Monday, July 25, 2011

A Pleasant Surprise

When Mrs V and I head down to Florida for our annual holiday in the sun, and boy has it been hot the last few days, I usually prepare myself for a week of drinking Samuel Adams at the resort and hoping the places we go our for dinner have something other than BMC on draft. On many an occasion I have asked "what beers do you have?" and subsequently ordered a diet Coke.

While driving to our resort, we spotted a couple of new restaurants close to the beach, including one called The Black Sheep, which describes itself as a "pub and eating house". On checking their website it turns out that it is a stab at a vaguely British/Irish theme pub, so naturally we paid it a visit on Saturday night.

The menu was pretty standard British/Irish theme pub in America fare - chicken wings, burgers, fish and chips, Shepherd's Pie (inexplicably made with beef), although the starters did include Scotch eggs, which were delicious. According to Mrs V and her parents, the fish and chips was excellent - for once I resisted temptation, but only because they had liver, bacon and onions on the menu! Yes, finally an American restaurant with calf's liver on the menu, joy of joy! I love offal in general and liver in particular, and it too was excellent.

On the beer front, 30 taps, 40 bottles is the numbers, and the selection is decent. Of course there are the standards, Budweiser, Bud Light, that kind of thing, as well as the usual British/Irish suspects, Newcastle Brown Ale, Old Speckled Hen and Guinness. But they have some good British craft offerings, Fullers in particular, London Pride and London Porter on draft - I soon discovered that London Porter is as delicious in the heat of summer as in the chill of winter. I polished off 3 American pints in the 45 minutes we were there, and it was happy hour, so it cost pretty much 3 for 2.

It is nice to see this kind of place in Daytona Beach, and we had a really nice meal in a place with a relaxed yet busy vibe. I always say that the staff is what makes a good place great, and our waitress on Saturday was excellent, if the rest of the staff are up to her standards, then The Black Sheep is doing well, and is a very welcome addition to the restaurant scene here.

1 comment:

  1. Always great to hear that a desert of good beer gets a little oasis.

    ReplyDelete

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