Stand

The past few Fridays have been a bit of a routine for me; meet up with friends, do whatever, hang out a bit, have burgers & fries [ed. note: I wrote this post a while back: my Friday routine is now “go home and study” for my Saturday classes, sigh].  Continuing that routine, SpB and I recently met up for a lil shopping, then headed over to Stand because reader Nora told me, after reading about my experience at SoHo Park, that they had good frickles (or fried pickles, that is). 

The first thing I noticed was the stadium mustard on every table.  You never heard of this stuff?  Well, apparently, people in Cleveland think it’s amazing.  I read about it on Endless Simmer so I was super excited to try it – only to discover uh, I don’t get what the big deal is.  We dipped our fries in it, and it wasn’t spicy, nor particularly interesting.  In fact, as I recall, it was terribly bland… Cleveland, what gives???

Because I was in the middle of a very binge-y week, I decided to go for it with a root beer float, made with vanilla gelato.  Ummm… this wasn’t very good.  It was almost like someone mixed it around before giving it to me – that’s the fun part! – and there was just not enough gelato for the glass.  And the root beet used wasn’t very root-y.  FAIL.  Sadface.  I still drank it though. 

Our order of fried pickles!  The dipping sauce provided was a mixture of sharp mustard (NOT the stadium mustard!) and thick mayo – I think it was homemade mayo.  The pickles used were of the ‘bread & butter’ kind – slightly sweet, less of a sharp snap to them – but really properly fried.  This was closer to the bliss I experienced with the Brother Jimmy’s frickles/fried pickles at Yankee Stadium – but different, because the pickles used were sweet.  I really enjoyed these, and I believe SpB did as well; we both ate these happily, though we both noted that they were different. 

We were mostly at Stand for the pickles; I’d asked HB if she liked Stand, and she’d said the burgers were only alright, so I’d commented to SpB we should split a burger and a bunch of other stuff, to which she agreed.  Having mentioned fried chicken and mac & cheese to me earlier, I’d begun craving both… unfortunately, no fried chicken to be had there, but mac & cheese!  Yes!  A big bowl arrived shortly after we ordered it. 

A blurry shot shows you how creamy the first spoonful was.  Almost too liquidy, but as the meal continued onwards, it cheese’d up a bit (in this case, a good thing! – I’m not too fond of cheese being too liquidy/thin when I’m eating it).  The crunchy breadcrumbs on top added a nice bit of texture; I enjoyed this, though I’m not sure I’d order it again.  It was decent. 

Our “small” order of fries was quite yummy – properly fried (clearly, they know how to fry things here), and quite tasty, crisp and delicious.  I wish they had some more interesting dipping sauces besides just the homemade ketchup, but they were still good as is.  (We also took the sauce from the fried pickles and dipped our fries in that… yum!) 

Of course, despite hearing that the burger was only alright, we still had to try it so we could decide for ourselves.  This is the Classic, with American cheese added.  Homemade ketchup on the side – yes, we dipped our fries in this! – and you can just about see the two fried pickle slivers on the left of the burger, behind the cup of ketchup.  Nice touch. 

A very juicy burger, flecked with green (chives? green onions?).  I actually found the burger quite tasty, and though I know it looks small in the first picture, it wasn’t small, in fact it was a bit larger than my preferred size.  But it still fit easily into my mouth, and was quite yummy.  It was a solidly delicious burger… though I found it to be on the more expensive side, at $9 for just the burger, no fries, nothing else.  (During lunch hours, there’s a special that makes it $12 for the burger + fries + soda, but that’s still on the pricier side.) 

Towards the end of the meal, SpB got mad at me or something and decided to drown fries in retaliation.  Or something.  It was funny so I took a picture… bye-bye, little fry… you’ll be missed… I was going to eat you…

Yvo says: While these aren’t the fried pickles of my dreams – I prefer them to be slightly more savory – they were quite yummy, and I was pleasantly surprised by the burger being pretty good – admittedly, due to HB’s lukewarm assessment of the burger (we have similar tastes in many food items – although she prefers In & Out and I do not).  The atmosphere was fun & casual – we sat at high tables near the TV so we could watch the end of the Yankees game – and the total bill wasn’t expensive, about $22 a person, including tip (which is for everything above plus a beer for SpB).  I might go back, though I don’t know that I’d strongly crave it.
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