LFM: The Jury Room

The crazy and hectic continues with meetings, appointments and more!  But I wanted to share a Local Foodie Moment with you before I got too busy to blog!  So after trying Dirty Frank's and Betty's, two of the Columbus Food League's "anti-establishments" I decided Jury Room was next up.

My lovely gal pals and I had plans to see Wicked downtown(side note: It was super good, sing it Elphaba, sing it girl!  And Glinda is my Broadway alter ego next to Elle Woods from Legally Blonde: The Musical.  You have to have "Popular" stuck in your head by now....of which I will NOT apologize for!).  Since it was a Friday we decided to get drinks and dinner before.  Jury Room is only a couple blocks away from the theater and their happy hour specials last until 7.

We walked in around 6 and were able to be seated right away. First things first, cocktails!  I ordered The Hung Jury: your choice of local vodka or gin (I chose gin) with St. Germain liquor and fresh lime juice.  Kourtney ordered the Bordello Bubbly: local Stone Fruit vodka, Chambord, champs & bitters.  Last but not least, Emily got the Jury Juice: rum, lime juice & 7up.  We were all very pleased with our choices, once we decided on those we had to get serious about the menu!

Clockwise from the left: The Hung Jury, Bordello Bubbly and Jury Juice!

Since appetizers are half off during happy hour we decided to split two, the Gouda Bites and the Fried Green Olives.  The Gouda Bites were sinfully good!  They were paired with a spicy ketchup that added just the right kick.

Gouda Bites (aka guilty pleasure!)

The Fried Green Olives were stuffed with blue cheese.  These were good but the saltiness of the olive overpowered everything and you couldn't really taste the blue cheese.  Slightly disappointing but we still managed to make a good dent in them!

Fried Green Olives

Inside of the Fried Green Olives, stuffed with blue cheese!

We decided since we got appetizers we would go with sandwiches for dinner so that we could all get the truffle fries (BIG truffle fans here!).  Between the three of us we ordered one of the Veggie Melt, the Beer Battered Fish Sandwich and the Grilled Mac-n-Cheese Brisket Sandwich.  I snapped pictures of the Veggie Melt and the Fish Sandwich but was far too hungry to fuss with taking any more pictures! 

Veggie Melt with a side of truffle fries

Beer Battered Fish Sandwich with a side of truffle fries

All of us were extremely pleased with our meals.  The truffle fries were fabulous, they had a little sprinkling of parmesan cheese and a side of spicy mayo.  We all had leftover halves of our sandwiches as the portions were sizable!  

Our servers were great, very patient with us since it took us some time to finally decide on what we wanted.  The atmosphere is quaint, a little "hole in the wall" feeling with probably only 10 tables inside and 5 or 6 on the patio.  It is right down the street from the courthouse so I imagine its a good place to go after work.  With the great happy hour specials its definitely a place to try!    

Next up, the other brussel sprouts recipe I promised and a summer cocktail!  Chris and I are headed to Miami this weekend for Alumni Weekend!  I have a meeting and he is (gladly) along for the ride.  We are hoping to sneak in a few wedding errands while we are there but we are really excited to spend the weekend with friends in one of our favorite places!

Cheers!

Steph

Local Foodie Moment: Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace

Happy Friday everyone!  After an interesting car problem saga yesterday (four hours of mini meltdowns, two tow trucks sent my way and partridge in a pear tree and I came to realize I was using Chris' car key in my car, insert slap forehead moment here)  I think its safe to say this week has been a doozy so why not make it better with another LFM?!

My friend Kourtney and I were headed downtown for a concert (Brett Eldredge, who is kinda great...look him up, just do it!)  and wanted to grab drinks and dinner before.  Downtown isn't always our destination for hang outs so we asked Siri for some restaurant ideas.  She gave us 18 ideas.  Having to pair those down while driving was a smidge tricky but we landed on Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace.  Kourt had been there, I had heard of it but had never been.  At the thought of trying a "new to me" local spot plus their specializing in hot dogs I was totally giddy!  Once summer rolls around I'm a BIG hot dog fan, slightly picky (if its charred too much I don't eat it, and I'm a little brand loyal) but big fan nonetheless.

It took me close to forever to decide on a hot dog, there are so many combinations and everything sounded so good!  They even have vegetarian and vegan choices!  I finally landed on the Zippity Zam which is a hot dog with roasted red peppers and Sriacha cream cheese.  Sounds totally weird, but it was totally delicious!  I got the mac and cheese as a side which was no exception (since this was a wedding diet splurge meal I thought go big or go home when it comes to sides, my abstaining from such goodies made this choice well worth it).

Zippity Zam!

Kourtney got The Doginator, a bacon wrapped hot dog topped with beef brisket, BBQ sauce, cheddar & onion rings with tater tots for a side.

The Doginator!

For cocktails I got the Joe Asbury (or something, I can't remember entirely) and Kourt had the Ride the Lightening.  Mine was a spiked sweet tea lemonade that was nice and refreshing after a warm day working at the Memorial Tournament.  Kourtney's was a kicked up version of lemonade, I snagged a sip and it was almost like lemon lime gatorade, very yummy!

It's a smaller place but the atmosphere makes it really cool, there is all kinds of paraphernalia on the walls from baseball player caricatures to rock and roll bands.  We sat at the bar and the bartender was really helpful and very patient with my indecisiveness.  The food came out fast but I suppose that's the advantage to the type of fair they make.  We were both pleased with our selections and everything was very tastey!  The hot dog had a good snap to it (HD aficionados you know what I'm talking about, that  delicious pop of the casing being cooked just right), the bun was nicely steamed and the toppings were the right proportions.

They have different flavor infused liquors that I'll have to go back to try, like their peanut infused vodka!  Dirty Frank's is actually owned by the same restaurant group (Columbus Food League) as Betty's, a restaurant I shared with you not too long ago!  Kourtney and I will actually be going to another one of CFL's restaurants tonight with Emily before we see Wicked.  Review of the Jury Room to come!



Have a great weekend!

Cheers!
Steph