Before the craziness of this week’s preparations for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, we had a very nice weekend. On Friday we met up with linnaeus, roho, and genet for dinner in Antioch. We had originally planned to try out a BBQ joint I had read about, except we found that it was not only closed, the space was vacant and available for rent. Well. Instead, we walked down to the little Italian place a few doors down, Petrucci’s. As we were standing outside debating, one of the employees came out to cajole us into coming in. After she went inside, Linnaeus took a deep whiff and said, “Smell that? That’s Calvin Kline’s Desperation.” We shrugged and went inside.
After being seated, the waitress asked what we wanted to drink. I asked what beers they had on tap, and she…didn’t know. The manager came over and told us the beers they had: Michelob, Heineken, and Moretti (sure, they had a Peroni neon sign out front but they didn’t actually, you know, carry it). Evidently the three-beer beer list was too much to remember. Drinks arrived, and many giggles were had as we admired the Dunkin Donuts straws we were given. That was when I started pushing for just getting appetizers (a selection of fine frozen, fried cheese sticks, onion rings, etc.) and getting dinner elsewhere. I got outvoted, but we ordered the simplest possible thing we could: one sausage pizza, and one pepperoni pizza. To their credit, the pizza sauce wasn’t bad, and the toppings were OK. The crust, though, was terrible. It reminded me for all the world of cheap frozen pizza. Needless to say, we won’t be going back.
Saturday saw me at work in the morning while Dan slept in. He was awake and showered when I got home, and we headed out to run some errands. We happened upon a local coffee house now in its third incarnation since we’ve been in the area, and had a very tasty lunch there (they carry Intelligentsia Coffee! Yay!). Then it was up to Antioch Packing House to gather information on buying a side or quarter of a cow to fill up our freezer. We also picked up some excellent bacon and a couple of fantastic steaks. Once we got home we were joined by tozier_wah for the evening, and introduced him into how we have a small dinner for company: grilled NY strip steaks, baked potatoes with Monterey Jack and Parmesan, and grilled asparagus with rosemary and goat cheese, all accompanied with an excellent Australian shiraz blend. The evening ended with me nodding off on the sofa while Dan and Toz played Mario Kart Wii.
Sunday was the Midwest FurFest staff meeting. It was lightly-attended, as expected, but we got some good stuff done. perro has done a great job of fitting all the major events into the allotted space; now he can start thinking about the smaller panels. Afterwards we went over to Cafe Mistiko, a curious “European sports bar” that I really wanted to like more than I did. They made killer smoothies, and the saganaki was quite tasty. My crepe, “The Zembekiko” (Loukaniko [Greek sausage], tomatoes, peppers, and feta cheese) was only so-so, though. I’d be willing to go back and try something else on the menu, though. And lest you think of crepes as dainty little things, these suckers were huge, taking up three-quarters of the plate. I did also pick up a copy of the menu for the Japanese sushi joint next door and it looks like that may be next on the list of places in the area to try.
This week, we’re cleaning and shopping in preparation for the coming weekend. I’m looking forward to seeing some of our out-of-town friends, and hopefully repeating the fantastic time we had last year. Never a dull moment!
I can only imagine murrpurrs going over to that Cafe with ears and tails and subsequently being offed by the local Greek mob 🙂
I think we were the only non-Europeans in the joint.
OPA!
I basically agree with your comments on Petrucci’s, although I didn’t really find the crust all that objectionable. I thought of it as a competently executed St. Louis Style pizza crust. Granted, that’s far from my favorite style of pizza, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed that that was what they were going for. Of course now that I think of it, they might be doing the cracker crust because you don’t have to bake it as long, saving valuable pennies over the long term. 🙂
I was a little disappointed by Mistiko as well– I had the Mediterranean Panini (marinated chicken breast, red onion, tomato and feta on grilled country white bread) which was okay, but neither the marinade on the chicken nor the tomatoes or onions really had a strong enough flavor to stand up to the strong taste of the feta. The greek potatoes (thinly sliced roasted potatoes topped with more of the feta) were nice, if served a bit lukewarm, but the whole thing just kind of didn’t come together. Still, there were a lot of things on the menu, and more than enough options (like the desert crepes) to suggest giving it another try sometime.
Of course, must plug my review of the Petrucci’s dining experience.
I was also a little off-put by Mistiko – which seems odd, cause all of our dishes seemed right on the verge of being excellent, and missing. Mine would’ve been perfect, if they’d just eased up on the gorgonzola a little; as it was, the taste of the veined cheese completely overwhelmed the taste of the meats and crepe itself.
Um…god…DAMN cute LJ ICON…
nuff said.
*SNUGS!!!*
Thank you! 😉