Apr. 30, 2004

His and hers lunch
Last week one of us had a business errand to run in Bellaire, and dropped off the other (guess which) to browse a few shops in Alden. We intended to rendezvous back there because Sherri wanted to check out the Muffin Tin's new cafe. When Graydon's errand took longer than anticipated, we conferred by cell and decided he'd have a sandwich and a beer in Bellaire at Short's Brewery, another new place we had on our radar.

So this week, you get a twofer. Here are the reports we gave each other on the way home.

SHERRI: I was really surprised at how busy the Muffin Tin was this early in the season. Too bad it's only open in summer. I love that building, even if it doesn't have heat. It's so bright and airy.

Jane Van Etten has had the Muffin Tin up the street for years. She markets her muffin mix as far away as Connecticut now, and is running her business out of the new place while her grandkids, Bob and Laura Pennington, handle the café part. Bob's going to culinary school next year in Rhode Island. His menu is simple but good, and he makes everything from scratch. There are six sandwiches, including a BLT, a veggie sandwich, pastrami on rye, and a classic club. Bob's "grilled cheese" has Cheddar, Swiss and provolone in it, with tomato, onion and mustard. The sandwiches are generous. They all cost $6.50 and come with baked beans and slaw.

I just had a salad, though, so I could enjoy a chocolate-chip oatmeal cookie, too. Bob makes three salads, all for $5.50, including a big cobb salad with turkey, bacon, avocado, celery, onion and blue cheese. My Greek salad came with grilled pita bread and a lemon-parsley vinaigrette. They also have ranch and blue-cheese dressings and balsamic, garlic and lemon-Dijon vinaigrette

There's chili and clam chowder and another soup every day, plus some chicken quesadillas, and BBQ-sauced corn crepes filled with beef and cheese. That's about the whole menu except for some things like salsa and chips. I'll miss the café that used to be in that spot, but the Muffin Tin will be a great place to go for lunch, and we can even go by boat and dock right down the street.

GRAYDON: Well, my lunch was a bit different. The Brewery is in the old hardware store. They gutted it and left the old brick walls exposed and re-did the hardwood floor. The bar and lounge are on one side, and they knocked through a wall and made the other side into a nightclub, with a stage for live music. The bar has 14 or 15 beers that owner Joe Short makes in back. My pint of Pilsener was very light and zippy with some nice hops in it, and I had a taste of a smooth and mellow "brown" beer as well. Everything about the place tells me they are passionate about beer.

A small kitchen by the bar offers sandwiches, salads, soup and pizza. Almost everything on it is eight bucks. I ordered a turkey wrap and then took my beer over to the lounge area, where the chairs and sofas are made out of big, leather car seats from the 'Sixties. Funky!

My wrap came with a dill-pickle wedge and bag of chips, but made a good lunch all by itself, with plenty of turkey, chopped onion and tomato and melted cheese. It was good, but messy, because it had been grilled and the flatbread was so brittle that pieces broke off every time I took a bite. Half way through, all I had left to hold on to was turkey and cheese.

After I finished, I eyeballed the brewery in back, and gauging from the sacks of malt and hops and barley piled up there, Joe's going to be brewing a lot of suds this summer.

DATA: Muffin Tin, 9160 Helena, Alden (231-331-6808); Short's Brewery, 121 Bridge St., Bellaire.