I'm doing a story on Blackwater Brewing Company for Taste WV Magazine, so I was lucky enough to try some of their beer and food while there. You'll have to check that out for their awesome story and plans for the future.

The restaurant features a handful of beers and a weekly rotating menu during the weekends.

Let's start with the beer: They have some German-inspired beers due to the owner's brewing history. They have the Canaan Valley Kolsch, a 3200 Alt Bier, The Goldenrod Gold Ale, The Laurel Run EPA, and The Angus Macker Hardy County Sweet Oatmeal Stout. I had a taste of the Goldenrod Gold Ale and had to get a growlette of it to take back to Morgantown with me.

It's smooth and uses a local honey. How cool.

OK - food. He literally serves food only Friday-Sunday and it changes weekly. As far as a theme, he tries to play on seasons, and there's usually a soup or stew. He had a beef carbonnade, which is a Belgian beef dish with cubes of beef in a rich broth incorporates the Belgian blonde ale as the base. Hot and flavorful. With a side of beer bread.

Then there was a bratwurst that incorporated his Kolsch bier, served with homemade potato salad and sauerkraut. This potato salad was so delicious. It was warm and hearty. So loved it. The bratwurst was delicious and on a nice toasted bun.

My favorite, though, was this beautiful peperonata di patate soup, which had four types of peppers and potato. For one, it's beautiful. And two, it had this really deep, slightly spicy, slightly sweet soup with some potato for some substance. Just super good. Plus some nice buttered crostini.

So, if you go during the week, get a really good beer. If you're there on a weekend, choose one of his meals (there are only a couple options), but I know it'll be worth it.

Grade: A

The Mediterranean Market went out of business, and a new Tex-Mex restaurant has replaced it: Dos Bros Cantina. They've been pretty active (and funny) on Twitter. When they opened, they sent out a tweet. A few days later, I visited with some coworkers.

The outside has some wood panels, and the awning is no more. Inside, bright vibrant colors paint the chairs, the walls and the floor. We walked up to the counter but then someone seated us. Then we moved because my chair was wobbly and I'm a diva, apparently.

We were brought some chips and salsa. It was fine. I'll be honest when I say this isn't typically my most favorite type of food. I tend to gravitate toward sweets and creamy, rich sauces. Just personal taste. However, I try to judge it based on what it is. And the chips and salsa were just fine to me.

The menu seems to be evolving a bit. It is slightly different than the one they posted on the storefront, and when another friend visited, it looked slightly different from that. So here's the menu I ordered from, and I think it's mostly the same.

You have your burritos, combo meals, some house specials, appetizers and salads. I ordered off the lunch special menu: Lunch Special No. 8 - shredded beef enchilada, chicken enchilada and rice.

The Davis-Thomas area has always been attractive to me. It's been out of the way from my main paths of travel, it's near Blackwater Falls, and it plays host to a a number of really cool local restaurants. It's one of those pockets in West Virginia that just has a really cool local culture - like Fayetteville or Lewisburg.

One restaurant I've been wanting to try is Hellbender Burritos. The name just sounds really cool - like they're super spicy or something. But, nope, they're actually named after a kind of salamander - also known as a snot otter -  I learned about at work. But they're native to the Davis area.

They opened at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, and my interview for a story was at noon. So, we were there right at 11:30. We parked right along the main road (for free) and walked to the restaurant. It was the first time I saw snow this season, so I was super happen to see a nice fireplace in the front room. We walked down the steps into the next area where there was a man at the bar (and some folks at another table). He told us we could sit anywhere, so we chose the room closer to the fire to warm up.

The inside is cute and cozy. A server brought us menus fairly quickly. They have specialty burritos, including items named "Gendarme," "Treehugger" and "HooDoo VooDoo." I gravitated toward "The Hellbender," which is shrimp or chicken in a spicy garlic buffalo sauce, with rice and homemade bleu cheese dressing. I got the shrimp.

I think it was something about the homemade bleu cheese that did me in. That just sounded amazing. So when it came out, I instantly knew I would need a to-go box. They are giant burritos, served with a side of chips and slaw. Instead of using a fork, which I assumed would lead to a mess, I picked it up and dug in.

Full of rice and a creamy bleu cheese sauce, it packed just a slight heat and some fresh shrimp. Incredible. Flavors of garlic and smokiness are made all the better with the rich creaminess of the bleu cheese dressing and light shrimp. Even though chicken goes well with this flavor combo, the shrimp gave me something different. I dug it.

Chips and slaw were fine. That burrito, though, delicious.

Grade: A

I've heard for quite some time that Rocco's Ristorante is the Muriale's of southern West Virginia. When I interviewed Rocco Muriale, of Muriale's, in Fairmont, he mentioned his cousin's restaurant and how it does well in the southern part of the state. So what is often considered as some of the best Italian food in West Virginia runs in the family.

Bffl Tom Bragg and I went to Rocco's after a fun day of checking out Blenko and the Pumpkin House. The main Rocco's location is located outside of Huntington in Ceredo. Inside, it's low lighting, maroon tablecloths, and lovely placesettings with gold napkins.

The menu is filled with all the Italian staples like rigatoni, lasagna and chicken parmesan. They also kick it up a few notches with dishes like Lobster Langostino, which is made with angel hair pasta, cream and cheeses of the house. And there are daily specials.

Bread and butter is served first. Breadsticks in packages are on the table. Then was my house salad with house dressing - a giant heap of lettuce, a few cucumbers, tomatoes and a sliver of red onion.

I ordered a special that night, which was fettuccine alfredo with mushrooms and crab meat. SO. G.O.O.D. It was creamy and with fresh chunks of crab. It was a huge serving that was incredibly rich and delicious. The ingredients were high-quality, and the flavors were awesome. Love this place.

Grade: A

Restaurants are starting to trickle into place at Beech View Place on Beechurst. First, The Greeks opened, and within the past couple days, Frank Anthony's Original Pizza has opened.

Parking: You can enter the garage beneath the building from the Fourth Street entrance. When you visit the restaurant, they will give you a token you use as payment. Simple.

The inside is a good size, with a counter space showcasing a handful of pizzas you can purchase by the slice. Only cheese/pepperoni pizzas were out when we were there, but they said they'd make anything. And as we were leaving, there were a few specialty ones available by the slice.

You can order small, medium and large regular pizzas with a number of toppings. Or special pizzas, including a breakfast pizza, a buffalo chicken pizza, a meat lovers and a margarita pizza. Plus pepperoni rolls, strombolis and garlic knots.


Tony, Jake and I kind of decided to do one of everything. We each had a single slice from the pizzas. I had a slice of cheese, while the boys got pieces of their Sicilian. We also ordered a meatball stromboli. Plus drinks. For a grand total of around $24, so $8 each. That's not bad at all.

Through chatting with the man working, we learned the owner is from Ohio and decided to open up this pizza place because he was friends with the folks who own the building. It's the only Frank Anthony's location and is named after the owner's two sons: Frank and Anthony.

First, our slices were delivered. I had already decided Tony was giving me half of his Sicilian, and I'd give him half of my cheese in return. The regular cheese: very flat, really tasty sauce (hint of spice that I love) and lots of melted cheese. The only thing was that the pizza should have been taken out like a minute earlier - a little too dark on the bottom for my liking. But, flavors on point.

The Sicilian was also good - same great flavors. Just lots more breading if you dig that. Also, a little too dark - but that's new restaurant stuff they'll work out. The point is that the main components here are all tasty - dough, sauce and cheese.


The stromboli, though, was super, super good. It's the only thing we had made-to-order, so we waited a little longer on it -- but not long, at all, really, just had finished our slices. It was cooked to perfection. Nice brown around the edges and bottom. Flaky, crisp dough. You could tell they were being careful and checking it and adjusting to make sure they're getting the right color.

Flavorful meatballs, perfect ratio of sauce and lots of stringy cheese. So good. And they're like a foot long for $8. Pretty good deal in my world.

The gentleman working was very kind, knowledgeable and wanted to make sure we enjoyed our food. The flavors are great. Little things like taking the pizza out just a hair earlier is easy to fix. And they're doing cubside pickup along Fourth Street. Very cool. PLUS you get to draw on the tabls with chalk. If you post your piece of art to their Facebook, you could win a pizza. Hoping this one sticks around.

Grade: A