On one of our many recent rainy weekend days, we stopped by the Twisted Tail for a late brunch. They just opened in Headhouse Square and in addition to food and drink, offer live blues music and open blues jams, for those of you inclined. They’re also a bourbon house so they’ve got quite the array of liquors! They also feature a charcoal grill in their kitchen and cook most of their food over open heat, whenever possible.
Of course, they also have beer. The restaurant is really quite big, especially the downstairs. I did not get to check out the upstairs, where the music happens. It’s decorately quite tastefully, even with all of the curly tail motif everywhere. It’s warm and masculine, with a slightly rustic touch.
Here’s some complimentary bread, one which was a corn bread, and one which was a bourbon based bread, I think. See the curly q of butter? Yes, very cute. The corn bread wasn’t particularly corn tasting at all. I like the bourbon bread, it had a little sweetness.
This is the watermelon gazpacho. Delicious and refreshing! It’s made with watermalon, pear tomatoes, jicama, and opal basil. It was a lovely mix of sweet and savory, with nice hunks of the fruit and veggies. It was so surprising and great.
This is the grilled Jersey Blue Fish, with confetti rice, and grilled loco corn. The fish was cooked on the grill, skin on, and was moist and delicious. It had a great flavor, all on its own. The corn had some kind of bbq type of sauce on it, and while already super sweet already, had the added sweetness from the sauce. It was amazing!
I had my eye on the bison meatloaf, and after our server told us it was one of his favorites, I had to go with it. It’s made out of bison! And it comes with a portobello mushroom gravy and green pea whipped mash potatoes. It was all delicious! The meatloaf has a bit of a kick from the glaze that’s on the outside. I’m in love with this green pea whipped mash potato stuff. It’s chunky and has tons of potato skin in it and pea bits. I just loved it.
For dessert, our server recommended the Chocolate Symphony. Why the hell not? It’s a layer of white chocolate pound cake, layers of chocolate mascarpone, a layer of German chocolate cake, and topped with Godiva sauce. They put the sauce on at the table, so you can get as much as you want. So go all out people, go crazy! This thing is nuts! It’s incredibly dense, sweet, chocolatey, and way too much for a weakling like me. I was done after a few bites. But it’s everything you’d think it would be. This was a great meal. Neither of us had any kind of idea what this place would be like. It’s brand spankin’ new and in a location that seems to be fraught with closings. Well, we hope this place stays around for a long time. The food was great and so was the service. Especially the service!

The lovely ladies at Philly Food Lovers invited me to Down Home Diner at Reading Terminal Market to have lunch. I made it a point to not go during the peak lunch hours, but it was still really crazy busy in there! We got a seat in one of their booths, but everything else was full! Jack McDavid servers up home style cooking with a southern twist here. He famously wears denim overalls and a red and white “Save the Farm” trucker’s cap and is super nice. I got a chance to meet him and he certainly serves up some great food. K got the fried catfish with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and philadelphia style pepper hash. This hash is amazing! It’s a sweet and sour slaw of cabbage and bell peper with just enough spice. It would go well with anything!
Here’s C’s Poached On A Biscuit… homemade buttermilk biscuit topped with salt-cured virginia ham, sliced tomato, and two poached eggs. There’s some stewed apples to go with those too. And she also got an order of cheesy grits. After she let the grits sit for awhile, they were just the way she liked them, not too mushy.
And here’s my Cast Iron Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and collared greens. This is a whole lotta chicken that is super hot, super moist, and perfectly fried up. You know what goes really well with it? The philadelphia style pepper hash! And it was even better the next day as leftovers! The sweet potato fries were also amazing, and I think they are twice fried. But the real star of this plate was the collard greens. They are braised and are sweet and savory and not bitter at all. These are some of the best greens I’ve ever had! This was a fun and delicious lunch with some amazing women and tons of delicious food. I need to eat in the city more often!

After actually being in New Orleans, I didn’t want to see any more New Orleans style food. But I kept telling E about it and she wanted some. Now with months having passed since my visit to the big easy, it was time to trek through the snow to check out Catahoula. So I totally didn’t think Catahoula would be where it is. I pictured it being near other restaurants, other nightlife, other shops. But it is really all by itself, except a funeral home nearby. Otherwise, it’s just houses people, just houses. I also didn’t know it would be so teeny! There are only a few high-top tables and then the bar. It’s seriously small, or as they say, intimate.
The gumbo and the crawfish bisque. This is considered a cup, but it sure looks like a giant bowl to me. It’s really sizeable. I can’t even imagine how big the bowl must be. The bisque was delicious. The gumbo was ok, it was a bit too intense for me.
Here are the hush puppies. These puppies are big too. I found them a bit too mushy and undercooked on the inside, but otherwise, they were good. I think we ate maybe two of these.
We both got po-boys. E got catfish and I got shrimp. These were pretty good. The bread is some of the crustiest bread I’ve ever eaten. And not like hard crunchy crusty, but like fall-apart crusty. So every time you took a bite, bits of bread are all over the damn place. It’s good bread, but I just wish it stayed together a bit more. The fries are good too!
I was pretty full, but we ended up sharing the special dessert of the night – Sweet Dee’s chocolate cake, served with vanilla ice cream. OH. MY. WORD. So seriously, this was some of the best cake I’ve ever had in my life. It was so super dense and amazing. And the vanilla ice cream, which was absolutely delicious and simple on its own, was the world’s most perfect compliment for this cake. People, this cake is up there with Golosa’s red velvet cake. And I’m not even a chocolate person! I’m certainly not a chocolate cake person, but I could have eaten the whole thing, and maybe I even did. Our waitress wasn’t the best, and that’s being nice. I hope she has other career aspirations!