Work Lunch

Work lunch; ugh. How do you find a place that satisfies everyone’s food preferences, when everyone comes from such different life stages and styles? (READ: how do I psychologically, physically, and emotionally survive the trans-fats burger joint? Eeegads!).

We had a meeting today to discuss work-related activities and I recommended SCHLAFLY BOTTLEWORKS. Schlafly is a favorite of mine, partly because they boast the same philosophy that NTPH does—all fresh, locally-grown produce. In fact, I think Schlafly grows their own out back. Sweet! But the beauty is, it still looks like a “pub,” it smells like a brew house, and it has “burgers” on the menu (albeit organic, free-range, grass-fed bison burgers). So it’s a good choice for us.

My favorite thing about it, besides the philosophy, is the menu. The food here is so so good. Unfortunately, they deleted the black soy bean hummus from the menu a couple years ago, which was the clear winner. But its replacement, a regular chick-pea hummus with feta, kalamata olives, and red onions on top, is still quite good. Even better, however are the accompanying breads (in fact, this little bowl of hummus for $4.99 totally beats the baldy-patch $12 cheese plate from NTPH!).

The pita is fresh and very light, house made probably, but fresh-baked definitely. It’s not so much toasted as warmed, and it’s topped with some herbs that include dill weed (so underused in the bread world!). It’s nice and salty, too, so it goes well with the creamy/garlicy hummus. Then there is the real winner (and another food enigma that’s just so darn enticing)—a type of dried out flatbread or cracker, seemingly homemade, that has this delightful mystery flavor (cloves? nutmeg?) behind the grains, salt, and garlic. I’ve eaten this at least 10 times, and still, I can’t place it. Gosh it’s good. Ok so it’s a secret, and I’ve learned my lesson about food secrets, but I don’t think this one is chicken stock. (Oh god, is it chicken stock?!).

Anyway, suffice it to say that I’m a fan, my mother’s a fan, my friends are fans, I mean everyone who is anyone is a fan. It’s hummus, dang it, and a good one at that!

But my 3 coworkers (from different “life styles and stages”), had never had hummus. Beans, yuck. What’s feta? And olives?????? (Ok I admit I’m still waging the olive battle with myself… winner TBD). Noses were upturned when the waitress delivered it. I encouraged one to dig in, and she did, like a sport, taking the least threatening pita wedge, spreading a thin layer of the hummus across the surface. (I, on the other hand, figure this is my protein for the day, so I glob whole tablespoonfuls on it and chow down). (OK and it’s also because I heart it!) She kept it down and sort of admitted to it being “OK” and “pretty mild.” The other two were much more skeptical, and I really had to explain to them that it’s simply beans, garlic, cheese, salt; but again, beans, yuck, right?! One gave in, tried a little, conceded that it was “OK,” and left it at that. But the third made some serious faces at it. It was like a child physically rejecting the taste and texture of liver—and she hadn’t even tasted it yet! She barely choked down a mouse bite before refusing altogether. Whatever. More fore me. Jeez.

In the mean time, I got my salad. First, I should say, it’s the standard greens/goat combo: greens are greens (although locally grown), goat is goat, toasted almonds are unusual only because people have been so into walnuts lately, and then the totally unnecessary croutons. But this one also boasts two phenomenal additions. First, the dressing is a vanilla vinaigrette; Oh my! It’s like cookies in my salad! Plus, the vinaigrette is nice and oily (I’d say they err on the side of olive oil like me) and coats the leaves really well. And then there are the wild mushrooms, an addition you can choose. I SO love this! Often you get the choice of grilled chicken, or maybe, maybe, salmon, but this is great—locally farmed wild mushrooms, roasted on site, TOSSED IN VANILLA VINAIGRETTE! The nerve! I would never have had the guts to mix a cookie with a fungus, but they do, and they rock it.

This is one restaurant that really has succeeded in all respects: it’s been going strong for several years, it gets the beer crowd, the organic foodie vegetarian crowd, the family crowd, the happy hour crowd, your crowd, my crowd, everyone we know’s crowd. But also they have a huge menu with such unusually diverse options as bison burgers, pistachio raviolis, beer bread, calzones, ahi tuna BLTs, I mean, wha? huh? It’s impressive. Again, foodie = yes. Restaurant reviewer = I have to say a 10. I have no complaints. It’s big and warehousey, so if you’re with someone with hearing aids it’s hard to converse, but besides that, they do it, without a doubt.