Tag Archives: Food

A Little Insight into the Realities of Sugar

The country seems to be progressively getting fatter. One thing that often gets blamed for our increasing waistlines is high fructose corn syrup, one of the most commonly used sweeteners in a lot of things these days, particularly soft drinks. There’s at least one corn growers association out there arguing that corn syrup is essentially the same as cane sugar and other natural sweeteners and is no more harmful on us.

Check out this article from Lifehacker for some pretty straightforward information on the differences between sugar and corn syrup. When it comes down to it eat glucose, not fructose, and try to eat fiber when you’re eating sugar. Read the article to understand that last bit. Pretty cool stuff.

Good Pizza in Alexandria

The Wife and I found a good little pizza joint down in Old Town Alexandria this afternoon. Red Rocks isn’t a completely new place as there are a couple in the DC area, but the one in Alexandria is only two weeks old.

Now I’m not sure I’ll ever had pizza better than what I had when we were in Tuscany, but Red Rocks was some of the best pizza we’ve had around here. The tiramisu was top quality as well, but the real winner was the bruschetta. Kind of odd in that the consistency was more like a salsa than most buschettas I’ve had, but the flavor was awesome. It had a little bit of an extra kick of spice to it that was really nice.

In addition to the good food, the service was great and the atmosphere was pretty cool. It wasn’t anything really special, but it had a nice simple character to it. If you’re looking for a good little place to grab a bite you should check it out.

Jackson’s: Mighty Fine Food and Lucky Lounge

Hey look, a post that’s not soccer related.

As previously noted, I’m a huge fan of the Great American Restaurant Company offerings. Sometime over the last year they opened up their newest culinary outpost in Reston named Jackson’s.

Upon entering, there’s no doubt your in another GARC establishment. The decor is pretty similar to the others; their booths with coat hooks at the end of each a telltale marker. This one had more of a mid-century loungey feel to it with a nice mural of the L’il Rascals on the wall adding a nice touch.

I have to be honest and say I had a couple of small disappointments when I first looked at the menu. There wasn’t anything that really grabbed me that was much different than the other GARs, and they don’t have a micro brew on site which was a little disappointing as that is one of my favorite things about Sweetwater.

That’s where the disappointment ended. The Lucky Lager was one of the best restaurant beers I’ve had in a really long time. Great flavor and it drank really smoothly.

My dinner was excellent. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of what I had and I couldn’t find it on their website when I tried to get the name. What I do remember is that it is a chicken dish and it was accompanied by a wild rice “salad.” The chicken was incredibly moist and had a great flavor to it. The wild rice salad is sort of a waldorf salad with wild rice in it. Its a bit hard to explain, but was really great.

The service was good, as expected, and I would definitely recommend checking it out if you find yourself in Reston Town Center looking for a place for dinner.

Random side note: I’m second on the search results if you Google “Great American Restaurant Company,” which has to make me cool in some way.

The Great American Restaurant Company

I can’t believe its taken me this long to put in a plug for some of our favorite restaurants here in DC, but a particularly good hickory bar-b-que burger at Sweetwater Tavern gave me the push that I needed. The Great American Restaurant Company runs a handful of awesome restaurants in Northern Virginia. All of them are basically a variation on American food depending on which one you go to. Sweetwater, the one we go to most often b/c its close, has a western theme to it with steaks, ribs and burgers the staple of the menu.

Their hickory BBQ burger is awesome, with great smokey sauce which is making my mouth water just thinking about it. I’m also a huge fan of their ribs, where they use the same sauce as the burger, but the meat truly just falls off the bone. Another favorite of mine is their sweet potato fries, which slightly outpace their regular fries for fry awesomeness.

I’ve discussed meat, now let’s talk beer. In addition to great food, Sweetwater also serves as a great micro-brew. They have a couple of standards available all the time, but most of what is available when you go in are seasonal beers. They have what is probably my favorite summer beer in their summer wheat, and I had an awesome stout last time that is similar to Guinness. There is generally a good variety and everyone should be able to find something they are happy with.

For those less carnivorous than I, Cris is a big fan of the salads that they have. I’ll be honest and say that I don’t pay that close attention to the salads, but I know the last one she ordered had really good pieces of mango in it.

The last thing I’ll mention about the Sweetwater dining experience is what you actually get to experience first. Best Buns Bread Company provides all the bread for the Great American Restaurants and their “Ozzy Rolls” have ruined Cris’ appetite on more than one occasion. They come in a typical bread basket, but if you’re like us, you’ll definitely be asking for more of these in particular. On a side note, we finally discovered that they’re called Ozzy Rolls b/c their creator’s last name is Osbourne and he’s a big Ozzie Osbourne fan.

As I said, we go to Sweetwater most often but we’re big fans of some of the others as well. Coastal Flats sort of reminds me of the Charleston, SC area and has more seafood options, while Carlyle has a little more upscale, polished feel. All great places to grab a bite to eat in the Nothern Virginia area.