Mr EA and I recently revisited the Spenard Roadhouse, of earlier post fame, in order to check out this month's Bacon of the Month appetizer. Yes, you read that right - bacon of the month.
We split the aforementioned appetizer, a Cubano sandwich with tater tots (Mr EA's favorite sandwich ever) and a dessert which I will get into later. The Bacon of the Month turned out to be crispy cheese and bacon croquettes with a tomato dipping sauce also enriched with bacon. It was not what we were expecting, but it was delicious anyway! (On their website, the menu listed the bacon of the month as a fondue with bacon, Granny Smith apple slices and toast points. That sounds awesome, too. We 'll look for it to come around again some time.)
The Cubano was awesome, as always, as were the tots. Served on a ciabatta, the sandwich is a rich taste treat consisting of pulled barbecued pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickled onions and dill pickle. It is a sloppy, delicious sandwich that will fill you up - which is why we started sharing dishes at the Roadhouse in the first place. The tots were crispy and delicious as always, and perfectly set off by the ketchep that comes with them in little dipping cups. Mmmmm.!
Then to round out our lunch, we chose Maple Apple Bread Pudding, which is served warm with bourbon caramel sauce. What was so interesting about this dessert? For a couple of dollars more, you can get it with ice cream and/or...bacon! Obviously, we got the bacon. This is our second experience with bacon-maple based dessert, and I have to say, so far its worked out pretty well for us. The saltiness of the bacon worked perfectly with the sweetness of the caramel bourbon sauce and the maple-apple flavor of the bread pudding itself.
So, in short, if you're in the mood for some bacon, head on over to the Spenard Roadhouse - you'll be glad you did!
Showing posts with label spenard roadhouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spenard roadhouse. Show all posts
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Monday, December 21, 2009
Yet another Locavore event post!
This past Sunday evening, Mr. EA and I attended a locavore soiree hosted by Spenard Roadhouse of earlier post fame. This shindig was in conjunction to the screening of yet another locavore film, Ingredients, which was shown at UAA earlier that day. We did not go see the film, as I feel I am already pretty well up to speed on local eating issues, and Mr. EA does not care.
Anyway, the context of the dinner was that Spenard Roadhouse‘s chef Shane Moore, in collusion with “Delicious” Dave Thorne, came up with a four course meal featuring locally grown and made foods. 25 spots were available, and they were all taken - hopefully this bodes well for more of this kind of thing. You could opt to have your dinner paired with Alaskan beers, or not. Since Mr. EA is always the designated driver, I let this be his turn to drink.
Since we skipped out on the movie, we got to the restaurant way early, but fortunately they were ready for the locavore horde, and let us sit right down. The rest of the place was packed to the rafters - I sincerely hope we made it worth their while to give up a whole section of the restaurant on such a busy night! As the rest of the crew began to arrive, we noted that the crowd seemed to be more hippies than foodies, which was kind of interesting and did not bode well for us having much to talk about with our table-mates. I heard a lot of complaints about how the food tasted as though it had salt in it (not too much salt, mind you, but any salt), which is pretty much the specialty of people who hate flavor. Indeed, this impression turned out to be correct, with the rest of our fellow diners talking more about whether or not the food was organically grown than about how extremely tasty it was.
The hors d’oeuvres was a large, seared scallop served on a disk of tasty polenta, topped with a dollop of onion relish, surrounded by a moat of tomato broth and garnished with house-cured bacon. If that sounds like there was a lot going on, that’s because there was. The scallop was meltingly tender and flavorful, the polenta was just seasoned enough to not taste like cornmeal mush, and the zingy tomato puree and onion relish really sparked up the dish. The bacon was bacon - 'nuff said! This course was paired with Kenai River Brewing Co Pillars Pale Ale, which Mr. EA did not like by itself but did like with the food.
Next came the Soup & Salad Trio. This consisted of a thin-ish slice of bruschetta with cheese curd, chopped tomato and basil, a marinated beet salad with goat cheese, and a small bowl of pumpkin bisque. I liked all of this quite a lot. The goat cheese was a good counterpoint to the beets, and the pumpkin bisque was quite complex with a variety of flavors complementing one another. Mr EA enjoyed the bruschetta, and said that the soup and salad were “not bad”. He is not a fan of pumpkin or beets, so that was high praise for him. The beer for this course was Denali Brewing Company’s Hibernale, which was his favorite of the evening.
The main course brought a surprise - braised bison agnolotti and roasted celery roots, carrots and Brussels sprouts with brown butter and au jus. For some reason, in reading the menu I totally ignored the word “agnolotti”, as did many of our fellow diners. We were all expecting a hunk of bison with some vegetables piled on the side and some au jus to dip it all in. Instead, we got largish pasta hunks ( shape is difficult to describe - kind of like a bishop’s hat, but not really) with minced bison in it, diced roasted veggies with Brussels sprouts leaves, and what I believe was a puree of the same veggies with the au jus and brown butter. This was all delicious, and had simply a bucket of sauce, which made me very happy - I loooooove sauce! A minor quibble I had with this course is that the pasta was perhaps a bit heftier than was optimal, but that is a very minor quibble considering. This was paired with Moose’s Tooth Prince William Porter, which everyone drinking agreed had an anise finish. So take note, liquorish fans! Mr. EA liked this beer better on its own than he did with the food.
Dessert was a tender and mildly sweet almond buttermilk biscuit with strawberry and wild blueberry coulis, fresh currents and cranberries, and real whipped cream. It was paired with Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop Imperial Spiced Honey Wheat. Overall, a great finish to a great meal.
In keeping with the theme of the evening, the menu listed the ingredient sourcing as follows:
Vegetables and fruits from VanderWeele Farms
Bison from Pitchfork Ranch
Dairy from Matanuska Creamery
Scallops from Kodiak
Bruschetta from Fire Island Bakery
In all fairness, this dinner cannot have been created solely from local product - I am fairly sure we don’t produce any cooking oils, salt, or flour. However, it was close enough to make a point. While I certainly support local agriculture and hope that others here in Alaska do as well, there's no point in being a nut about it. The chefs put a great deal of care and thought into a creative meal that was extremely tasty as well as illustrating a point. There were some elements of surprise, and a good deal of inventiveness. I don’t mean inventiveness in the form of molecular gastronomy or anything of that sort, but simply taking local ingredients to a higher plane than might usually be the case. The chefs came out at the end of the meal, and I’m glad to say we gave them a rousing chorus of applause, which they surely deserved. I hope all the other attendees enjoyed it as much as we did, and I hope the Spenard Roadhouse runs more of these dinners. If you get a chance to attend such an event in the future, go and don’t look back. You’ll be glad you did!
Anyway, the context of the dinner was that Spenard Roadhouse‘s chef Shane Moore, in collusion with “Delicious” Dave Thorne, came up with a four course meal featuring locally grown and made foods. 25 spots were available, and they were all taken - hopefully this bodes well for more of this kind of thing. You could opt to have your dinner paired with Alaskan beers, or not. Since Mr. EA is always the designated driver, I let this be his turn to drink.
Since we skipped out on the movie, we got to the restaurant way early, but fortunately they were ready for the locavore horde, and let us sit right down. The rest of the place was packed to the rafters - I sincerely hope we made it worth their while to give up a whole section of the restaurant on such a busy night! As the rest of the crew began to arrive, we noted that the crowd seemed to be more hippies than foodies, which was kind of interesting and did not bode well for us having much to talk about with our table-mates. I heard a lot of complaints about how the food tasted as though it had salt in it (not too much salt, mind you, but any salt), which is pretty much the specialty of people who hate flavor. Indeed, this impression turned out to be correct, with the rest of our fellow diners talking more about whether or not the food was organically grown than about how extremely tasty it was.
The hors d’oeuvres was a large, seared scallop served on a disk of tasty polenta, topped with a dollop of onion relish, surrounded by a moat of tomato broth and garnished with house-cured bacon. If that sounds like there was a lot going on, that’s because there was. The scallop was meltingly tender and flavorful, the polenta was just seasoned enough to not taste like cornmeal mush, and the zingy tomato puree and onion relish really sparked up the dish. The bacon was bacon - 'nuff said! This course was paired with Kenai River Brewing Co Pillars Pale Ale, which Mr. EA did not like by itself but did like with the food.
Next came the Soup & Salad Trio. This consisted of a thin-ish slice of bruschetta with cheese curd, chopped tomato and basil, a marinated beet salad with goat cheese, and a small bowl of pumpkin bisque. I liked all of this quite a lot. The goat cheese was a good counterpoint to the beets, and the pumpkin bisque was quite complex with a variety of flavors complementing one another. Mr EA enjoyed the bruschetta, and said that the soup and salad were “not bad”. He is not a fan of pumpkin or beets, so that was high praise for him. The beer for this course was Denali Brewing Company’s Hibernale, which was his favorite of the evening.
The main course brought a surprise - braised bison agnolotti and roasted celery roots, carrots and Brussels sprouts with brown butter and au jus. For some reason, in reading the menu I totally ignored the word “agnolotti”, as did many of our fellow diners. We were all expecting a hunk of bison with some vegetables piled on the side and some au jus to dip it all in. Instead, we got largish pasta hunks ( shape is difficult to describe - kind of like a bishop’s hat, but not really) with minced bison in it, diced roasted veggies with Brussels sprouts leaves, and what I believe was a puree of the same veggies with the au jus and brown butter. This was all delicious, and had simply a bucket of sauce, which made me very happy - I loooooove sauce! A minor quibble I had with this course is that the pasta was perhaps a bit heftier than was optimal, but that is a very minor quibble considering. This was paired with Moose’s Tooth Prince William Porter, which everyone drinking agreed had an anise finish. So take note, liquorish fans! Mr. EA liked this beer better on its own than he did with the food.
Dessert was a tender and mildly sweet almond buttermilk biscuit with strawberry and wild blueberry coulis, fresh currents and cranberries, and real whipped cream. It was paired with Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop Imperial Spiced Honey Wheat. Overall, a great finish to a great meal.
In keeping with the theme of the evening, the menu listed the ingredient sourcing as follows:
Vegetables and fruits from VanderWeele Farms
Bison from Pitchfork Ranch
Dairy from Matanuska Creamery
Scallops from Kodiak
Bruschetta from Fire Island Bakery
In all fairness, this dinner cannot have been created solely from local product - I am fairly sure we don’t produce any cooking oils, salt, or flour. However, it was close enough to make a point. While I certainly support local agriculture and hope that others here in Alaska do as well, there's no point in being a nut about it. The chefs put a great deal of care and thought into a creative meal that was extremely tasty as well as illustrating a point. There were some elements of surprise, and a good deal of inventiveness. I don’t mean inventiveness in the form of molecular gastronomy or anything of that sort, but simply taking local ingredients to a higher plane than might usually be the case. The chefs came out at the end of the meal, and I’m glad to say we gave them a rousing chorus of applause, which they surely deserved. I hope all the other attendees enjoyed it as much as we did, and I hope the Spenard Roadhouse runs more of these dinners. If you get a chance to attend such an event in the future, go and don’t look back. You’ll be glad you did!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Spenard Roadhouse
A recent addition to Anchorage's restaurant lineup, Spendard Roadhouse is a great stop for anyone looking for casual dining a little off the beaten path. The ambiance and menu put it in the same category as City Diner - and that's a good thing.
The building itself seems like a renovated and funkified former Pizza Hut. The decor is of the "junk stuck to the walls" school, which I have always had a sneaking fondness for. If nothing else, it gives you something to look at while you are waiting for your food :) They also have a nicely appointed patio. While normally I am all about eating on patios, the setting, overlooking scenic Northern Lights Blvd, made us decide to just stay inside. We sat near the bar, giving me a chance to look over the liquid offerings. The drinks promise to be a big part of the place's appeal - they infuse their own flavored boozes. But the sun was not over the yardarm at the time of our visit, so I reluctantly passed on a drink. (But I will be back, and I'll let you know if their drinks are as delicious as they sound.)
Anyway, it was lunchtime, so Mr EA and I each had a sandwich. He had a Cubano, which he said was one of the top 5 sandwiches he had ever had. The pork flavor dominates, which is a good thing as this is pretty good pork BBQ. I had the Toasted Veggie sandwich, which was also excellent. The veggies are cooked just enough to soften them and intensify their flavors, but not so much that they were mushy and wet.
In some restaurants, the sides are just sort of there to fill up the plate, feeble lackies to the main dish. In others, they steal the show (White Spot french fries, I'm looking at you). Here they are equal partners with the main meal item. At least, it is if you are getting the, yes, tater tots. The presence of tater tots on the menu has been one of the interest points with this place. It's the one thing everyone mentions - whether they approve of tater tots in general or not. Mr EA loves tater tots. I could take them or leave them - they are really easy to mess up, though logic dictates that this should not be the case. Spenard Roadhouse does them right - crisp, not soggy, a little greasy but not dripping with oil. If you must eat tater tots, this is the place to do it. They are the most visible examples of Spenard Roadhouse's general aesthetic - self consciously clever and ironic takes on standards, and elevated middlebrow treats. And that's a good thing.
Prices are not low, but the food is good enough to justify the cost. Next time you are in a funky mood and near midtown, swing by - you'll be glad you did!
The building itself seems like a renovated and funkified former Pizza Hut. The decor is of the "junk stuck to the walls" school, which I have always had a sneaking fondness for. If nothing else, it gives you something to look at while you are waiting for your food :) They also have a nicely appointed patio. While normally I am all about eating on patios, the setting, overlooking scenic Northern Lights Blvd, made us decide to just stay inside. We sat near the bar, giving me a chance to look over the liquid offerings. The drinks promise to be a big part of the place's appeal - they infuse their own flavored boozes. But the sun was not over the yardarm at the time of our visit, so I reluctantly passed on a drink. (But I will be back, and I'll let you know if their drinks are as delicious as they sound.)
Anyway, it was lunchtime, so Mr EA and I each had a sandwich. He had a Cubano, which he said was one of the top 5 sandwiches he had ever had. The pork flavor dominates, which is a good thing as this is pretty good pork BBQ. I had the Toasted Veggie sandwich, which was also excellent. The veggies are cooked just enough to soften them and intensify their flavors, but not so much that they were mushy and wet.
In some restaurants, the sides are just sort of there to fill up the plate, feeble lackies to the main dish. In others, they steal the show (White Spot french fries, I'm looking at you). Here they are equal partners with the main meal item. At least, it is if you are getting the, yes, tater tots. The presence of tater tots on the menu has been one of the interest points with this place. It's the one thing everyone mentions - whether they approve of tater tots in general or not. Mr EA loves tater tots. I could take them or leave them - they are really easy to mess up, though logic dictates that this should not be the case. Spenard Roadhouse does them right - crisp, not soggy, a little greasy but not dripping with oil. If you must eat tater tots, this is the place to do it. They are the most visible examples of Spenard Roadhouse's general aesthetic - self consciously clever and ironic takes on standards, and elevated middlebrow treats. And that's a good thing.
Prices are not low, but the food is good enough to justify the cost. Next time you are in a funky mood and near midtown, swing by - you'll be glad you did!
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