Episode XLVI: D'Lox (ELP)

Wedding Season!

The whole family was back in El Paso to cap off the 2017 Wedding Season.  One great thing about being home is that there is no shortage of babysitters for the little guy. I love spending time with Danny but it is nice to get out on a date every once and again.

I started looking for Reubens online in El Paso and it was not easy to find one. Lots of the pubs and bars you would hope would have one simply didn’t. So what did I do? I asked my mom.  She told me about D’Lox, a great place where she meets her friends for lunch and she knew first hand that they had a Reuben.  The only difficult part was trying to understand her over the phone saying D’Lox.

Spicy Reuben

“Shaved corn beef & sauerkraut on grilled rye. Served with imported Swiss spicy Reuben sauce.”

Appearance – (4.0/5.0)

Lots of fries and there is a Reuben down there somewhere. These are what I like to call Country Club fries. The El Paso Country Club has these and I can remember eating them in the club house as a kid. They have that extra egg batter on them and are super good.

You can see there is lots going on once you get down to the Reuben,  visible sauce, good cross section of meat, and non-uniform cut sauerkraut. There is only one toothpick and at least it is easy to spot. The bottom half is stabilized by the top half and the toothpick is holding the top together. It seems to be functional but I would just like to think the sauce is enough of a binding agent/adhesive to keep everything together.

Quality of Ingredients – (4.4/5.0)

I was very pleased with the quality of everything on the table, even the lime wedges they brought me for my water. The sauerkraut tasted fresh and was not bitter or too acidic. I don’t think anyone sells Spicy Reuben sauce so I assume they make it in-house.  It wasn’t spicy but still awesome in its own right and seemed to be homemade.  The little pepperoncini pepper had a good snap too. I don’t think anyone makes those so it is a good test to see how much they are willing to spend on pantry items.  

Price – (3.8/5.0)

$12.00! I know this is the Westside of El Paso but it is still El Paso. $12.00 for anything in El Paso that does not have a T-bone in it is expensive.  The portion is generous and it includes lots of fries but it is still steep.

Je Ne Sais Quoi – (3.8/5.0)

This is the place in El Paso for ladies who lunch. The décor is warm but I thought the music was just a bit too loud.  As much as I don’t like toothpicks in my food, at least this one really calls your attention to it. It is adorned with a pickle wrapped around a pepper.  If that doesn’t say El Paso deli, I don’t know what does.

I was let down just a bit by the lack of spice. If something is advertised as spicy on the border you expect them to deliver.  This place is relatively new and definitely not around when I was growing up. I like that El Paso keeps growing and adding cool new places.

Taste – (8.9/10.0)

I could tell from the first bite that this was going to be a great Reuben. The only thing that kills me is the soggy buttery bread. This is turning into a theme on this blog. My theory is restauranteurs are trying to mask the flavor of the rye bread to market the Reuben to the masses. I don’t understand it. I found a stray Caraway seed and it was great all by itself. The rye flavor is there but you lose some of it with the butter.

Now the butter can be good to add just a bit of flavor and give the bread a nice color on the grill but that is it. The butter should be a condiment or garnish, not an ingredient. This is not a grill cheese where the butter is pretty much the reason you eat the sandwich.

The shaved corned beef was just tender enough where you could pull it apart but still had enough body to give it great flavor. If you pull up to a Texas meat market, walk away with a huge brisket, and don’t plan on turning it into barbeque, you better have a good plan. I would say the folks at D’Lox did the brisket proud.

Finally, the non-spicy sauce really brought everything together. Sometimes the fat kid inside of me just wants to devour something when it is good. I really have to pace myself, put down the sandwich, take a drink of water, make eye contact with my wife, try to pick out something from the last thing she said and ask a follow-up, then throw in a “is that right?”. You get the idea. This was a good one and I had to remind myself to go slow and enjoy it.

Overall – (24.9/30.0)

Would I order it again? Yes, if I was coming for a weekday lunch AND I would ask the chef to go easy on the butter.  I don’t know if I would order it again if I came for a weekend brunch though. It would be hard to pass up the crab benedict or even the chilaquiles. 

Reubens might be hard to find in ELP but they are great when you do.

Episode XLI: Food 101 (ATL)

The Hoppy Monk is going to be tough to beat, but nevertheless, we press on. There are some fancy lunch places in Atlanta, and sometimes a nice restaurant and fancy ingredients can allow you to let your guard down when ordering a Reuben.  The Reuben at Food101 fell short on something you wouldn’t think could trip up a Reuben.

I have to say, I was in a good mood on my way there. President’s Day Weekend 2016 was going quite well for me.

-          Friday was Profit Sharing Day

-          Saturday we took Danny to a birthday party for a girl in his class. He was the only boy invited. No big deal…

-          Sunday we went to the bar to see Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester City 2-1 and my wife let me count this outing as our Valentine’s Day date!

Monday I was off work and one of my wife’s friends from college happened to be in town. She asked if we wanted to meet up at Food 101 in Buckhead. I checked the menu, and when I saw that they had a Reuben, I said yes.

NY Style Reuben
“House Made Pastrami, Sauerkraut, Gruyere, 1000 Island, Marble Rye ”

Appearance – (3.7/5.0)

We have a situation here where they are trying too hard to fit something into the sleek plate design.   Doesn’t it look like they plated the fries first, then one half of the sandwich, and then the poor guy didn’t know what to do with the other half?

“Hey Charlie, is this how I’m supposed to plate this?”

“Looks good to me!”

You really lose some of the magic of the marble rye when you only see half of it. Then you are trying to find images in each half. Do you see the Robin?

The ketchup is also not great. Look at the dimple in the middle of the cup.  That tells me they squirted from a bottle anyways.  If that is the case, just put the bottle on the table and use the extra space for more fries!

Quality Of Ingredients – (4.0/5.0)

The house-made pastrami was a solid cut of meat for sure. What caught my eye about this Reuben was the Gruyere, and I have to say it worked well. The marble rye was nothing special and there will be more on that later

Price – (3.8/5.0)

$14! We are in Buckhead here and some people might say that this is a reasonable price. I’m sure lots of time went into making the house-made pastrami, but it still seems a bit steep. A 3.8 is not a horrible score, but I don’t think it’s a great value.

Je Ne Sais Quoi – (4.0/5.0)

The Reuben actually earned a decent JNSQ score, and I think it was the Gruyere. Maybe this is evidence that restaurateurs out there are trying to game the system by adding fancy, French-sounding ingredients to boost their JNSQ scores. In this case it worked.

Other than the new cheese, there wasn’t much left to the imagination when it came to this Reuben.

Taste – (7.8/10.0)

Not horrible by any means but there were some flaws. First off, there was way too much butter on the bread. I know why places do this. It gives the bread some flavor and color when you put it on the flattop, but I think they were heavy handed here. I could not really taste the rye in the bread and that is an important part of the Reuben equation.

Also, I thought the pastrami was just a bit too salty. Maybe that’s why they don’t feel the need to put the ketchup on the table. You already have all of the sodium you need.

Overall – (23.3/30.0)

Would I order it again? No. There were some other really good looking lunches on the table that I would try before going back to this sandwich, such as the fish tacos, crab cakes, or even something called the triple grind burger.

I liked the place and the company was even better. 

Episode XII: Cracker Barrel (ATL)

Throughout its history, Atlanta has been a transportation hub. Plains, trains and automobiles are always passing through.  For those of you that do not know, traffic in Atlanta is horrible, even on the weekends because of construction projects. Luckily, since so many people drive through the city on a holiday weekend, state and local governments put a temporary halt to all projects to allow traffic to flow freely.

This through traffic brought to town the Meachum family from southwestern Ohio. A quick congestion-free drive from our house took us to the local Cracker Barrel to meet up with the Meachums and their awesome RV. Table for ten please.

Grilled Reuben Platter

"A generous serving of thinly sliced seasonal corned beef, four slices of Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and our own dressing all grilled on our seeded rye bread make our Reuben one to remember."


Appearance - (3.6/5.0)No toothpicks! Instead they put two pickles in their place. Interesting, never seen it. It also appears that the pickles hold the sandwich together just as well as toothpicks. Once I got over the pickles, the burnt fries took over.  The plate is also not symmetrical, does that bother anyone else? I have not mentioned that on other posts but maybe I should start noting it. I took the sandwich apart to get the money shot and the sauerkraut took over. Looks like a sauerkraut waterfall. A little bit of effort could have really improved this score.

 

Quality of Ingredients - (3.7/5.0) Butter. That is the first thing that came to mind with this Reuben. I should have known given the name was Grilled Reuben and I was at a Cracker Barrel in the south. That being said, it was good butter. It did overpower the rye flavor of the bread, which is hard to do. The Swiss cheese was great and very melty. "Our own dressing" just tasted like out-of-the-bottle Thousand Island. It was ok but nothing special. The sauerkraut was kind of sweet and tangy. I almost forgot about the corned beef, not a good sign. Once I sought it out and tasted it I would say it was average.

Price - (4.1/5.0)This Reuben ended up being free for me (Thank you, Meachums!) but at the time I did not know that. It clocked in at $8.49. Not bad. Danny Boy really like the country store and we had a nice time on the rocking chairs outside after our meal. Our server was also nice enough to put in this order for me before they officially start serving lunch at 11:00 AM. Thank you, Tanisha.

Je Ne Sais Quoi - (3.0/5.0)
Ehh.. Nothing really special about this one. Danny Boy was being fussy and made it difficult to concentrate on the Reuben. Actually these pickles were good and were not your average deli pickle.  They were tangy. I ate the first one because I was curious and ate the second because the first was so good.

Taste - (8.6/5.0)
This was really a Reuben panini. It had tons of butter and was pressed. It tasted like a panini and that is not a bad thing. I think that is why they put four slices of Swiss cheese on the thing; it works well in the panini style. The other components of the sandwich took a back seat to the butter and cheese. I think it would have tasted just as good with less sauerkraut.

Overall -  (23.0/30.0)
I liked my Reuben panini and stand by my decision to order it this time. The opportunity cost was the excellent blueberry pancake plate my wife had. It takes dedication to order a Reuben at 10:54 AM but that is why I am here. I would order this again but not at breakfast. Next time I could go for some biscuits and gravy.