Irish Dip at Union in Anacortes

Sitting at one of the tables in the middle of Union in downtown Anacortes.  I hadn't seen Josh for years so it was fun.  Great to catch up with that guy.

Yeah, it's a bit of a dog and pony show but I pretty much have to get the French dip if it's on the menu and I haven't had it before.  I was obliged!!!!!!  Had never heard of an Irish Dip, I don't believe, so creativity points for that.  Cheese and mayo on a French dip is just a waste of time and energy.  These toppings are for "chefs" who don't realize that butter, toasting, great bread and jus are the truly essential components of doing it right.  They must have missed the memo.  Lo, I ordered it. 

So here it is.  Nice looking salad, I had three beers so my food was hardly my focus at this point.  They slighted me on the jus as well, so that was incredibly sad.  The sandwich looks a little flat and greasy.  Radishes on the salad always help it seem a bit fresher.

Meek jus.

A second serving of meek jus.  I took poor notes on this sandwich so you'll have to bare with me on my recollection. Overall good not great.  3 or 4, definitely not 5.

Here's the sandwich.  Looks pretty sad, I suppose.  And a bit greasy, and a bit "flat", as I earlier expressed.

Setting the Stage

So I'm living back in the Anacortes area after "just" 20 years away.  My good buddy Schaffer agreed to meet up with me for drinks.  I was excited.  I'd been to Union a time or two before but never for food.  Josh and I had a couple of beers and ordered food; it was dinner time.  I had to go with the dip because it's expected of me in some scenarios.

Review

• French Dip
• Sandwich. 3. Was decent, salty and tasty as a standalone unit. A bit greasy and "flat" like a car may have run over it.
• Jus. 2.  They gave you hardly any jus, which is always disappointing knowing that demand is much greater than supply.  Just bad economics.  I was given a second half-full cup of jus.  I got by but this is worth the complaint.
• Meat. 4.  Fun to have corned beef and of course that's tasty and salty, let's not lie.
• Non-Meat Toppings. 3.  Don't need the rest of the stuff but that was part of their concept: aioli and cheese.  Rich.  Probably too rich and didn't make the jus mean any more to me than it could have.
• Overall. 4.  Giving this a somewhat high score because of the creativity and uniqueness.  Shame for the mayo and cheese combo; that's just overkill....but again, that was part of their concept....
• Salad - Didn't eat it but could have been fine.
• Radishes. 5.  Nice touch.

Conclusions

Was a nice visit to Union and fun to reunite with Josh.  We ran into my friend Shawna while down there and ended up running into her and partying together with her and Jimmy at the Brown Lantern later.  Dean Rowell, Mike Hartley and their ladies showed up later that night.  A large bag of Cheetos and some Bud Light was involved later that evening.  Whew.  Back in A Town!

The French Dip Sandwich at West Seattle, WA's Shadowland Restaurant Awarded a 3 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Good) on this 14th day of January, 2017 - The Cream-meal

Driving over to West Seattle before a podcast recording.  Beautiful, sunny, cold day in Seattle.

Here's Shadowland from the south side.  Bamboo and sun.  Feels like West Seattle.

Their menu.  It was a Saturday at about 11:30 AM.  They had brunch and lunch options.  I wasn't in a brunch mood and was basically there seeking their French dip.

Picture from the bar.  My new Samsung Galaxy S7 has a way better camera than the S5 did.  I upload all of my photos automatically to Google Drive using the Google Photos auto-backup feature.

The bar.  All of the wait staff was basically awesome.  They were very friendly and nice.  I asked about the history of Shadowland, which they readily and knowledgably disclosed.  I guess it's been there for 12 years and was formerly a florist.

And I see the French dip.  $13.  Braised Beef Brisket, White Cheddar, Garlic Aioli, Au Jus, Horseradish, French Roll.

In the meanwhile, my wife and producer Christian showed up.  We enjoyed beers and a seat in the sun.  I really liked it in there and they played a lot of music from the early 70's so had a good vibe. Our waitress, Lauren, was extremely nice, warm, friendly, helpful, funny, etc.

There's the sandwich.  A few comments: the cheddar is not melted, so that's too bad.  The bread is not too big nor does it look too fancy so I wasn't overly stoked.  The beef looks fine and tasty.

Here's the other side of the sandwich.  Also cheese that is not melted.  That could *perhaps* be resolved by a very hot jus, but that, my friends, was not my fate on this day.

This wedge salad side gets bonus points.  You don't usually (ever?) get a wedge salad as side option.  And this was a good wedge.  But I became overwhelmed by the creaminess of both the bleu cheese on the salad, the cheese and mayo on the sandwich.  I will go on in more detail in just a bit.

Here I am, about to punish this thing.  About the jus: it wasn't to die for.  It was dark and rich and stuff but it wasn't hot enough and just not remarkable.  3 of 5 for the jus.  And back to this "creaminess" issue: you can see I had mayo on my finger; the problems had already started.

Looks good.  I am excited.

The "money shot".  Also looks good.  But the aioli mayo killed and overwhelmed it.

As I mentioned, it is a very nice feature when your salad blooms and becomes a second meal.  This happened to me at Georgetown Liquor as well.  The wedge was good.  Not perfect but good.  It gets a 4 of 5 because it's rare to be a side dish option for a French dip sandwich, but in the realm of  possible wedge salads it is just average.

More data for you on the wedge.

Jessica got a chicken sandwich with a salad of arugula on the side.  Very lovely salad and she said it was great.  She preferred the salad, by far, to the sandwich, which was also what happened to me.  As I ate and photographed and took notes and fully immersed myself to the sensation of the French dip, Jessica and Christian, who were meeting for the first time, chatted.

Tasting Notes

So there you have the photos and story and whatnot.  Here are the detailed tasting notes:

• It was good overall but not great.  3 of 5 overall.
• The size was basically small.  It had a lot of cheese on it, a fair amount of beef, fairly small bread area.
• Neither the sandwich nor jus were hot enough.  I was at least one IPA into the meal at this point.   
• I made a huge mistake and did not request for the aioli to be on the side.  I had made this decision before but ordered in haste.  It is a rule to never get the aiolio on the French dip.  
• The sandwich had a 3 in flavor.  Nothing really to write home about.  The horseradish flavor was not memorable either.  And it wasn't on the side either, so I couldn't overindulge in it.  You want spicy Beaver horseradish not in the cream variety. 
• The bread was small and classic so I'm only going to give it a 2 in this context.
• Beef was fine but also not notable. 
• Jus was fine, also unremarkable. 
• And I come back to the salad, which was actually the highlight of this meal (not to mention the Fishhead IPAs).  It was a good wedge probably 4.

Summary

Bread 2 of 5

Meat 3 of 5

Non-Meat Toppings 2 of 5

Jus 3 of 5 

Overall 3 of 5

Bottom Line

I wasn't overly impressed with this French dip.  At its most basic, it was too creamy.  It didn't need all that mayo and cheese.  French dips should be a simple food and if you are going to gussy them up with a bunch of other stuff, choose very wisely.  And don't think that aioli tricks anyone beyond mayonnaise.  I gave all of this feedback to the waitress which of course overwhelmed and cracked her up.

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Red Door for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 23rd day of July, 2014 - This one was solid.

We were in Fremont for the Solstice Festival so there were a lot of people out.

The menu

Beef Dip: prime rib, white cheddar, horseradish aioli, on baguette, au jus.  Sounds delicious.  White cheddar: nice touch.

There it is: with a pickle and a good looking salad.  Jus served in a paper cup.

A little fat glistening in the jus which can be a good thing.

Looks tasty.

Good looking salad with bleu cheese and nice carrots and cabbage for crunch.

A pickle spear.

The money shot: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Good one: 4 of 5.  The extras made it tasty.