And Now For Something Completely Different...

Any follower of this blog and its usual (brilliant) observations about pubs and the beer scene in general knows that the goal is to make you aware of Good Pubs, Good Beer and Good People. In fact, at one point, this blog was going to be named "Next Barstool Over," a nod to the casual writing style that attempts to make the reader feel as though he or she is indeed sitting at the "next barstool over" engaged in light, friendly conversation with a fellow patron.

Indeed, many who comment to me about my writing say exactly that, and that, except for an occasional word like "avuncular" (which sends the curious to their online dictionaries while the vocabulary sluggards gloss over it), my style is pretty much "regular guy."

And while I will never tell you what beers you SHOULD be drinking, instead of the beers you ARE drinking, my mission is to tell you about what else is out there in the ever-burgeoning cornucopia of barley, malt, water and hops.

While a beer makes a cameo appearance in this column, however, it is not the star of the show today. Ballast Point Sculpin is pretty well known already, but what I learned yesterday is that it pairs very nicely with Mozzarella en Carozza and Orecchiette with Sausage.

At least it does at at Rosie's Trattoria in Randolph, NJ. But how did the beer-intensive PubScout wind up at an Italian restaurant? And one that didn't even have beer on tap, only in bottles? Two reasons, and you can figure out which is more important.

First, Rosie's Trattoria started asking me some beer-related questions on Twitter, so being "Next Barstool Over," I responded in a friendly way. Then I investigated the restaurant online and learned that it is an award-winning establishment renowned for its food. Looked pretty impressive.

Second, the missus returned home from over a month in NC tending to our son as he recuperates from a successful kidney transplant. That I was placed in charge of "the house" during her absence and came to learn the hard way all the things she does to keep it afloat, and that she had to "assist" (read "correct") my efforts while she was away made me ask if she wanted to go to an Italian restaurant for dinner. She agreed with alacrity. (There's one of those vocabulary words.)

So off to Rosie's we went, dodging some very severe weather en route. Clearly a former home transformed into a trattoria, it was pretty neat having Rosie herself greet us at the door. The bar area--with no taps at all-- was smallish and probably designed for those who needed to wait for a nicely-appointed table to open up. There appeared to be many so inclined.

Rosie took us to our table, an intimate one among four others on what was once likely a front porch. Smiling Gabriel, our waiter, greeted us professionally and in upscale, European style. After getting the missus her Chardonnay and me my Ballast Point Sculpin (perfectly poured, I might add), rattled off from memory all the specials, including appetizers and main courses.

Everything we ordered was exceptional, from the Mozzarella en Carozza to the Beet Salad, and from my Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe to a dish that magically transported the missus back to her Nanna Campo's Italian kitchen. It was a special for the evening that consisted of Homemade Spaghetti, Fresh Lump Crab Meat, Arugula and Fresh Jersey Tomatoes

Mine was outstanding, but hers made her wax poetic amid grunts of wild approval and exclamations of, "This is fantastic!" She allowed that her Nanna used to take live crabs and place them directly in the "special" sauce that she made weekly and from scratch, of course. "This crab tastes EXACTLY like the crabs my Nanna put [sent to their necessary and functional doom] in "her special" sauce, which we ate along with her pasta." She then declared the crab to be " sweet, succulent, delicious--and plentiful!" Can't find fault with a meal--or a description-- like that.

Nor can you find fault with a place that has a respectable collection of bottled beers, though nary a tap at the bar. You may not find anything from local microbrewery, but any beer geek should be able to find something he or she likes. I did.

I wouldn't call Rosie's Trattoria a must-visit beer destination. That is not what it tries to be. But I would call it a must-visit authentic Italian Food destination. And most importantly, so would my very-deserving missus.