Our weekend actually began on Thursday night with dinner at Burton’s Grill. Burton’s asked if we’d like dinner on the house in exchange for a recap of our meal. Of course, I said, of course!
I have to be totally honest and say that we had debated going to Burton’s before but thought it would be just another classic American restaurant. There are locations up and down the East Coast, including a few in Massachusetts and one in Mount Pleasant, SC. But I humbly eat my words after our visit – we were very impressed. This is not a typical chain restaurant, and the food was top notch.
Everyone was so very nice and excited to have us there.
We were given a behind-the-scenes tour from executive chef Jason Phipps. He runs an impressive kitchen!
All the dishes at Burton’s are made-to-order, so they are very accommodating of all dietary restrictions. Everything from separate fryers for seafood and gluten to being able to make a dish without onions (yeah!)
They also make everything from scratch, which I didn’t expect. All of their dressings, sauces, and desserts and more are made in-house. Even the pickles!
We sat down to a glass of wine and a beer and got started on the menu.
Chef recommended the risotto fritters which were coated in panko and stuffed with sausage!
We shared this beet salad next. Loved the presentation! They told us they toss the beets in the homemade Dijon dressing shortly after they come out of the oven and the beets soak up the flavor, making them a lot less earthy. They were amazing, especially with the layer of goat cheese and candied nuts.
I almost always order seafood in restaurants and tend to lean away from meats, but the Autumn Pork on the Fall specials menu had me at hello. Sweet / savory my love!
The pork tenderloin came with a stuffing made of DONUTS!!!!!! This dish was the bomb! First off, this was the best pork I’ve had in my life. Chef said it’s their perfect brining technique – 12 hours no more no less. I usually think of pork as dry and thinly sliced, but this was thick and succulent like prime rib. It was so tender I barely had to chew! It was served with a blueberry gastrique. And of course the donut stuffing was life changing.
Matt had the steak frites with chimichurri sauce – he liked it a lot! (But mine was the best ; ) )
We ended the night with the Key Lime Pie, which was really, really good. Again, expectations were totally exceeded. Loved the crust! Small glass of port on the side!
We left totally stuffed with a desire to return. The last bit that had us nodding our heads yes was the kids menu. The “B Choosy” menu is designed so that kids can build their own dinner by circling their chosen proteins, starches, veg, fruit and dairy. Apparently both kids and parents just love this. Mazen is a little young to circle the courses himself, but as a parent I think it’s awesome that we can design an entrée with his preferences in mind. Thanks so much to Burton’s for hosting us!
The rest of our weekend was low key. It rained, and we didn’t have many plans. Friday night we had our neighbors over, drank one of our new Sonoma wines, ate leftovers and crunched apple crisp for dessert!!
I threw the crisp together with a topping made from oats, flour, brown sugar, and butter. Our freshly picked apples were underneath. Delish, but it needed about 10x more topping!
Toasted marshmallow ice cream on top!!
Saturday was amazing because Matt took the whole day off!! I can’t remember the last Saturday we woke up at the same time! It sure made the weekend feel twice as long. He told me to stay in bed while he made breakfast. I did the same for him on Sunday!
Blended oats with apple crisp on top!!
I also took the day completely off of exercise. I was coming off of a week of really hard workouts and needed to rest my legs. No walking – nothing! It was great, especially with a soccer game on the horizon.
At lunchtime we went to the butcher JM Stock where Our Local Commons was hosting an open house with copies of their new book and samples from the stories inside.
Jenny mid-laugh!
These ladies produced a beautiful book about the local food scene in Charlottesville. I bought myself a copy – and some Flora cheese! Plus a bottle of the latest Blenheim Red Table Wine. I also got to taste the Three Notch’d pumpkin beer. While it was pretty low in alcohol (4.5%) it was pretty good for such a drinkable pumpkin!
Since we were in the neighborhood, we popped into Cville-ian Brewing Co. I visited before they were open, but this was my first time in to taste!
I tried a flight –
Albemarle Amber // Rugby Red (my fav!) // Blenheim Belgian // Pavilion Porter
It was cozy in there, and I’d love to come back for some of their Saturday live music!
Post-tasting salad! Greens, homemade dressing, freshly cooked beans, peppers, cheese x2.
Afternoon plans included laundry, cleaning, food prep and Survivor! I have watched seasons 10-17 and am jumping back to watch a few older ones before continuing on. Love that show.
For dinner we whipped up this dish from the contents of the fridge. Leftover noodles, sautéed eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms, plus a jar of our canned tomato sauce. Grated mozzarella on top!
I ended up pushing through and doing more food prep on Saturday night because Sunday was packed with activities:
The Local Food Hub Dinner! // Soccer // A clothes swap party // A visit from the famous Anne P.
More details on the dinner in the next day or so : )
Things that jumped out at me: risotto fritters and TOASTED MARSHMALLOW ice cream! That sounds incredible!!! A local ice cream company here in Buffalo just came out with a similar flavor but I’ve yet to try it! Need to get on that.
I’ve always been jealous of that ice cream but now that I see it scooped I see that it has a swirl of real marshmallow?! Green with envy!
I think that is actually vanilla that was left on the spoon when I scooped that flavor. Sorry to burst your bubble! I think swirls of marshmallow would be amazing!
Lol! Speaking of yummy things… have you tried the Warlock from Southern Tier yet? I tend to prefer stouts to ales so I have a feeling it is going to replace Pumpking in my heart.
We have it in our fridge for my birthday weekend!
I am swooning over that beet salad! I wish I could taste it so I could try to recreate it at home! Maybe you need to work on that recipe for us. 🙂
We have a Burtons in NH too! I was always hesitant as it’s actually located in the mall. But we have a good friend with Celiac’s and this is her favorite place to dine. We were hooked once we joined her. Pretty impressive for a chain and on Sundays they have 1/2 bottles of wine. 🙂
What a fun weekend! All the food looks so good! And what wonderful use of leftovers!! I was worrying about what to have for dinner tonight since I am working (and I am usually off on Mondays) but your leftovers inspired me to take what’s in our fridge and work a little magic. Thanks!!!
Looks like such a great weekend; a mix of relaxation and productivity. I saw Burton’s Grill when we were in Charlottesville a few weekends ago. It looks like a really neat restaurant from your review. It is nice to see that they make all of their food from scratch and offer healthy kids fare rather than just chicken fingers and fries. Plus, how could you go wrong with donut stuffing?! YUM!
What an awesome weekend! That’s so cool that you got a behind the scenes look in the restaurant!
My husband and I love Burton’s! We actually went there with my family to celebrate our engagement the night he proposed and we almost had our rehearsal dinner there! They’re definitely not your typical American chain restaurant. I was hesitant to go initially because I kind of lump them all together. But their food is amazing! I love their salmon. 🙂
Donut stuffing?! That’s one I’ve never heard of but it sounds pretty epic!
Mazen’s getting so big! He looks like he will grow out of that highchair any second. <3 Have you guys thought about getting a booster seat for him? We bought one a few months ago for ym son who turned 2 in July and and he LOVED sitting at the table with everyone else.
We’ve never been to the Burton’s here, but Josh’s parents LOVE it. We will have to make a point to try it. That beet salad looks and sounds incredible!!!
I tend to shy away from chain restaurants, but Burton’s sounds amazing! I’m not sure they have any locations in the Midwest (never heard of it), but if we came across one while traveling, we’d be sure to give it a try. Your weekend sounds fabulous and I just love hearing about all the local food/drink in your area. Wish we had more of that by us!
I have a silly question. Those little glasses with beer in it – how much would you say are in each glass? I’ve seen you do several samplers like that, different places – just curious 🙂
I think they are 4 ounce glasses to equal a pint of beer total. (Fyi, I shared this with Matt)
Thanks – they look smaller, and I was thinking ‘how can she get a taste of what she likes when the glasses are so small?’ I was thinking they were like, an ounce or so.
(You can tell I don’t drink…)
🙂
I would definitely order anything on a menu with donut stuffing! YUM.
I’m sure you’ve explained this somewhere before I started reading your blog, but are you allergic/sensitive to onions or do you just dislike them?
I have a very keen sense of smell and taste and just find them to be really offensive. I’ll eat them cooked into soups or well cooked in dishes but if they have even a hint of rawness to them I can’t even smell the dish.
So nice to see your review of Burton’s. We’ve been passing it up since they opened, but from the sound of the children’s menu and that beet salad, I’ll have to put it on the short list to try soon!
Echoing what the other commenter said about outgrowing the highchair . . . Is there a reason Mazen never eats at the dining table with everyone else (per shared pictures, of course)? All of my toddlers loved being part of the family meal in either their booster or – my favorite – an Ikea kids chair that sits a bit higher and pulls right up to the table.
We pull his chair up to the table when we all sit down. It fits nicely. He and his friend friend loved eating facing one another on this night.
I don’t like them raw either. If my husband and I are going out dancing, I’ve asked him not to have any raw onions before because I can’t stand the onion breath. 🙂
Dang all that food is making my mouth water! I loveee when pork is cooked well, and donut stuffing sounds epic.
My husband and I also went to Burton’s last week! It’s probably the only chain we really like. The food is always good, the gluten free selection is great, and they have a great cocktail list! My husband also got the steak frites! He loved it and is hankering to make us some chimichuri sauce again. I did notice, however, that they removed the sandwiches from the dinner menu. Their steak sandwich was one of my favorite things to get and we rarely have an opportunity to go out for lunch and we try to eat as affordably as possible when we go out. Seems like it’s probably a price point issue (the sandwiches were nearly half the price of some entrees). Regardless, great place!