The Upper Deck

Believe it or not, last night I went to The Upper Deck for the very first time. I don't think I had ever been in the building back when it was part of the Pine Ridge Ski Area, either.

I won't be going back.

Now, I didn't expect much... it's a "sports bar" after all. I knew better than to order fried food, or nasty Bud Light on tap. But when I scanned the liquors behind the bar and saw the bright blue bottle, I figured a Bombay Sapphire and Tonic was a safe bet. The bartender poured with an amazingly heavy hand for such a top-shelf Gin. He asked whether I wanted a lime. He topped the very large plastic cup with Tonic from a bar gun. I watched the whole thing. However, I am quite certain that whatever was in that blue bottle, it was not Sapphire. And whatever came out of that gun was not tonic. It was the nastiest, most disgusting G&T I've ever had. Horrible. Ick.

Cherie, being ever so much smarter than me, ordered a bottle of Bass. And together, those two drinks cost us $10.

The reason we were there was to support a friend who does stand-up. The place was absolutely packed, and incredibly loud. When we got there, a guy was doing a solo guitar act, and was not bad. I suppose one expects to be ignored when doing classic rock songs in the corner of a noisy bar. Next up was our friend, and the loud, drunk crowd would just not shut up. I know doing stand-up is hard, but I can't begin to imagine how one would do it in a room full of drunks shouting at each other, and paying absolutely no attention to the comic.

Out on the deck many of the patrons were smoking cigars. Not exactly in compliance with the Barre Health Code, I'm sure, but the smoke mostly stayed outside.

I suppose on a regular night when there isn't a fundraiser for baseball going on, it might not be such a bad place to get a drink. But if you do, order bottled beer.

Worcester's Best Chef

All of us here in central MA already know that Picasso's Ari is Worcester's best chef, but now he's going to have a chance to prove it. I got a preview of his entry in the Worcester's Best Chef competition, which he is perfecting as an appetizer this week. It's classic Ari: Lamb, Goat Cheese, Pomegranate Seeds and a few hundred other flavors all exploding in sequence like the Pops fireworks display. I have no doubt that this entry should win. Whether it does or not depends on factors beyond anyone's control, but here's hoping.

When the small town I grew up in was graced by the entry of a famous Detroit restauranteur, it led to a marked increase in the number of restaurant options. Place after place popped up to handle the runoff of people who didn't want to wait an hour to be seated. It hasn't happened in Barre yet, but I think it could, and Ari getting some big-time media certainly couldn't hurt.

The big surprise last night was a seafood Dim Sum. Well, that's what Ari called it, but he conveniently ignored the definition of that term. There was no tea. The portions were not small. The preparation was not Cantonese. What we had was actually an oversized east-west fusion seafood sampler. Mussels with a peanut curry preparation. Tuna and Picasso's trademark enormous fresh scallops, both blackened in some crazy spice mix. A lobster wonton that was out of this world. (Cherie and I were splitting this ensemble, and there was only one wonton, so we had to cut it in half. In retrospect, I should have arm wrestled her for the whole thing.) And a huge pile of soba noodles with a peanut preparation, and a completely unwieldy watercress salad. It was stunning.

Last night's cocktails were a mixed bag. There are some exceptional new drinks on the menu: The Spiced Apple Martini is a whiskey-based drink which isn't my usual cup of tea, but the fruit takes it in a distinctly fresh direction that I really enjoyed. For after dinner (definitely not before!) there is the Nutty Carmel Martini, which tastes a whole lot like one of those complicated Starbucks concoctions, although there isn't any coffee in it. It is built on Godiva Caramel, which was introduced in October, 2007, and has managed to evade detection until now. I look forward to seeing this in more cocktails in the future. On the down side, I got a preview of the cranberry infusion they have in the pipeline. At least they said it was cranberry, but Ari & Phil had dosed the thing with so many sweet flavors, all I could taste was Hawaiian Punch. (Just to be clear: I'm sure that wasn't an actual ingredient.) I hope they go back to the drawing board on that one and try something a little more subtle. Perhaps they could hire Andrew for a couple hours of consulting. :)

At the end of the night, Ari twisted my arm until I'd try the goat cheese cheesecake. Yes, that wasn't a typo. I'm all for trying strange food, so I wasn't averse to the idea. I was just full. However, when a cheesecake with raspberry coulis and a caramel drizzle is placed in front of you by the proprietor, full is not an option. I wish I could say that the introduction of goat cheese into a cheesecake is a masterstroke, but, in fact, if he hadn't told me, I never would have guessed that it was there. It was just a damn fine cheesecake. Not dense, not crumbly, just the way cheesecake should be. And thankfully, there was nothing swirled into it (I hate that). If he still has some left, don't let the goat cheese scare you. Put some of your dinner in a to-go box, so you have room to try it. As you might expect from Ari, the portion is easily big enough for sharing.

Picasso will be closed this week for their usual January break. Nice timing to let Ari get 1000 samples of lamb magic ready for the big show.

Let's hope Worcester's best chef gets the recognition he deserves next Sunday.

New Bartender at Picasso

Picasso has a new bartender. His name is Phil. Come on... that's funny. Anyway, he is personable and served us a couple great cocktails. The era of Andrew may be over, but it looks like the era of great cocktails at Picasso lives on.

Also last night, Ari's team managed to prepare mussels that were a 10/10 on the Indian/Thai hotness scale. (That's about an 18 out of 10 on the Barre restaurant hotness scale.) It was exciting, but I think 8/10 will be sufficient going forward.

The rest of the food was, of course, exquisite. And the wacky locals at the bar are always entertaining.

Picasso in the T&G

Here is a link to the review of Picasso in the Worcester T&G. I don't know what everyone is complaining about.... This is an exceptional review, and I didn't think it was that poorly written. I did have to re-read a couple times (like the weird comment about Vikings), but all of us have off sentences here and there. I'm puzzled what it would take to get this guy up to 4 stars, since I don't think he had a single negative thing to say.

In Brief...

The Farmers Table is kaput. Another one bites the dust...

Yummy Garden is good again. Good place to take the kids (great fries and steamed broccoli, and the kids like the chicken fingers).

The Farmers Table

There is a new breakfast place in the old Relish spot, at Listening. Cherie and I took the kids there on Sunday, and we were generally pleased. Cherie started by giving the poor waitress the single most complicated eggs order I have ever imagined, much less actually heard. The eggs came back not at all like Cherie had intended, but I don't think that's really a fair criticism.

I had an egg sandwich with bacon, prepared "any way you see fit" (after Cherie's egg order-from-hell, I only thought that was fair), and it was excellent. On bread that I think they probably made themselves. We ate early, and this sandwich kept me full until dinner.

The kids loved the eggs, pancakes, granola, fruit, and home fries. The potatoes had a dominant herb, which Cherie tells me was rosemary. They were really good.

I should mention that there was also a buffet, which had pretty much everything on the menu on it, but at $12, I didn't think I could do it justice (the entrees were all about half that price).

Oh, and the coffee was really good, too.

Harding Allen Rises as Relish Falls

Harding Allen

Last night, we attended a function at the Harding Allen Estate. This is my first time there since they finished putting the all-season tires on the tent. It's mostly not a tent anymore, just a big function room with a fabric-draped ceiling, some solid walls, and crystal chandeliers. The addition of that space allowed them to turn the too-small, too-crowded old restaurant room into a spacious lounge with couches and a pretty large bar at one end. So now, when you walk in, instead of chaos, you are greeted by a charming, calming space. The Christmas decorations make the whole place look like a spread from Martha Stewart Living (a little much for my taste, but nicely done). Now, if they can get their act together on the food and the service...

To be fair, the chicken we had was very good. It was stuffed with something mushroomy, and wrapped in a thin pastry shell. Everyone at our table who ordered the chicken was very happy. However, neither of the women who ordered the fish ate more than two bites. At a function like this, you'd expect haddock to be baked or grilled, not a giant fried slab that looks lost without french fries and cole slaw. It was as if they drove the fish straight up from one of the Friday specials at one of the 13 pizza joints in town. Odd.

The service was less than I would expect at a relatively small function. Slow to clear the tables, etc. Perhaps it's hard to find enough staff this time of year.

Relish

Alas, it appears that Relish is no more. Their web site, phone, and sign have all disappeared. I haven't found anyone who knows the full story, but I'd guess that Glenn's food and prices were too far out-of-range for Barre. For those of you keeping score, that makes four restaurants in that space since Listening opened in 2000. Let's see what we can learn from this about what kind of restaurant might succeed in that peculiar location:

1. Have Low Aspirations. Ari's restaurant was excellent, had a steady flow of regular customers, and I hear that it even made money. But when you compare what he was able to do there to what he's done in Picasso... well, there's no comparison. The Listening space is just too cramped and segmented for a big, bustling, successful restaurant.

2. Don't Be Rude to your Customers. Anyone who ever ate at the Blue Dog knows what I'm talking about.

3. Serve Good Food. We went to South Street Cafe (I think that's what it was called) exactly once. Iceburg lettuce with croutons from a box is NOT a Caesar salad.

4. Don't forget you are in Barre. Given the square footage and peculiar arrangement, I can see why a high-brow restaurant would seem to make sense here. When you can't do high volume, do high margin instead. But the population of Barre does not have enough wedding anniversaries and birthdays ending in zero to support a place like this. And Barre is so impossible to get to that relying on bringing people in from Boston, or even from other central MA locations is not realistic.

What Barre really needs is this space is another pizza place.

Just kidding.