Mr. Hawthorne and I went out today
to do a bit of shopping at both Food Lion and Harris Teeter.
Country ribs were on sale for 99 cents a pound
and I'm interested in entering the Nags Head Ace Hardware
Crock Pot Cook Off and I wanted to make a couple of trial runs
with ribs, NOT FISH, being
prominently featured.
Before going grocery shopping,
we decided to have lunch first.
Important caveat:
Never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach
when you're hungry.
There's a new restaurant in Nags Head
we've been wanting to try -
Blue Moon Beach Grill.
It opened the first week in February
but I like to let a restaurant operate
for a bit - to get its sea legs, so to speak-
before we try it out.
We arrived a little before 12 o'clock
and got the last table in the establishment.
There was a birthday party going on that took
up 2 8-tops, and the other 3 tables were occupied.
There were 3 gentlemen at the bar when we got there,
and several more ladies came in for the birthday party
and sat at the bar.
They were extremely busy.
That said,
the service was excellent
and we really didn't have to wait long to be served our meals
in spite of the restaurant being totally full.
I ordered a house salad with fried oysters
and blue cheese dressing on the side.
Baby mixed greens with a a good blue cheese
and tough, crappy tomatoes,
but then that's to be expected in February.
They did note in their menu that their tomatoes
were local -
fresh from Currituck County- when in season.
The oysters?
Excellent.
Perfectly fried.
Plump, juicy, crispy.
Mr. Hawthorne ordered a Caesar salad with the fried oysters
which is always our bench mark test for restaurants.
He liked his dressing, said it was very good,
but you already know
we make the best Caesar dressing.
However, Mr. Hawthorne's complaint was
that this was not a true Caesar salad.
A Caesar salad has nothing but Romaine,
Caesar dressing, perhaps some extra parmesan,
and CROUTONS.
This salad had tomatoes and bacon in it,
and we are both Caesar Salad purists.
Now, I like my croutons and so does Mr. Hawthorne.
There were no croutons on either salad.
Mr. Hawthorne also asked for Tartar sauce
and kept saying something was wrong with it.
I tasted it and didn't detect anything "off,"
except perhaps a little more pickle juice flavor.
He didn't like it at all.
For my entree, I had the Mahi Mahi,
with applewood bacon and a remoulade sauce.
I would have liked for my bacon to have
been cooked a bit more,
but since I didn't eat any except one bite
to check it out,
it was OK.
The Mahi Mahi was a tad overdone
and dry in places,
but still all right.
I attribute it to the fact
that the two chefs in the kitchen
were slammed.
And hey,
when I'm cooking for
30-40
sometimes I might miss stuff too.
I liked the remoulade sauce.
Very good.
I never eat the lettuce, tomato, and buns.
Too much.
I just eat the meat.
Now, on to the fries.
I like crisp fries.
These were typical in-house restaurant fries,
in a word, LIMP.
Why can't anybody do fries right?
If you're going to peel and slice your own fries,
then do the ice bath and
fry them twice.
I want crispy fries.
Else, just dump in some good ol' frozen Ore Ida's
or give me some potato chips
and I'm good to go.
Bottom line:
Mr. Hawthorne wanted a Caesar salad
and the fact that it wasn't a pure Caesar salad
really didn't bother him.
The oysters were "plump and cooked properly."
We will certainly go back again
and try something different.
I was impressed with the two waitresses
who womaned that room with all those people.
It was packed.
And the service did not suffer at all.
Thank you Scott and Melissa.
We'll be back.
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