The Swamp

mister d wrote:If you're not worried about being all nimble later on, this was really, really awesome: JAEGER SCHNITZEL - Double smoked speck, wild mushroom pan sauce.

Hands down my favorite schnitzel. Add a side of mashed potatoes topped with sauerkraut and you have a very tasty meal (that features about 1,500 calories).

Union pork store is legit.

https://www.eater.com/2017/6/13/1578321 ... vice-plaza

I've always been a Walt Whitman man myself, but they don't seem to be factoring in the peacefulness of the dog relief area, so whatever. We'll all agree that in any ranking going to n, n is Maryland House and n-1 is Chesapeake House, right?

I really wish I would have paid more attention to which of these I've actually stopped at so I could appreciate this more. I'm pretty sure Molly Pitcher was one of them though.

Lombardi is the only one I'm not sure if I've been to.

mister d wrote:Union pork store is legit.

It's about freakin' time you made it there. Check out the honey sriracha bacon nex time you go there if you haven't already.

New liquor store in Union (Home Wines & Liquors, 1850 Morris Ave) has taps and (re)fills growlers. Grabbed Jughandle Brewing (NJ) IPA. $11.

Oh word? Any Kane on tap? Really need a place I can growler fill head high that isn't an hour round trip (that place on 22 in like Bloomfield) or near-pint pricing (Hat tavern).

No Kane, at least not today.

Schofferhofer (grapefruit), Revolution, Carton (Boat), Dark City Brewing Co, Juglehandle (IPA), Brix and Bolero (he told me the last was not working).


Paragon Tap and Table in Clark does 1/2 price fills on Mondays.

Clark is too far, but that's a promising-ly local list. I'm a Brix fan.

rass wrote:New liquor store in Union (Home Wines & Liquors, 1850 Morris Ave) has taps and (re)fills growlers. Grabbed Jughandle Brewing (NJ) IPA. $11.

I haven't found Jughandle yet, any good?

Never even heard of. How was the IPA?

Good. All I want is hops and then nothing weird on the back end (either a bad aftertaste or the taste falling off completely) and I wasn't disappointed at all.


I should add the guy running the place (literally, he ran to the back to get a bottle of wine he thought my wife would like based on what I was buying for her) was super nice.

Hell yeah. Balance is for shitheads.

So the early reviews were pretty rough and I hadn't given them a try, but Twin Elephant in Chatham/Summit is pretty solid. Not Kane, but easy best in a 30 minute radius.

mister d wrote:So the early reviews were pretty rough and I hadn't given them a try, but Twin Elephant in Chatham/Summit is pretty solid. Not Kane, but easy best in a 30 minute radius.

They are hit or miss, but I look at it as an adventure. It's a really cool place to hang out, and the owners are super friendly and eager to talk about their recipes. A couple beers have been good-to-great, one porter was awful and had to be infected. At any given time, they will have half the taps devoted to standard beers, half devoted to experimental beers or twists on their standards. If you go in knowing you are drinking an experiment, you can enjoy the experience even if the beer doesn't work.

That sounds about what I've read. The DIPA I had was a solid B+ taste but a bit hot, the oat session pale was a nice little change of pace. Good place to have close by.

Surely these two things are related?

https://twitter.com/THR/status/894830597738287104

rass wrote:Not sure where else to post the Carton arrest story!

Whoooah! That is shocking! And yet, kinda not surprising. Funny listening to the clips, Boomer busting on Carton for (presumably) calling in sick while Boomer wasn't feeling well. Wonder what was going through Boomer's head reading that Carton was arrested. Sometimes I wonder how much of Boomer being annoyed by Carton is an act. Can't wait for the 30 for 30 episode.

Sounds like he's pretty much effed.

rass wrote:Sounds like he's pretty much effed.

I don't have much in the way of "inside" information to add, but CBS Radio -- especially WCBS -- is one of my biggest customers especially this week leading up to the NFL season. So had a regularly scheduled call with some of their head guys this morning and they were pissed to very pissed. Even had to cut our call short, which is almost unheard of the week before we have a huge promotion starting. (If anything it would be the opposite -- running 30 minutes over, etc.)

Out of all of the complete piece of shit sports personalities, he's towards the front of the "maybe he could have not been a piece of shit if he weren't such a piece of shit" line?

mister d wrote:Out of all of the complete piece of shit sports personalities, he's towards the front of the "maybe he could have not been a piece of shit if he weren't such a piece of shit" line?

I assumed it was an act, and I found him amusing. My MiL HATES him so much, which I find cute. She does not get his humor at all.

I'm sure its an act on some level, but a lot of it crosses the not-acceptable-even-as-an-act line. And I bet I give him a partial pass because of the Tourettes stuff.

mister d sighing this evening. Felt odd saying hi. So hi? Nice balloons.

Word? Were you at the only table our four kids weren’t wreaking havoc on?

(And that’s one hell of a typo.)

mister d wrote:(And that’s one hell of a typo.)

ha. Been there, and there.

My wife and kids and another couple and their two kids were sitting at the upper level, basically right above where you guys were, so maybe? They had all gone to a Union HS soccer game while I stayed home to watch my first Steelers game of the season, and all had Union SC shirts on. You guys were packing up as I walked in and when I was sure who you were I didn't want to jump down the stairs while you were holding your kids and yell "MISTER D!!!". I mean I sort of did, but I figured you'd appreciate if I didn't. It did all lead to my wife awkwardly describing the Swamp to our friends, so that was fun.

You should have just waited until our friends left and cornered my family in the parking lot. Would have been nice to say hello.

mister d wrote:You should have just waited until our friends left and cornered my family in the parking lot. Would have been nice to say hello.

It was cute that you guys wore matching shirts, too.

Oh man. We got made fun of at the very beginning and then like an hour into dinner my 2 year old interrupted a conversation to scream "YOU'RE WEARIN' THE SAME SHIRT" and laugh like crazy.

I love Sneakbox, BTW.

Hell yeah. I don't know if I like it better than Head High (its probably just a perfect compliment), but for Sunday dinner and driving home its definitely the right call.

Did you have the Southwestern burger too???

Not last night. The bacon and bleu is my favorite burger (but I had a pretty good burger for lunch).

My wife and I ended up there on Friday evening when we got an unexpected kid-free couple of hours (my youngest had a school dance and at drop-off my oldest volunteered to help out but we wanted to stay very local just in case there was an issue and you probably pretty much drove through my neighborhood to get there). Had the chicken continental sandwich and Sneakbox both Friday and last night (got comped a beer on Friday because the manager is awesome).

They're great with the community there. Pretty much anytime the PTA or one of the soccer teams has called to do a "10% of the evening's proceeds..." fundraiser they've said yes.

Yeah, between the 3 Kanes on tap and the free kid Sundays, it feels like a new rotation place.



(Do you (or did you if the kids are too old and cool) tip the balloon guy? I felt like I should because (1) that can't be a huge moneymaker and (2) our kids were all up in his shit.)

Sometimes. He makes a great balloon penguin.

And balloon night is much better than face paint night (Tuesdays).

mister d wrote:Yeah, between the 3 Kanes on tap and the free kid Sundays, it feels like a new rotation place.



(Do you (or did you if the kids are too old and cool) tip the balloon guy? I felt like I should because (1) that can't be a huge moneymaker and (2) our kids were all up in his shit.)

3 Kanes? What restaurant is this?

Tiff's in the U.