SOULFIRE AND ALL STAR SANDWICH BAR

I know, I've been a terrible blogger of late. I have been trying to make an effort to eat more at home (which lasted about 3 days-It really is hard to eat at home when you have friends visiting, friend's coming home, friends moving, etc....) and I've forgotten to take my camera out during all the meals I've had lately, so this will be another pictureless post. I'm sorry. I'll make it up to all of you at some point. And thanks for those who have been using my meebo widget to chat with me. It keeps me entertained during my long boring days at work.


Allright, so in the last week I visited two new places. The first is SoulFire BBQ in Allston. I'd read about this place in the Globe and had wanted to check it out. But Tom went first. He came back with a lukewarm review. Which was basically, eat the ribs and stay away from everything else. Now Soulfire isn't like Blue Ribbon up in Arlington. Blue Ribbon serves wet bbq (where the sauce is applied during cooking) while Soulfire serves dry rub bbq. And I think I'm more of a fan of the wet bbq. At any rate, Leah, Jayna and I decided to head over to Soulfire. Leah and Jayna stuck with Tom's advice and shared an order of ribs (but not the baby back, Leah read reviews on Chowhound that said those weren't good). Meanwhile, I got the only option available to me- the hickory smoked chicken.

The places was pretty empty when we arrived, so our orders came up super fast. Because this is dry rub style bbq, we had a choice of 5 different sauces. I picked like 3 of them and ended up liking the yellow mustard sauce. However, my chicken was pretty dry and basically tasteless. You had to add sauce just to make it palatable. I did like the corn bread with my dinner and the potato salad was ok. I think Jayna and Leah were ok with their ribs. Leah felt that all the sauces basically tasted the same, while Jayna felt that everything was too sweet (the sauces, the pickles, etc.) I think this place will be pretty popular because of it's fairly reasonable prices, quick eats and ideal location. But if I want bbq, I'll be heading to Blue Ribbon while Leah still favors Redbones.

Wait, mini break in between reviews. I'd just like you all to know that I GOT RESERVATIONS TO PER SE. For those who don't know, that's Thomas Keller's Restaurant in NY. It was a bit of an ordeal. They only take reservations 2 months in advance (which is pretty good considering that for the French Laundry that's 6 months in advance). I was looking for reservations on November 11 (I'll be in NYC for the Chocolate Show), so after looking for some tips on Chowhound, I prepared to make my call. So the first time, I called a bit too early and got voicemail. I redialed immediately and dammit! Got a busy signal. On my third call...I got lucky and it went through. I was now on hold. Where I sat for 30 minutes. The phone rang at the store, but I didn't pick it up. I couldn't give up my place in line. And finally, I got through to an actual person. They'd only take a reservation for 6:15 or 9:15, so I went for the 6:15, but I'm super excited. Finally! I get to eat at a Thomas Keller restaurant. I'll definitely take pics and let you all know how it goes.

Ok, back to the reviews. The other place I ate last week was at the All Star Sandwich Bar in Inman Square. Tom and I had been in Kendall and I wanted a slice from Emma's, but it was closed. So I said we should get ice cream for lunch and Tom suggested going to Christina's. That's when I remembered that the sandwich place was open, so we headed up there. This place has been highly anticipated. It's opened by Chris Schleshinger of East Coast Grill and the place had already had an article in the Globe before it'd even opened. But we were still surprised at how packed it was when we arrived. The line was basically out the door and there were a huge number of people loitering about, waiting for their sandwiches. It took nearly 20 minutes before we got to the front counter so we could order. But even with all the mayhem, the staff was super super nice. Tom ordered a Reuben while I got a Rachel. After ordering, we were told it'd be another 20 minutes for our sandwiches, so we decided to go outside to wait.

When we got outside, we figured out why the line behind us had shrunk. A staff member was turning away all the people who were trying to get in. Apparently, the place was so busy that they were running out of everything and a line cook had walked off in frustration. They were gonna close (it was about 2:30), regroup, and reopen at 4. When I stopped to talk to the guy, I found out that'd only been open for 6 days and had never expected such madness. But again, they were being super nice about it.

So even though it took forever to get our sandwiches, we both found them quite tasty. We ended up taking them home and having them at a park near my apt. It was true that they'd been running out of stuff. I think they kinda skimped on the toppings, but I was thrilled that the turkey in my Rachel had been roasted in house, and was moist and super flavorful. Tom also really liked his Reuben, though he would've preferred it with more sauerkraut. At any rate, my suggestion is look up their menu online, call in your order and pick it up. Don't even attempt to eat in or if you want to order in person, be prepared for a wait.