St. Patrick’s Day

Ireland

This is the second time for Ireland and was only fitting since it happens to be St. Patrick’s Day.  Not only was this a holiday weekend I had the privilege of sharing the lunch with my sister, two nieces, a nephew and the boyfriend of one of the nieces the lot of who had stopped in to see me.  And my pot of gold was a free lunch (thanks Sister).

I decided we’d give Tyber Creek Pub a shot to be the Irish representative for St. Pat’s and it turned out to mostly be a great choice.  They are on South Blvd in Charlotte in an area that has a lot of reasonably new apartments / condos.  This meant a fair amount of traffic but they have onsite parking to service their two story business so we didn’t have to do any searching for street parking.  Today they had a tent outside in part of their parking lot to handle the crowds which was nice except that made the parking more problematic than it would otherwise have been.  We did luck out and find spots without having to circle and wait for someone to leave.  There was a tight squeeze or two, figuratively and literally because many people are deficient in the skill of parking completely between two lines.

The hostess was outside right by the patio area which was full since it was a beautiful spring day.  We did get seated immediately upstairs though so again the luck of the Irish was on our side.  It didn’t take long for us to make our food choices and we got a varied selection so there are bonus pictures this post.  One thing they do differently than most restaurants is they bring some small glasses that look like overgrown shot glasses and then bring a big glass bottle of chilled water so you can serve yourself.  Water’s nice and all but I opted to have a Magners Irish Cider to drink while we waited and another with the meal

The cider was very smooth, not overly sweet and had a nice crisp apple taste which went well with the meal selection I chose, corned beef & cabbage.

There was a ton of food in this bowl plate.  In addition to the corned beef and cabbage there were carrots and parsnips plus mashed potatoes.  The corned beef deserved its lead billing in the title.  It was so tender it was just about falling apart, sliced thick and the salt and beef taste was excellent.  Honestly I have to say the potatoes were actually better than the cabbage so as I filled up and had to start prioritizing they were in the number two spot.  The potatoes were coarsely mashed so there were small lumps that let you know these were made from real potatoes and I think they had a little Kerrigold butter in the mix.  The cabbage was good, they weren’t overcooked like is common in many places, these were soft but had resistance as you bit them.  I can’t remember the last time I had parsnips and they were better than I remembered but a solid number 5 in the pecking order.  The carrots were ok too but honestly most of them got abandoned along with the parsnips.

The others with me had bangers & mash, fish & chips, shepherd’s pie and a tavern burger.

From all reports the each of those selections were tasty and worth trying.  The house made tartar sauce got a really good review.  You’ll probably have noticed there was no burger picture and that’s because it was the one thing that was not done right the first time.  It was ordered with only ketchup and onion but someone in the kitchen thought it needed cheese too.  While I personally agree with that sentiment it is not what was ordered.  They took it back to the kitchen and scraped the cheese off and brought it back.  That was deemed acceptable but just barely and if it wouldn’t have taken so long for them to make a new one it would have almost certainly been sent back again.  One other culinary point of discussion at the table was the Irish soda bread.  I tried it just to so I could mention it and I swear it was so dry all the saliva in my mouth was sucked into it.  To be fair they did serve it with a big pat of butter sitting right on top and the flavor was actually good once I go a sip of water to provide some additional moisture since my salivary glands were insufficient to the task.  After heeding my warning a few others tried it with the butter and the reviews ranged between “meh”, “it taste like bread” and “it’s good”.

One thing I can say is no one left hungry.  It was a great time visiting with family on St. Patrick’s Day, eating good food and snapchatting with some who weren’t present.  Thank you Lynn, Lauren, Jay, Haley & Chris for stopping by and adding to the meal and the day.

 

 

Pub Time

England

 

Kept it close to home this weekend and got the England stamp at the Six Pence Pub in Baxter Village.  I have been to Six Pence before and enjoyed each trip.  It has pub food but also a lot of other things so if you have folks who might have heard British food is not the best in the world they’ll be ok.

They start laying the English pub mood with the red phone box out front and then when you go in it has dark wood and heavy furniture aplenty to continue the motif and of course a nice bar area.

I thought about  going with the fish and chips as the typical English meal but instead went for the Shepherd’s Pie and the accompanying salad with a Strongbow Cider to wash it down.  This turned out to be a great combination.  The salad was a nice start and gave the feeling of healthiness to the meal.  The shepherd’s pie had a ground beef filling (I know that technically makes it a cottage pie) with peas & carrots and some nice herbs and spices.  There was a layer of mashed potatoes and then a scoop smothered in cheddar cheese.  The potatoes were skin on mashed which personally I like and these were made with red potatoes which I also have a fondness for.

The really pleasant surprise was the Strongbow Cider and how well it paired with the pie.  The cider was crisp, dry and enjoyable by itself but it stepped up a notch once I started eating the pie.  The first sip after a bite had an aftertaste of fresh apples like you had just bitten into one.  I immediately had to take another sip to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.  Same result.  Once the pie was finished and I was drinking the cider by itself the fresh apple after taste faded so it was the combo that complimented one another so well.

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Overall I’d have to say this was quite a good meal and an excellent surprise pairing.  The portions were sufficient and didn’t make me feel like I was waddling out of there after what could have been a heavy comfort food lunch.  I did forgo the Scotch egg appetizer they have which is one of my favorites since I was eating solo but if you visit give it a try.

Don’t forget to check out the Tell Me More page for an extra little bit of England.