cocktails and more at bluezoo with new friends

Last Friday evening, we met  Melissa (@melissisms) and Danny (@hyperionpapers) from Hyperion Papers and  Sarah (@eatingwdw) from EatingWDW for cocktails at bluezoo lounge. We’ve gotten to know each other through blogs, twitter, and personal emails.

Nick and I were the first to arrive and of course, we ordered a couple of cocktails…

When everyone arrived, Melissa & Sarah also had “one night in mexico” cocktails and Danny had a Boulevardier.

We hadn’t made definite plans to eat together, but some bar food seemed in order.

Both of these dishes were slightly flawed.

The crab nachos seemed to have been plated in stages (in other words, the nachos were plated and then the toppings added when the order came through) – unfortunately, the cheese congealed very quickly and the other items cooled off rather fast (we’ve had this happen at least one other time when the kitchen was really busy). The result was less than optimum… this dish really benefits from being quite warm when served, especially since it can take a while to eat it. This is the first time we remember the crab nachos having pickled peppers on them, great addition.

The mushroom flatbread suffered from a problem that we observed with this flatbread before but especially with the clam belly and bacon flatbread last year… the greens were over salted. We think this happens because they’re dressed right before serving and the cook in charge of that process can’t tell when there’s too much seasoning… simple solution… taste it. We couldn’t finish this because it was just too salty, each of us had one piece and that was it.

Now, on to the surprises! And they weren’t flawed. Chef Ryan and Chad dazzled us with three very nice things to taste and share.

Nick and I had eaten this the previous evening (don’t worry, there’s a big blog post about the entire charcuterie board coming up soon), we knew it was very good. Everyone else seemed to like it as much as we did. I think it was the biggest hit of the evening.

This was VERY good to our taste buds. The salmon was nice and warm but not overcooked. The crust was salty and crunchy. The accompaniments were very good too (I could have eaten a bowl of that forbidden black rice but I restrained from making a pig of myself). Even Sarah tried it, and she has an aversion to cooked fish (in general) – I believe she said “it wasn’t bad but it’s still cooked fish.”

I hadn’t mentioned that Melissa and Danny got married just three days before we all met each other at bluezoo AND their wedding reception was at bluezoo. So, they’re accustomed to the great food and service here, but I think they were quite impressed with the items thus far (new to them).

The second big hit of the evening = Pork BellyBanh Mi (and you all know that I have tons of photos of this baby, so I didn’t take anymore that evening). Chef sent out two servings so that it was easy for us to share.

Everyone liked the yucca fries – and being bloggers, we sort of disassembled them before eating. I didn’t note the slivered green onion on the ones we were served on Friday – regardless, I think this was a hit with everyone.

Thanks to Chad, Monique, Paul, Erin, Liz, Chef Ryan, and anyone else I’ve forgotten. It was a very lovely evening.

Wrap-Up

Actually, we had met Melissa & Danny the night before – at the Dennis DeYoung Eat to the Beat Concert. We were sitting enjoying our frozen Kirin Ichibans (we’re creatures of habit) waiting for the concert to start – I had tweeted that we were there, Melissa sent me a text and asked where were we sitting… next thing you know, here they are smiling and saying hello.

These meet-ups can be a bit nerve-wracking for the two of us (yes, we are truly shy in some respects) but so far, it usually turns out okay (Hi Lisa & Andy, Hi Sue). I’m very glad that we stepped outside of our comfort zone and met some new people.

We all had a good time at bluezoo lounge, as evidenced by the fact that a meet-up planned for about an hour lasted nearly 3.

Thank you,

nora