Beer Drop

Earlier this year, we received a 3-month gift subscription from Leah's parents to Beer Drop, an online beer delivery service. It was comparable to other food subscriptions, where you tick off a list of things that you like and receive a selection of beers that match your taste - you're free to substitute any you aren't interested in, or just add new beers a la carte. 

It was a fun experience and a good way for beer enthusiasts to try new things. Ultimately we didn't continue the subscription after our third month, as we didn't want to have a regular stream of beer coming into our home, but it was a lot of fun and we got to enjoy a nice variety of brews.

Our first "drop." Our monthly package included four relatively standard beers and one "premium." 

Fireside

Scottish Ale

Berthoud Brewing Company

4 / 5

Tastes as described. Warm toasty flavors, very slight sweetness and bitterness. A little bready with a hint of burnt toast. Great on a cold night.

Carrot Saison

Farmhouse Ale - Saison

Bruz Beers

3.5 / 5

Interesting but not amazing. Definite earthy, vegetal taste but couldn't recognize it as carrot. A little sweet, a tiny bit bitter. Very subtle grapefruit finish.

Killer Boots

English Porter

Verboten Brewing and Barrel Project

4 / 5

Nice. Very dark but not viscous at all. Poured with a thick brown head, which dissipated quickly. Drinks more like a thin stout, with strong coffee and burnt toast flavors. A little sweet, a little bitter.

Hoochie Mama

Kettle Sour

Storm Peak Brewing Company

4 / 5

Guava sour with pronounced tropical flavor. Big sour bite but doesn't leave a lasting pucker. Less dank and more bright. Very refreshing and drinkable for a sour.

Snowed In - Maple (2020)

Imperial Stout

Copper Kettle Brewing Company

4.5 / 5

A dessert-lover's beer. Very rich and sweet. Strong vanilla and maple flavors, cut by a pronounced boozy note. Great!

Deer Creek Dunkel

Dark Lager

Living The Dream Brewing

3.75 / 5

Caramel color. Easy drinking - light but full-bodied. Very balanced. A good straight up beer.

Schwibby Schwarzbier

Schwarzbier

Wibby Brewing

3.5 / 5

Nice and toasty. Everything you'd expect in a black beer. Slightly bitter, burnt toast flavor. Relatively thin.

Bruz Tripel

Belgian Tripel

Bruz Beers

4 / 5

Distinctly smooth, creamy mouthfeel. Slightly musty, fruity aroma and flavor. Very easy to drink, a great Belgian beer.

Snow Reporter

American Porter

Telluride Brewing Company

3.25 / 5

Very toasty but a bit one note. Lots of bitter black coffee but no chocolate flavor as advertised. Fine but nothing special.

Five Pine Chocolate Porter

American Porter

Three Creeks Brewing Company

4 / 5

Very nicely balanced. Subtle chocolate flavor, medium body, and slight aftertaste of dark roasted coffee. A little sweet and a little bitter.

Sibling Rivalry

Belgian Tripel

Off Color Brewing

3.75 / 5

Intense, strong triple. Nice flavor, very pronounced clove/spice - maybe a little overkill. Good but could be more balanced.

Phazed Brew Molè Milk Stout

Milk Stout

Fiction Beer Company

4.5 / 5

Very very nice. Cinnamon and cocoa powder flavors. Not overly pronounced or sweet. Really tastes like molè, not just chocolate. Excellent!

Green Chile Ale

Chile Beer

Soulcraft Brewing

2 / 5

The chile flavor is strong and the beer is nicely spicy, but it has no other flavor. Basically tastes like Coors Lite infused with chilies. Would make a great base for a michelada though.

Mind The Kerf

Brown Ale

Woods Boss Brewing Company

3 / 5

Pretty one note. Very coffee-forward with a burnt bitter finish, but not getting any of the chocolate or vanilla flavors the description advertises.

Coconut Fudge Imperial Stout

Imperial Stout

Finkel & Garf Brewing Company

4 / 5

Viscous, oily mouthfeel. Big chocolate flavor that recedes into sweet nuttiness. Not getting the coconut but it still tastes great. A dessert beer through and through.

American Cut

After becoming quite addicted to the meat-cooking Aden Films channel on YouTube, I found myself with an irrational craving steak recently (funny how that works). I reviewed a dozen or so of the most prominent steakhouses in NYC, looking for one that had a bit more novelty than the classics like Peter Luger, Minetta Tavern, and Old Homestead, which I've been to before. Celebrity chef Marc Forgione's American Cut (of which there are several outposts in Manhattan) looked great and fit the bill for what I wanted - so much so that I knew exactly what I was going to order before I even made the reservation.

American Cut
363 Greenwich St, New York, NY
American Cut Tribeca

Happy wife! The restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived, though we tend to eat on the early side, so that was no surprise. We both enjoyed the décor, which was warm yet modern. 

Biscuits

Everything Bagel Seasoning, Vegetable Butter

For bread service, American Cut offers hot homemade biscuits with a generous crust of everything bagel seasoning, served alongside butter dotted with vegetables (like those found in veggie cream cheese). These were to die for, and, like the infamous cheddar bay biscuits at Red Lobster, were worth coming for by themselves. 

Cocktails

Two cocktails to start - I can't remember what they were other than mine being flavored with cucumber. They were both good, and we purposefully ordered lighter spirits that would pair reasonably well with the early part of our meal. 

Grand Seafood Tower

Oysters

Crab Salad, Tuna Tartare, Kampachi Ceviche, Poached Lobster

Homemade Potato Chips, Shrimp Cocktail

I wasn't just craving steak - I also had my heart set on a seafood tower, one of my favorite restaurant treats. I generally like a tower that has a mix of plain raw bar shellfish with a few prepared plates, and this was a perfect example of that. We enjoyed every bite of this enormous masterpiece. 

A5 Miyazaki Wagyu Beef

Our server was a nice guy and was clearly working hard, but I was a little annoyed by the "script" he was working from. To start, he asked if we had ever been to American Cut before, to which we replied, "No." He then proceeded to explain not only the restaurant itself at length, but the concept of steakhouses in general, including detailed descriptions of dry-aging and why some steaks are different from other steaks. I wanted to say, "We said we had never been to this restaurant - not that we have never been to any restaurant." Next he went through the menu almost dish for dish and made a half dozen or so recommendations. I find the practice of waiters making (unsolicited) menu suggestions to be annoying. It makes me feel like they a) think I'm helpless and can't order for myself, and b) are trying to sell me something (which, of course, they are). 

In this case though, the latter point actually worked out for everyone, as Leah and I decided to take one of his recommendations and splurge by ordering four ounces of wagyu beef. We were uncertain if it would be worth the steep price, but having experienced it now, I can say that this beef is every bit the incredible luxury food item that caviar, foie gras, and truffles are. Our piece was lightly seared on the outside and glistening with melty fat on the inside. With each bite, my teeth punctured the delicate outer crust, after which the almost gelatinous interior burst with juicy liquid fat and extreme beef flavor. Served simply with good salt and pepper, it was one of the best things I've ever eaten. I later thanked the waiter for his recommendation. 

Pastrami Ribeye

Dry Aged, Whole Grain Mustard, Caraway Butter

Potato Puree "Robuchon" - Local Butter

Hen of the Woods Mushroom - Soy, Lime, Shallot

For our main course we shared the 20oz pastrami ribeye, which tasted delicious, delivering on all the pastrami spice flavors it promised, though it was also one of the stringier and more gristly steaks I've ever been served. Both sides were delicious, and it was nice seeing menu options that were more adventurous than the typical spinach and potatoes (like the fantastic maitake mushroom we ordered). 

Cracker Jack Sundae

Popcorn Ice Cream, Caramel Popcorn, Peanut Brittle

We took most of our ribeye and sides home so as to leave room for this giant sundae, which was just delightful. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Along with the check came two soft chocolate chip cookies, wrapped up for us to enjoy the next day. These were great. 

Cocktails

Service had become very slow by the second half of our meal and we never had a chance to order a second round of drinks. We decided to finish the evening at the bar with another cocktail each. It was a nice way to end the night, as the bar was quiet, with the dinner rush mostly complete. The bartender was quite a character and, though entertaining, he apparently forgot the sugar in Leah's old fashioned, which made for a strange-tasting drink.

Kinks aside, American Cut provided exactly what I was looking for - a steakhouse experience with a novel twist. I would definitely recommend it and plan on going back the next time the craving strikes (and I can afford it).