Irish Cousins kitchen returns!

I am a little bit behind the times with this post, but here is the news: A few months back Irish Cousins got some new owners, and the new owners decided to bring the kitchen back. The wife and I spend a fair amount of our Saturday nights there singing karaoke (usually pretty well, I might add) with DJ Josh Walters and whatever friends or family happen to show up there. In addition to that, the new owners are in the process of renovating the old corner bar.
Enough about that, let's talk food. Two weeks ago was the first chance I had to sample their food, when we were enjoying some barley sodas and singing our hearts out. The wife decided she was hungry and ordered an antipasto. Holy salad, Batman! It was perhaps the largest bowl of salad I have ever seen. Easily large enough to share. All of the ingredients were crisp and fresh. The red wine vinagrette was a wonderful complement to the meats, cheese and other standard Antipasto components. So 1 good experience. The next time we were there, I ordered their three meat Calzone, I believe the price for that was $10.79. This item is definitely too large for any one person to eat (please do not think I mean that as a bad thing), so if you order this plan to share. It had a wonderful golden crust that was perfectly cooked. The wife thought the sauce was sweet, but I liked it. So there is number 2. Last night, after having eaten early at the graduation party, I realized I was hungry, so I looked over the menu again, and settled on their Guiness Brat. Beer brats are easily towards the top of my list of favorite foods, and Cousins serves their's with a combination of Red cabbage and sauerkraut. It arrived at the table in a basket with a nice sized portion of french fries. The fries were a lovely golden brown color, and while not quite crispy, they had a very nice texture inside and great potato flavor. The Brat on the other hand was nothing short of perfection. the red cabbage - saurkraut mixture was to die for. I am not sure how they prepare the red cabbage, but it was much like sauerkraut, only sweet. When combined with the tanginess of the saurkraut, well that just heightened the senses even more. The Brat itself which is apparently cooked in Guiness with onions, peppers, and cayenne had a nice dark outside, was cooked perfectly through and had a bit of a back end heat to it. It was served on one of the best buns I have had this side of Philadelphia. So if you find yourself in the Lawrence Park area late on a saturday night, or need lunch after a late saturday night of singing and drinking, or any other time, give Irish Cousins a try, They are a three time winner in my book!

On a footnote here, Josh shared a piece of his greek dog pizza with me, and I wish I had ordered that. In the future I will be putting one of those in my face. Pizza crust with greek sauce sliced Smith's hot dogs, and cheddar cheese over top. It was so good it made me mad. WTG Cousins!