Green Chili Mac & Growlers

To lighten up the tone of the day… here’s a restaurant post! A restaurant many of you could convieably visit… if you live in Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, or Wisconsin. Check here for locations…

Ahh, Rock Bottom.

There was a location right near my old work- literally within walking distance of my first apartment in Indiana. Trust me, I joined their mug club.

Basically they brew their own beer at each location, with similar, yet region and location specific brews. Each restaurant has a brewer. Liz, my Rock Bottom’s brewmaster, did a beer and cheese tasting (OMG BETTER THAN BEER AND WINE) for my sorority’s alumnae chapter back in EARLY 2007 and it literally changed my beer-life and cheese-life. I discovered the combination of GOAT CHEESE and their HEARTLAND RED. Literally (I’ve been using that word a lot…) it changed my cheese and beer life. I went from being a mozz & cheddar girl to a cheese connoisseur. And I went from Blue Moon and Bud Light (sorry, but I “ugh” just thinking about them as “good” now) to realizing that beers could be bold and flavorful, just like wine.

Life. Changing. I urge you all to visit. Why, you ask? THIS:

I had to merge two pictures together since I was taking them with my iPhone and could only fit so much in the frame!

From left to right: Simcoe IPA, Tripel Trouble, Happy Pils, (those three were their current specialties, the rest are regular and always available) Hoosier Ma Stout, Brickway Brown, Heartland Red, Double Barrel Pale Ale, Seasonal Wheat, and Circle City Light. You can see the Indianapolis references (Hoosier, Brickway, Heartland, Circle City) but even the other Indianapolis location has a few different beers. The locations are really individualized, which I LOVE.

This was something ridiculously not bad like $9 or $12 and B and I shared it. We then each got a small glass after, him the Tripel and me the Red.

But then we had the literal best thing I’ve ever eaten. LITERALLY. (I’m just embracing that word now.)

Green Chili Fried Mac N Cheese.

When we get Mexican, I always get something with tomatillo sauce, and B loves it too. And we make Mac N Cheese at least once a week. So this looked like maybe the best thing we’ve ever heard of. Naturally we ordered it.

It came out with five fat pancake-like fried mac discs, and a side of tomatillo. HOLY DELICIOUS.

The mac had chilis mixed in, and then were fried until they had a super crisp and crunchy crust. I slathered mine in the tomatillo, as you can see. When we left I asked for a side of the tomatillo sauce. (They also have the best honey mustard IN THE WORLD, and once a waitress there gave me like a 2-cup container full of it, so I thought maybe our server would do the same. No, we got an eighth-cup sized container that won’t do me any good. But I still want to try to make something like this on my own.)

We devoured them and then got our meals- mini burgers for B and a buffalo chicken wrap for me. I thought mine was EH but B had the second half later and LOVED it. Either way, the appetizer made my year. They could’ve served me dog shit with a honey mustard glaze as my meal, and I would still come back.

We also got our growlers filled. Do you all have growlers? This is what one looks like:

The reason we have them (ours are from Sun King Brewery) are because Indiana doesn’t allow alcohol sales on Sundays. This excludes bars- you can go order a beer in any bar on a Sunday- but pertains to any “take-home” alcohol. The exception? Growlers. Breweries that brew and sell on-site can do growler fills on Sundays in Indiana. So when it’s Sunday and we want a beer, we can go to any of the in-house brewing breweries in the area and get a fill, which costs anywhere from $5 to $16, depending when, where, and what beer you get. For example, the growler fills at Rock Bottom are something like $8 or $8.50, but the premium ones are more. Sun King has many $5 fill days at their location near downtown. Broad Ripple Brewpub has horrible service but is close-by and has $10 fills.

You should really check with your breweries about growlers. They can be a lot cheaper than buying a six pack! You buy the growler up front, which is slightly more pricey than a fill, but then can get your growlers filled anywhere. It’s an affordable way to imbibe!

In fact, I am doing so currently! This picture was of our first growler’s fillable, the Double Barrel Pale Ale. But we’ve moved onto the Heartland Red.

Yes, we have pug pint glasses. That our amazing pug friend got us for our wedding. Never underestimate the power of a pug gift.

So here’s your homework for the week: 1) Buy and fill at least one growler. 2) Visit the Rock Bottom that is closest to you and get this appetizer and beer sampler!!!