Barrel House

I feel like we all have those restaurants. The ones we’ve constantly come across, but simply never thought about going there. For me, one of those restaurants was Barrel House Kitchen and Bar, a small spot located in a divided building, sharing its space with a Taziki’s Mediterranean Café. I’ve driven past this place more times than I can count. So, I decided that this would be the day I finally tried it out and I headed off, once again, with my mom and my brother. Now, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I love outdoor seating and thankfully the patio had plenty of seats available. We were seated and given menus within seconds of arrival, some of the fastest service I’ve ever encountered. At my brother’s suggestion, we ordered the chicken bites to start. Quick tip; if you request the sauce on the side, you can pick as many as you want, and we chose three. Garlic parmesan, barbecue, and the Bang Bang sauce. The meat was some of the softest, most tender chicken I’ve ever tasted. It should be noted that I’m very picky about barbecue sauce, with few restaurants carrying one I like. This restaurant is one of them. And the Bang Bang sauce had just enough spice. Although we all seemed to agree that the garlic parmesan sauce was the best. Now when it comes to local spots, I always hunt for the signature items and one of theirs was what they called a Backyard Burger. A perfect coincidence, as it just happened that I was craving a burger at the time, so I chose that, with fries, obviously. For me, I always take it as a good sign when you order a burger and they ask for your preferred doneness level, because that means that the burgers are made to order (I asked for it medium rare). And when my plate came out, I knew just by looking at the fries that they would be crispy. And boy, was I right. My brother said he could actually hear me biting into them. But obviously the burger is the main topic. To start off, it was stacked. I honestly wasn’t sure if I would be able to get a full bite, but I somehow managed to. I’m not sure what the sauce was made of, but its flavor, along with the rest of the topping, complimented to meat very nicely. The patty was cooked exactly how I like my patties, and they either flame-grill their burgers or know how to make them flame grilled. And I can’t forget the lemonade, which is apparently hand-squeezed daily, and it tastes like it. Unlike most commercial brand lemonades that are essentially sugared water with a touch of lemon taste, this has a perfect balance of sweetness and tart. I know an $18 burger sounds a bit crazy, but I can tell you that this one is totally worth it.

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