On Saturday afternoon, with my mom and sister in town for Easter (and to see Jackson) we did a quick North Fork wine jaunt so that my family could buy some wine. You see, they live outside of Pittsburgh, PA…where LI wines aren’t available and can’t be shipped. Great country we live in isn’t it?
Anyway, after stopping at Roanoke Vineyards and Lieb Family Cellars (two of their favorites) we were hungry and decided to go to Farmer Bar, a little BBQ place that I’ve enjoyed quite a bit on previous visits.
This trip was a little disappointing, but not really because of the food.
It’s spring time here on Long Island, but it’s been cold–down in the low and mid 40s lately. We were surprised when we walked in and got settled at our table that it was freezing in the restaurant. Not actually freezing, but it wasn’t much warmer inside than it was outside. Someone said something about them turning the heat off the night before (an odd decision given the weather of late) but it was well after 1 p.m. when we got there. Shouldn’t it have warmed up a little?
We didn’t complain though. Clearly they knew it was an issue. But maybe we should have because another table in the dining room did and got a space heater brought over to their table.
Now we have very little experience dining with little Jackson in tow. And he was more than warm enough because he was in this cool thing, but wouldn’t you at least ask the parents of an infant if they wanted a heater as well?
Anyway, we were just there for a quick lunch. My mom got a pulled pork sandwich that she enjoyed and my sister got a pulled chicken sandwich. Nena got ribs, which she liked a lot, even if they gave her an end portion with few actual bones. Actually, she liked that there weren’t many bones–it annoyed me more than it did her (mostly because I saw rib tips on the appetizer menu and though the ends better left for that).
I got a pulled pork platter and while the sauce was tasty, the pork had almost no texture left. It was pulled and clearly some sort of liquid was added to it that gave the portion an almost gooey texture. I’ve had pulled pork like this in the past at restaurant and really didn’t know any better. But now that I’ve made my own a few times, I know that this isn’t how it’s supposed to look or feel in the mouth.
All in all, I’ll continue to make this a regular stop on wine tasting trips, but only when it’s warm enough that lac of heat isn’t a big deal.