Friday, May 13, 2011

The People's Pint, Greenfield, MA

A couple of days ago, before the 2011 Blogger Blowout Maintenance, a day that lies in infamy for plenty of bewildered readers, I was blissfully unaware and enjoying a pint and wings at The People's Pint in Greenfield, with Sugar B and a gorgeous chocolate lab.
I'd never been to The Pint. You'll notice I'm consciously eliminating the "People's" so as to not slip up and misplace the possessive. Peoples is peoples. Goddammit. But as soon as I saw the menu, containing an overload of smoked wings, bacon chocolate chip cookies, green curry, and massive burgers, I was hooked and off we went.
I wanted dessert for dinner so I got an oatmeal stout. Tasted chocolatey and rich without being too hoppy or starchy. Random meaningless beer terms I am throwing around. Hoppy. Um. It was a good flavor. Like cookies that had been hanging out for a while. In a tasty way.
Whole chicken wings are not to be trifled with. Combine the low Neolithic lighting with the gnarled wood tables and I might have been so inclined to rip apart a whole bird seasoned this way. Mmmm. Our appetizer came with four wings that may have been sourced from a free-range, Longmeadow Farms pterodactyl. My fav, you know. While the texture was a bit inconsistent from bite to bite, some somewhat dry and others falling off the bone in mid-air, the flavor was phenomenal and the skin was nice and crispy. Don't trust wing-makers who are shy about charring their birds- these are certainly burnt to a crisp in the most savory, delicious fashion. The sauce took a backseat to the char, but was juicy and pungent with a slight heat. I imagine these would make killer buffalo wings or mustard wings. Any sauce on these. After all, I encourage experimentation.
For an entree, I ordered the embarrassingly named Squealer, a burger clearly not designed for a date in both content and moniker. But I go all way, and with roughly a third of a pound of Shelburne beef and bacon ground together in harmony with cheddar and chipotle mayonnaise, I was definitely okay with eschewing dignity, street cred, and cholesterol for burger-bacon bliss.

The burger was delicious and tender, but somehow lacked the bacon punch I'd expected. We've all seen Serious Eats pull off a 100% bacon burger with gross results, but for some reason, this burger seemed to have less bacon flavor than a burger with bacon on top. A little anticlimatic and kind of strange. The main indication of bacon content in this burger was how soft and juicy it was. It seemed to have a really fine consistency and a fat content that made it almost delicate. The bun must have soaked up the juices pretty well, because this wasn't drippy at all. Chipotle mayo was lubricatious, but could have been a little spicier. An interesting concept, but one that needed some TLC. This was served with a side of rosemary potatoes. Soft and pickupable. Nature's edible toddler.
Sugar had a trout quesadilla that might as well have been wriggling and gasping for air on his plate. Motherfucking oncorhynus mykiss is fucking cuh-razy. The quesadilla was garnished with carrot strips and oozing with cheese but was soft and fishy and delicious dipped in horseradish sauce. The trout was cooked perfectly, soft and flaky. Mmm. Saucy.

And that was dinner! We opted to check out Herrell's for some ice cream. Can't beat old favorites. This was definitely a place I'd check out again.

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