Top Chef Quest: Spike

This is the first installment of what I hope will be a many part series of posts over the next year as Chris and I try to stop in at all the Top Chef-related restaurants in the area.  We like Top Chef but it's not that we're obsessed with those particular characters, it's really just a way to narrow our quest to try out new, interesting, well-made food.  It's also fun to eat the food of someone you feel like you "know" from TV :-)  So, we've made a list of places within a 1hr radius that are chef-ed or owned by Top Chef (or TC Masters) contestants or judges.  It's fun to have a goal for our foodie hobby :-) 

So, this time we hit up Spike Mendelsohn's (Season 4 and All-Stars) burger joint. Good Stuff Eatery was pretty easy to get to in DC and not far from our other destination for the day, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. 

The Location

 Like I said, not hard to drive to, right in the middle of Capitol Hill.  We also found easy metered parking a couple blocks away. I am not much of a city driver so this stuff matters to me :-)  Interestingly Spike's other restaurant, We the Pizza, is next door.  Didn't try that one out so we'll have to head back sometime soon :-)

The Ambiance
The Eatery is a pretty small space and is kind of like a Panera or Chipotle

where you order at the counter and get a table.  When we came (with both kids in town) it was pretty packed and though there were a few outdoor tables, which would be great in the spring/summer, it was pouring so we had to wait for a table to free up inside.  The seating is upstairs as are bathrooms.  

As a mom, I must say the bathrooms were POOR.  There was no changing table and absolutely NO space in the tiny bathroom to lay a baby anywhere except on the floor to change a diaper.  Yes, I laid out a changing pad on the floor and crouched down between the toilet and sink to change a diaper.  I think we escaped with contracting the plague but it was definitely less than ideal.

The decor is nice enough for a burger joint but really, this is not a place to go for the experience.  It's about the food.

The Food

 Overall, we were very impressed.  The burgers and sides were decidedly different and upscale though the setting and prices were not.  

 Here's what we ordered:

COLLETTI’S SMOKEHOUSE
Applewood Bacon, Sharp Vermont Cheddar Fried Vidalia Onion Rings With Chipotle BBQ Sauce
6.89

PREZ OBAMA BURGER
Applewood Bacon, Onion Marmalade, Roquefort Cheese & Delicious Horseradish Mayo Sauce
6.89

And we got a couple sides to share

SPIKE’S VILLAGE SNACK FRY   Topped With Fresh Thyme, Rosemary & Sea Salt  2.49
CLIFF’S HOMEGROWN VIDALIA ONION PETALS 3.49

I left the prices in so you can see, this place is SUPER reasonable. Cheap even.  Especially because the food was SO good!  We have had a lot of burgers in our day and these were really tasty.  The beef was much tastier than any kind of fast food burger-and I liked it better than most restaurant-quality burgers I've had.  The toppings were also really tasty.  The tangy Roquefort cheese with the sweet onion marmalade, smoky bacon, and slightly spicy horseradish mayo was great combination. The bacon was a little chewy though which is a pet peeve of mine :-(

Chris liked his burger too and the sweet BBQ sauce made it taste completely different from mine.  We thought the onion petals were ok-wouldn't order them again.  There was a lot of sweet batter (almost like a donut or funnel cake) on a very little bit of onion.  However, we are fry connoisseurs and we really liked the village snack fries.  They reminded us of the duck fat fries we love at Victoria Gastro Pub.  The rosemary on fries is such a tasty addition. 

So, the price was right, it was definitely not too fancy for kids, and the food was utterly tasty.  Good job Spike!  We'll definitely be repeat customers.

Ella downed the fries even with the "little green things" (rosemary and thyme)

We got to watch the pizza tossers next door at We the Pizza in action

Easier than I thought

So, in my 5+ years of being a mom there has never been a shortage of advice or "the new best thing" to do for your child.  I try to take it all in and then weed through the biased or blatantly false information and then as a family, with God's guidance, make the best decisions for our family.  I try not to make decisions in parenting (or anything!) based on what's coolest, newest, trendy, or even expected.  I believe strongly in the uniqueness of each individual so what might be right your someone else's kid may be a horrible choice for Ella or Sadie.

I also have complete faith in God's power to direct me and that sometimes, even most times, that direction may not look like what the rest of the world is doing.  In fact, sometimes, that's how I know it's Him.  His ways rarely look like the world's ways (Isaiah 55:8).  So all this to say, something as seemingly insignificant as whether I was going to make my own baby food was a "come to Jesus" process for me.  I knew I had some dirty motivations in there ("everyone's doing it" or the pride I could take in doing the "best" for my baby).  Plus there was my own laziness that felt intimidated by it and would rather throw some money at the problem and buy baby food.  After some talking it out with God and dealing with my sin, the verdict is in.  He wanted me to do it anyway and has done some purifying of my motives and given me so much joy in doing it!  And, it's much easier than I thought!

(Oh, and I learned that it's no longer the new, trendy, "best for baby" thing anyway! Apparently feeding table food from the beginning is the newest trend- Good thing I wasn't doing it for those reasons!)

So here are some fun pics from my adventures is baby food making.  It's so stinkin' simple.  And pretty.  I decided that I like to have pretty things around me so if I was going to put baby food in ice cube trays they better be aesthetically pleasing ones.  So, thank you Ikea for $2 brightly colored, adorably shaped silicone trays! It makes this job even more fun!

Cook Food and then Puree

So, this looks kinda gross but I used the Pamepered Chef scraper to clean up the excess-another use for that great tool!!

Fill up the ice cube trays and then freeze 'em

A cute little fishy of frozen peas!

Carrot Hearts!

Pea Flowers

Pop 'em out, bag 'em and defrost when ready to serve!

This makes it 1000000% worth it!