Pgh Restaurant Week Meetup: Church Brew Works

I promise I’m not drunk.

Buzzed, sure. But drunk? Not anymore. Definitely about 2 hours ago.

Tonight was my very first blogger/general meetup! After I miraculously won the gift certificates to Sonoma Grille on Julie’s blog, she mentioned that it would be cool to get a meetup going. I figured, hey, what better time for a foodie/blogger meetup than Pittsburgh Restaurant Week? And so it began.

I honestly had no idea what to expect going into this. And really? I thought maybe there would be 3 people, tops. But our turnout tonight at Church Brew Works involved 9 people, thus tripling my expectations! And they were/are all awesome and I’m so happy every single one of them came out! Unfortunately, I thought about a group shot about 5 minutes into my drive home, but the attendees were as follows:

• Me (obviously)
• My friend Natalie and her boyfriend Johander (AKA, “Joe”)
• Julie from Snickies
• Nicole and Greg from Yum Yum
• Mike from Foodburgh
• Brett from Serenity Valley Farm…
• … and his wife Kristie, who is the Pittsburgh Food Examiner

The night started with waters, iced teas… and of course, beers. I started out with the Thunderhop IPA, which is available only in a bottle. The lighting in Church Brew Works (hereafter, “CBW”) is not so great, at least not where we were seated (the pub area), so my pictures aren’t so hot. However, I did take ‘em, so you’re gonna see ‘em, like it or not.

The Thunderhop IPA was darker in color than expected, but nice and hoppy, just how I like my IPAs.

While everyone was looking over the beer/dinner/pub/Restaurant Week menus, I took a few pictures of the unique CBW interior…

After about half my beer, since I hadn’t eaten anything since about noon, my pictures started to look like this:

I’m afraid Natalie was my designated photographer for some of the following shots.

CBW had 2 specials for Restaurant Week – Jambalaya and a Mango & Black Pepper grilled chicken breast with coconut rice. Both entrees included a cup of soup (it was a roasted vegetable with bacon (!!!!) tonight) and bread pudding for dessert. I’m a freak for anything that involves coconut these days, so I ordered the mango chicken with coconut rice. I also ordered beer #2… a coconut stout. Apparently I don’t have pictures of that, though… maybe because I was already drunk after one beer? In addition, Mike ordered a bottle (champagne-bottle-sized) of the Cherry Quadzilla beer for us all to try, but that also escaped the camera… and my bill, apparently. So Mike, if you’re reading this… thank you and I’ll buy you a beer at the next meetup I attend!

I was eagerly anticipating every aspect of this meal – 1. I love bacon. Truth. 2. I love mangoes. And coconuts. 3. Bread pudding is always a winner.

Church Brew Works definitely delivered.

The roasted vegetable soup with bacon (notice Natalie’e handiwork vs mine):

Natalie's photo

Drunky McDrunkerson's photo

Since I was with fellow bloggers, I had no shame busting out the camera when the entrees arrived. First, I captured Julie’s gorgeous pizza:

Natalie’s fish tacos:

Johander/Joe’s plantain sandwich (which I had the last time I ate there):

And finally, my mango chicken. Sorry to the people whose meals I missed – I desperately needed some sustenance to offset the beer at this point!

I can only speak about my dinner, but I was pretty blown away. The chicken was juicy and flavorful, with just the right amount of sauce, the coconut rice was AMAZING, and even the vegetables were fantastic. Typically I hate cooked carrots, but CBW roasted them, so they were sweet and not at all mushy – almost like sweet potato fries. The broccoli was also perfectly done – not at all mushy and not at all smothered in butter. Everything tasted great. Really, really great. I’d say it was one of the best meals I’ve had in months. The atmosphere, company, and [yes] beer could have played a part in that, but the food was honestly really good.

I’d say 4 or 5 of us got the Restaurant Week special, which entailed bread pudding for dessert. I thought we’d each get a small cup of bread pudding. Instead, we each got a mammoth plate full of bread pudding, sauce, and raisins. Ridiculous. And mmm mmm good!

By the end of the night, I had 2 boxes full of food to take home. I blame being sick for the past week – my appetite has just not been the same since. I almost felt bad representing myself as the “Human Vacuum” since I barely ate half my dinner and only a few bites of my dessert before boxing it all up. However, I redeemed myself when I finished off 2 random beers at the end of the night. Not my beers. Just random beers.

I also like how at the end of the night, after relaying the story of how my half-eaten-with-teeth-marks-in-it  buffalo chicken sandwich from W.G. Grinders was stolen from the work refrigerator, Brett grabbed my 2 boxes of food, scratched out my name and put a warning on the boxes.

That should do it, right? Hmm… knowing some of the people I work with, I’m not so sure…

I’d say this meetup was a huge success! I think everyone had a great time (I know I did!), and everyone seemed to enjoy the food and drinks. Plus, it was so great to put a face to some of the people I’ve been reading about for the past year or so!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what a huge help two people were – Joe Harvey from the Pittsburgh Restaurant Week site was extremely helpful in warning CBW of our impending visit and in putting CBW in contact with me. He did an awesome job of checking up on the date/time/number of people/special requests, etc., so THANK YOU JOE!

In addition, Sean Casey, the manager [I think] of CBW, was very helpful and patient with me when I called him at 8:30 this morning. He listened to all my requests/concerns and despite my lack of planning (I’m really not world’s greatest organizer/planner), he really helped make the night a huge success.

We had no issues whatsoever with service/food/drinks/etc. In fact, I thought our server was pretty excellent – she made sure we always had beer/water/tea, checked back to make sure everything was okay, was very knowledgeable about the beer menu, and didn’t make us wait [at all!] for our checks and to pay. She seemed very competent and personable, didn’t give us any problems with so many people needing separate checks, and she was always within sight if we needed her.

All in all, it was a great night and I can’t wait to do it again!

Thanks to everyone for coming out!