I’d been to Redstone a few years back, but had never gone to a happy hour there. D set up one of his big happy hours, so I headed out. They have an outdoor patio area, which is covered, so it’s actually a really nice spot for a summer happy hour. I can see why it was so packed! And seriously, when I say packed, I mean packed. The poor server was entirely way too flustered! I felt bad for the little guy! I got a strawberry and balsamic martini. I forget what booze is in it, but it has pureed strawberry and a hint of balsamic. Ooh la la, this thing was tasty! And extremely strong. Like punch you in the face strong. I was not about to have two of these!
Here is the calamari dish that somebody ordered. They served it up with some spicy peppers and garlic and a chipotle aioli. Not bad!
Here are some cute little pulled pork sliders that somebody ordered. I didn’t try them, but they look quite nice. There’s some slaw in there, and some thinly french fried onion rings. The other popular drink of the night was this mango martini. Apparently, it wasn’t very strong and it cost more than my strawberry one! Suckas!
I was super hungry, and quickly needed a good amount of food to counteract that extremely strong drink. So I got the meatball sliders. I was talking to the server for some recommendations and he asked me how hungry I was. I told him very, and so he suggested these little cuties. Basically, they took a meatball sandwich and just wrapped each meatball around a cute little bun. Again, not bad, not bad at all.
But my favorite thing I tried was the cornbread! They call it the lodge cornbread and make it from scratch and bake it in this cast iron skillet. This is a big ass serving of cornbread, obviously. I absolutely loved this! I’m a big fan of cornbread, so when I find good cornbread, it totally makes me happy. It was dense, moist, and full of actual corn pieces. It was sweet and also spicy, with some jalapenos in it. This is the winner of the night!

There may be hundreds of restaurants I’ve yet to try in Philadelphia, but sometimes, I just want to be lazy and stay a bit closer to home. So we drove up the street for a nice and easy dinner at Tiffin in Wynnewood. I really like the feel of this place. It’s completely casual and free of pretension. And considering it’s on the main line, that can sometimes be very hard to come by. And it’s a BYOB people. Score! We got one of the monthly appetizer specials, the Tandoori Broccoli. It is broccoli marinated with herbs and spices and cooked in the traditional clay oven. It wasn’t anything great, just smoky broccoli. But we both love broccoli so we enjoyed it.

I think my whole reason for ever eating indian food is for the naan. It’s just some of the best bread you could ever eat. Some onion and garlic naan that we housed. I think I prefer the garlic naan here a little bit more than the onion one, because the garlic one is slightly more crispy. The onion one is a bit more soggy.

We went smart and just split the Chicken Korma as our entree. For anyone new to indian food, this is an extremely safe dish to try. It is big hunks of chicken breast cubes in a creamy cashew sauce. The sauce is incredibly rich and creamy, after all, it’s made with ground cashews. It has a nice and mild flavor, and won’t offend anyone, especially if you have an aversion to flavors you may traditionally associate with indian food, such as curry or cumin. It’s a perfect dish for dipping your naan into. It’s as if they created it as a vehicle for the naan to enter into my gullet. Yeah, I’ll say it, the chicken korma was my naan delivery device. And it was an excellent naan delivery device.

I had to make another trip to chicago, and my first night there, I stayed in the northern burbs. We were both starving so we decided to go eat right away, even though it was hella early for dinner time. Who cares. When I’m hungry, I need immediate sustenance! I saw some good reviews for The Captain’s Quarters, which was about 50 yards up the street, so we headed there. This place is corn and kitsch, personified, but I loved it. It’s a fisherman’s theme all the way, and hilarious, with stuffed fish everywhere, awesome oil paintings of ship captains, with pipes and all. You have to love those chairs!

Yes, it’s a seafood restaurant, but you can get your typical turf dishes as well. Judging by the menu, this place is run by greeks, so you can even get some greek dishes, as well as many pasta dishes.

You get a side salad with any entree. There was nothing exciting about this salad, but I was happy to eat some fresh greens.

J got the pasta bolognese, and he loved it. He cleaned his plate!

I got the pasta with shrimp in lobster sauce. It was thick fettuccini with large grilled shrimp, tossed in an incredibly rich lobster sauce. This was very good, but it was beyond rich! It was as if they took super thick lobster bisque and basically used that as a sauce. It was very tasty, but probably not for everyone. Subtle it is not! And it was a giant bowl, so I had plenty left over. Since it was so early, there were very few of us there, just the early birds, and our server was super nice and friendly. If you’re ever up in these parts, definitely go check it out!

The Captain’s Quarters
3566 Milwaukee Ave
Northbrook, IL 60062
(847) 298-5091