So, Northeast has a new fish & chips spot, The Anchor Fish & Chips. I love local businesses, especially when it comes to bars, pubs, and restaurants. I'm not a big foodie at all. I like White Castle for some things, Red Stag Supper Club for others. It's all about mood for me. Whatever that means...
I'm not a food reviewer, so don't expect a lot of multi-syllabled words. Expect more of Uncle Walt Whitman here. Go see the building if you like that sort of stuff. It works for the neighborhood. Also, experience the service yourself, it may have been better than it was for me. I'm about food and beer.
The meal, when it came out, was moderately good (3 out of 5). The chips themselves were awesome! The salt, golden to amber color, and crisp to mash-like filing made the chips very tasty. The fish also was good, but the chips were more memorable to me. The fish batter was somewhat light, sometimes being a bit greasy. If it wasn't a little greasy, I'd probably walk out because the damn thing just came out of a hot fryer, regardless of the time it spent under the hot lights. Being silly, I thought it was an English fish & chips spot, so I was again saddened to not see any peas (mushy or otherwise) w/ the meal. But, it's not English, it's Irish. I guess the Irish don't like their mushy peas with fish, so they put them on the side for $2.50. (Maybe peas are Protestant or something, who knows...)
Selfish Recommendation #1: throw just a bit of mushy peas in the basket for a week and see if people comment one way or the other. Let me know when you do this so I can be cheap and get some for free. ;-)
The only annoyance I had was with one of the Governors (the thin boy that needs to eat more). I asked for some malt vinegar and I was almost ran out of the bar. He educated me on how people that use malt vinegar are Neanderthal at best and Iowans at worst. Malt vinegar doesn't bring out the flavor of anything and only overshadows the chips, he continued. And, white vinegar is God's food or something, with an astringency that truly works with the chip. I should have called bullshit or something.
Prior to this, I did realize they had white vinegar on the counter. I tried a couple drops on my finger prior, to see if I would like it. I_didn't_taste_anything. I tried again, and got the faintest vinegar taste, with a little bit of sourness. I passed this observation to the Guv, but I think at this time he thought I probably was from Iowa. I proceeded to create a swimming pool of vinegar in my basket when the meal came out, but all for naught. (Maybe it had something to do with the vinegar being Heinz.)
I felt like an idiot, wondering if my years of malt vinegar have destroyed my inexperienced palate. I then felt like I was duped, wondering if there was a camera somewhere recording my expressions, which should be on Youtube by now or something. The Guv stated that only true fish & chip connoisseurs have the balls to douse their meal with God's white vinegar. I really wanted to throw the bottle at him, but that would have ended the meal on an unfortunate note. And, I still thought there was a camera somewhere, even though I cased out the spot over and over.
Unselfish Recommendation #1: Don't make fun of your customers, unless they are from Iowa. I'll probably try out the spot again, but I really felt like an idiot. Having molten cheese spill on your fingers or burn your lips because you didn't listen to Renee at Matt's proves you're an idiot. Being made fun of never having a Jucy Lucy and not knowing how to tackle one makes you feel like an idiot. That was the whole vinegar thing for me. There's a subtle difference here, but one is mea culpa and the other is tua culpa. Figure that out, and you'll be a better Guv, Guv.
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