Text 34235, 71 rader
Skriven 2015-12-13 09:03:54 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: restaurant tastes 656
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My friends Vered and Stephan treated me to dinner at Common Ground,
a newish self-styled gastropub in Arlington MA that has become 
very successful catering to a mixed crowd from families with young 
children to hipster youth to professionals to, well, me. It's known 
for its adventurous and expensive beer list more than anything
else, but Stephan assured me that the food was quite good too.

The waitress was prompt, but I had to spend a bit of time
assimilating the list. After a few minutes, I decided on the
Revolution Fistmas ale, a pleasant malty red brew with a slight 
hoppy kick, from a Chicago-area brewery whose people have a puerile 
fixation on Communist imagery (though there is no indication that 
there is anything behind the theme except perhaps to shock the 
brewers' parents). I'd drink it long before the somewhat insipid 
Killian's (a red beer that ironically was the US introduction to 
the genre, brewed by the unabashedly right-wing Coors people), 
this being for taste reasons rather than anything else.

Stefan had the Downeast Cider House Original Blend, which was
quite nice though a bit oversweet, a smoother version of 
homemade cider.

Vered tried to order a medium Troegs Mad Elf Belgian strong ale,
but it turns out it comes only in the small (12 oz), a good
thing, because it has a whopping 11% alcohol (thus somewhere
around malt liquor to cereal wine territory), and she's a cheap
date; she barely got through half of it before getting all
muzzy with driving being out of the question; she'd driven us
to the restaurant, but it was understood that Stephan, who had
as much total alcohol but is 50% bigger, would drive us back.

Buffalo Chicken Mac ‘n Cheese is described as Three cheese sauce 
mixed with buffalo chicken [vinegar sauce-soaked fried white meat] 
and topped with crumbled bleu cheese was reported by Vered as being 
less than successful, the chicken and its dressing too sour and the 
macaroni with its sauce way too bland, with the two making an 
uneasy coexistence rather than harmonious cooperation. There was
quite a lot of it, especially for a little girl who didn't
particularly care for it.

Guinness Braised Beef Short Ribs over maple-sweet potatoes mash, 
sauteed Brussel sprouts with prosciutto - this was pretty
successful, the meat very tender and falling off the bone,
the sides tasty enough, the slightly sweet, sour, salty, and
bitter sauce quite agreeable.

I had two appetizers, which together cost about what a
sandwich would have and less than a normal main course. I had
been strenuously reminded that I was not to put down any money
for this meal.

The starter starter, devilled eggs with pork belly, was fine but
ordinary, the devilment being merely vinegar mustard and nothing
else, the pork belly rather tough, overage, and undercrisp.

I followed that up with the sweet and spicy chicken wings, no great
bargain at a buck a segment (though admittedly large), fried very
crisp and then soaked in just enough sweet=hot Thai-style sauce and
(this made the dish) sprinkled with scallion. Pretty good, the poor
person's answer to Peking duck I suppose.

We sat way longer than most tables would have, but the waitress,
probably knowing that Stephan would leave her a pretty nice tip,
left us alone.

The bill when it eventually came was too big for what we got - a 
tad over $100 for three people, one beer each.

Stephan did drive us back without incident.
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