By: Food by Lyndsey Photography Courtesy of: Honest Johns and Julie Kahlbaugh-Emmel
If you’re over the age of 30, chances are this is a routine of yours:
1) Tell your friends how much you miss them.
2) Make plans to meetup with said friends.
3) Cancel plans.
4) Repeat forever or at least until you retire and join the Silver Sneakers Club.
It’s a vicious circle of excuses, ailments, and scheduling conflicts, right? Well, listen to this: I recently made plans to meet up with a good friend for dinner and by some miracle, we actually got together. Really! We made plans and stuck to them! Not only that… we landed in a little restaurant that made leaving the house and the journey through the rain absolutely worth it. A place so good that there’s a high probability of another dinner date there in the very near future. (One that I won’t cancel.)
The place is called Honest John’s and honestly, it’s a must try spot.
Now, for the important stuff: food. At first glance, the menu is small. Should be easy to make a decision, right? Nope. Not when it seems as though the entire menu has been written specifically for you and you want to eat every.single.thing on there. I literally started to drool as I was reading the appetizers. Frites, Sprouts, Mussels, Hummus, Fritters, Snacky Olives and whatnot … how do I decide!? Ooh! They have Deviled Eggs ($7), done. Kissed with a hint of spicy horseradish and topped with a chunk of candied bacon, these babies were the perfect start to what I could only imagine to be an amazing meal.
After our appetizer, we decided to move to a table to order our meal. Despite wanting to order one of everything, our server was sweet enough to help us dwindle down our choices down to the Shrimp and Grits ($25), the Beef Sugo over House-made Pappardelle ($23), and Fried Brussels Sprouts to share ($11). All classic, simple, unpretentious, and executed flawlessly by Chef Jen Buehler Burfield (formerly of Cure and Cibo).
The Beef Sugo. My goodness. If the feeling of a warm hug from your grandma could be converted into a recipe somehow, it would be this dish. The beef was melt-in-your-mouth tender, the homemade pappardelle was toothsome and flavorful, and the grana padano was the perfect salty topper to it all. This Sugo was clearly made with love and intent.
I was full within minutes but couldn’t stop eating because everything was so incredibly delicious. We inhaled everything. Every bite.
Just as I was contemplating unbuttoning the top button of my pants to make room for my ginormous Sugo-filled belly… Chef Jen herself came out to surprise us with dessert. I’ve never immediately loved and hated someone at the same time before. I couldn’t possibly eat another bite. Except that there was now a Warm Chai Cake with Salted Caramel Gelato sitting in front of me.
Meeting Chef Jen was a pretty remarkable experience for me. She’s cool. She’s humble. She immediately gave me the vibe that she: (a) loves to cook (b) is incredibly good at it (c) knows ‘b’ but could care less about the hype of it (d) fits right in with the “Honest” part of the restaurant namesake. My friend also commented that Chef Jen definitely flies under the radar when it comes to the Pittsburgh food scene. Something, to me, that is admirable. It’s easy to get lost in the Instagramable world of food these days. Just because it looks good doesn’t mean it tastes good. But, that’s not the case here. You can tell that her heart is in every dish and the flavor definitely speaks for itself.
Go try Honest John’s with your friends. You won’t be disappointed, honestly.
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