EatBar

Earlier this week the wine club met at EatBar in Tallula Restaurant for a wine and cheese tasting. Every Tuesday EatBar offers a tasting for $10, and it is a real deal. You get a flight of three ample wine samples and three cheeses which arrive on a carving board with sliced baguette and marinated currants. The cheeses were gorgeous - the first one was a Garrotxa and it was semi-hard but smooth and delicious. Next was a delicious and creamy Mahon which almost looked like a thick slice of Muenster. We finished with a Manchego. All of the wines were tasty and paired well with the cheese. EatBar has a stellar menu which offers lots of small plates and sides as well as larger dishes, and all for very reasonable prices. Mer and I split a bottle of a Spanish red which was really delicious and at not much more than $20 a bottle a super deal as well. I started with the Mushroom Ragout, which is wild mushrooms sauteed in some sort of tasty fat (bacon perhaps?) - they were so good everyone ended up sharing the dish. I also tried the County Ham, Tangerine & Pea Shoot Salad which was very lightly dressed and really a nice match of the savory ham and sweet tangerines. I tried one of the mini burgers as a comparison to those at Matchbox. EatBar's mini burger is really tasty, and the meat is tender and well-seasoned, but I think I prefer those at Matchbox as they come along with yummy onion fries and sides of condiments. Mer and David and Cathy and I also shared Mussels with Chorizo. The mussels were actually a bit small, but the broth was nice and the chorizo was delicious. Nice big chunks were scattered around the mussels. We all had a great time, and I can't wait to go back and try some more of the wines on offer as well as Bacon-Wrapped Figs with Mascarpone Cheese.

EatBar in Tallula Restaurant
2761 Washington Boulevard in Arlington
www.tallularestaurant.com