MEATLOAF, A LUST STORY
Meatloaf…no, not the fat-ass Ballad Rocker from ‘Fight Club’, I mean the culinary oddity that once delighted half the kids in America, and terrified the other half, blame mom.
In my opinion, the idea of the Holy Grail is to find the pinnacle of whatever you happen to be seeking, whether it’s life, love or something your parents would force into a bread pan and bake for an hour. I suggest everyone should try BAD meatloaf, if you haven’t already. It is, without a doubt, the most brutal dish one could ever screw up, because if you mess it up, not only does it taste like potting soil, but also you can never clean the pan again. The loaf welds itself to the side of the bread pan and now your throwing away two things.
In order to confirm that I’ve actually found GREAT meatloaf, I brought a couple friends along (yes I have friends) to sample what I’ve wanted to write about for quite a while. The British Beer Company is a new establishment in Manchester and I was curious to see how the food and hospitality was on a packed Friday evening. My friends were already seated when an absolute sweetheart of a server was already taking our beer orders, and since I was there for work reasons technically, I highly recommend drinking on the job, I wish congress would drink on the job…maybe they already do and this wouldn’t help further my argument. Maybe I’ll stick to cute servers and righteous meatloaf. Once Miss SmilyPants took off with our drink order, it wasn’t long before she returned with a hors d’oeuvre like plate of beer for my friends and little something for myself. Now during this very short and enjoyable process, the entire restaurant was packed, the bar didn’t have a single free stool and yet none of the staff seemed to miss a beat, the front of the house was polite, the serving staff were cruising around without any panic and the bar patrons were quite cheery as their B.A.C continued to rise. You wouldn’t have noticed a full house, things were running so smoothly, now maybe the kitchen staff was in “War of The Worlds” mode, but you couldn’t tell from the looks of the food that was passing by my table. Now I admit, I can be a little impatient on Friday afternoon; my buddies say I act like I blew 4 lines of coke and have the look of Walter White, but I was no match for the speed of the appetizers to our table and how fast the main courses soon followed.
It’s now here, Mashed Potatoes…Fresh Vegetables…Meatloaf.
The sound of Coldplay’s “Fix You” stuck in my head, making the moment fairly emotional as I take my first bite into the moist, gravy covered, steaming…oh dear.
How can something so easily botched by domestic households everywhere be so done to perfection here? Why do I even care? They have a bar with every beer you would want on draft, they have servers that would melt Hitler’s heart, and all I can mentally process is this simple European staple? Well it’s why I came here in the first place. It is that good. I can’t get past it. And why would one want to? There are so many overdone, overrated and overcooked piles of garbage out there, that when something this enjoyable comes along, it deserves recognition. There are other entrée’s to choose from, like the Pot Roast; which is a beast of a dish, but tonight it’s all about the loaf. The BBC is a clear winner and deservedly so. They do it right and that’s all that matters.
British Beer Company
603-282-0589 (Manchester, NH)