Purple sweet potato brioche. Bar seating $180
Pineapple & Pearls, Washington DC
This was one of my favorite moments of the meal. I loved it when they scraped the warm, melted cheese onto the sweet potato brioche. And it tasted wonderful!
Assortment of cheeses and select cured meats accompanied by vegetables, nuts and dried fruit. Served with bread. $15
Villa San-Juliette, San Miguel CA
This was a straight forward meat and cheese plate, but everything on it was pretty tasty. I would have appreciated more variety in the meats to balance out the kinds of cheeses.
Ontario cheese curds, beef gravy. $8
Amsterdam BrewHouse, Toronto CANADA
This poutine tasted fine I guess. The fries were nice and crisp, but everything was really cold! Everything I ate at this restaurant was really cold actually. I may not be Canadian, but I’ve poutine before and it’s not supposed to be cold. I don’t know about you, but I don’t cold gravy over cold cheese curds is very appetizing.
Caromont Farms fresh chevre (cow, Virginia), Ubriaco aged in red wine (cow, Italy), Brescia taleggio (cow, Italy), pecorino Toscano stagionato (sheep, Italy), Castello d’Albola extra virgin olive oil, whipped local honey butter, red currant jam. Small $15
Barboursville Vineyards, Barboursville VA
This cheese plate was decent – I liked the variety. But what really killed it for me was the service. Yes, the back restaurant felt a little stuffy and forced, but one of the servers was such a bitch! Seriously, I never use that word on my blog, but she 100% deserves that title. She surely knew how to completely ruin the guests’ experience! Coming from the Bay Area, we’re kinda spoiled when it comes to wine, food, and service but you would think that smaller wineries at less traveled AVA’s would place a great deal of importance on their customer service to assure return guests. This apparently isn’t the case at Barboursville Vineyards. It appears they have shitty service and don’t happen to care if you ever return!
Cocktail sauce, mignonette, lemon. Half dozen $20
Boxing Room, San Francisco CA
Boxing Room has since closed since I last visit, but I’m finally getting around to posting these pics. I’m kinda sad that it closed because I liked the food there, and there aren’t many good cajun/creole restaurants in The City. Anyway, I’ve already tried its replacement, Barcino, but that’s for another time.
These Fanny Bay oysters were very tasty – bright, clean, fresh, briny, and cleanly shucked. I could’ve easily eaten a dozen on my own, but didn’t want to break the bank.
Flatbread and pimento cheese. Complimentary
Cheeseburger topped with crispy ShackMeister Ale-marinated shallots and Shack bbq sauce. Served with order of French fries. $9.39
Shake Shack, Tysons VA
Don’t get me wrong, this burger was very tasty but I just wish that the fried shallots weren’t SO greasy! I liked how they tasted but not how they felt in my mouth. Everything else was pretty spot on though! Mmm…
Assortment of salumi, cheese, and condiments. RW Deal, $35 per person
Ambar, Washington DC
This was good. It was on the basic side and there wasn’t a lot of anything, but I still liked the flavor of the meats.
Cuban pastry with guava jam and lemon cream cheese. $3.25
The Bun Shop, Baltimore MD
Hmm, I didn’t like this very much. I think the flavors were fine, but the pastry was limp and lifeless. The dough and filling were both soft so it almost ate like mush. Perhaps it was an old pastry that had been sitting around a while?
Arugula salad, radish, olive oil. $16
La Ciccia, San Francisco CA
This dish was SO simple, but SO delicious! The quality of the fresh stracciata cheese was wonderful, and it just melted in your mouth. Mmm…
Summer preserves, nasturtium, rye and poppy crisp. Four course menu $59
Aster, San Francisco CA
Now this was just sad! It was wedge of dry(ish) cheese accompanied by a dry nasturtium leaf (which I don’t even know if it’s edible like the flowers) and a dry cracker. Are you kidding me right now?
Selection of 3 cheese, quince preserves, nuts, cranberry bread. Happy hour $9
Pork pate, pickled vegetables, grain mustard, country bread. Happy hour $9
DB Brasserie, Las Vegas NV
This place has a great happy hour! I love their food selection and everything is very tasty. The service is also friendly and accommodating. These boards were great and the portions were perfect. Call me crazy, but I hate it when they give you a gigantic pieces of cheese to over-feed you. I would rather get less cheese and not have to waste any. Anyway, both the cheeses and pate were delicious.
JL Colombo rose, Cape Bleue, Mediteranee. Happy hour $5
Salami, prosciutto, cheeses, fig jam spread, olive assortment, grapes, strawberries, crackers, chocolate. $19.99
Sonoma Market, Sonoma CA
Wine tasting in Sonoma is great and and perfect with a charcuterie and cheese plate. A perfect pairing! This plate was pretty decent and I especially liked the fig jam spread.
Vittle Monster 