We are in the Berkshires on vacation! Yeah vacation! And despite a bit of rain and clouds, we are enjoying the scenery and the food. On the drive up we stopped the Tiger's Tale Bar and Grill in Princeton upon the recommendation of gas station guy. The outside definitely stated unmitigatingly "I am a BAR (and grill)." As we entered the frnt door, I can now say that I "heart" NJ. The much put upon state has adopted a no smoking policy at bars and restaurants. Yippee! The bar was enormous. The dining room small and packed. This was definitely a locals place. While we availed ourselves of the shrimp and fry basket for a quick lunch, many diners enjoyed the burgers, onion rings and a myriad of other offerings. We even enjoyed RC Cola (from a fountain, no less!). If we find ourseles this way again, we would stop again. Dinners include weekly or seasonal specials such as roast pig on Sundays and roast duck during Octoberfest.
We at last arrive at our destination - Great Barrington - in the Southern Berkshires. We are renting a little secluded apartment about a mile from town. The leaves are just beginning to color. For dinner we walked into town and plopped down at the bar at Allium. Engaging bartender. After a glass of Prosecco we were seated for our repast. Hubby ordered arugula salad - ted's arugula + farm girl farm sungold tomatoes + two year parmigiano reggiano + organic olive oil + aged balsamic. I decided to share a few bites of his salad and wait for the main course. His salad was stupendous and as much as we like parmesean, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, the arugula stole the show. Herbaceous and fragrant - what heaven!
Our main courses consisted of - wood grilled berkshire pork + anson mills polenta + earthborn carrots + crispy onions for me and - spaghetti bolognese - pork + lamb + carrots + fennel + peas + pecorino sarde for my spouse. I truly enjoyed the pork. The right amount of grilling for this thick chop and the polenta remined me of spoonbread. Delightful. But also a lot of food, thus, the decision to not order an appetizer was a wise one. My husband was not an enthused by the Bolognese. While the quality of all of the ingredients were superb, everything tasted too fresh (unlike the slowed cooked versions he has eaten in the past).
We washed everything down with côtes du ventoux rouge “signature” (grenache/ carignan/syrah) chateau valcombe cotes du rhone france 2004.
The only mar on the evening was our waiter at the end of the meal. It was late and the restaurant was winding down. Unfortunately, our waiter did as well and it took forever to receive our bill and then pay. By this time we were tired from our long hours of driving and knew we still had a mile to walk back to our temporary abode. Needless to say, he did not garner anywhere near a 20% tip for his efforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment