20170309

World of Beer - Reston, VA

I am down in Reston for training with Perfect Sense Digital makers and integrators of the Brightspot CMS. After a day of training, which was tantamount to drinking from the firehose, I decided to have dinner at a nearby restaurant World of Beer.  It has a nice group of outside tables and it was an incredibly lovely evening.

The menu had a Reuben and previous experience with pub food Ruebens has been almost universally positive.

I ordered the Reuben and a beer of the suggested style.  The recommended style was an imperial IPA.  IPA's tend to be big beers and extremely hoppy.  Imperial beers are typically big and hoppy.  Imperial IPA's are typically monster things that are insanely, almost unbearably bitter, and while not my favorite style I can see how it would pair well with the outsized flavors of my favorite sandwich.  The beer was a "Tin Cannon Twin Cannon" which was hoppy as promised but not overbearing.



When the sandwich came I was somewhat disappointed but the size and character.  My sense of food perhaps has become lowbrow of late.  I just want a chicken bucket or perhaps a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, Heinz 57 and a deep friend potatoes.

As they say though when in Reston, do as the Restonians do.  Looking at the sandwich from the side I didn't feel compelled to pull it apart and expose the innards for the world to see.  The top and bottom layers were pieces of fairly good pastrami pulled from an even stack and then griddled.  There was one piece of cheese and a little sauerkraut with a good bit of Russian dressing in there.

The pastrami was good quality but the rest of the sandwich was sadly lacking.  The other elements were in short supply and the pastrami was placed like a mother would send to school with a small child in a sandwich with the crusts cut off.  No layering or piling, just neatly stacked.  The ratios were similar to what I've seen in New York except there it is a matter of "behold this mountain of Pastrami", while here it is, "well we need to garnish the meat because that is how it's done, I think".

The bread, meh, marble rye.  It was grilled a little bit.  It could have gone a little more, with of course more butter.  At least it wasn't soggy.

The fries were another disappointment.  Somewhat low quality.  There were more bad spots than expected and while they came out hot there weren't fully cooked.  They weren't inedible by any stretch of the imagination but they failed the McDonald's test.  (i.e. If McDonalds does X better than you, then don't do it!)

The beer was good.  The service was incredibly friendly.  It looked like they were gearing up for a real party atmosphere and perhaps a live band later in the night.  Go for the drinks and the party.  Maybe grab Chick-Fil-A on the way home.

The sandwich gets 2.5 out of 5 stars.