LizStambaugh "http://whatstoeatbaltimore.blogspot.com/"

I know there has been a LARGE gap between my soft opening review and now. Please forgive me, as I know several of you have been waiting for the “Official” review.

I have to admit I’ve been to The Abbey Burger Bistro a few times prior to this event. It always seemed though I was there for just drinks, or dessert, or even worst of all, I didn’t have my camera.

Well this time around I planned ahead, and was prepared. My father-in-law decided he wanted to celebrate his birthday at The Abbey and I was very happy to hear it. Six of us arrived on a Sunday afternoon (before pre-March Madness) around 2:00PM. The bar was half full and so were the tables downstairs. The staff was happy to put together two tables for us to accommodate our party of six.

We decided to start out with some appetizers, and ended up ordering the Waffle Fry Nacho’s and The Original Wings. I have to start out and say that I am biased when it come to waffle fries. I love waffle fries, and could eat a basket of just them, but add nacho toppings and I was in heaven!

When the wings arrived, I was half expecting average wings, but was pleasantly surprised. They had your traditional buffalo style sauce, but ALSO had a slight flavoring of Old Bay! Though it wasn’t described on the menu, I swear I tasted Old Bay.

For dinner, we of course had burgers. I daringly opted to try the Peanut-Butter Burger, and Nathan ordered the Lamb Burger. We opted to each have half of each others so we could taste more than one burger.

I was very nervous about ordering the Peanut-Butter Burger, what if I didn’t like it? Nathan had tasted it before and kept assuring me it was good, but sometimes our tastes differ……severely.

The Peanut-Butter Burger came with Roseda beef, smoked bacon, creamy peanut-butter on a classic bun. Nathan advised me to order it on the medium-rare side to add juiciness.

The Peanut-Butter Burger was surprisingly tasty! It had a great combination of sweet and salty, and not too much peanut-butter to over-whelm. I do suggest, if you order this burger make it medium or rare. If you order it cooked any more the peanut-butter combined with the beef may leave it a little dry.

Next to the Lamb Burger, I have had this burger before and once again it was awesome. The Lamb Burger is very Greek styled with cucumbers, onion, herbed yogurt, lettuce, and of course lamb on all on a toasted pita bun. It was a nice cool and refreshing taste and of anything with lamb, I’m all for.

Nathan and I both ordered Sweet-Potato Fries with out burgers, and happily devoured them. If you have never had them, once again I encourage you to PLEASE try sweet-potato fries. Once you have those, you will never go back to regular fries, well, unless they are waffle fries.

For dessert Nathan had a home-made Chipwhich, and I a Banana Split with pistachio ice-cream. ( please don’t judge my pistachio obsession).

The Chipwhich is an ice-cream cookie sandwich made on home-made cookies. Nathan opted for vanilla ice-cream on his.

So once again, I challenge any other place in Baltimore to make a better burger than The Abbey Burger Bistro. I love The Abbey for its uniqueness, creativity, and oh yeah the large massive amount of craft beers they offer. I’m not sure, but I possibly may just be in burger-love with this place.

There is nothing better in life than a good burger and a cold beer. I am very excited about the Abbey opening up and by the looks of the crowd Friday night, I think there are also a lot of other people who are too. If you are wondering where the Abbey is, it’s where the Sky Lounge used to be in Federal Hill. They officially open up this week, however Nathan and I stopped by Friday for a sneak peak.

We walked to the Abbey around 6:45. The decor was warm and inviting. We were able to grab two seats at the bar, and there was only one table down-stairs left. By 7:30 all the seats in the house were taken, and it was becoming standing room only.

In regards to the food, they offer any combination you can imagine to make a burger by using a unique “check-list” menu. This is where you fill out a piece of paper that almost looks like a survey, picking your meat, bread, toppings, sauce, and cheese. You also get to pick out sides too. Nathan went with a lamb burger on pita, with cucumbers and a Greek style yogurt. It also came with a side of home-made chips. I went with an Angus burger on a regular bun that had cheddar cheese, a spicy sauce, and Fois Gras. I will say for all you Fois Gras lovers out there, they give you your fill. And all controversies aside, it was good…really good. I also had a “La Chouffe” which was a Belgian Strong Ale. It was quite tasty, and complimented my burger well. I ordered a side of regular fries with my burger, which was topped with a garlic stuffed olive.

Nathan and I were both very happy with our choice of food, and were actually very full. We noticed they had several milk-shake varieties that all offered some sort of alcohol in them. But since it was just a soft opening, they weren’t serving them yet. They also opened up the up-stairs bar around 9, and that helped ease the crowd.

The kitchen is open till 12:00 AM, so you can get your late night burger crave on. They also have a few TVs downstairs all tuned into an ESPN channel, so you can get your burger, beer, and football fix all at the same time.

We will most definitely be back, a week or so from now. Then I will share some pictures and an official review. So for now, you will just have to check it out for yourself. If you are wondering What’s To Eat in Baltimore, the Abbey is the place to check out. This is Baltimore’s only fully customizable burger bistro. Move over 5 Guys, The Abbey is grilling up fresh local burgers with creative flare and unique toppings… and ohh yeah… beer.

I was super excited to go to the Baltimore Foodies Holiday Party. Not only was it on my birthday, but I would be seeing some of my favorite people including Lars Rusin from The Great Cheese who also heads up the Baltimore Foodies. We were also going to see Beej and Darcy. To our surprise our friends Trey and Angela Lewis from Gunpowder Bison attended the dinner as well. Nathan and I grabbed a drink and began wondering around the quaint dining room.

I had never been to Jack’s Bistro before, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I found out that Jack is not really Jack, but Jack is Ted. And Ted is who most people would think is Jack. Maybe there was a Jack at some point, but I’m not sure. As Ted explained it, its a throwback to Three’s Company.

Anyway, Ted is a owner and the head chef at Jack’s Bistro. He’s a delightful man, and an amazing chef. By the looks of the regular menu, he also looks like he loves to have fun while creating dishes like macaroni and chocolate or foie gras poutine.

We arrived at Jack’s a little bit early so I could take some pictures. It was a good thing that we did, because once everyone arrived I would have never gotten the pictures that I did. They had everything set up buffet style, and I think that would have been better than 50 hungry people berating the waitstaff all at once. There was all kind of foods at different stations and Nathan and I were not shy to be the first to sample.

I first tried all the cheeses that were brought by Lars from The Great Cheese.

My favorite was the cheese curd. I could have eaten a whole bowl of those. I thought mozzarella was my favorite but after that…I’m a curd lover now.

There also was a designated “Veggie” area that consisted of two types of salads, and grilled asparagus. The asparagus was wonderful. I don’t know why it is, but grilled veggies always taste so much better. There also was a bowl of macerated fruit, which we discovered was quite strong. Nathan of course went back for seconds and thirds and now I know how to get him to eat healthy. Tomorrow I will be soaking his green beans in vodka.

At the end of the table of salad and cheese, they had a two chaffing dishes with Truffle mashed potatoes and Spanish Chorizo. Sadly I wasn’t able to get a picture before people dove in. But I will say this, after having Truffle Potatoes I don’t think we can go back to normal ones. They were so rich, and buttery and savory.

At the next station they were slicing fresh suckling pig and paired it with several sauces. I personally liked the cilantro sauce, which I would have never thought to put with pork. Of course, the photo of Beej and Nathan contains the only part of the pig that was left… the head!

On the same table was the Oyster Station. Ted was behind the bar the entire time shucking raw oysters to order. He was talking to all the guests and was an excellent host. Shamefully I am not a lover of raw oysters like most, so I waved and walked past quickly. Along with the oysters there were several vodkas to partake in.

You can also see on the right side of the picture above, the Sous Vide station was also set up. There was duck breast, pork loin and beef loin. There was also some sauces to go with your meat, I couldn’t remember all the names, but my favorite was a semi sweet apple bacon sauce. It went really well with the duck and beef.

All the food was amazing. The nice thing about the buffet is that you can keep going back, and back, and back….

On top of all that food, the event also featured an open bar. I tried to take some pictures but none of mine did it any justice. So the one I have posted is from Jack’s Bistro’s website. It was nice to see that they had some Brewer’s Art beers like Ozzy on tap, and also Delirium Tremens in small bottles. This is a favorite of Nathan’s and although Nathan loves Max’s on Broadway… he says it was nice to see Delirium somewhere else. So if you like Belgian Ale’s and you see a grey bottle with pink elephants on it, taste it. Nathan and Beej also discovered Barenjager. Barenjager is a German honey flavored liquor. The rest of the night all that I heard from Nathan was “Hey lets do some shots.”, followed by the clinging of glasses and him saying “I just raided Pooh Bears house and stole some honey.”

Once again I encourage all of you to attend a Baltimore Foodies event. Make sure to visit the website and sign up for their newsletter so you can get notified on upcoming events. And stop by Jacks and say Hi to Ted. You won’t be disappointed. We are going back soon and checking out the regular menu. Maybe I will see you there…

The Sunday before Christmas, Nathan, his parents, and I went to go see our friend Wade Tyree’s movie premiere at the Senator. We decided to have dinner before-hand at Ryan’s Daughter.

If you are ever looking for a great authentic Irish meal, Ryan’s Daughter is the place to go. Not only do you get a great pub feel, you are always guaranteed a tall draft of Guinness.

I have eaten several things off the menu, and it’s all wonderful. My favorite item off the menu is the Shepherds Pie. It’s the most glorified chicken pot pie ever. It has a buttery flakey puff pastry crust, and is filled with shredded chicken and vegetables. And to make it even better it’s topped with pipped mashed potatoes.

Nathan ordered the Potted Stew that night. The stew consists of braised beef and lamb and served in a bread bowl. It is very savory and equally tasty to my beloved Shepherds Pie. After our meal we walked over to The Senator to see Wade’s movie “Sinner”.

So if you are looking for a great Irish dinner, or a great pub to get a drink, Ryan’s Daughter is “The Pub To Eat In Baltimore”.