Restaurant Roundup: Bacon Bros Public House, Passerelle Bistro, & Roost Restaurant {Greenville, SC}

imageBacon Bros Public House has been open for less than two years, but many people in town have already declared it one of Greenville’s best restaurants.  Located on Pelham Road, a 15 minute drive from downtown Greenville, the kitchen at this meat mecca is headed up by Chef Anthony Gray (who previously served as the executive chef at High Cotton in Charleston), while the front of the house is the stomping ground for general manager Jason Callaway, who worked with Chef Gray at Coal Fired Bistro (also located on Pelham Road).  As a sommelier and mixologist, Jason is the mastermind behind Bacon Bros’ inventive cocktail list as well as the new reserve wine list offerings.  I met these two fellas during my visit to Greenville with Nichole of Gap Creek Gourmet, and was enamored with this duo of fun-loving jokesters.

The food at Bacon Bros is what I’d call farm-to-table, southern-inspired gastrofare–it’s comforting and hearty, and, sure, they’ve got the southern standards covered, but their urbanized approach has upped the ante.  Pimento cheese?  They serve it up with bacon jam.  Mac and cheese?  Theirs has bacon and chiles.  The burgers?  Made with a house-ground mixture of bacon, brisket, and beef chuck.  Jonesin for some pulled pork?  How bout pulled pork shoulder with cornmeal and country ham waffles (yep, there’s hunks of ham right in the batter), sorghum BBQ sauce, and creamy slaw?  It’s awesome, believe you me, and it was my favorite of all the dishes I devoured at Bacon Bros.

Bacon Bros - Pulled Pork w Waffles

When you’re visiting a place with “bacon” in the name, especially one that cures, smokes, and dries all their meats in house, you’d be remiss to pass on the charcuterie offerings.  The term “in-house” used here is literal–there’s a glass-enclosed curing room near the rear of the restaurant, where you can see the Bacon Bros pride and joy:  all-natural, pasture-raised meats from South Carolina farms, which they pitt smoke with South Carolina peach wood.  They even sell packs of their peach wood smoked bacon to-go for $9.  How’s that for bringing home the bacon?

Bacon Bros -- house-cured meat

There are half a dozen “snacks” (or small plates)  on the menu, including tater tots with smoked pork shoulder, sticky bacon caramel popcorn, and cornmeal fried pickles with smoked ranch.  I imagine most people come to Bacon Bros to eat themselves to the brink of meat sweats (I know I was successful in this mission), but if salad is your thing there are several interesting options, like the frisee topped with a poached farm-fresh egg, kale with grilled fig and lardo (cured meat) vinaigrette, or arugula with lamb ham, apples, and pistachios.

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Oh goat cheese.

It’s funny—I feel like I’ve been running nonstop the past few weeks, but these feet haven’t seen my tennis shoes in nearly a month.  I hate that.  I hate that sometimes life scoops you up in a nonstop whirlwind and you just can’t seem to break free–even for a half an hour—to take care of yourself.

Today FINALLY I laced up my sneakers and spent some quality time with the elliptical and the (GASP!) treadmill.  The treadmill and I aren’t exactly BFFs, but I’ve found that when I read a book or magazine when warming up and cooling down, the treadmill really does hit the spot.

In other fitness news, I signed up for a Y membership which I’m pretty excited about.  I’ve been hearing all about BodyPump, so I’m pretty pumped (wink wink) to try it out myself.

The dinner I made tonight wasn’t very tasty (bummer).  So, instead of sharing a plate o’ blah with you, I chose to share the AMAZING dinner I had this past Friday night.  After work Friday, the BF told me to pick ANY restaurant I wanted for dinner.

Ummm ANY restaurant?!!

My Urbanspoon Charlotte wish list currently has nearly 60 restaurants on it.. and that’s not even factoring in the small restaurants that aren’t listed on the site!  Needless to say, this isn’t the sort of opportunity I take lightly.  After much research, I decided on Mama Ricottas!

Mama Ricottas

Mama Ricotta's on Urbanspoon

Pulling up to the restaurant, you might not expect much.  It’s situated at the end of a shopping plaza at a slightly awkward nook in the road.  They have abundant outdoor seating, but at 6pm on a Friday night we were pleasantly surprised to not have to wait for a table.

First, we were greeted with FREE BREAD! Free bread = happy lady Smile

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This bread was served up with olive oil with red pepper flakes.  I love spiciness, so I was a BIG FAN.

Even though bruschetta was featured as an appetizer on the menu (and we ALWAYS order bruschetta), we decided to step slightly out of or comfort zone and go with the Warm Goat Cheese and Mascarpone Dip with grilled crostini:

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This dip was OUTRAGEOUSLY delicious.  Insane.  Unfathomable.  I wanted to jump in there and curl up in the warm cheesy goodness.

I dare say this dip ALONE is worth the drive from Ohio to North Carolina.

For the entre, we split the individual Penne al a Vodka with grilled chicken.  This was half of the individual portion, which was the PERFECT size after having the appetizer.

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This too was FANTASTIC!  The vodka sauce had a kick to it, which I really enjoyed.  Note that the family size portions are HUGE and also a great deal (if you’re in the mood to feast)!

Unfortunately we were too full for dessert, but no worries.  WE WILL BE BACK!

Now all I can think about is goat cheese.  Oh goat cheese.  <3 <3 <3

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Birthday Recap!

Today I had a lovely lunch with my mom, sister, and nephew at Einstein’s bros bagels.  Einstein’s carries bagel thins now!  So I had a turkey sandwich on a wheat bagel thin with some delicious jalapeno chips.

After lunch,  I headed to Crooked River Salon to get my FIRST EVER pedicure!  I’ve never had a pedicure before simply because it didn’t seem like it would be worth the money (I’ve actually never had a massage either for these same reason).  But, Crooked River has ½ price manicures/pedicures on Mondays and since my birthday happened to fall on a Monday I thought I’d give it a shot. 

Overall, it was a very relaxing experience!  I got to read magazines, drink about 3 cups of coffee, and just kind of hang out while I was pampered.  No complaints here!

I swung by Macy’s to pick myself up a little birthday present:

Clearance rack + $10 off coupon + Macy’s rewards = 😀

Didn’t get to wear these lovelies tonight though, since my toes were still drying! 

For dinner, I met some friends at the Olde Harbor Inn, which is THE place to go for your birthday in my hometown (especially because you get your birthday dinner free 😉 )

I was in the mood to try something adventurous… but took some time pondering the menu before deciding.

My friend Tim went with the Big Island Salmon, which is char grilled and topped with Hawaiian sesame BBQ glaze and fresh pineapple mango salsa:

Allison went with the warm goat cheese salad, which has mixed greens, pine nuts, dried cherries, strawberries, goat cheese, and maple-peppercorn balsamic dressing:

I decided to go all-out and get the Split King Crab Legs!  I’ve never tried them before, and I thought it would be a nice step in the right direction on my long-term journey to liking seafood.

I was a little hesitant at first, but I was given a thorough crab-leg-eatin training session by the bar tender.

My first bite:

Guess what?  I loved them!!!

Of course I made a huge mess:

I had quite a bit of crab meat left over, so I brought it home to use for my lunch tomorrow.  I’ll have to do a little researching tonight to come up with something tasty!

Even thought the BF is in Belgium, his mom and sis stopped by!

They came bearing gifts:

I have a slight obsession with lawn gnomes… Iknow they are borderline creepy.. But I still <3 them!

I was also SUPER excited because I got a free T-shirt for my b-day:

You can always gauge how happy I am by the number of fully exposed teeth you can see in a photo.. hahahahah 😀

After dinner, we HAD to make a stop at Pav’s Creamery, which is THE BEST ice cream stand in our area (or the best in the world, depending on who you ask 😉 )

SOOOOO Many choices!!!!

I went with my old standby:  1 scoop vanilla with peanut butter, hot fudge, and whip cream:

 

Allison got a scoop of the Nuts over Cocounut:

And Tim got the banana yogurt with peanut butter sauce:

 

Fervently happy:

Birthday = Success!  Looking forward to my raincheck bday with the BF 😀

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