I went to a restaurant Friday night with my wife. It's located in Raleigh and is called "The Angus Barn" (I was in the mood for a good steak.)
Anyway, this place was strange. The prices for a meal ranged from about $30 to about $60, and rumor had it that they have a large wine selection, so I was thinking it was more of an upscale joint.
When we arrived and walked in, I had the feeling that I had been mistaken about the place. It looked like we had walked into something like the Outback Steakhouse. Most of the people were very dressed down (jeans, sneakers, etc) and entire families were seated. (I don't know about you, but I probably wouldn't take my kids to an expensive restaurant very often. A $35 steak would be wasted on my son, who would just as soon eat mac & cheese for every single meal.)
We were seated and were given our menus and a wine list. I flipped directly to the back of the menu to select a beer and was delighted to see that they had a pretty damn good selection. Scottish Ale, ESB, a few varieties of Sammy Smith, some belgian ales, etc, etc, etc.
I decided on a Scottish Ale, and then flipped one more page toward the front to start looking at food selections. THERE WAS ANOTHER PAGE OF BEER SELECTIONS! (Did you know Sammy Smith made a lager? I didn't until that moment.)
After looking over both full pages of beer, it looked to me like they prettty much had at leats one representative for almost every class of beer. I was pretty damn impressed. Many MANY imports and micros, plus a tiny section where they offered the cruddy domestic american lagers.
The next few pages were their cocktails and martinis. At this point, my wife was only on chapter 5 of the wine list.
I stuck with the scottish ale and it washed down the filet mignon and lobster tail pretty well. It was outrageously priced ($5.25/bottle)
The whole meal was pretty expensive, but we were celebrating the fact that my sister in law was finally moving out of my house and into her own apartment, so we didn't care.
Anyway, I guess I just had to tell the story about the great beer joint I found that happens to devote 2 scant pages of their drink menu to actual food.
I still don't understand the down-dressing and large family groups at those prices, but whatever.....
-walker
Anyway, this place was strange. The prices for a meal ranged from about $30 to about $60, and rumor had it that they have a large wine selection, so I was thinking it was more of an upscale joint.
When we arrived and walked in, I had the feeling that I had been mistaken about the place. It looked like we had walked into something like the Outback Steakhouse. Most of the people were very dressed down (jeans, sneakers, etc) and entire families were seated. (I don't know about you, but I probably wouldn't take my kids to an expensive restaurant very often. A $35 steak would be wasted on my son, who would just as soon eat mac & cheese for every single meal.)
We were seated and were given our menus and a wine list. I flipped directly to the back of the menu to select a beer and was delighted to see that they had a pretty damn good selection. Scottish Ale, ESB, a few varieties of Sammy Smith, some belgian ales, etc, etc, etc.
I decided on a Scottish Ale, and then flipped one more page toward the front to start looking at food selections. THERE WAS ANOTHER PAGE OF BEER SELECTIONS! (Did you know Sammy Smith made a lager? I didn't until that moment.)
After looking over both full pages of beer, it looked to me like they prettty much had at leats one representative for almost every class of beer. I was pretty damn impressed. Many MANY imports and micros, plus a tiny section where they offered the cruddy domestic american lagers.
The next few pages were their cocktails and martinis. At this point, my wife was only on chapter 5 of the wine list.
I stuck with the scottish ale and it washed down the filet mignon and lobster tail pretty well. It was outrageously priced ($5.25/bottle)
The whole meal was pretty expensive, but we were celebrating the fact that my sister in law was finally moving out of my house and into her own apartment, so we didn't care.
Anyway, I guess I just had to tell the story about the great beer joint I found that happens to devote 2 scant pages of their drink menu to actual food.
I still don't understand the down-dressing and large family groups at those prices, but whatever.....
-walker
Too bad it was pricey. Sounds like the kind of place I'd be at every week if the price was right.
