Hot Rods

Tuesday night we went to one of my top 3 favorite restaurants - Hot Rods in Wharton.  Where one of the best ciccerones (ok I have no idea how to spell that) works.  One of my pet peeves is a "craft beer pub"  that is 95% IPAs with a couple of sours and maybe a cider thrown in. Some of us don't like IPAs!!! Chris has a really great on tap list  - yes there are IPAs, but there are ales and stouts and other interesting things for people like me (as well as a pretty long bottle list)  I got a flight.

From left to right is Nitro Milk Stout (super smooth and creamy low abv of 6% I could drink a gallon), Great Divide Chocolate Yeti (9.5% abv- super chocolatey), Magnify Black Wheat (espresso, malty with some hoppy kick 5%abv - brewed in Fairfield NJ - and they have a tasting room... oh Curt!!)and Angry Erik (I don't remember which it is - they are located in Lafayette, NJ have a tasting room -BYOF - that's bring your own food - and they fill growlers and grunts!!!!)  The Angry Erik was like the perfect compromise between wanting an ale and wanting a bourbon.  I spent the entire evening with that one...

The one thing I HAVE  to have when going to Hot Rods is the bacon wrapped burnt ends.  Seriously the best food ever!! You can see the plate before I got to them in front of Curt up top.

I couldn't stop myself from taking a bite of my burger - ok several bites - before remembering to take a picture.  I got the Choppperblox - rare.  As you can see - they actually know how to make a rare burger ( I really don't trust the "freshness" of meat in places that won't do rare) topped with BRISKET and BACON, habenero jack cheese - I left off the onions.  Burger heaven!!  Seriously no need to decide if I want a burger or brisket when I can have both - and topped with bacon??  The bad day I had just melted away.  Curt had ribs. I was too busy eating my burger to take a picture of his dinner... oops

And yes - I was bad and had almost half of dessert... so worth it...