Framingham Plasterboard...umm, Beer Works

Stop the presses; hold on to your hat…within the past two weeks, Framingham has welcomed two new restaurants!  It was with tremendous anticipation and excitement that we all waited for these cutting edge concept restaurants to open…Framingham now has exactly what it needs:  another bagel shop and a brew pub.

I guess Framingham couldn’t survive with just John Harvard’s Brew House and British Beer Company (practically across the street from each other); now Framingham Beer Works (“FBW”-from the owners of Boston Beer Works) has opened at the former site of the nightmare inducing Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse).  So, within a three hundred yard radius, we now have three beer houses, two of which brew on site.  Woo hoo!!!  Does Framingham have an inordinate of beer drinkers?  With two brewpubs and a microbrewery downtown (“Jack’s Abbey”), maybe I should be planting barley and hops in my backyard.  All kidding aside, it is good to have a new place to add to our repertoire…the few restaurants where I can dine out here were getting a little stale, so I am glad there is a new game in town.  I only wish he concept was as fresh as the beer.

FBW has opened very softly, without advertising or any fanfare.  A short article in the Framingham Patch indicated that it was opened and that some initial training was being done.  Normally I live by a 6-month rule before I run out to a new restaurant, but I threw caution to the wind and met up with one of my college roommates for lunch.

On a warm, sunny May Friday, I was surprised that it wasn’t very busy at 12:30pm.  Even with a soft opening, it is in a well-travelled location and you can see from the street that people are inside eating, and drinking.  I was stuck in terrible traffic, assuming that everyone was rushing to FBW; they were not, and I was very happy to arrive and get seated right away.

Walking in, I was struck at how drab the exterior appears.  It looks like gray wall board, pre-plaster.  I assumed that was exactly the case, but now that the sign is up, I guess not.  Apparently, the message is “come on in, we’re bland”.  It seems that the exterior was designed to be Spartan, but the interior is a mix of the same wallboard, but with a lot of steel and wood floors.  The interior design was executed pretty nicely, and there’s not much of sign that this used to be Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse. 

The menu is very similar, if not exactly the same, as the Fenway Park location, and though they didn’t have their brewer’s license set at the time I ate there, they expected to have it soon, and will be brewing their craft beers on-site.  Also, with a large outdoor patio, overlooking the back side of McDonald’s, I’m sure it will be quite popular in the upcoming summer months.  Who doesn’t like to look at McDonald’s rear entry?

The food you ask?  I had a “Southwestern Bronzed Chicken” sandwich with fries.  The breast was huge (save the comments), and it was described on the menu as a grilled chicken breast spiced with Cajun seasoning, topped with avocado, bacon, lettuce & vine-ripened tomato on a butter toasted bun served with crisp and hot fries.  It is just fine without bacon (yeah, I know it tastes good, but I don’t dig on swine), and I was actually quite pleased and satisfied, which for you faithful readers, probably comes as a shock.

I am glad I went early in their history, but now that the word is out, I will wait for the crowds to die down before I rush back.  For now, I give it a solid two forks up.

Next up, my review of the newest, most cutting edge franchise in Framingham…

Random thoughts...

After my meat-quest from February down in Austin, Texas, Jordan Rich and I decided that a show featuring healthier eating choices might be in order.  That, and a stern talking-to by my gastroenterologist…nothing gets someone one the right track more than a colonoscopy.

Join us at midnight on Saturday night, April 27, to talk with us about eating healthier, and incorporating healthier choices in to your meals.  There will be serious talk, and fun and frivolity, as always.

Now, emptying out a few items from the “garbage drawer” of my mind…

My Texas trip in April definitely proved to me that Texans might have some crazy political ideas, but are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.  Everything is bigger in Texas, including their goodwill towards men!  Hook ‘em horns!

The Tilted Kilt Pub and Eateries put Hooters to shame.  The owner says that one of his “rules” is to portray class.  I think he means “shows ass”…check out a few shots from their website… http://www.tiltedkilt.com/.  Thanks “Undercover Boss” for putting me on to this.

A recent study proved that men who stare at large breasted women live longer.  Apparently the guys working at the Tilted Kilt will live forever.

I am embarking tomorrow on a third college tour trip with Junior Palate (how did I get so old?), to the Midwest.  Are bratwursts a healthier eating choice?

Each time I do these tours, I long for the good old days…get a copy of Barron’s Guide to Colleges, see how your scores and grades match up, send away for an application, send it back with a check, and wait.  Now, each trip is preceded with internet research, reviewing the local area via Bing or Google Maps, planning out each minute to see the area, then getting hours long admission presentations with Powerpoints, videos, marching band appearances…you get the point.  Colleges sell themselves harder than ever, and are harder than ever to get in to…they are expert marketers selling nothing but possibilities of hopes and dreams, grabbing thousands in application fees, then dashing those hopes and dreams making themselves look more exclusive, and hence, more attractive than ever…it’s a killer cycle, as anyone who has been through this process recently understands.  Managing expectations is very difficult, and the results can be tragically nuclear.  At least Josh and I are getting to see some new places… with hopes and dreams of admission possibilities.  Anyone have a bunker we can hide in until next April 1?

With the Boston Marathon running on Monday, April 15, I want to say that I admire and respect those that train long, lonely hours to get chafed over 26 miles.  I’m in shape (round is a shape, right?), but I get winded walking to the bathroom.  I’ll never run a marathon, but good luck to all my friends and acquaintances running on Monday, especially to those running to raise awareness, and money for various illnesses and charities. 

Next up, a review of college town eateries, with some hopefully healthier choices.  Until next time, eat often.

I'm a Smoker!

I’ll admit…I like to smoke; the heavier the smoke, the better.  Now I’ve gotten Josh into smoking too.  Even though we rented a non-smoking car in Texas, by the time we were done, it smelled like a five-alarm fire was burning in there…

Before you people get all up in arms, most of you know I’m referring to smoking meat.  Never, and I mean never, would tobacco (wacky or otherwise) be ingested in our family.  But when it comes to burning oak wood and animal fat (of the cow kind…), bring it on.

Josh and I had the pleasure of spending the past several days in Austin, Texas.  Primary mission:  to tour the University of Texas-Austin and to get a sense of whether a Massachusetts Minuteman would be comfortable as a Texas Longhorn.  A not-so-coincidental benefit to this trip:  real Texas bbq!!!! 

For weeks prior to this trip, I scoured the interweb for reviews, watched videos, and visited websites…mostly of the bbq joints we were going to visit.  Having just been down in Austin in April, 2011 for my own personal BBQ quest with charter subscriber and old friend Marty (who’s to blame for this sick obsession), I knew we would head to Lockhart, TX for some of the best bbq in the world, and maybe a few other places as well.  Between the bbq and the University, I was almost happy to be getting up at 3:45am to catch a 7:00am flight in a blizzard…thankfully we made it unscathed, and the bbq awaited!

After getting our car, we high-tailed it down Route 183 South to Lockhart, the literal “BBQ Capital of Texas”, or so the sign claims.  Kreuze Market is not opened on Sundays, so the car took us to Black’s.  With a long line out the door, we opted to keep driving a couple of more blocks to Smitty’s, where we faced a similar predicament, but this time, I was not going to be denied the opportunity to eat Smitty’s brisket, which Texas Monthly magazine claims is among the best anywhere.  I knew we would be coming back to Lockhart again, so we opted to wait in line at Smitty’s; so glad we did.

The thing about Texas bbq is that it is unlike anything we have here in Massachusetts…having been there twice within the past 2 years, I understand better now than ever that bbq there is a way of life; it’s almost religion there.  Never mind whether you are a “reform”, “conservative” or “orthodox” Jew, or a “Roman” or “Irish” Catholic…in Texas, you’re a “Smitty’s”, “Kreuze” or “City Market”.  I really feel as if your preferred bbq joint defines you there.

Smitty's back door

With that in mind, we stood in a long line that slowly snaked in to Smitty’s smoke room.  In these places, you walk up to a counter, about ten feet away from the smoker, and order by the pound.  There’s a cutter custom cutting your meat, and tossing it on to some brown butcher paper.  Toss a few slices of white bread, and that’s that!  To get to this counter though, you have to navigate a fire burning at your feet, because in Texas, no Board of Health or safety commissioner is going to tell them to enclose that fire and protect the public.  This is Texas y’all, and as Davey Crocket famously said: You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.

So true…

Fire in the hole!  At my feet!

Nonetheless, after I grabbed 2 hot beef sausage links, a pound of brisket, extra moist (read: fatty), and a half-pound slab of smoked prime rib, with great anticipation we sat down at one of the communal tables and stared silently at the glistening meat, mouth watering.  The first bite can only be described as “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh”.  The smiles on our faces said it all.  While we enjoyed all the bbq consumed (including The Salt Lick at he airport, which Josh proclaimed to be the best airport food he’s ever eaten), I think we are now considered “Smitty-ites”.

Greasy goodness-beef sausage, prime rib and fatty brisket

I'll meet you half-way, but better off no way

After a recent "meal" at The Half-Way Cafe, I felt compelled to write them.  I really have too much time on my hands, but I also appreciate their thoughtful response, posted below.

Dear Sir or Madam: 

I am writing about an utterly awful dining experience at your Marlborough location this past Saturday night. 

We were a party of 8 people, and we called ahead at 6:50pm to find out the length of the wait.  We were told “20 minutes” and also told that if we gave our names, they would put us down and hold the table for us, especially when we told them we would be there in 15 minutes.  We arrived as we said we would, and then we waited…and waited…and waited, until 7:55pm; in reality, that 20-minute wait was an hour and five minutes.  Not fun at all, especially with hungry teenagers.  We told the hostess that we could be split four and four, since the kids are teenagers, but she chose to seat other parties that arrived after us, and held us until the only large table was available. 

I wish I could say the meal got better once we were seated; unfortunately, that was not the case.  We started our meal with an order of onion rings and a double order of chicken wings…the “double order” of chicken wings was an embarrassment; these were pigmy wings, with almost no meat, fried to oblivion.  It was immediately apparent to the waitress, who must have been considering what she was going to say when she delivered them, because when she got to the table, before we could say anything, she was chagrined to the point of saying “I’m going to have the chef make you some more, because there aren’t very many”.  A few minutes later, the “manager” came out with a bread plate with four more tiny wings. He said he was bringing them out because the earlier order “was a little chintzy”.  The only expression that popped in to my head at that time was “why bother?”

Given all your marketing, and publicity, surrounding your steak tips, I ordered them, but ordered them plain because I did not want any of the sweet “Café” sauce.  The waitress asked if wanted the broccoli and mashed potatoes, and I told her I would take the broccoli, but would prefer a side of onion rings, and her only response was “fine” (important note for later).  My wife has several food allergies (dairy, peanuts and shellfish).  She identified these allergies to the waitress, who went and got the manager.  My wife wanted to order the chicken kabab salad, but the manager told my wife that the marinade has milk in it (ugh!), but that the chef could grill the chicken separately, put some olive oil on it, and maybe some spices…so far, it sounded ok to my wife. 

When the food was delivered, most came out correctly, except for mine…and my wife’s dinner was missing in action.  I was shocked at skimpy size of the steak tips.  I ordered the regular full-sized meal.  Your menu describes the dish as “our huge 10-oz size…”, but on the plate were 5 small “tips”, and they were smothered in pink “café” sauce.  In light of the manager’s acknowledgment about the pathetic portion of wings, I suggest that your kitchen in Marlborough does not know how to properly portion the meals, because this dish looked like the size of a kid’s order.  Of course, since they were smothered in sweet pink sauce, I sent them back.  At this point, my wife’s meal still had not arrived.

After my dish is taken away, the manager arrived with my wife’s salad.  The minute it hit the table, there was a collective “yuk” from all the adults.  Without a doubt, one of the most unappetizing meals we’ve ever seen anywhere.  We understand that allergies can be difficult to manage, but this salad bore no resemblance to what the manager had described as “grilled with some olive oil and spices”.  While he was standing there, we asked what happened to the salad, and he said “well, the chef just put the chicken and vegetables in a foil pouch and steamed it instead”.  Words cannot do justice to how awful this looked, and while my wife did take a bite of the chicken, she immediately told the manager to take it away…it was inedible. 

The manager apologized, and sent the waitress back with a menu, and offered to bring my wife something else.  My wife then ordered a hummus wrap with steamed broccoli. While this was going on, my measly steak tips came back, with nothing else…what happened to the broccoli?  Believe me, if the portion is going to be so small, serving it alone on a large dinner plate makes it look even more paltry.  Since everyone else was pretty much done eating at this point, when the waitress brought my broccoli, I gave it to my wife, so she could at least eat something.  The kitchen staff made the hummus wrap pretty quick and got it to our table…unfortunately too quick, because while it had the vegetables, they didn’t put any hummus in it!  Seriously?!  Can the kitchen staff do anything right?  My wife sent that back too, and that was the end of her dinner.  Great experience, eh?  Go out to dinner with friends and family, and watch everyone else eat.

Because it had taken so long, because the experience was so lacking, and because we had to retrieve another teenager elsewhere, I left my wife to resolve the bill, but we had quite a conversation when she got home.  After I left, I thought that the steak tip order was perhaps the “half-way” size, because it was anything but “huge”.  I texted my wife, and asked her to check with the waitress.  The bill showed “$13.99” for the tips, and the waitress told my wife that it was a full order.  Wow…Equally disturbing was that there was a charge on the check for $3.99 for the onion rings that were a side to the steak tips, so that stingy meal costs $17.98!  You think the waitress would have mentioned that you could not replace the mashed potatoes, but have to pay the full price for the onion rings as a side?  In that case, shouldn’t I have gotten my two sides with the steak tips, since I was paying full price for the rings?  This makes no sense.  I didn’t want the mashed potatoes, but would have gotten something else.  Instead of saying “fine” when I placed my order, at a minimum, she should have told me that you can’t substitute in the rings unless you pay for them, in which case perhaps I would have kept the broccoli but gotten some other side.  Maybe I would have also kept the order of onion rings, but at a minimum, that’s information the consumer deserves to know; nowhere was this mentioned on the menu.  Instead, I can’t help feeling more than a little ripped off by this meal given the small portion, a single side (broccoli that I gave to my wife since she had nothing else to eat) and the high price. 

While the manager offered my wife a $15 gift card given the utter failure for her meal, there’s really no need for me to continue this…my wife and friends summed it up perfectly when they got home…”Half-way Café…off our list”.  With all the other dining options available in the MetroWest area, I see no reason to patronize your restaurant any longer.

If you feel it would be helpful to speak about this, I may be reached at 508-XXX-XXXX.

Eric