Localvore Eatery

Back around 1995, there was a small cafe in Mystic, CT that used to use all local produce. I enjoyed walking there for breakfast on Saturday or Sunday mornings (when I didn't have duty) and having omlettes or some variety of eggs benedict with local eggs and vegetables. Unfortunately, it went out of business not long after I moved to Mystic.

I recently read an article somewhere about localvores and places that use local organic produce. Sunday was the first time in 13 years that I've happened upon such a place.

We tried this new restaurant in Ashburn. Actually, it's not really "new" age-wise, but it's new to us. It opened right about the time I left Ashburn two years ago. In any case, this place is AWESOME and immediately one of my new favorite places to eat.

American Flatbread Ashburn (website)

I find that I am more and more attracted to the word "organic" on food or restaurant labels because it usually means NO MSG.

When I saw "Flatbread" in the name of the restaurant, I was thinking it was going to be like Panera or the Atlanta Bread Co. with sandwiches and stuff.

Nope.

Not even close.

This place is "flatbread" as in PIZZA.

Darn it! (Because you know I can't stand pizza - sarcasm).

The atmosphere and decor were modern and similar to Panera, except for the prominent brick oven behind the counter. The walls were decorated with small paintings describing the history of bread, and a large mural of Loudoun County annotated with the location of the farms where the owners purchase their produce.

The food was absolutely AWESOME. I had the special, which was a "Roasted Butternut Squash Flatbread." It had...

Local organic butternut squash with roasted garlic, sage, Cherry Glen Farm chevre, carmelized shallots, argula, and all natural mozz

Oh my gosh it was heavenly good. They have some really good beer on draft, too.

The service was prompt, professional, and friendly.

I expected to pay a premium price for the "local" and "organic" aspects of the food, but the prices were better than I expected. The flatbreads just come in one size, and one flatbread was good for two people. My wife and I shared one flatbread, and we still had a couple of slices left over at the end. I think most of the flatbreads cost around $20, so that's not bad when you consider it feeds two people and then some. They had an individual sized pizza for the kids, too.

Anyway, if you're a LoCo type of person, I highly recommend giving the American Flatbread place a try.

Oh, I noticed they don't have a menu posted on their website, so in case you're curious what type of stuff they've got, I scanned a copy of their paper menu. Click on the image below to see a larger version. In addition to this menu, they had a hand-written specials board with three or four other items that all sounded pretty tasty.

Autumn Fun

I know I've said this before, but I love autumn.

Tree in our backyard

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. It was one of those days where the temperature was on the fence - neither "warm" nor "cold." If I had worn a long sleeve shirt or a fleece, then I would have been uncomfortably warm. Yet, wearing short sleeves, there was just enough chill in the air that the occasional breeze would send a ripple of goosebumps across the skin on my arms.

The trees are still gorgeous. The last time I wrote about enjoying the fall colors, about half the trees were still green, and half were brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red. Now, about half the trees are bare, and the other half have taken their turn to amaze us with their beauty.

I decided we had to take advantage of such a beautiful day while we had the opportunity. I took the boys to the Flash Mob event, which was fun and good to meet a lot of geocaching friends there, but short. Then we stopped to find two traditional ammo-can-hidden-in-the-woods type geocaches.

Found It! (Can you see it in there?)

Bliss.

The boys got first dibs on the toys in the geocache.

The boys showing off the toys they got.

When we got home from geocaching, I decided it was time to rake the leaves. I know this is a chore many people, including me in the past, have dreaded. My wife says she doesn't like autumn for exactly this reason. Then again, it's been three years since I was home during an autumn to rake leaves. My awesome wife took care of all that and more while I was in the training pipeline and off on deployment.

So, I guess there was a sort of novelty in it for me since it's been so long. I found myself smiling while raking and sucking up the leaves this afternoon. I took a sort of perverse pleasure in it.

Believe it or not, there IS grass under all those leaves!

The boys enjoyed the leaves in their own way.

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend, too!

Ashburn Restaurant Reviews

Bonefish has been our favorite restaurant in Ashburn ever since it opened.

One time, we went to the Bonefish down in the Chantilly / Fair Oaks neck of the woods for a friend's birthday. It was right after I got off work and I was still wearing my uniform. When it came time to pay the bill, the waitress came to our table and said, "That guy over at that table is the owner of the restaurant [points in one direction], and that guy over at that table is the regional manager [points in the other direction], and they instructed me to tell you thank you for serving our country and that your dinner is on the house." WOW. Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Two thumbs up for Bonefish!

Now, even if that hadn't happened, Bonefish would still be our favorite restaurant in the Ashburn area. The service is always top notch, the food is always to die for, our kids like the food (which is always a challenge, especially at a nice, semi-fancy restaurant), and they have the cool butcher paper on the table and crayons for you to color on the table. Unfortunately, we can't afford to eat there more than for birthday and anniversary-type special occasions.


Now, shifting to the "affordable but good" category, I think we may have another favorite restaurant in Ashburn.

When we left Ashburn for Hawaii about 15 months ago, there was a Mexican restaurant in the corner of the Broadlands shopping plaza. I only got to eat there once before we left, but I liked it. Too bad. It's gone now.

In it's place, there is a new place called Bluz Brothers BBQ.


We decided to give Bluz Brothers a shot on our second night in town. Much to our surprise, the place was empty...


The hostess explained to us that they JUST opened. They didn't have any sort of a grand opening and did a "soft" opening to allow business to slowly build up and let them iron out any kinks and adjust to the workload.

The waiter brought us a plate of some of their home made potato chips with samples of their four kinds of barbecue sauce to try. The potato chips were really good, and I'm not a big fan of potato chips.

The service was prompt, attentive, and friendly. Then again they had enough staff there to serve all the tables and we were like one of two occupied tables in the restaurant that night.

The food was really good. I had the beef briscuit & chopped pork combo with hush puppies and sweet potato fries. The hush puppies were a little blah, but the rest was really good. We were all really excited about the sweet potato fries because (a) the boys like them, and (b) it's the only time LW can come close to getting the boys to eat an orange vegetable.

Their signature drink is something like a "Bluz Tea" which is iced tea mixed with pink lemonade. (Arnold Palmer?) I thought it was pretty good.

The boys liked it so much that they asked to go back a couple of times since then. Then, this week when the truck delivering my car arrived and agreed to meet us at the Broadlands Shopping Center parking lot after I got off work, the boys said they wanted Bluz Brothers for dinner, so we gave in because it was close and easy. So now after two visits, I can say that I still like Bluz Brothers (and there were a few more customers besides us in the restaurant this time).

My one complaint is that the American flag hanging on the wall behind the bar is hanging backwards (the blue field with the stars is supposed to be on the left, not on the right). I pointed it out to our waiter the first night we went, and he went and told someone about it, but it was still hanging the wrong way when we went back this time.

So if you read this and you go to Bluz Brothers, make sure to comment on their flag hanging backwards!

Incidentally, in the process of searching to see if Bluz Brothers had a website, I happened upon this blog of Ashburn Restaurant Reviews. I'm going to have to check it out and compare notes.