Fast Food - Monks Kettle

Ten days ago was my birthday. I am officially very old. While I have arthritis and wrinkles and cellulite to look forward to, I am also all about celebrating the joys of old age. With age comes wisdom, and I exercised some of that wisdom on my birthday proper, knowing that I would not have it in me for a raucous celebration. I wanted something low key and cozy.

So Daniel and I walked down into the Mission and drank some beer and ate some comfort food at the gastropub cum beer bar, Monks Kettle.

It was perfect. Although we had to wait for a while, we were finally seated in a nice big booth and serviced by a knowledgeable waiter who really knew his brews. He patiently described several options and then based on what we ordered to eat and our ill-developed preferences, helped us choose a couple of beers that satisfied us thoroughly.

Perhaps even more satisfying was the grub. We split a big soft pretzel that came with little pots of stone ground mustard and a cheddar cheese sauce for dipping. So soft, so salty, so warm and fresh from the oven. So delicious, in fact, that tomorrow, I plan on making some of my own.

Then we each had a turkey burger for our main course. I know boring right? What are you an old woman watching your cholesterol or something? Well yes I am, but in this case boring and healthy wasn't boring at all (and let's be honest an enormous turkey burger on a big white bun isn't all that healthy anyway...). But it was so intensely flavorful and moist, and it had a perfect bread to meat ratio. I close my eyes just thinking about it. I ordered mine with avocado and saved some of the stone ground mustard from the pretzel to smother it with. Man it was good. I have been craving another one of these since.

But being the wizened wise one that I am, I know that if I hold out for a while longer, it will taste that much better when I go back for a second round.