Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Nixta

Luckily, my foodie friends, Shannon and Jamie, like to hit new restaurants RIGHT when they first open. So they were kind enough to be our personal tour guides when we decided to check out Nixta as well.

I am a little sad that Ben Poremba already had flipped the concept of the restaurant, but I do admit that I'm over the fried chicken fad. I was curious how something completely different in the same spot would do.

I really appreciated our server's patience, since this is nothing like Casa Gallardo! I had trouble just deciding on a cocktail, even before I got to the regular menu.

I had one all picked out and then decided to try a margarita instead at the last minute since that seemed to be the thing to do at a Mexican restaurant.

Margarita
Unfortunately, the margarita was a little too boozy for me, so Patience was kind enough to switch drinks. The Quatro was the right amount of sweet for me and included aged rum, lime, blood orange, and cinnamon.

Quatro
We started off the night with an odrer of Pepita Guacamole to share!

Pepita Guacamole
I'm not the most familiar with authentic Mexican cuisine, but I know I love tacos! So lamb tacos is what I ordered!

Lamb Tacos
The plates at the top of the menu are smaller and make for good starters, so Patience and I also shared the Ceviche. We just can't say no to scallops!

Ceviche
Shannon's dishes were a lot more interesting and colorful as she ordered the Flautas and a Crab Tostada.

Flautas

Crab Tostadas
Patience was very bold and ordered the Pulpo, or crispy octopus, which turned out to be quite tasty!

Pulpo - Crispy Octopus
And we have to try dessert! We all shared a piece of flan... almost too pretty to eat?

Flan
Looking for something unique and different? I think this concept might be around longer.

Resources:

Nixta = https://www.nixtastl.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Sunday, April 16, 2017

PW Pizza Deschutes Pizza Dinner 2017

This was my second time attending a Deschutes PW Pizza Beer dinner and the first one was back in February 2014. http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2014/02/pw-pizza-deschutes-brewery-beer-dinner.html

While two of them were repeats, there were two new ones to me, and one beer was just released: "Pacific Wonderland", the first beer of the night. Very easy to drink and pairs well with lighter entrees. This was paired with Jalpeno Cornbread.

Jalapeno Cornbread
The next beer, Mirror Pond Pale Ale, was only slightly hoppy, but also easy to drink. It still stood up to the big flavors in the BBQ Chicken Pizza, made with the Honey Wheat Crust.

BBQ Chicken Pizza
The Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale had slightly more hops and cut through the goat cheese on the pizza, in addition to all the other flavors going on!

Shrimp Scampi Pizza
I see I enjoyed the dessert course best in the past as well as this night. Well...the first time paired a chocolate mousse and that wins hands down. The Butterscotch Pudding was definitely a good match with the Black Butte Porter, but not enough chocolate for me! hehe

Butterscotch Pudding
Menu
Resources:

PW Pizza = http://pwpizza.com/

Deschutes Brewery = https://www.deschutesbrewery.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon