I had a busy weekend a break from my normal curl up and stay home routine I have been in lately. I visited a few local watering holes. Friday night I met some friends at The Idle Rich Pub. Its actually not a bad little pub. It does not compare to my favorite pub in Chicago Fado. Both of these are chains, which is not exactly Pub tradition but who are we kidding, we are not Irish or English so if we have something that works why not reproduce it somewhere else? Welll…. probably because it usually gets watered down. But these two chains have managed to keep a fun environment, good beer, good food… a great place to hang out with friends at their various incarnations. The Idle Rich is in the same chain as The Old Monk and The Dubliner, both of which are old favorites for Dallasitets. I came in and liked what I saw… rustic, big tables, nice big bar, bar games including darts and bar billiards (be kind to the table it is an antique!). Sat down to order and found a multi-page beer and whiskey menu. Which was nice to see… thrilled to see Grolsh. Love them! In particular I love the bottles, but the beer is very good too. I was confused by the lack of Irish beer on the menu though. It turns out that they only have Irish beer on tap. Glad it was there, not a tremendously eclectic selection of Irish beer, but it was a pretty expansive collection of Eastern European beers none the less. If you can’t find a beer you like on there, you don’t like beer. The bartenders were not really very chatty or friendly so that cut down a bit on the Pub atmosphere. I like a friendly bartender. Is it too much to ask for a smile and a how do you do? My friends and I were chatty enough to keep ourselves entertained. We decided we wanted a snack, so we ordered the Belgian Style Steamed Mussels with skinny fries.. They actually were not too bad. I think the mussels could have been a bit fresher and the broth was very nice, I think they were cook a little too dry, so the flavor did not permeate the Mussel the way really amazing steam mussels are, and they were not as tender as I would have liked, but the flavor was good andI enjoyed them. The skinny fries were actually really good and the spicy mayo was nice too. We actually ended up staying so long that we ordered the cheese fries several hours later. Unlike the previous order of fries there are steak cut fries. Thick and perfectly cooked. Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, really very good. They come with a huge layer of cheddar cheese, melted and gorgeous… but a really wayyyyy to much cheese. There is also bacon, red onion, and jalapeno. Here is the problem, the bacon all ended up on the plate, the cheese was so thick that it did not come with the fry when you picked it up. So this yummy collection of ingredients does not come together that well. Don’t get me wrong, we polished off the whole thing, but I think with a few tweaks and some care in implementation, these cheese fries could be amazing.
Saturday night my fabulous friend Vik had a going away celebration at Kismet. So we sent him off with a bang. This is another concept from the creators or Cafe Izmir and Izmir Market and Deli. Sofa’s, dance music, hooka and cocktails. It was too crowded for relaxing on the sofas and smoking hooka. So I will have to try that some other time. Our party was in the back bar which was being manned by the very friendly and happy Nacho. I ordered a Pomegranate Martini because I am currently in love with anything Pomegranate. Nacho mixed the with flair, and made a really, really yummy martini. I would recommend it too anyone… as long as they like fruit 
. I was in the mood to dance, but sadly the DJ kinda sucked. It just was not that danceable. Oh well maybe some other time. Kisses to Nacho cause I am going back for another one of those Martinis!
