a beer which by this time I'm not sure what I drank.

Brewski's
The diviest of divebars. Here's where the Curry boys did much of their underage drinking. Watched an entire episode of Family Guy here and drank another Yuengling.

Smokin' Joe's
This place was touted to have great chicken wings. They were good. But I'm not sure they were the best. But, to be fair, I was in no way hungry by this time. This was yet another bar with an amazing selection of beers. I had something hoppy, but, again, I'm not sure what.

Fat Heads
Home of the South Sides Slopes "Headwich". This masterpiece has sauteed pierogis, kielbasa, grilled onions, cheese and horsey sauce. My greatest regret is that I was not hungry even a little bit to properly enjoy it. I guess I'll have to go back.

Walkabout 2008: Day 10 -- Pittsburgh Grub Crawl Pregame

Before diving in to what Pittsburgh has to offer, it was decided that a little "pre-game" the night before showing what south suburban Pittsburgh has to offer.


We started at Bruschetta's where we started with one of the tastiest items of the whole trip -- pumpkin and marscapone raviolis with sauteed onions.




For my entree I had a braised pork shank with mashed potatoes and roasted root vegetables. While not reaching the heights of the raviolis, this was another spectacular dish. The potatoes were outstanding and the meat tender and moist and yummy.



That's a big bone, yes??




Next we went to Sharp Edge. As you can see, they have a lot of beer here.


All this beer to the left of me.


All this beer to the right of me.
Great Place!! It would take a year to try all their beers. I'm not sure I could do it, but I'm willing to try.

Bruschetta's A+
Sharp Edge A+

Walkabout 2008: Day 10

Today's travels took me from Scranton where I had I lovely lunch at the local Chili's to Pittsburgh. As part of my trip, I took the Hershey Highway to the Chocolate Factory where the proprietor dismissed me with a "Good Day!!!"

Walkabout 2008: Day 9

Sorry for the gap in posting -- lots of driving.

Day 9 took me from Waterbury VT to a bed-n-breakfast just outside of Scranton PA. I've never been to a beet farm, so I thought I would give it a try.

These are the only pix I took:

Walkabout 2008: Home

I got home early yesterday morning -- driving straight through from the 'burgh to Dallas. I hope to have the Pittsburgh grub crawl stuff up by the soonish.

Walkabout 2008: Day 8

More hanging out with the fam in Waterbury. The highlight of which was a 4-0 victory in final JV game of the season for the U32 High School soccer team. Yeah, I would have thought there would have been some Revolutionary War hero they could have named the school after.

Walkabout 2008: Day 7

Dang. One week has flown by.

Oh, and a tip to everyone. Don't ever have dinner at 5pm. It makes the rest of the night seem much later than it really is.

Walkabout 2008: Day 6

Today I traveled from Freeport Maine to Waterbury Vermont. The plan had been to have one of Maine's signature Lobster rolls. But the lobster roll shacks are closed for the season. Slackers.

Instead I had some of the worst French Toast I've ever had at Becky's Diner in downtown Portland.

Sorry there weren't more pictures. It rained most of the day, limiting optimal picture taking opportunities.

Eating New Haven: Louis' Lunch

I loves me some teevee shows about food. Whenever there's a show about the best hamburgers or donuts or steaks or sangwiches I'm tuned in. And one place that shows up time and time again is Louis' Lunch.

This is a place that has been around since the 1800s and claims to have invented the hamburger. Their cooking apparatus was built in the early 1900s. They are these unique vertical grills where the meat is placed vertically in a cage and cooked on both sides at the same time. The bread is then toasted on a toaster from the 1920s. Cheese, onion and tomato are then placed on the medium rare burger.

And here's what you get for $5:


To which I say "eh".

This burger is ok at best. Mushy from under cooking with only a modicum of flavor. Here's what I don't get. It took a good 10 minutes in a nearly empty restaurant to cook my burger. 10 minutes for medium rare????

If this burger were in Dallas, it would not come close to making my Top 10 Burgers List. And that includes Whataburger and my out of town favorite In-n-Out Burger.

Sorry. This is one over hyped burger.

C
261-263 Crown Street New Haven, CT 06510

Walkabout 2008: Day 4

Sorry. Not much happened today. It was largely a hang out with the fam type day.

We did get served by a young Paulie Walnuts at Benzie's and were treated to the loud telephone conversation of a waitress at the Arena Diner. Her husband was either in the hospital or jail and her daughter kept hanging up on her.

I figured you would want to know.

Heading up to Portland Maine today mostly so I can say I've been to both Portlands and to check Maine and New Hampshire off my list of states I've never been to.

Oh, and if you're ever in the Bergen County area and someone asks if you want to get a quick bite at Jersey Boys. SAY "NO!!". It was terrible, America.

Walkabout 2008: Day 3 -- Pictures

Eating Rehoboth: Dogfish Head Brew Pub

Welcome to Mecca, have a beer.

And so I did. I had never seen the Shelter Pale Ale, and wanting to try something new, that's what I had.

Excellent. I hope this shows up in Dallas soon, because this will be my go-to beer. At least until I find my next go-to beer.

As for food, I ordered their crab and corn chowder for starters. Good christ was that good. Everything was fresh with a slight hint of bacon. I could have eaten a 55 gallon drum of this stuff.

For my main course I got a crab cake (of course) sandwich with onion rings. I gotta say, the onion rings were very disappointing. They were gigantic with what appeared to be some kinds of herbs in the breading. But they were saddly lacking in flavor. The sandwich was much better. The bun was toasted on a wood fire for a slight smokey flavor and the crab cake was much more deserving of an award that what I had the night before. But it still didn't rise to the level of crab cakes at III Forks.

This is a really cool place and I need to figure out how to get back to Rehoboth sometime before I die.


A-

320 Rehoboth Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE, 19971

Walkabout 2008: Day 2 -- Virginia is for Fuckheads

One of the things I've learned in my travels the past two years is that each state has a unique driving culture. Some states are better drivers than others.

Virginia has the worst drivers in America.

What makes it so bad. Their unique driving rule in which the slowest traffic must drive in the center lane so that passing my be done on the left and right. In fact if you dare to go only 10 mph over the limit in the right (traditional slow lane) you will get run up on. At 6am in the morning after not sleeping, this was very frazzling.

But eventually I survived and made it to Washington DC. And while this is a much prettier city than I had expected, it is THE WORST CITY IN AMERICA.

Well, I guess Detroit and Cleveland have something to say about it. And much of my opinion is tainted with lack of sleep. But this place is crazy.

First you have all the Virgina drivers. Add to that very poor street signage and stop lights that are placed in such a manner that they kinda blend in with the background. So a few times I was right up on a red light when I realized, "Oh, I should probably stop."

I had intended to hang out in DC and see all the things I've never seen that any good American should see. But after getting stuck on the parkway and then confused and frustrated by the mall area, I decided "Fuck it, let's just go to Delaware."

And after just one day in Delaware, I have declared it "King Wally's First Runnerup for East Coast States." -- Vermont is #1 and I've not yet been to Maine or New Hampshire. So the standing may change in the next few days.


Cool foggy pix on the DC Parkway.





Hallowed Ground: The Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, DE.

Eating Rehoboth: Jake's Seafood House

I really need to start going with my instincts. I knew the market was going to crash a few months ago and did nothing. And I got the vibe that this place was a played out tourist restaurant, but went anyway.

It all had to do with the crab cakes. Once again I was seduced by the painted lips and perfumed inner thigh of crab cakes. And these were supposed to be "award winning". Well, they will not be receiving the King Wally Hops Cluster of Excellence.

But let's begin at the beginning.

The menu implored me to ask my waitperson about the beers they have on tap. And this is the hometown of the Dogfish Head Brew Pub. So good beer should be in the offing. So, here is their list of draft beer:



But they do have bottled beer. And all of it was crappy American Yellow beer.

For starters I got a cup of their seafood bisque. While, to me, this was more of a chowder that's been hit with a stick blender more than a bisque, it was still very tasty. So far so good. Next came my grilled seafood sampler with their signature crab cake.

Many places proudly proclaim that there is only crab in their crab cake. Some how by avoiding other flavoring agents like aromatics and herbs you get a purer cake. And to that I say "Good day!" These were almost exclusively crab and almost exclusively bland -- not bad, just semi-flavorless.

The rest of the meal was little better. This was a meal from a restaurant that has lost their passion for seafood. The shrimp was rubbery and the scallops were only slightly better. The flounder was good (not great) light and flaky.

Another high note were their mashed potatoes. These were excellent.

So I was a little sad by this so I headed over to the Kohr Brothers for a frozen custard to drown my sorrows. That at least was fantastic.



C+
29 Baltimore Avenue Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971



Kohr Brothers

A+
Multiple Locations Along the Atlantic Coast