Richo's Brewpub

http://www.newalbanian.com/

 

A heavenly delight was had not too long ago. The date was August and the temperatures had climbed into the the stratosphere of the 90's and beyond for the past week. When they redescended from the gods, we celebrated bacenalian-style and went to Rich-O's brewpub for some mid-70's socialization.

Happy patrons

I found myself waiting alongside friends, Michael and Beth of the Holladay Platter http://holladayplatter.blogspot.com/. And it should go without saying that, Wow!, we had a great time out. The conversation was quite lively; we mainly focused on the couples who were in our surrounds and whether they had intimate plans afterwords.

All yunking aside, when our food came we were very impressed. We all ordered some appetizers to start: a spinach queso alongside some stuffed mushrooms. Stuffed mushrooms happen to be an old friend of mine. I like them stuffed with creamy, bubbly cheese and spicy sausage so that they are juicy, oily, and oozing by the time they hit my mouth. These were no exception.. they were great! Also, the queso did not disappoint. There was a lot of it to go around, as we had seven in our party. 

A still happier patron

Then came the delight: pizza. Why go and drink beer at any old spot if you can drink beer at 1) a brewery 2) that's known for it's good pizza. That's the ultimate American combination, and tonight it was winning. 

We all went out on a limb and ordered what's called an upside-down pizza. These are chicago-style, deep dish pizzas that are served in an inverted, Western-New York kind of way. They had the charm of Frank Sinatra with the looks of Cosmo Kramer.

Mine was a meat pizza with italian sausage, jalapenos, and tomatoes. Michael and Beth ordered a spinach and banana pepper pizza. Usually I steer away from ordering a spinach pizza because I worry that my mouth will get confused into thinking that it's ordered a salad and will detest the experience; however, their Za came highly recommended. 

Oh yeah: have I forgotten about the beer? Yeah, I have. And actually I have in the literal sense. I had some good beers there, different beers. All lighter - one foreign hefeweizen, I now recall and one fruity, belgian-type brew. Everyone was impressed with their beers and I was unduly glad to imbibe!

Cheers to many more years, of celebrations and occasions at places like RichO's brewpup. They will be remembered for their reasonable-priced drinks, their pizza that was good, but whose crust could use some spice and fresh flavor, and for a limitless option of drinks as well.