After a doctor’s appointment of the squashing and mashing sort, during which no abnormalities other than normal abnormalities were found, I thought it would be nice to stop at Stockholm’s for a filet mignon sandwich, fries (which I called chips on the way in, trying to help but instead temporarily halting Guy’s verbal movement from chips to crisps to fries…) and some in-house brewed root beer.
Stockholm’s is a straight-up pub carrying Geneva’s Swedish history in its wood plank floors, simple decor, and heavy framed antique local photos. It’s comfortable and there’s always a line of regulars at the bar enjoying the unique, handcrafted, in-house micro-brews. Not deviating from our original plan, despite lots of interesting choices on the menu, we ordered two root beers and a filet mignon sandwich. The root beer, served in a chilled glass, was gorgeous, smooth, rich, and with a hint of vanilla. No ice. The filet mignon sandwich is a 6 oz tenderloin, carefully and subtly seasoned and topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms. It’s served with a Burgundy wine sauce, good crisp fries, and a cold pickle–not a floppy thing, but a real damned good pickle. Delicious, but a bit pricey at $15.49; we shared, and it was enough for a lunch.
This is a simple sandwich; good meat on good ciabatta, with a little onion and mushroom. We ordered it medium, but it came medium rare at most, which delighted Guy. Well, it delighted us both because though it’s safer to eat medium, we like it bleedy, and because we technically ordered medium, it was in no way our fault that we were devouring rare meat, meat that could have been…risky. But Guy was especially delighted as he’d been trying to get a rare piece of meat in London for some time, but the people there seem to be too kind and concerned to let you go rare, even if you insist. All of his medium rares were without even the faintest blush of pink. Last week, a hamburger at the Assembly in Hoffman Estates proved equally rare. Thus we have come to the conclusion that in America, you have the freedom to hurt yourself with rare meat–and so many other things. It was delicious.
All of Geneva is a bit pricey, so Stockholm’s is not excessively so, and having peeked into the window of All Chocolate Kitchen on our walk over, we felt it quite affordable by comparison. The menu is not enormous, and I like that. There are just enough interesting choices to make it good pub food, maybe a step above the expected. And that root beer…it’s worth the trip just for the root beer.
Eating American (with an Englishman) 