Monday, September 24, 2018

Yolklore

I had my old brunch / foodie friends back in town and they wanted to try someplace new. So I made them my guinea pigs since I had been wanting to check out Yolklore for some time.

I was initially surprised at how small the kitschy restaurant was and I suppose they always have a line out the door on the weekends? The size doesn't seem to scare off too many people, but I did notice a lot of to-go orders.

If nothing else, the time spent standing in line allowed us plenty of time to review the menu as there are some interesting unique dishes as well as plenty of typical breakfast items that can be ordered a la carte.

I ordered the Seasonal Frittata (which came with a small fruit cup) and a side of potatoes. The frittata had cheese, mushrooms, creme fresh, tomato jam, and topped with arugula. This really hit the spot!

Frittata and Potatoes
My friend Chris went traditional with the French Toast made with homemade brioche.

French Toast
Anne was brave and tried the Nest Egg, one of their specialties, where two eggs are cooked inside of a biscuit crust with bacon bits, cheddar, and pickled red onion decorating the top. Unfortunately, the "nest" part was very hard to break into to get to the goods inside.

Nest Egg
Although I'm not a coffee drinker, I was impressed that they provided reasonably-priced coffee that you can help yourself to once you order.

We were also lucky that a table for four opened up right as we got through the line, so be prepared to get a to-go order in case there are no places to sit. All items are served in recyclable trays that can easily be converted into a traveling container.

Resources:

Yolklore = http://yolklore.com

Sunday, September 23, 2018

PW Pizza Earthbound Beer Dinner

I definitely think the weirdest beers in town are from Earthbound Beer. I've been to the old and new brewery locations and I'm still never quite sure about the beer I'm picking out.

We definitely had a weird beer right out of the gate with the Fuzzy Pickle Gose. I'm not the biggest fan of Gose beers and then adding a pickle smell on the nose...OY! Just when you think it can't get any weirder, the pickle beer was paired with a Watermelon Gazpacho! I left a lot behind this course...

Watermelon Gazpacho
Yet, Earthbound also brought very normal beers such as the Irish Red Ale. (There aren't too many local breweries doing red beers so this was nice to see.) This beer was well paired with the Roasted Turkey Pizza that came with Gruyere, Brussels sprouts, and bacon on top. (Luckily all the bits I didn't like were well covered by the cheese!)

Roasted Turkey Pizza
Back to the strange flavors, the Doing It Extreme IPA was paired with a Pork Chop Pizza. Nothing wrong with that per se, but the pizza also came with grilled peaches on top. I believe the name of the beer came from all the variations of hops that went into the beer.

Pork Chop Pizza
Luckily, all these weird beers and pairings meant that I had plenty of room for dessert - finally a chocolate one! The Chocolate Cake was well paired with the Midnight Mass Stout.

Chocolate Cake
I probably won't ever like anything too out of the norm. I guess I'm getting old and predictable in my old age! HA!

Resources:

Earthbound Beer = http://www.earthboundbeer.com/

Third Wheel Brewing

As much as we love all the craft breweries popping up, we don't usually cross over into St. Charles County much.

Regardless, Third Wheel Brewing had been on my list for a while since I'm a big fan of Abbey Spencer. I first met Abbey at Craft Beer Cellar as my cicerone instructor. This was the first time I had met a female who knew a TON about beer. (I know she is tired of talking about it, but it's a true statement.) Not to mention she is a super cool person overall.

I was totally stoked to hear that she was opening up her own brewery and that it's been well received. I couldn't wait to try it for myself.

Most of the time, Patience and I want to try the whole menu, but this time I just flat out ordered way too much food. For a brewery, they have a large selection of items to choose from. For those of us who drove all the way over from the city, we (mostly me) were starving, and that is probably what lead to all the extra ordering. Whoops!

Third Wheel sticks out in the strip mall that it's in, but the huge warehouse interior makes it a perfect space for a brewery.

Third Wheel Brewing
Even on a busy Friday night, there were still quite a few open tables and you can just seat yourself since it's also "serve yourself". You can't miss the huge bar in the middle for ordering drinks (they have more than just beer!), with a window opening on the side of one wall for food. And you can easily see the brewery magic happening at the far end through large windows.

The best part of the brewery was that everything is CLEARLY LABELED with huge signs.

The best way to tackle ordering the food and the beer was to split up...half of us went for beer, while the rest of us ordered at the kitchen opening. They smartly gave out buzzers to avoid any overcrowding near the food window too.

I was sad that the poutine was already sold out, but at least I still got to try the deviled eggs and a couple of types of chicken wings. The Cherry Wings were the best, although I could handle the "spicy" wings easily.

Cherry Wings and a beer flight

Spicy Wings
The deviled eggs were unlike any other I have ever had! Squares?!?! I had to pull the bacon strips out, but the chipotle maple syrup still gave plenty of flavor.

Deviled Eggs
My friends didn't help me much with the eggs as they were too busy with the pork rinds, officially known as Cracklin' Chicharrones. You can also get them dusted with a Red Hot Riplet seasoning and they come with a Chipotle Ranch dip on the side.

Cracklin' Chicharrones
Since we all loaded up on appetizers, not too many of us could make it through our main dishes. I highly recommend splitting something!

Classic Brew Cheese Burger and Waffle Fries
 The Ophelia Grilled Chicken is brined in Third Wheel's Olphelia's Wit!

Ophelia Grilled Chicken Sandwich and side salad
The Trixie Grilled Cheese is also no joke as it comes with four types of cheese on Mr. Meowski's sourdough bread!

Trixie Grilled Cheese and Waffle Fries
I made the mistake of ordering a Grilled Chicken salad and beer cheese soup. The salad was HUGE. I got through the soup and some of the chicken. I was just too full from wings and eggs!

Pan Seared Chicken Salad and Beer Cheese Soup
With all this food, especially all the spicy options, I was happy that there were plenty of lighter beers to balance it all out.

I hope they can keep up with the large and diverse beer menu because there was something for everyone (lighter beers for me, stouts for Pai, Irish for Julia) and everyone was happy.

There are a few different flight choices so you can do a sampling too.

Make sure you get to this brewery...it's worth the trip!

By the time we were done, we needed ALL the wheels to get us home!

Resources:

Third Wheel Brewing = http://www.thirdwheelbrewing.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon