Stranded in the Garden State

well, after a long weekend of getting flights cancelled and arriving a day late, we've had some fun things going on.

Saturday night we had dinner at 90 acres - great space and great food: I would recommend! http://ninetyacres.com/
Sunday night we went to see Jersey Boys on Broadway with the family and ended up having dinner at Park & Orchard in Rutherford, NJ. Excellent food and amazing wine bible, but wierd space and service.http://www.parkandorchard.com/

We got stranded today here (no planes and it's snowing AGAIN tonight), so we ventured out while the sun was shining to create some adventure. We headed to a Beer Advocate top-rated liquor store Oaktree in S. Plainfield that is a Buy rite. Check out their impressive inventory here: http://www.oaktreewines.com/InventorySearchBeer.aspx.
All I can say is I finally yelled - "We have to get out of here!" I felt like a kid in a candy store...luckily their prices were tremendous. They even kicked in some cool microbrewery pint glasses because we made such a large purchase. Unfortunately, they, along with the beer we did not get around to trying, could not be brought home with us, but I did take a chance on Delta losing my luggage and smuggled a single Dogfish head 120 minute IPA back with me. More on this once I actually get to taste it (yes, it AND my luggage survived!)

We stopped to get some tremendous pizza at Cosimo's in Westfield, NJ. Rated the best pizza in NJ by the Star-Ledger. I have to admit that it was pretty great. We got a broccoli rabe/sausage/onion pie, and it lived up to the hype. http://www.cosimosrestaurant.com/

Then we drove through a bunch of beautiful towns I've never been in before, saw lots of snow and deer and sledders, and generally had a fun day. If I get inspired, I'll embed my sledder pix in here later.

We came back with a bunch of beers to try as a group (and ordered some more pizza!) Many we've had, many are things we can't obtain in the ATL. Here is the order we tried them in:

Duchesse De Bourgogne
Rodenbach Grand Cru
Hitachino Nest White Ale
21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon
Southern Tier Raspberry Wheat
Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
Lagunitas Brown Shugga
The Bruery Dark Orchard
Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout
Troeg's Nugget Nectar

We left behind some Southern Tier chocolate stout, a dark rye and a few nice IPAs in 750 ml bottles. Also, our extra Nugget Nectar and 21st Amendment Watermelon. I have a sneaking suspicion none of it will make it until our next visit, but that's OK - we love to spread the beer love.

As fun as it was, I'm happy to be back in my home sweet home...it was snowing buckets today, and I thought there was no chance our plne would take off (it did.) Time to hit the gym to work off all the pizza and beer!!