Hey everyone...as promised, today brings a recap of 2 of our favorite little "mini road trip lunches" that we had during our Christmas week off together. Our first stop led us to our favorite little town of Collingswood, NJ and into here....
"West Side Gravy" is like an upscale diner, with all of your favorite comfort foods...but done with a twist. Better yet, the chef grew up right in my own childhood neighborhood! (CHAMBERSBERG, NJ!! WOHOOO!!) Cool, right??? (he also owns the even more upscale "Blackbird," which happens to share the same entrance with "West Side Gravy.")
The menu was relatively small and yet we STILL had a tough time narrowing down our choices...but we knew for sure we were starting with one thing: The Cheesesteak eggrolls...
And after the first bite we knew we were in for a kick ass lunch!!! The eggrolls were DENSELY packed with sauteed cheesesteak, wrapped in a salty deep fried eggroll wrapper, topped with frizzled onions and accompanied by a horseradish dipping sauce for good luckJ If these are wrong, I don't want to be right. Salty + Meaty + Cheesy = Absolutely jaw droppingly awesome.
For our main dishes...like I said, we couldn't even narrow our choices down QUITE enough....so what did we do?? We split our lunchJ
Scott had gotten the "pork & beans." Cute name, right? But if you're having visions of red canned beans and mini hot dogs...you'd be quite wrongJ
Instead it was a roast pork sandwich served on rosemary foccacia topped with broccoli rabe, provolone and "long hots" (wooo...those were hot little peppers. Served WITH their seeds, so I knew they were going to be trouble!J) While the "beans" portion came courtesy of a side of white beans, escarole & tomatoes. Cute spin on it, right???
The pork AND beans were both DELICIOUS...but I had gotten the clear winner of the afternoon: A bacon wrapped meatloaf sandwich served with truffle oil drizzled fries (oh-la-la! How often do you get offered THAT in a diner???)
Killer, KILLER meatloaf...it was super flavorful, tangy & perfectly spiced with LOTTTTSSSS of crispy edges. Magnificent. And Scott & I could barely stop reaching for a fries! I'm not a mushroom person AT ALL...but the truffle oil gave a nice little 'woodsy' taste to those crispy babies. Absolutly DELICIOUS!
Andddd back to our original problem of NOT being able to narrow ANYTHING down...so we even shared our not one, but TWO desserts too. (Hey, it WAS Christmas after all...hehehheheeJ)
I went with the spiced creme brulee and the perfect little almond biscotti...which were both as good as they sound...
While Scott went with one of his favorites...a dense, yet pudding-like carrot cake drizzled with caramel sauce. Both desserts were absolutely drool worthy and the perfect way to end our fabulous lunch!
We both already can't wait to go back to try out the REST of the menu items that we longingly stared at...even if it's gonna be TOUGH to pass up that meatloaf!!J
Another trip we took was one that is probably familiar to most of you in the tristate are. But in typical Donna & Scott fashion: We had already feasted on the West Coast's 'version' at "In & Out" but had never tried...
You always miss things that are right in your backyard sometimesJ
We were curious to see how the 2 stacked up to one anotherJ
Speaking of STACKED, that was one thing I was shocked about was just how HUGEEEEE the burgers were!!! I loved that you could pick from a list of 15 toppings and add as many as you wanted for free. So my cheeseburger with lettuce, pickles, ketchup, mustard, mayo and fried onions made a quite a mammoth and messy lunchJ...
Hard to be bad, right???? But Scott & I both agreed that "In & Out" MIGHT just have that SLIGHT edge. Scott said "I don't know why...there's just something about those burgers." To which I responded: "Could it be cause we ate them in CALIFORNIA??" I think that was a case closedJ There's ONE other location in the area that is supposed to be similar to that magical "In & Out"...we'll have to try that one out someday and report backJ Until then, the double/double with fried onions still reigns supreme in my bookJ (Although...don't get me wrong, I wouldn't turn my back on one of these burgers ANY TIME SOON!!!! I could go for one right now, actually...J)
The one advantage Five Guys DOES have??? Their fries! "In & Out," unless drizzled in "Animal style sauce,' just are not outstanding...but these were. Plus you get a BOATLOAD. I ordered a small and the ones you see on my plate were JUST the 'stragglers' from my bag! My small cup of fries was still FULL! J And Scott was THRILLED to see the Cajun variety on the menu since he LOVES a little spicccceeeeeeJ
So overall, two outstandingly yummy lunches for two totally different reasons. One, upscaled diner classics...the other, just damn CLASSIC and we enjoyed both tremendously.
Although now do you see why it was IMMEDIATELY back to SPINACH & VEGGIES come January 1st?? hahhahahahahahaha...
Hope you enjoyed our little 'trips' and found some new goodies you'll want to try out. Until tomorrow...have a good Wednesday!
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