way more than cheesesteak

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Sunday, January 9, 2011 @ 7:50 PM

O'Rourkes = O'Mygoodness

Sometimes the best things in life are right under our noses. I worked right around the corner from O'Rourkes Diner for two years and never once stepped through the door. Big. Mistake.

Over Thanksgiving break, my dear friend Emily of AChangeofEatery and I planned to get together to catch up. When she suggested O'Rourkes, I was thrilled. I had heard so much about it from my time working in Middletown, and the thought of eating Irish-inspired food with my favorite Ireland traveling pal was too good to pass up!

I got there a few minutes after Emily and when I joined her, she was already cozied up to a huge mug of mulled cider. Laden with sweet apples and whole cloves, the first sip made me think of curling up under a blanket with a good book while fluffy snowflakes fall past the window.

Picking a drink was a no-brainer, but choosing my meal was a dilemma. O'Rourkes specializes in Irish-inspired dishes, but they have an extensive list of creative takes on breakfast, lunch and diner classics. Take their fried oatmeal (fried and topped with jam) or their babka french toast, or the Omelette of My Dreams (caramelized onion pesto, provolone cheese, topped with hollandaise and served with brown bread). After years of being a strictly scrambled girl, I recently discovered that I like eggs benedict. O'Rourkes has over 14 different variations on the classic dish, so it was tough to narrow down my choices. Ultimately, I let a name win me over: Irish Ecstasy.

The dish was just that--grilled colcannon topped with eggs & hollandaise sauce, served with corned beef hash and (my favorite) brown bread. The eggs were perfectly cooked, the colcannon was buttery and delicious. The brown bread took me back to my summer in Galway.

I left, stuffed to the brim, kicking myself for not taking advantage of this delicious diner while it was down the street. Luckily for me, I had the opportunity to come back over Christmas break. I brought my friend Elizabeth with me and raved to her about the menu outside in line as we waited to get in. (It's always a good sign when there's a line out the door!)

This time, I went for a sweeter breakfast--the banana bread french toast. Oh. My. Goodness. Freshly baked banana bread, dipped in an egg batter, cooked and then topped with Bananas O'Rourke (think Bananas Foster but with Irish Whiskey) and served with clotted cream and a slice of watermelon. I was afraid the banana bread would be dry, but it was moist and rich with a touch of cinnamon. The clotted cream balanced out the banana perfectly. I am drooling just thinking about it.

I should also mention that O'Rourke's was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. If you watch this video below, you can actually watch Brian O'Rourke, the owner, make banana bread french toast. Watching it makes me want to hop in my car and drive the 200 miles it would take to get there.

So, if you find yourself in Middletown, CT, I implore you, GO TO O'ROURKE'S! The menu is incredible, the food is top-notch, the service is stellar. Take one bite of Irish Ecstasy or the banana bread french toast and you might agree...

O'Rourke's Diner

728 Main Street

Middletown, CT 06457

860-346-6101

Mon - Sun: 6am-3pm

Fri & Sat: 5-9pm (dinner hours)

Labels: banana bread, bananas, breakfast, CT food, diner food, eggs, french toast, Irish

1 Comments:

This is making me SO hungry! LOVEEEEED that place

By emt, at January 24, 2011 at 7:49 AM

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Sunday, October 24, 2010 @ 7:20 PM

eating Manhattan: a day in food and kitchen design.

It pays to have friends all over the place. It's even better when they're foodies. Two weeks ago, I ventured to NYC with my friend Chelsea. We had a vague idea of what we wanted to do when we booked our bus tickets, but nothing was set in stone. A few days before we left, I messaged my friend Michael who lives in Brooklyn asking if he'd be around and if he had any suggestions of places to eat. I expected a quick reply with a semi-famous restaurant to try or a local bakery or two. What I got back was a detailed, organized list of places to try, spanning different courses and cuisines from cupcakes to Milkshakes to Venezuelan and menu suggestions and specialties for each establishment. Had we been blessed with more time and super-rapid metabolisms, we would have tried them all. Instead, we picked a few and centered our day around eating. (Welcome to traveling with Kelly...)

Our first stop was Shopsin's, a tiny eatery located within the Essex Street market.

Don't let the size fool you. Even though they only have a few tables, their menu is EXTENSIVE.

Oh my goodness! We spent a good ten minutes reading through it and trying to narrow our possible picks down to five choices instead of ten. Ultimately, Chelsea went for the mac-n-cheese pancakes.

Creamy mac n cheese meets fluffy corn pancakes.

I wasn't sure I'd like them, so I didn't order them. Chelsea let me have a bite of hers and boy was I surprised! The textures and flavors meshed so perfectly that I couldn't believe I had ever doubted them. It was like mac n cheese and pancakes were meant to be together in breakfast bliss. Now if only I knew how to make them...

I went with Michael's recommendation of Blisters on My Sister: a skillet dressed in corn tortillas smothered in black beans and kidney beans and greens, topped with sunny side up eggs. A mix of melted cheeses coats the whole thing, marrying all the components together, making for one delicious Tex-Mex breakfast.

Of course the other part of being a tourist is that you can never take your leftovers with you, so I was forced to eat the whole thing (not that I'm complaining).

Normally, I like to walk off a breakfast like that before attempting to eat again, but my food plan for the day led us right around the corner to Sugar Sweet Sunshine, a bakery that brought all three words into my life.

They have a whole case of tantalizing trifles, but I had heard promise of better-than-Magnolia cupcakes and I would not let even the most perfect pudding detract me from my goal. I spotted pumpkin cupcakes in the case and normally I'd partake in the seasonal sweet, but I wanted a rare flavor that I couldn't get at every cupcake shop in town.

I went with pistachio.

A slightly dense cake with a hint of green color and just enough pistachio flavor. The frosting was perfect silky meringue buttercream with a light flavor to compliment the cake beneath it and the whole thing was topped with a dusting of pistachio crumbs. Perfection.

We picked up some banana pudding to go to bring over to my friend at work to say thank you (he was very appreciative!) before heading over to the MoMA for their exhibit on kitchen design and women's liberation.

The exhibit was fantastic. As someone who values counter space more than any designer handbag, I have to say that this was worth the entire trip! It told the story of kitchen design after World War I through a socio-political-historical lens. It also featured kitchen appliances through the years (my gadget-collecting self was in heaven!) and art featuring cooking, food and kitchens.

Our last stop of the day was Grand Central Station. By the time we got out of the MoMA, it was pouring rain and we were tired, cold and wet. We headed into the food court for some chili and cornbread.

After paying for my food, I turned to find a place to sit and was confronted with a line of people standing in front of Magnolia Bakery. Call me greedy, but I couldn't resist. I've never had one and the reputation was too big to pass up the chance at having one.

I went for red velvet and while I'd like to say that these lived up to their reputation, I'd be lying if I did. I didn't get to try my cupcake because the day ended in tragedy.

Rainy city meant wet bag and that wet bag didn't hold up to the weight of my cupcake. The box fell out somewhere between 31st and 38th and I was cupcake-less and out $3.75. [womp womp]

Despite the cupcake catastrophe, the day was a complete win. I caught up on sleep and had a fantastic nap on the way up. I ate an amazing array of food. I got to see an old friend from college and I had lovely company throughout the day. Is there a better way to travel?

Labels: banana, breakfast, chili, cornbread, cupcakes, eggs, Mexican, NYC, pistachio

2 Comments:

this post makes me so happy. knowing you got to try shopsin's is fulfilling on some deep personal level. and it looks like you had a blast.

also fulfilling? that banana pudding your brought me. good lord kelly, you reignited an old addiction.

let me know the next time you're coming up this way, and we'll partake in all the foodie offerings bklyn has to offer.

By Anonymous, at October 28, 2010 at 8:44 PM

haha I would go back just to try the banana pudding! I'm glad you enjoyed. Thank you again for all the recommendations. I mean the MoMA was great and all, but the food shaped the whole trip!

I will definitely make another trip. I've been scoping out the brooklynauts site (when my gmail told me who commented, I had no idea who it was until I read your comment). Today I got an overwhelming craving for apple pie and your award-winning butter bourbon apple pie (btw that's like combining so many of my favorite things into one recipe) has only made this craving worse. Pie crust from scratch is on my baking fears to conquer list, so I think it's fate that you commented and I read your post.

I love having foodie friends. It makes my little heart so happy (and my stomach too, though mostly vicariously).

By kelly, at October 29, 2010 at 7:05 PM

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