Clowning around

Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with the Sun Day.

Wedding anniversary celebrations have a tendency to change over a married couple’s life. Gone are the days of a romantic weekend getaway, followed by a candlelit dinner, and dancing till dawn. After 47 years of marital bliss, anniversaries consist of a trip to Wisconsin Dells to contribute to the Ho-Chunk Indian tribe, and seeing a matinee performance of Bello Nok at the Palace Theater. Truth be told, this was Jim’s idea, that romantic devil. Hands off ladies, he’s all mine. Oh lucky me… If you saw Bello, you would remember him. He is best known for touring with Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus and most recently on America’s Got Talent TV show. He is easily recognizable as the diminutive acrobatic clown with the foot-high blonde hair.

All of these festivities made us work up quite an appetite on our way home the next day. We were still “clowning around” and remembered a sad clown of days gone by, namely, Emmett Kelly. This gave us the idea to dine at Emmett’s Brewing Company in West Dundee. (Okay, this lead-in might be a stretch, but it’s all we could think of.)

Walking through the door you see the giant copper brewing tanks to your right. Passing through another door you enter the dining area and bar. Wood accents abound giving it an old school feel.

Looking over the appetizers, we decided on the Pork Pot Stickers ($12). These were pot stickers served with Ponzu sauce, soy syrup, red chili threads, and Napa cabbage. After all, what else would you order as an appetizer at a brewery? What arrived at our table was a rectangle plate with five pot stickers on it. Do the math, that comes out to $2.40 a sticker. Boy did they stick it to us!!! Honestly, they were crispy and tasty, and the chili threads were interesting, but for $12 we expected more.

Jim ordered the Spicy Pork Sandwich ($14). This consisted of thinly sliced pork with blistered tomatoes, roasted jalapeno’s, thinly sliced Swiss cheese, and sriracha aioli all on an onion roll. For his side he chose sweet potato fries. The onion roll resembled a small hoagie roll and the sandwich was very sparse on the ingredients. The sandwich was spicy, registering about a “4” on his sweat head meter.

Nancy went with the half sandwich and cup of soup ($12). She chose the Cheddar Ale soup and upgraded ($1 upcharge) to a bowl, and selected the Emmett’s Club Sandwich. This was turkey, ham, Nueske bacon, Swiss cheese, tomato, greens, basil aioli, roasted tomato spread on rustic wheat bread. She asked them to leave off the tomato, and of course it was there when the sandwich arrived. As she rummaged through her sandwich to remove the tomato, she noticed a half inch piece of bacon nestled in the greens. She held up the bacon to the waiter and asked, “is this all the bacon”??? He apologized and brought over two full strips of bacon. While she was scrounging around in her sandwich, she noticed the lunch meats and cheese were sliced very thin, and sparse like my sandwich. The bread was actually thicker than the ingredients inside. The soup was delicious, and she was glad she upgraded to a bowl.

To sum it up, no doggie bag for us tonight. We lost at the casino, and we lost at dinner tonight.

FYI: This restaurant is handicap accessible, but beware, the service is very slow.

The price for wrapping up our anniversary celebration was $50.28. They must have been “clowning around” with those portions…

Jim’s take: The roasted jalapenos were the only things that gave my sandwich flavor.

Nancy’s take: My soup came with a pretzel roll that was tasty and complimented the soup.

Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at: thediningduo@gmail.com

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