The 36th Annual West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival in Clarksburg was a pretty cool time. In addition to some music, I got to try lots of wines - and mostly from wineries I haven't heard of.

Stone Road Vineyard
Wine Tree Vineyards
Batton Hollow Winery
West Whitehill
Cascarelli's Old Country Wine
and Kirkwood I have heard of.

The wine garden was great to explore some of those wineries. Remind me to do a blog post later listing all the wineries so I can start checking them off as I go to them.

Also - I was able to try a D'annunzio's pepperoni roll! So good. Also had fritti from The Blue Bird, which is just like a donut - but thinner and more wobbly. Technical terms, people.

Pretty fun, and fairly cheap. The wine garden was $10 for samples and the cup. My pepperoni roll was $3, and fritti - just $1.

The other place in Huntington that I was really excited to visit was Backyard Pizza. Unfortunately, their building caught fire and caused some damage to the restaurant, as well as another burger restaurant I was hoping to visit.

Luckily, Backyard was actually operating out of their food truck at the beer festival, so I got to try it.

They were offering three pies: the Woo-Tang, Memphis Olde, Chophouse, and Truffle Shuffle.

After consulting with my friend and others in line around me, I went for the Woo-Tang: hickory grilled chicken, bleu cheese crumbles, fresh shredded mozzarella, roasted red peppers, diced jalapeno and red onion. Finished with cilantro, drizzled with honey, Sriracha and lime schwing sauce.

Ohhh my god. This was SO good. Salty, Smokey and sweet. And amazing. Everything was fresh, delicious and the flavors were perfectly complementary.

I especially loved the cilantro, lime and honey flavors. Just awesome. As soon as they reopen, I'll have to plan a trip back to Huntington.

Grade: A

When I was in Huntington for the beer festival, I stopped by Black Sheep with new/old bff +Chris J for some hipster burritos. Black Sheep has a location in Charleston that I have visited, but I was pumped for the original.

It was packed. Wall to wall filled with people. And lots of cool art. The brunch menu is filled with burritos you wouldn't expect (kind of like Black Bear) and local beer.

The burrito that caught my eye was the brisket: dijon glazed, Texas-style smoked brisket and house sweet slaw, blueberry bbq sauce and house-made pickle. Plus a side of chipotle sweet potato salad.

The burrito was pretty good. The blueberry bbq sauce had kind of sunk to the bottom of the burrito, but once I realized that, I tore it apart so I could have a little in each bite. Then, it was pretty awesome. Lots of flavor - and unique flavor, at that. Moist meat, crunchy slaw. All around pretty good.

And the potato salad was awesome. I love a sweet potato salad, and this had just the slightest tiny bit of kick. Delish.


Grade: A

Maxwell's was a mainstay in town - around for 37 years before it went out of business. What happened next is confusing, as some sort of legal battle ensued. The landlord and owner were fighting, and the restaurant building sat empty for about a year.

Just in the past week or so, a new restaurant has reopened in the space - "The Wall Street Grill." The chef told me they bought the namesake, etc., but they've still renamed themselves. They're nearly invisible on the Internet, and I only knew they were open because a friend stumbled upon them late one night.

Like a previous restaurant that was short-lived in this space, they're trying to do a late-night only thing right now, considering their proximity to the bars downtown. The chef said he gets there about 5/6 p.m. and doesn't close up until 4/5 a.m.

Their menu is written in chalk above the kitchen, but it's mostly homestyle - burgers, open-face chicken dinners, whole cornish hens, slaw, and a hot deli bar. The open-faced chicken dinner was the most popular, he said, so that's what I went for.

The chef was the only one in at the time - but we were the only diners, so it was OK - and he mentioned how he was an owner of the Rusted Musket. He then took some time off. He's not the owner of this place, but he is the chef and has had some trouble hiring a staff. He said he hopes to be open for lunch and maybe even do delivery in the future.

The dish was good, but just a bit bland. I wish the white bread was a roll, and the gravy was a bit more flavorful. I'm assuming the chicken is from the rotisserie, but maybe some of the fat and juices could punch the gravy up a bit. The potatoes were pretty good.

The place is a little rough around the edges. No menus to pass out (yet), and the ice wasn't working in the fountain machine. But they're just opening, so it may be just that. Or it could just be that it's going for that vibe. Either way, if you're looking for some hot American meals, this seems to be the place downtown for that.

Grade: B
 

The restaurant business in Morgantown is cutthroat. New restaurants are popping up all over, replacing ones that floundered in mediocrity -- something simply not good enough with the amount of competition in this town.

The Bank at 344 High is brand new - replacing most recently The Dancing Fig, which seems to have moved into the ZenClay location (the cafe closed, but the pottery portion seems to remain open). Before The Dancing Fig, the location was Lira, And before that, it was a Wesbanco (hence the name 'The Bank').

I met my friend Lisa here to check it out. It has the same general feel as the previous two restaurants: dark woods, classy with a touch of modern. I dig the decor. They have these frames full of pennies around the interior, which is a neat touch.

We started off with a glass of wine. You only have the option of their house wines by the glass. Cabernet, merlot, chardonnay, pinot grigio, moscato and prosecco are the only options. All are $5. There are many others, but it seems they'll only sell those by the bottle.

Appetizer time. Our server admitted it was her first day, but she was helpful. The menu had the hushpuppies at the top for $, down the left side were shareable entrees, and the right side was individual entrees. Everything else is $9.50. We ordered the basket of hushpuppies and the fried spinach and rapini ravioli with a roasted red pepper sauce to share.

The hushpuppies were mediocre, at best. They were incredibly greasy - "but Candace, of course hushpuppies are greasy." Grease like running-down-my-hand greasy. All I could taste was grease flavor - where's that comforting corn, fluffy onion flavor? Nah, just grease. Their sauce was better than the hushpuppy itself.

The ravioli was better. They were fried with some cheese on the outside. The roasted red pepper sauce was tasty, but the filling of the ravioli wasn't my favorite. Maybe a texture thing, but it was mushy and just a little off. Needs to be thicker.

For my main entree, I ordered the shrimp and grits. Billed as Charleston, South Carolina-style cheese grits and shrimp with bacon and asiago cream sauce. I really dig this dish, but this version kind of fell flat for me. Lots of fresh toppings, but the main components were kind of bland for me. The sauce wasn't particularly flavorful - and neither were the grits.

It looks beautiful. I just want more from it. More flavor. More cheese flavor. More something. However, considering they're new, it could just be a matter of time before the flavor is kicked up. And I hope so, because the theme of mediocrity has been a downfall for the previous restaurants.

Grade: B