The difficulty in scheduling dinner with a group of
long-time friends of mine has always been an exercise in stretching out our
long-term planning skills. Mostly to
blame is my wife and I who commit to lots of different activities long into the
future. The thought this time was to
find some place we could just go and eat, saving the rest the normal rotating
host from trying to overdo it and spending the rest of the night
exhausted. The task of finding a place
was given to the two foodies of the group and we both have been wanting to try
the Tongue in Cheek, based on the trusted chatter we had been hearing. You can read more about them from their site,
however, they are very dedicated to their mission, and it is prominently
displayed through-out the restaurant. In
every interaction we had with the staff and owners you can tell they are truly
passionate about being devoted to using only properly sourced food, but
creating each dish with care.
We arrived a half-hour early to our reservation in order to
try the happy hour drinks at the bar.
The place was already swarming with guests and it was a lively
bunch. Kathy tried the sangria, which
she thought was ok while I tried the flight of cocktails. The cocktails (six) of them are served in 2 oz. martini glasses. Fun presentation, interesting array of
flavors, from sweet to spicy – a drink for all tastes, but not all drinks fit
all tastes. I enjoyed nearly all of
them. Jack’s Pool – mixture of dark rum,
curacao and other sweetness was a great start, the Mother of Dragons, was nice
a battle of whiskey jalapeno spice and OJ, while the Tickle My Tiny Pickle a
mixture of gin, vermouth with a little pickle brine and a pickle was my
favorite. Kathy liked the When in Rome,
smoooooooth she described it. It was
good mixture of sweet and bitters. The
Why Not Minot was ok and just as our friends arrived I started the Cross Eyed
Mary, which had nothing interesting to it except you could taste sriracha,
which is not what I wanted in a drink.
Everyone at the table tried it and roundly rejected it. It sat unfinished at our table. All in all a great idea of cocktail tasting,
a value to me at $12.
As we settled into our table, the atmosphere was extremely
vibrant, which is a nice way of saying it was very loud. While
we had trouble hearing our waitress, she was very helpful and repeated questions
for us and was very knowable on their interesting wine list. The group of six ordered four rounds of their
six teasers. We all had our winners and
losers, but the clear favorite was the charred feta, which is exactly what is
sounds like, a tiny square of feta, grill marks, in a nice little jam. The teasers are just that, tiny little tastes
that are fun to start a meal.
The soup of the day was a cream soup using sweet potatoes
and carrots with flavored oil on top. Half of the group got the soup while the
other half got only tastes and regretted on not getting the soup. Very rich tasting soup that lingered the
flavor. It seems like it would have been
great to pair this with a light wine, it just called out for a companion drink. It was great on its own, with the
few slurps I was able to beg of my companions.
The burgers were coming out of the kitchen on nearly all the
tables around us and it tempted three of us to get our own. Nice complete burgers, topped with a mellow
cheddar, arugula, aioli, very good house pickles and the most significant taste
is that it is made with a high quality beef – which clear stood out while
eating. It is served with french fries
which were delightful. This burger is
mentioned in many local writings as one of the best, I think it is very good
and in the mix. The meal that would
bring me back is the steel head trout.
It was cooked perfectly, nice bed mix of chorizo, parsnip and super
yummy beans. I was able to steal a few bites – just a dish I wanted more of
that evening. Other dishes I was able to sample in the group were the pork
belly and the steamed pork buns – all were good. That is all I can say as I was stuffed at
that point and not a good judge anymore.
A good evening to catch up with friends, no one was pushing
out the door and we lingered for a long
while as the place began to empty out. I
want to go back again and try more.
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