E Squared (E2) is one of our favorites and always a place that we recommend, you will leave happy!  It's a restaurant that Mr. A and Mr. L love too ;) As a foursome, we go pretty frequently, but it being in A's backyard, her and her husband are frequent visitors for dinner and their weekend brunch. The food here is amazing, unique, and so flavorful!  They have full plates and tapas to share.  The small plates are plentiful, not like other tapas places where you're cutting 1 item into 8ths to share.  Our method is to share everything and try as much as possible when it comes to E2.  The menu is always changing with what is locally available, but they do have some return appearance from crowd favorites.  We, and this is no exaggeration, order almost every "OMG" plate that is listed on the large chalkboard, and that is just to start.   We then move on to the paper menu and order a few more tapas and then on to the full plates.  So brace yourself. you are in for a long blog :)


We did mention that it is a go-to "Couple's Night" place, but this time we had dined with a few girlfriends.  Ashley2 donated her time, again, as a guest "critic"....you may remember her from our last blog on pumpkin beers.  And, A's friend who has recently moved back to the burgh, Catherine joined in the fun. 

Place: E Squared
Date:10/26/11
BYO'd: 3 Reds(Murphy Goode Pinot Noir , Carlo's Garage Steel City Red-a blend (from Enrico's in the Strip), Chapellet Mountain Cuvee, a blend)  and 1 white (Schmidtt Sonne-a Reisling)
Corkage Fee:  $6/bottle
BYO Buzz: It is AWWWWsome :) You just have to go, you won't regret it!

Atmosphere: Remodeled house, cozy dinning room feel, downstairs "bar" and waiting area is quiet and relaxing.

Service:  Always great and friendly

Appetizers a.k.a OMG's
(their words that we agree with)

Round #1 : Gorgonzola Mess, Marinated Mozzarella, Grilled Artichoke
The "Mess"-One of the crowd favorites that I had mentioned before. it is a must if it's on the board.  It is so great.  As you can see in the pic, it is Gorgonzola mixed with a whole mess of goodness in an easy to spread form, with the perfect amount of spice to give it a kick.  I wonder how they came up with the name?

Marinated Mozz- It is a very well balanced dish.  It has a generous portion of garlic that gives it a playful kick (and keep those vampires away) coupled with the mellow taste of fresh mozz.  Throw one on the perfectly oven/gril toasted foccacia bread and you've got yourself a scrumptious app.
                                                   
                                                        Grilled Artichokes -A tasty appetizer anywhere else, but out of the three, it really had no  chance.in my opinion you can't beat the Mess, and fresh mozz is a huge fave too.  Nice accompaniment to to a piece of bread slathered in the mess and topped with one of these.

Round #2 Local beets & arugula salad and Cannellini beans with local greens (A's fave - seriously gets the beans and greens every time.)

The arugula salad was a great match of the spicy bite of the lettuce and the honey/goat cheese that came with it. 

Round #3 Polenta with Eggplant Caponata

Probably one of the best textures in polenta we could think of, pan fried to a crisp on the outside, chewy and full of the eggplant flavor.  Just one negative, could use more eggplant...

Round #4 DESSERT: Beignets and Brownie Mess

Seriously could have been the best brownie/icream combo I've had.  Perfectly cooked brownie, must have been homemade vanilla with the real vanilla flavoring.  To top it off, they added their homemade dark chocolate that is made with lavender and sea salt.  We certainly cleaned this mess up.

The Beignets were great too, more of a custard-y like filling versus a donut texture, lightly fried and soaked up the berry mess sauce perfectly.  For those of you who were like us

The Wine.... somehow only 1 got a picture, but it was the most interesting and fitting being from Enrico's in the strip

All 4 were emptied by the end of the night so who can complain!
The Chapellet is a favorite pass down from A's parents, their blend is great - warm yet crisp for these cool fall nights.
The Pinot was very drinkable, light without being too fruity.
Carlos Steel City Garage Red was definitely different from the rest.  A little thicker, less fruit taste, the sales person said it tastes like how the label looks, and we might have to agree, picture is always worth 1,000 words, right?
The Reisling, in efforts to prolong summer as long as possible (A2's avid goal) we thought this was a nice, less sweet version.  Paired nicely with the spiciness of a few of our choices.

Again, all in all, you can't go wrong here. 

As soon as September rolls around, thoughts of college football, Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice lattes and of course, harvest and pumpkin falls beers begin.  Lovers of pretty much all things pumpkin, we thought we'd use this blog as our excuse to have our own taste test of whatever pumpkin beers we could get our hands on over the course of the week.  We ended the shopping trips with 14 beers to try. The night was extremely fun and something we plan to try for "Christmas" beers as well.  However, this time we will know what to expect the next morning...and our readers will know to expect quirky descriptions.  Our way of describing the beer flavor is a lot like the way L gives directions: drive to the red house, make a left and go straight until you see the one place we went to that party that one time where you feel down the stairs, then make a right...scatteredand hilarious .
                                                                                                ENJOY :)

Notably missing from the list: infamous pumpkin beers - Dogfish head Punkin (very good one! but couldn't find at a bar/6 pack shop any where around here) and Southern Tier's Pumpking (A isn't too much of a fan, although it might be the MOST pumpkin pie like beer, the sweetness and strong alcohol aftertaste are negatives to me).

Also notable - guest event attendee and avid BYOBurgh reader Ashley2 also shared in the fun and helped us breakdown all 14 brews.

(the findings on Friday night were worth the headaches on Saturday)


Place: A's house
Date: 10/14/11
BYO'd: 14 pumpkin beers & 2 large Pizza Sola pies
Corkage Fee:  belly scratches for Barley, A's 20lb schnoodle
BYO Buzz: Except for 3-4 brews, it was seeming like all pumpkin ales taste a lot alike

Service:  We treated ourselves pretty well :)

Full Disclosure: Comments should be taken with consideration after about the 6-7th brew tried as our "judgment" may have gotten a little hazy.  You might be able to tell which ones were the last few just by the comments noted.

The original thought/measurement system was to grade each on a scale of 1-3 in the Pumkininess, Spices, and overall beer taste categories, but we kinda forgot to do that so it turned into just a bunch of adjectives worthy of giving you the real deal on these guys.  However we never forgot to swirl it around in the glass and swish it around in our mouth.  True connoisseurs.


(Our Set up -Work in Progress)

In No Particular Order (mostly because we can't quite remember)

SmuttyNose Pumpkin Ale (Utica, NY)
Hoppier, Much more IPA taste.  It definitely had enough pumpkin to distinguish it from other IPAs, but not a ton of pumpkin flavor.  ditto on the spices.  Overall, drinkable, good for those who enjoy plentiful amounts of hops in their beers.

Blue Point Pumpkin Ale (Long Island)
Weaker beer (= easy to drink, watch out!), very little pumpkin taste (as noted by L's husband "I'm not getting any pumpkin here," also nicely referred to as Pumpkin Water... but in a good way.

Hoppin Frog Double Pumpkin Ale (Akron, OH)
This is the big, 22oz bottle in the pic at the top.  Good taste overall,  hint of granny smith apples maybe, very seasonal.  STRONG!  Also taste of cloves present.

Thirsty Dog Barktoberfest (Akron, OH)
This might have been #14 of 14 we tried,  although not a pumpkin beer, how can you resist a fall beer named Barktoberfest?! Plus Thirsty Dog makes some great beers (shout out Akron!-A is an Ohio girl) our thoughts here were it tastes very seasonal, Something you'd want to drink wearing a wool sweater, stouty, tastes like Fall in a Bottle, and a favorite comment on this one: Tastes like raking leaves (but in a good way)

Wolaver's Organic Pumpkin Ale (Middlebury, VT)
Brewed with Vermont Pumpkins! well you can definitely taste pumpkins in this one, wheaty, pale-ale version of a pumpkin beer. Fondly referred to as "Dirt that Works", we think they might have thrown the entire pumpkin, stems and all into the tank for brewing, there was a distinct earthly taste here.  fav comments on this one: something you might drink while in the field spiking pumpkins and wearing a tie-dye shirt and socks with sandals mmmmmaaaaaannnn ; ). 

New Holland's Ichabod Pumpkin Ale (Holland, MI)
While low on the pumpkin flavor scale, this ended up being one of the better all around fall beers.  Good spice level, darker beer... seemed dangerous (based on the headless pumpkin man on the label)

Sarnac Pumpkin Ale (Utica, NY)
"The Natty Light of Pumpkin Ales"... but in  good way.  Light, not real pumpkiny.  More wheaty or yeasty than others.  Good autumn taste though. not heavy on spice either.

Shocktop Pumpkin Wheat (St. Louis, MO)
This was a lighter, most crisp tasting of all beers in this sampling.  Would be good for those warm fall days, not as spicy as others, had a clean, refreshing taste, little pumpkin, more harvest-taste though. Could be a good everyday beer when you want something with more flavor in your wheat beer.

Michigan Brewing Screamin' Pumpkin Spiced Ale (Webberville, MI)
This is DEFINITELY one of those few that stood out from the crowd in Pumpkin ales.  There was a very Holiday taste here, think Thanksgiving + happy hour all rolled into one.  This is one that you can drink slowly and enjoy.  (since it is so flavorful, you probably wouldn't drink more than 1-2 at a time) We could taste vanilla, cinnamon, something that reminded us of cream soda or rootbeer.  Even the smell took your thoughts to turkey, stuffing, and pies.

Buffalo Bill Pumpkin Ale (Seattle, WA)
This was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by L. although we're still not sure why.  (this might have been beer #10 in line, the notes are getting harder to read).  Good flavor, left you wanting a little more pumpkin, good cinnamon flavor made it nice for early October.  Smooth.  Tasty.  A & A2 "Tastes like beer.... with a little spice"

Taking some creative license after a few rounds:

Brooklyn Brewery Post Road Pumpkin Ale (Utica, NY)
This was also very close to the end... Notes: If you like beer, you'll like this.  Tastes like all the other pumpkin beers.  Tasty, nothing special to call out on spice or pumpkin.  lighter in color and taste

South Hampton Pumpkin Ale (Saratoga Springs, NY)
Good beer taste, seasonal, authentic, ale-y in flavor. Tastes like pumpkins picked at the beginning of harvest, not really ripe or sweet.

Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale (Easton, PA)
THIS WAS BY FAR THE LEAST FAVORITE.  Strong alcohol taste, "cardboardy",  clovey, just ok drinkabliity,   more Christmas than fall holidays.  After going back through all 14 for their second try..."its not SO bad..."

O'Fallon Pumpkin Beer (O'Fallon, MO)
Another one that kind of blends in with the crowd.  Good, seasonal.  notable spice (cinnamon, clove, autumness), lacking in pumpkin flavor.  overall a good one.

After all was said and done, these 5 were the winners in our very humble, slightly tipsy opinion.
From L-R
O'Fallon, Buffalo Bill, Screamin' Pumpkin (Michigan Brewing), Post Road (Brooklyn Brewing) and SmuttyNose

Our fans have requested a harsher review and that's what we are planning to give to Kanok.  We didn't want to do it, hence the 4 weeks of "post procrastination", but here it is.  Also it's been a busy summer, vacations, all consuming periods of watching "The Wire" on HBO Go (amazing show!) and so forth, but we bring to you our first negative review....


Place: Kanok
Date:8/17/11
BYO'd: Ménage a trois White
Corkage Fee:  $5 total for wine bottle
BYO Buzz: Can get better take-out for half the price - (see our review of this joint - SBL)

Atmosphere: Looks swanky and modern, golden silverware and accents, BEST music selection (waiter said it was Jason Mraz station on Pandora).

Service:  it was good, pleasant....we got our food so that's a plus.

 Kee-mao spicy noodle dish.  (note a "2" spicy at this joint is SPI-CY!!) was ok.  again nothing stand outish.  I've definitely had more flavorful spicy noodle dishes at other Thai places.  This was ehh.  One thing to point out - the chick in the dishes was very good.  There was a bout a 2 month span where the chicken bits in thai and chinese dishes was really creeping A out, but so was not the case here.  From the 2 views of the dish, its a plentiful portion and made a good dent but took home the rest for lunch the next day... except the hubby stole it and took it with him.

Stir-fried with spicy basil sauce, bell pepper, onion, bok choy, and basil leaf served with jasmine rice. 

I am a huge sucker for jasmine rice, which was tasty.  The meal itself was your run of the meal Thai chicken dish.  It wasn't bad, it wasn't great.  To say it eloquently,  it was "eeehhhh". 

I agree with A about the non creepy chicken.  Another plus was the spicy level.  A two worked perfect for me.  It wasn't too spicy, but spicy enough for me that it kept my mouth watering....to bad the food itself didn't do it for me.

Well, it was what it said: white sticky rice with mango.  Mango was mango, rice was........sticky.

The website describes it as: Three different grapes add up beautifully in our Ménage à Trois White. Chardonnay lends its firm, rich character, while Muscat shows up wild and exotic, and Chenin Blanc plays a soft supporting role. Together they produce one show-stopping wine

L describes it as YUMMY:).  A will give that a ditto.