Dogfish Head Alehouse

This past week, as you already know, the Husband was in Northern Virginia for work.  Lucky for us, I had a need to travel to the area as well! Thursday night, we decided to head out to Dogfish Head Alehouse in Falls Church, Virginia with the Husband’s brother and sister-in-law.  For those of you familiar with the Dogfish Head beers, the brewery is located in Delaware while there are three alehouses in the Northern Virginia/DC/Maryland area.  I was looking forward to heading to this location and to catching up with the Husband’s family 🙂

When the Husband and I arrived, we realized that he had forgotten his camera so we apologize for the iPhone photos!

Dogfish Head has lots and lots of brews to choose from, colorfully presented on a chalkboard upon entering the restaurant.

Also found in their large menu with many, many food options too!

As shown below, they have a handful of brews on draft…

Including some limited release drafts.  The Aprihop used to be a spring ale, but this location has decided to offer it year round.  They also offer their beers in bottle form.

If you can’t decide, get a sampler!

Which is what we did 🙂 Each of us (there’s one hidden behind the water glass) ordered a sampler!

From left to right, we had…  Shelter Pale Ale, 60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute IPA, Indian Brown, Raison d’Etre, and Aprihop.

I normally do not like Pale Ales and IPAs, but really liked these three (so for those of you who love IPAs, keep that in mind as you may like them slightly less).  The Indian Brown, however, was my favorite, especially while eating. Yum!

Once we were settled with our beers, we made our orders.  The Husband ordered a plate of hand cut chips and we all eagerly ate it up.

For his entree, the Husband ordered the Alehouse Bratwurst.  It included twin wood grilled bratwursts on pretzel bread with beer seasoned banana pepper sauerkraut.  As a side, it came with chili and fried tortilla chips.  The Husband was quite impressed with the brats and pretzel bread, but thought the tortilla chips and chili an odd side.  He, however, enjoyed the whole plate.

Our sister-in-law ordered the Portobello Gorgonzola Burger.  The Husband thought that meant she was having a portobella mushroom AS a burger but she knew it was going to be ON her burger. 🙂  The Husband’s brother went with the Rustic Burger, a class half-pound burger.  They both clearly enjoyed their entrees as they were gone before we left.

For my entree, the Steak Bomb Sandwich was speaking to me.  It included lean steak on wood grilled French bread with chipotle mayo, caramelized onions, wood fired red peppers and melted pepperjack.  Holy cow!! This was SO very good.  I’m not usually a big raver for sandwiches but a few bites in, I literally proclaimed to the table that I loved this sandwich.  It was spicy, cheesy, meaty, and oh so very good! Seriously.

Our meals and beers were tasty and the service was great.  When we were done eating and drinking, we were definitely not done catching up and our waiter brought us more water even after we had paid our bills.  They didn’t rush us out or make us feel unwanted and we really appreciated it.

Oh, the Husband and I did visit this restaurant way back in July of last summer but it never made it to the blog.  We both ordered the Alehouse Macaroni and Cheese.  It included gouda, pepperjack and parmesan as well as applewood smoked bacon, wood fired red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, summer squash and zuchini.  We had the option to add chicken or steak.  The Husband added steak and I stuck with veggies.  From what the Husband remembers, I wasn’t a fan, but he was.  So if you like mac and cheese, try it for yourself and see what you think!

Dogfish Head Alehouse

6220 Leesburg Pike (Seven Corners)

Falls Church, VA 22044

703-534-3342

Red Robin

As we were cruising across the state to the Outer Banks, the trek left us hungry around the lunching hour.  “Fast food, or sit-down?”  As we still had 3 hours left on our journey, we decided to try a sit-down in the Raliegh area.  As we rounded the shopping center, we had any number of options to choose from.  A sushi place, a large taproom, a mexican restaurant, and a Red Robin.

One of my long-time favorite restaurants is Red Robin.  When I was in high school, I lived near Potomac Mills, VA.  One of America’s first “Super Malls” I can remember when Potomac Mills was nothing but a large field.  In the early-90s, I think, there was a sizable mall-expansion project, and Red Robin was built at the tail-end of this expansion.  Being a kid-focused restaurant, and having bottomless fries, this targeted my mid/late-teen metabolism appropriately.  It certainly didn’t hurt that the waitresses were mostly cute, high-school-aged girls from rival high schools.  Fast forward 10+ years, it’s no longer the waitresses that draw me in, but just the nostalgia and fries.

If you’ve never been to a Red Robin, their menu is built around “gourmet” hamburgers.  Don’t read too much into the “gourmet.”  It mostly just means novel toppings.  In the last 10 years, they have expanded their menu to include a large selection of fresh salads, and several chicken and seafood options.

Another addition to the menu, which I think has been wildly popular is the “freckled lemonade.”  Large hunks of strawberry dropped into lemonade.  It’s never been my thing, but I am certainly in the minority.

The Wife ordered the Whiskey River BBQ burger, which comes with onion straws on it, as well as BBQ sauce.  I have been all around the menu throughout my tenure as a Red Robin fan, but I have ultimately settled on the “Royal.”  In fact, my order hasn’t changed in probably 5 years.

“I’ll take a Royal, some pink, no mayo, with blue cheese dressing on the side.”

The Royal is a burger with regular burger, with lettuce tomato, mayo, american cheese, bacon, and a fried egg on top.  Burgers don’t come “medium,” “rare,” or “well done.”  They are “some pink” or “no pink.”  There’s something about the texture of mayo that I just can’t tolerate, so I avoid it at every turn, with few exceptions.  Regular yogurt actually falls into this category, too.    The blue cheese is my condiment of choice, IF I’m going to have anything on fries.  Ketchup and mustard are fine, but blue cheese on fries is where it’s at.  The bottomless fries, which are far less bottomless for me, now that my metabolism has slowed down, require something to keep them moving.

I know, I know.  A fried egg not only sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen, but generally just disgusting.  There is something about the flavor of egg yolk, mostly cooked (VERY little runny texture), along with the burger, bacon, and cheese, that is exquisite.

See the onions and dark BBQ sauce?  It’s tasty, but it’s no Royal.

The fried egg is hard to see, but it’s on top of the tomato.  It kind of looks like another piece of cheese.

Like my friend Adam said to me before I gave the Royal a try, “Don’t knock it, until you’ve tried it.”