I was lucky enough to get my Covid shots pretty early on. I was determined to get the hell out of town. I decided the next time southwest emailed me with a cheap rate I was taking it. That ended up being the next day and I was off to Houston in April for a 75 dollar round trip. I hadn’t been out of my own hometown for a year. I played golf with some great refuge members and was on my own for food. I decided to not overthink and I wanted something I could walk to from my hotel. I zoomed out on google maps found a spot and rolled with it. I walked in and it immediately felt like I place I’d visit at home. I instantly felt like a regular and that’s my favorite feeling on vacation. I got to sit at the bar! I hadn’t sat at a bar in over a year! I was giddy and I hadn’t even seen a menu. Since I was solo I went extra early. The happy hour menu blew my doors off. I ended up with gumbo poutine, oysters, and a lobster bisque. Add in a moscow mule and a margarita or two. I ate and drank like a king and I think it was like 35 dollars.
The whole experience of getting away, golfing with some new buds, sitting at bar and talking with strangers made me just so damn happy.
So tough to think of the best cause I ate at some great restaurants this year. Top three I can think of:
Majordomo Meat and Fish in Las Vegas
Went for a friends 30th birthday and we had the private karaoke room where you enter through what looks like an industrial refrigerator. We ordered a couple of the family style main dishes that were just absurdly good. Phenomenal lobster and beef short rib.
Carbones also in Vegas on the same trip
Fantastic, hearty Italian food. The lamb carpaccio was ridiculous.
Muffaletta from Central Grocery in New Orleans
Apparently the birthplace of the sandwich. I sat at a park bench and finished it in 45 seconds and couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s also my only instagram this year
Worst
Girlfriend (who is typically an excellent cook) tried to make chicken paprikash and it literally tasted like cigarette butts. No idea why. I even asked her what the worst thing we ate this year was and this was immediately what she said.
Best meal: a friend of mine back home in Richmond, VA has been working his butt off to do pop up dim sum and he did his first real pop up early in the year and it was just awesome.
Best Experience at a restaurant: Went down to Austin for the weekend with the girlfriend. Went to Anthem on Rainey Street and sat at the bar. An awesome tiki-ish bar with the best bartender I’ve had in a long time. Good food, great drinks, awesome DJ, couldn’t beat it.
Worst meal: my girlfriend accidentally bought hazelnut creamer for our Zuppa Toscano soup and didn’t realize. She doesn’t cook a lot and was so excited to make it for me because we both love it. It was a somber meal.
I can’t think of a worst meal, but a few meals were really memorable this year.
Compere Lapin, New Orleans, LA - Went for a friends birthday and indulged in copious amounts of curry goat, grilled pompano, braised short ribs, and more I can’t even remember. The atmosphere also added to the meal. Was with a bunch along friend passing plates of food around the table and laughing over lots of cocktails and bottles of wine. Plus the chef (Nina Compton off of Top Chef) came and introduced herself.
Herbsaint, New Orleans, LA - I stand by the Filet en frites there being the best thing I’ve eaten in the last 2 years. My wife and I shared oysters and short ribs, and she had the duck confit. It has rocketed up to one of my favorite restaurants anywhere.
Town Heath, Dallas, TX - Quite simply one of the best steaks I’ve ever had. Biker bar meets nightclub meets steakhouse. Awesome awesome place. Will definitely visit again next time I am in town.
Trust me, the halal chicken from Ralphs should not be.
(But seriously French Laundry definitely lived up to the hype. I have been to Benu and Atelier Crenn as well, those all were excellent but French Laundry did have a little “extra” feel to it. Best food was probably Atelier Crenn, Benu had the most creative food)
Best meal:
Almost any of the meals in Charleston wedding week
Worst meal:
Instantly comes to mind and still mad
Went completely all out on sushi after walking downtown Charleston for hoursssss. Starving. Get Uber eats for the first time ever. The driver drives off and disconnects the number.
I am left with days old charcuterie board leftovers that I can stand looking at, at that point and half a bagel.
Best meal of the year was the tasting menu at Pluvio in Ucluelet, British Columbia. One of only a handful of meals eaten indoors in a restaurant this year, in that sweet spot before delta arrived.
Best Meal:
Was camping on Whidbey Island (near the San Juan islands. Off the coast of northwest Washington state) this summer with my gf and her family. Her dad bought local Oysters from a fish market near our campsite and then cooked them in the shell over the grill for dinner. I have had seafood before and always liked it, but this meal was seriously eye opening. The first oyster blew my fucking doors off. I’ve been telling everyone about it since that trip. First taste of truly fresh and high quality seafood unvarnished by any other sauces was amazing. The subtle taste of deep ocean. I think about it constantly.
That night+ the other seafood I had on the trip (Ex: dungeonous crab burger from a roadside shack that sells out daily) changed my whole concept of seafood and bumped it up my list of favorite cuisines.
Worst meal:
Last year for Christmas my grandma gave me a Pf Changs gift card. I live in a small town so it was only going to be used on vacation.
Well that vacation finally came and my girlfriend and I were very stoked to go to P.F. Chang’s. We had spent the day at an apple orchard/corn maze and had been saving up for dinner so were very hungry.
The majority of my experience with P.F. Chang’s comes from ordering it as family style takeout to all share on New Years with my family. My family eats a lot of food so I was used to there not being much left out of each entree. Because of this I thought the whole point of P.F. Chang’s was small and shareable entrees. We ordered like 5 different entrees for the two of us and got a dumplings appetizer.
The dumplings app came out and the pork was raw inside, and the whole thing seemend like it had just been reheated in a microwave. We both lost our appetite and basically none of the 5 entrees got touched. Wasted a bunch of food. Tired and hungry and cranky on vacay. Was a tough scene for a minute. I know P.F. Chang’s is just sugar chicken but at least cook it plz.
Also shoutout the Pink Door in Seattle and shoutout the delicious Chick-fil-A that I ate by myself in a tent at 11:00PM after a 36 hole day at Chambers.
Server was just fantastic. We were coming from a basketball game, they had a table. Server sees my wristband and immediately cuts it off. From there, we just let him order our entire meal.
WORST
Buffalo Wild Wings in Columbus, Indiana
Chose this off the interstate Buffalo Wild Wings because it looked newer and would be a safe choice 9 hours into our 14 hour drive home.
The bar was filled with gentlemen that looked like they just got back from the hearings from their involvement from the January 6th Insurrection. During our hour visit, three men that were clearly regulars polished off a bottle of Fireball with their tap Coors Light. The guy closest to us starting hitting on the bartender by saying he knows Spanish, “Me encanto. That means I’m in love.”
Wings were horribly coated, there was more sauce on the serving tray paper than the wings. Potato wedges came out perfectly cold, as if they were in the fridge for 15 minutes. Worst bathrooms I’ve ever seen in a chain restaurant, one urinal was trash-bagged out of order and the other urinal had a moat of moisture surround it. Women’s bathroom had one stall covered in diarrhea and/or vomit, a true who’s to say situation.
Upon leaving, we saw the “Welcome to Columbus” sign, proudly boosting the “hometown of Tony Stewart and Mike Pence.”
Best meal: Lewis BBQ in Charleston, SC
2 lbs of brisket
1 lb of pulled pork
2 Texas Hot Guts
1 lb of pork ribs
1 large mac and cheese
1 large potato salad Many pitchers of Shiner Bock
You guys are making me hungry. Wow folks have been eating well. Did any enterprising individual make a list of the restaurants mentioned in the most recent episode of Trap Draw by chance? There were some great recommendations in there.
