You may remember last week I think it was I mentioned that I'd be going to a new macaroni and cheese restaurant in Oakland called Homeroom. Well, I went tonight and it was SO AWESOME!
My girlfriends and I drove from the South Bay to Oakland tonight in nasty weather, like really nasty. Many other people would have scrapped the whole idea but we powered on. We've been talking about this for a month and a half so we couldn't just give up.
We arrived and got lucky and got our table shortly after. We had all looked at the menu ahead of time and spent a bit of time trying to decide what we wanted. For two of us it came down to a bit of "my mother said to pick the very best one..."
I was very excited to check this place out. Not only did all the menu items look fantastic the style and design of the place is right up my alley. The website is fantastic and you can tell they have put a lot of creative love into the restaurant. They source their ingredients as locally as they can for the most part. The combination of the menu, decor, cheekiness, respect for the environment and overall appeal has quickly put this place on the top of my favorites list.
On the back of each menu is a guide to fold it into a paper airplane. :)
Homemade root beer. The only thing I ate or drank tonight that was a little bit of a letdown. You can see how light in color it is, it was just missing a bit of depth.
This is awesome, it's an old card catalogue that is used for restaurant guest frequent buyer cards. It's so cute, you get a star for each time you get mac&cheese and once you get to a certain number you get one for free.
Homemade light fixture (awesomeness!)
Like I mentioned earlier they source things as locally as they can. I am a cider drinker so I was excited to see some unique flavors from a brewery in Sacramento. I had the huckleberry and my girlfriend had the blood orange. At first the blood orange tasted a bit like potpourri might if you ate it, but it kind of grew on us.
Most, if not all of the tables were old and full of character and patina. We were at a fabulous bar height table with stools.
Ok, now for the food. They have eight mac & cheeses on the menu right now. We tried six of the eight. Drinks are served in jam jars.
This was mine! It's called Trailer Mac. It's a cheddar mac with hot dogs and potato chips on top! It was so good!
We got to meet one of the owners and she was so sweet and touched that we had driven 45 minutes to get there. She brought us a fabulous dessert that was so good I forgot to take a picture. It was the most fantastic brownie with the most delicious ice cream and the best caramel sauce I have ever tasted! Then we got their "oreos" and ice cream sandwich and peanut butter pie.
I love restaurants like this. It's special and personal and full of character. I would rather support restaurants like this than large chain ones. It's more like what you might make at home and you can probably pronounce all of the ingredients in the food. I could wax poetic for a while about the significance of eating food that is grown locally but I won't, just know that it's awesome and you should try it.
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