pub 66: snack time!

good lord, i have no excuse for such a lapse in posts!! sometimes life seems overwhelming, but then i realize it's just a food blog. breathe. not that serious. cool? cool.

not surprisingly, there's more from italy.

after 3-4 hours of walking around in the convection inferno lovingly known as "rome," M and i decided to find a shady spot to cool down with a beverage, snack, and good, old-fashioned sitting. we had spent the majority of the morning roaming around the via del corso, which is rome's major shopping district. it's peculiarly long, straight, and wide; tracing a medieval horse racing course and spanning from piazza venezia to piazza del popolo.

long. straight. wide. these all seem like normal characteristics of a road, but not in rome. there are about a million short, serpentine vicoli (small streets) barely wide enough for a moto to pass through.

but enough with the histography lesson, back to snack time! after wandering around the tiny off-shoots of via del corso, we finally chose pub66, a small, unassuming, but popular little...well, pub. we sat al fresco at a small, wooden table covered by a shade-bestowing ombrellone. this little spot was perfectly secluded so that we didn't hear a lot of street noise, but enjoyed watching all the pedestrian activity.

to start: acqua frizzante (naturally lightly fizzy) and a coca liiiiiiiiight. i swear to god, you have to say it that way. it's just how you pronounce "light" in italiano. even M started ordering it that way.

this ridiculous pub had long island iced teas on the menu, so M had to try one out of sheer curiosity. how do they know what goes in a long island in rome? mixed drinks aren't really popular there...except mojitos. M's verdict: gross.

since we weren't that hungry and didn't want to spoil our dinner appetites, we decided to split a foccacia italiana, which was a toasty, chewy, thin bread topped with thick cuts of uncured parma ham, ruchetta (arugula/rocket), mozzarella di bufala, and pachino (small, sweet tomatoes). i just pushed the ham off to M's side and worked on the cheese/tomato/rocket/olive oil. it was pretty good. and damn good for a restaurant in the tourist zone. it's tough to go wrong with all fresh, local ingredients. that's the crux of roman cooking. everything's fresh. everything's locally farmed. on in-season produce is served. damn, i miss that.

M said the meat was kind of gross because it was so thick...and much like eating large cuts of raw flesh. sounds like sushi to me, which we all know is the shit. so what's his problem!??!

pub66 was a nice find in an area full of restaurants and cafes that rely on proximity to popular tourist sites rather than good quality food and service. i'm super picky and was pretty bummed to be caught on the via del corso looking for a place to eat that wouldn't enrage me. thanks for the lunch and couple-hour-coolout, pub66. perhaps we'll meet again.

unfortunately i don't remember the exact street pub66 was on, but it was very near la Galleria Alberto Sordi, the closest thing to a mall rome has. it was basically west across via del corso from G.A.S. on a small vicolo.

Finally.....Smith

I have been talking about going to Smith for months. For some reason it never happened or I walked in and it was too packed for my taste. I finally made it this past Sunday with some family.

When you walk in, you immediately realize the decor is similar to lots of other hipster dining establishments in the captiol hill area. Whats the deal with the infatuation of taxidermy covering the walls and the dark heavy wood? The thing that makes this spot stand out is that the high ceiling and the open light work well with the somber decor.



The dinner menu is filled with a range of salads, poutine, steak, catfish, soup, deviled eggs, burgers and mac and cheese. This neighborhood pub is very meat friendly but the grilled cheese sandwich for veggies is a definite must. All three of us agreed this grilled gruyere and onion jam sandwich was by far in the top 3 of things we ate.

We started with the deviled eggs which were very traditional but with an extra hint of lemon, the grilled gruyere and onion jam sandwich with butter lettuce and the roast beet salad with mascarpone and horseradish. Like I said the sandwich was amazing, the cheese and bread were very tasty and soaked with butter. The other dish which was on the top of my list was the roast beet salad. The light combination of the mascarpone and horseradish served as the perfect vehicle for the mixed greens.

We also enjoyed the ham n' cheese donuts....which were also very good and salty. I could have used more cheese and less bits of chopped ham but the taste of the pastry was BOMB. They were served in a tasty sauce reminecent of rich béchamel sauce, also a nice touch.

The mac n' cheese was suprisingly the under performer. The sauce was bland and the cheese really didnt shine through. I would not order this again...but I am also biased because I love my own mac n cheese so much that I compare everything to it.

The poutine was interesting, but I ended up really enjoying it. The fries were really nice and cooked crispy but the gravy took a bit getting use to because of the chunks of carrots and ham. With some ketchup the vinegar and salt really brought out more of the flavors.

The cornmeal crusted catfish on top of the hamhock lentils was a really hearty dish. The lentils were nice and complemented the fish very well. I could have used some hot sauce but overall this was a very nice plate.


I totally need to go back to Smith and try the pork shank as well as eat another one of those grilled cheese. I am also interested in testing out their brunch which includes breakfast standards like biscuits and gravy and ham n cheese omelet.

Monday - Friday 4pm- 2am

Saturday - Sunday
Brunch 10am-3pm
Dinner 4pm-2am

Happy Hour Daily 4pm-6pm...and M-Thur 11pm-1am too! Not happy hour food but cheaper drinks!

Reservations for parties 6 or more, call them! 206-709-1900