Ghost of Brunches Past...

Carman's Country Kitchen

1301 South 11th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147

http://www.yelp.com/biz/carmans-country-kitchen-philadelphia 

I have been on a brunch binge lately. I seem to always have it on my mind, and I love looking at the places on this awesome list of restaurants I found recently. One of the places on that list was Carman's Country Kitchen. I had heard some sad news that it would be closing in December, so I decided to go there with my girlfriend one Saturday morning in October. It was an extremely small place, 8 seats at the counter, and 3 tables of 4 seats apiece. We put in our name and waited a while to be seated, but once we were seated, I knew we were going to enjoy our meal. 

Each day there are only 4 items on the menu. They are written on the white board. Each item is also given a suggested meat to accompany it. There was one waiter, and one Carman in the kitchen cooking all the food. The décor was very interesting. There were more penises decorating that room then you could possibly imagine… haha; it was an eclectic decor at its finest. The waiter came over and described the dishes, and my girlfriend and I decided on our meals; for her pancakes with apples, peaches, and walnuts and a side of apple wood smoked bacon, and for me French toast topped with barbequed baked beans and a side of house made andouille sausage. It sounds like a weird combination, but man did it make so much sense when I tasted it for the first time.

The coffee comes out piping hot, and the waiter topped us off whenever we asked. I love places that do that, instead of nickel and diming you every time you want some more coffee. The food took a little while to come out, but that’s to be expected when there is only one person cooking in the kitchen and everything is scratch made. When the food arrived I was eager to get to eating it.

I dug in immediately because I was so intrigued by this combination. The French toast was crispy on the exterior and very warm and moist on the interior. The barbequed beans were smoky and packed full of flavor like a rich barbeque sauce. They had a nice little kick to them too, and the salty and smoky deliciousness that they provided were the perfect contrast to the slightly sweet and buttery French toast. The real mind blower came when I drizzled the maple syrup on top of it all. All I have to say about that is wow. Salty and sweet is my favorite combination, and when you through smoky into the mix, it puts me in a state of euphoria. That being said, I think the best thing on the plate was the house made andouille sausage. The casing had an incredible amount of snap to it, and the sausage was spicy as can be. The depth of flavor was simply remarkable.

Three and a half pints for Carman's Country Kitchen. I loved the meal and the ambiance at Carman's Country Kitchen. The only thing that I really did not feel fit the atmosphere was the price. I wound up paying 40 plus dollars for pancakes and French toast. Highway robbery at best, but I am not sure if it was always that way, or if the owner was simply trying to make as much money as possible before closing her doors. Either way, Carman's was a great place to grab some brunch and it is sad that it forever closed its doors. Cheers!

Anniversary Celebrations...

Capital Grille

1338 Chestnut Street

Philadelphia, PA 19107

www.thecapitalgrille.com/‎ 

For the second week of restaurant week this past fall, I decided to take my girlfriend to a place I had been longing to go to for some time; the Capital Grille. It happened to coincide with our four year anniversary, so it was nice to go out to a place that is a little bit more upscale to celebrate. When we walked inside, I was shocked by the size of the place. It was huge! There was a gigantic bar, and seating all over the restaurant. I was really impressed. We were seated right away, and our waitress was incredibly informative. She explained everything about the menu, wine list, restaurant week menu and answered all of our questions without fail. She asked us if we were celebrating anything and we said we were. She returned with a rose for my girlfriend, and a handwritten note from the Capital Grille telling us happy anniversary. Unbelievable! We both ordered something different for each course so that we could try a bunch of different things on the menu. We started off with a cup of New England Clam Chowder and a Caesar salad. We both ordered steaks, but two different ones. I ordered the Kona crusted bone in sirloin, and she ordered the filet mignon. For dessert, I decided to give crème brûlée another chance, because I had always thought that I didn’t like it, and she ordered the chocolate espresso cake.

They also offered a few drink specials, one of which my girlfriend ordered; the blood orange martini. I ordered a gin, cucumber and lime martini. Mine was very stiff, but for 12 bucks it had better be. The flavor was really crisp and clean. Hers was a little sweet for me, but delicious nonetheless. They definitely could have snuck up on you if you had a few too many.

Soon after our drinks arrived, our appetizers did as well. The chowder was piping hot and absolutely scrumptious. The chowder was thick, exactly how I like it, and it had very large chunks of clam and potato in it. It had the perfect amount of pepper in it as well to give it a really nice bit of spice to it. I ate about half of my cup and switched with my girlfriend so that I could dig into her salad. It was really tasty as well. The Caesar dressing was really acidic, but still very rich. It had a lot of depth of flavor, but wasn’t overpowering. I liked the shaved parmesan that the salad was topped with as it added an element of salt and creaminess. 

After what seemed like the perfect amount of time had passed, our steaks came out in a blur of meaty deliciousness. My Kona crusted bone-in sirloin was absolute perfection. The coffee crust was extremely crunchy, and the meat inside was warm, juicy and flavorful. I couldn’t get enough of it, and I definitely agreed with our waitress when she told us it was the best thing on their menu. My girlfriend's filet was extremely tender and perfectly cooked. It had a nice crust to it as well. 

We were given two sides with our main courses. The two sides were creamed spinach and mashed potatoes. Both were very delicious accompaniments to the tender and flavorful steaks. The spinach was creamy and cooked to tender perfection. The mashed potatoes were also super creamy and packed with salty, garlic flavor.

I was pretty interested to see if my taste buds felt the same way about crème brûlée as they had in the past. Luckily for me that was not the case. I am not sure if it was because my tastes changed or if the crème brûlée at Capital Grille is just that good, but I was blown away by it. It wasn’t eggy like a lot of crème brûlées I have had in the past. It had that crispy sugary crunch on top, and the custard was light and fluffy and super delicious.

4 pints for the Capital Grille. Obviously the price point is high, but you pay for what you get, and that really rings true here. Capital Grille was definitely one of the best restaurant experiences I have had in recent memory. The service was beyond fantastic, and the food matched the service in every way. I cannot think of a better place to spend an anniversary with my girlfriend. Go try it any chance you get because you will love it! Cheers!

Visiting the Coast...

Coastline

1240 Brace Road

Cherry Hill, NJ 08034

coastlinenj.com/ 

I went out on a Friday in the fall to a place in Cherry Hill with some coworkers of mine to celebrate one of their birthdays. I hadn’t been to Coastline since I started working at my job over two years ago. I was pretty excited to go back because they have a large menu with some good options on it. It’s a huge place. They have a large salad bar, a nice bar, and tons of seating area for customers. They told us that they had two funerals coming in and most of the restaurant was reserved, but they hooked us up with a booth and we all sat down.

I perused the menu for a bit before landing on my choice of the ancho chicken quesadilla. It sounded pretty tasty and didn’t sound too heavy, which was good because I knew I was going out to dinner later. We sat back and had some laughs while we waited for our food to come out. When it arrived at the table it looked and smelled phenomenal. The tortillas were super crispy on the outside and seemed to be a whole-wheat tortilla. The chicken was cooked nicely, and was enveloped in a sea of ancho flavor. The cheese was ooey-gooey, and the peppers and onions dispersed throughout were tasty little flavor additions. It was a really fantastic quesadilla. Dipping it into the sour cream and salsa was just another wonderful addition to its flavor. 

They served a small plate of steak fries with the quesadilla as well. There was a perfect amount of fries on the plate, which was nice because I didn’t want to eat very many of them. The fries had a nice crispy crunch to them, while still steaming hot and moist on the inside.

Two and a half pints for Coastline. Coastline is a cool little place to go grab lunch in Cherry Hill. They have something for everyone, and they do pretty well in terms of execution. Give it a try if you are in the area and let me know what you think! Cheers!

A Classic Reborn...

Catelli Duo

12101 Town Center Boulevard

Voorhees, NJ 08043

www.catelliduo.com/ 

I was pretty bummed when Catelli's closed a few months ago. My sadness was reversed however when I heard that the chef would be opening a new place with two of my uncle's friends becoming partners with him. My uncle decided we should all go for my aunt's birthday to try it together about two weeks after it opened. 

The restaurant décor is absolutely incredible. It really is beautiful inside. The bar is great, the outdoor fire pit is a really great spot to have some drinks, especially during the warmer summer nights, and the restaurant just looks beautiful inside. It has an open floor plan, and you really get a great view of the décor from everywhere in the restaurant. We sat down and ordered some wine, and my uncle ordered us some cheese steak egg rolls while we perused over the rest of the menu. Unfortunately for us, and especially in my opinion, the cheese steak egg rolls were the best part of the meal. They were super crunchy, fried to perfection, and the whiz sauce that they were served with was amazing.

We all ordered our respective meals, without much help from our server who seemed out of sorts. I am not sure if he had ever served anywhere before Catelli Duo opened, but he was extremely inept in many ways. He didn’t spend much face time with us at the table, he left our drinks sitting on the bar for a long time before bringing them to us one at a time, and he didn’t seem to know the menu very well. I had ordered a bowl of the lobster bisque, and the veal carbonara, a signature dish of theirs. Catelli Duo offers two different sizes when it comes to appetizers, one being a small plate style, and one being a more social style for more people to share.    

I was really excited to try the rest of the food because the meal had started on such a high note with the cheese steak egg rolls. Unfortunately, the lobster bisque didn’t live up to the expectations. It was lukewarm when it came out, and although it had pretty good flavor, I was less than impressed with it. It didn’t have enough cream in it to really make it a good bisque, and I thought it was really strange that you would have chunks of crab in a lobster bisque. I know lobster is expensive, but if that’s the case then make a crab bisque instead. Don’t call it a lobster bisque and then put crab in it. 

After the disappointment in my soup, I was hoping my veal carbonara wasn’t going to give me the same feeling. It wasn’t as bad as the soup, but it really wasn’t good either. The veal wasn’t well seasoned at all. The carbonara sauce was pretty bland as well. The pasta was cooked well, but that was really the only thing good about the dish. It was a severe disappointment. My cousin's husband had ordered a stuffed veal chop saltimbocca and not only did it come out raw in the middle, but it wasn’t stuffed with anything. The waiter then tried to explain that saltimbocca isn’t stuffed, but that isn’t right. The manager came over and said that it should have been and he would take it off of our bill. 

I decided to give them one last chance for dessert, and I am glad that I did because it made the experience a tiny bit better. My girlfriend and I decided to split the baked Alaska. It looked beautiful when it came out with the perfectly toasted meringue on the outside. Inside was some delicious vanilla ice cream and a tasty little piece of brownie on the bottom. The caramel sauce on the bottom was nice, but the brownie was a bit too hard and the dish overall lacked the flair of a traditional baked Alaska. 

Two pints for Catelli Duo. I had really high expectations for Catelli Duo based on knowing that the chef that used to run Catelli's was still in the kitchen and he had a hip new place to work with. Unfortunately though I don’t think that they are operating at optimal levels right now. Hopefully they will get their act together in the next few months and it will be better the next time I go back. For now I can’t tell you go to there after the experience that I had, but I will keep you posted if they redeem themselves on my next visit. From what I have heard in the past few months, things have improved in the food department over there. They seemed to have remedied some of their kinks from what I have been told, so I am looking forward to giving them a second chance. Check it out and let me know! Cheers!