Restaurant Review: Schweinehaus

A few weeks ago a new restaurant opened in Overton Square. Bryan has been greatly anticipating this opening as he longed for liter beers and German food with a Memphis influence. So a couple of weeks ago we walked over on a Friday evening for a little date night.

Since it had only been open about a week or so we decided to go a little bit earlier than we normally would, about 5:30. We wanted to beat the crowds. When we arrived we were seated right away, but by the time we were done they were seating people ass to ankles.



The outside of the building, the old Paulette's space, features one of my favorite murals in the Square. (The one on the side of Bari is my other favorite.)

At Schweinehaus they do seat German family style, so you may end up sharing a bench with strangers. I don't mind this as it's always fun to get a closer look at what others are ordering and maybe even make a few new friends.



Let's talk about the beer. They have an impressive selection of German beers which I intend to explore intensively after Charlie is born. They also offer three different sizes which I appreciate. Bryan ordered a liter and I ordered an 8 oz of a hefeweizen. Behind Bryan you can see the bar area which offers bar seating as well as some standing room.



To start we ordered Brezel and Fried Brussel sprouts. Bryan really liked the brussel sprouts, but they weren't my favorite. I did enjoy the flavor and dressing, but I think fried is just not my preferred brussel sprout cooking method. The pretzel though... it is served with beer cheese and their house mustard. The start of this dish is the mustard. It's delicious.

Next up we shared the Eisbergh salad which I forgot to photograph. I was surprised to receive a wedge salad, but enjoyed the diced crispy brat bites which sort of served as a crouton.



Finally we split the Jagerschnitzel, pork schnitzel. We were a bit nervous about this choice, but were not disappointed. We received two large pieces of pork with large servings of mashed potatoes and braised red cabbage. I don't even like cabbage and it was delicious. This portion was enough for two. I couldn't even eat all of my half and took it home for lunch the next day.

We really enjoyed our dinner and look forward to going back. I definately want to try the patio while the weather is nice. It would be a great place to meet up with friends after work or on the weekends.

Scheweinehaus's website: http://www.schweinehaus.com/

City Grocery Pop Up with Ashley Christensen

Last January John Currence of City Grocery hosted a series of pop up restaurants and we were able to go down for one of them. It ended up being one of the best meals of the year. When I heard he was doing a similar concept again this year I knew we had to go to one if not all. Sadly with January being a busy travel month we were only able to attend one, this past Monday.

This year's pop-ups were to raise money for Rodney Scott of Hemingway, SC who lost his BBQ restaurant in a fire last fall. There's actually a bunch of pop-ups all over the South to benefit Rodney. More information here. We chose to go to the pop up cooked by Ashley Christensen of Raleigh, NC. I've heard good things about her restaurants, but North Carolina is not an area we get to often. That's one of the aspects of these pop-ups that I love, being able to taste the work of a chef from an area you might not be able to visit.

This year was a pre-fix 4 course meal with an optional wine pairing. I like this concept because with this caliber of chef I don't want to second guess on my choices. Just bring me what the chef wants!

Please excuse the iPhone photos. The restaurant lighting was dim and I didn't want to bring the big camera. 



Course 1: O'Henry White Sweet Potato Soup with Red-Eye Duck Butter and Pickled Greens
Holy moly, this soup blew us away. The soup was a fine puree and so smooth and mellow tasting. What really threw it over the top was the pickled greens. I do not like greens. But pickled? Why aren't we pickling more greens and putting them in things?! They were great. They added a nice zing and complexity to the soup.



Course 2: Coal Roasted Beets with smoked sunburst trout roe, charred kumquat marmalade vinaigrette, our yogurt
Beets! Since we went to Andrew Michael's No Menu Monday in December I've pretty much been obsessed with beets. We had them in New Orleans at Peche and when I saw them on the menu I was super excited. Beets! These were tasty, but this was our least favorite dish. It was still incredible.


Course 3: Low Country Cassoulet with sea island red peas, cider-braised winter salad, crispy pickled okra
Or as Bryan called it, The South in a Dish. There was also some pulled pork and shrimp in there as well and topped with chow chow. I told Bryan that all it needed was some toasted crushed pecans and then it would be the south in a dish. This was Bryan's favorite dish. It was hearty and delicious. At first it looked a little small, but I took half of mine home. Also of note: fried pickled okra. Why haven't we been doing this more often?! Southern chefs take note!



Course 4: Vardaman Sweet Potato Chess Pie with sorghum sweet cream and spiced nuts
Yum. I don't eat enough chess pie. The sorghum whipped cream was amazing. I vowed to only put sorghum in my whipped cream from now on. We lingered over this course as I had not caught up to my wine pairing yet and I was savoring every last bite.

Overall it was a wonderful meal and I'm so thankful that we are close enough to Oxford to be able to drive down for the event. I wish that we had been able to attend more, but it's probably for the best not to eat four course meals on a weekly basis. But it sure would be nice...

Husk Nashville Review

I'm a little obsessed with the show Mind of a Chef. Have you seen it? Our local PBS doesn't air it so I have to watch clips and episodes online when available.

I've been re-watching the first season with Bryan and we giggle like girls when David Chang and Sean Brock swear to be best friends at Pappy Van Winkle. It's often reenacted at our house.



Last week we were in Nashville and had a large time slot for lunch so I knew where we were going. I had to try Husk. We arrived about 12:30 or so and were taken right away to a table. The exterior looks to be a goregous traditional building, the first few rooms inside seem the same, but as you pass through the middle area it opens up and the whole back side of the building is glass. We were seated downstairs. On one side we had a great view of the gardens and pear trees, but the other was a bright purple wall color and funky Venetian glass chandeliers. It didn't seem to match to me. Our tables were rustic wood and iron, plates of carved wood and hand thrown pottery, and re-used wine bottles as water glasses. I'm not a purple girl so maybe it was just me.

The lunch menu changes daily and is very affordable, which is one reason I didn't mind stopping here for lunch. We ordered the smoked salmon deviled eggs to start.



It came with four but we dove in before I thought to take a picture. They were delicate and tasty.

I ordered the beef special of the day:



Tender flank steak with a chimchurri sauce, roasted cauliflower with cauliflower puree, and I didn't catch what the green stuff was on the left hand side. It was one of the top two steaks I've had in my life. (The other best being at Mimi's in the Marigny.)

Bryan got the vegetable plate:



It featured a 62 minute poached egg over stone ground grits, oats, kale and butternut squash, roasted cauliflower, and sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes were interesting because the skin was cripsy, almost fried, but the vegetable was very tender. Bryan is not a cauliflower fan, but did say these were the best cauliflower he's ever had.

Needless to say we cleaned our plates. I stopped short of licking my plate, but I thought about it. We turned down dessert, but I thought about that pumpkin cheese pie for several hours afterwards.

The service was a little slow. Our waitress was very kind and thorough, but slow between visits. About 1:30 or so we were eating our main dishes and I swear they were vacuuming upstairs. I really didn't appreciate that. Bryan mentioned it could have been a blender or something in the partially exposed kitchen, but regardless. Blending or vacuuming while diners are still eating is just rude and not something I'd expect at an establishment like Husk.

Overall, I was not disappointed in the food and was pleased we were able to make the stop. A few polishes to the service side and it can be an excellent restaurant.