resurrection - not a post on seances

ok, so this is going to be another one of those posts where i talk about how great a bar/restaurant was and then the pictures are so incredibly crappy. i hate to say it, but you just kind of have to deal with it. part of what makes this particular restaurant so charming and cozy is its limited seating area and its dim lighting. these characteristics do not a good picture taking environment make. our table was so close to the ladies' next to us that when adjusting my angle, i almost put my elbow right into someone's french fries! whoops. that being said...

resurrection ale house is a tiny special place. it opened a few months ago and is owned by the same people as the much celebrated local 44. location: closer to our new house! resurrection is on catharine and gray's ferry just a few blocks south of south street. as i mentioned (multiple times), it's pretty tiny inside. and when i said cozy, i didn't mean it like the real estate agent trying to sell a one-bedroom to three people. it's actually charmingly small. the waitress said "as you can see, we're a pretty small restaurant. what that means is, we don't have a freezer, all our ingredients are fresh and everything is made to order." hey, i like your attitude!

i ordered a kwak (this website is freaking adorable), which is a belgian beer that comes in it's own branded glass. it looks like this:


my lady date and i decided to try a few things off of the "smaller stuff" side of the menu and ordered taters & 'snips, roasted cauliflower, the homemade pickles, and balsamic roasted radicchio. then i had another beer called maredsous 10 (10 being the abv, whoa!) and then we got this chocolate thing for dessert that kind of happened before we knew it. oops.


the food was all REALLY good, if not somewhat small portions. this place was more expensive than my normal haunts, but what the hey, it was really delicious and fun and after a few of those high abv drinks, the check stings a bit less. what's that? my pictures make it look less than appetizing? well we've been over this about the pictures, and you'll just have to go see for yourself. it's worth it, if for nothing else than the beer!

-lauren

Get to Know Your Locals

As much hype as has been buzzing around the new Local 44, I'm going to have to hop on the wagon here and review it as well. The beer geek's paradise/pub grub haven (also known as a "gastropub") on 44th and Spruce opened New Year's Day to much acclaim and a lot, A LOT of business. We decided to hit the place up the Saturday after New Year's (a.k.a. January 3rd, a.k.a. the third day they were open) and my initial response was sheer and utter claustrophobia. At 9:30pm, the place was packed to the brim with a mixed crowd of, well, locals. Barely a body could squeeze past the bar, let alone even begin to think about getting a table. We quickly high-tailed it out of there, tails between our legs.

After quasi-writing the place off, I decided to give it another go a few days later. At the more quiet hour of 3:30pm, the place was near empty, service was prompt and the food ruled. Vegan options weren't super plentiful, but for a small menu the ratio was very admirable. We started off having the spinach potato croquettes with a creamy vegan dill sauce; the sauce really sold me and really made the dish:

Of course I had to try the seemingly infamous Oyster (Mushroom) Po' Boy with vegan remoulade. When I first read a review of this sandwich online, it was only called an "Oyster Po' Boy" and man, was I surprised and delighted when I realized the truth of the matter. Behold, my second favorite sandwich in the city:

I didn't get a Kenzinger, as the picture misleads you to believe, but a Victory Brewing Company Prima Pils, one of my favorite beers, and one of TWENTY that the Local has on tap (and two on cask!). I was also fortunate enough to try the taco trio, as we made a special request (yeah, I kind of hate when people do this too, but the waitress was totally cool about it) for 2 tofu tacos and one mahi mahi taco (for a friend). The taco kind of reminded me of a giant fish stick on a little corn tortilla, and was a little scant on fixins, however, still tasted pretty darn good. Did I mention the totally killer fries? No?

My recommendation: go there, early, like pre-5pm on a weekday early. It'll be worth it I promise!