Fogo de Awesome
So last night, some of us were able to get together to meet Joey's idea of meat mecca. Fogo de Chao in D.C. is all Joey's been talking about for years, so we finally met the place yesterday. The service was incredible and so was the food. For those of you who don't know, it's Brazilian bbq and there's an amazing salad bar and a button you get to flip either green (for go) or red (for "I need a break").
As soon as we sit down, Joey takes me to the salad bar and let's me in on his technique (he wasn't joking about dinner being a marathon). So, like he said, I took a piece from each dish on the salad bar to sample, and absolutely no additional trips to the salad bar. You just sample, then you get right to the meat. No distractions. However, Liz and I found the sides they offered to be just as good as the main attraction (fried bananas, fried polenta, and the cheesy bread).
Needless to say, the meet was phenomenal. My favorite cuts were the filet, lamb chops, ribs, parmesan-crusted pork tenderloin, and the garlic sirloin. I was shocked to find they had a dessert menu (I couldn't imagine anyone would have even MORE room) ... but we did it anyway. Susie got an amazing papaya mousse (recommended by our cute waiter) and they found out it had been my birthday a few days ago and gifted me an amazing chocolate mousse cake. The best part was that there was no song or embarrassing sombrero tossed on my head. Just cake. Just the way I like it.
YUM. So, lessons learned for preparing for the next visit to Fogo's...
1. Forget the salad bar exists all together - no room in belly for rabbit food (except the cucumber salad was AMAZING)
2. Forget the side dishes and phenomenal cheesy bread is even on the table (maybe ask them not to bring it altogether because they will be too hard to resist - no room.)
3. STARVE all day, maybe even all week. Must make paying $50+ worth it...
4. Have meat for an appetizer, side, main course, and dessert. Eat so much meat you will never want to see meat again - and then eat some more.
5. Make sure that button sees red once in a while. Continuous green-buttoning can never be a good thing. I guess Joey was right about it being a marathon - seeing as we sprinted like gazelles and he was properly trained and ready to go for longer than any of us were.
As soon as we sit down, Joey takes me to the salad bar and let's me in on his technique (he wasn't joking about dinner being a marathon). So, like he said, I took a piece from each dish on the salad bar to sample, and absolutely no additional trips to the salad bar. You just sample, then you get right to the meat. No distractions. However, Liz and I found the sides they offered to be just as good as the main attraction (fried bananas, fried polenta, and the cheesy bread).
Needless to say, the meet was phenomenal. My favorite cuts were the filet, lamb chops, ribs, parmesan-crusted pork tenderloin, and the garlic sirloin. I was shocked to find they had a dessert menu (I couldn't imagine anyone would have even MORE room) ... but we did it anyway. Susie got an amazing papaya mousse (recommended by our cute waiter) and they found out it had been my birthday a few days ago and gifted me an amazing chocolate mousse cake. The best part was that there was no song or embarrassing sombrero tossed on my head. Just cake. Just the way I like it.
YUM. So, lessons learned for preparing for the next visit to Fogo's...1. Forget the salad bar exists all together - no room in belly for rabbit food (except the cucumber salad was AMAZING)
2. Forget the side dishes and phenomenal cheesy bread is even on the table (maybe ask them not to bring it altogether because they will be too hard to resist - no room.)
3. STARVE all day, maybe even all week. Must make paying $50+ worth it...
4. Have meat for an appetizer, side, main course, and dessert. Eat so much meat you will never want to see meat again - and then eat some more.
5. Make sure that button sees red once in a while. Continuous green-buttoning can never be a good thing. I guess Joey was right about it being a marathon - seeing as we sprinted like gazelles and he was properly trained and ready to go for longer than any of us were.
Comments