We had a very nice lunch on our annual staff outing this past Sunday, at the Granary in the Georgetown Yacht Basin just north of Galena. Kevin and I had done a little scouting a few weeks ago, to check out the old digs with the new owners, and so our expectations were for a good meal. There were only six of us all told, a disappointing turn-out this year, but the representative group of BT dining room staffers seemed to enjoy themselves and their meals.
Here's a selfie I took of us as we gathered around a couple of appetizers ordered for the table. Starting from the left you have Jenn, Kaitlyn, Kevin, Ashley, Nicole and myself. We got the server to take a better picture at the end of the meal...
We began our food fest with a half order of the crab nachos and a plate of the Granary fried calamari. Both were good, but I always wish there were more tentacles with the squid! I know most prefer rings...and I like the peppers they put in theirs. We ate every crumb.
Kevin and I had very good memories of the crab bisque from our last visit and could not resist ordering some for the table's second course. Sad to say, it wasn't the same soup we had before - less crab flavor, more cornstarch thickened flavor. Maybe it was a "fresher" batch, with less time to meld into better savoriness, but it was not nearly as good as it had been earlier in the summer. Seeing as the kitchen at the Granary is still pretty new, I am sure this slight inconsistency will rectify itself before long. This is a perfect example of one of the major challenges restaurants face: giving the guest a positive experience that they can count on from one meal to the next. Training a new staff to make the recipe the same way every time, that is not an easy task. We won't let this blip stop us from trying the bisque again.
For their main courses, everyone pretty much ordered something different. Jenn got the fish tacos -
which she deemed very good.
Ashley and Nicole both got the crabcake - Ashley's on a garden salad and Nicole on a Caesar:
This is a very good crabcake, and both girls were happy.
My avocado, bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich photographed as good as it tasted. I would say that the jalapeno aioli was slightly underwhelming, and the french fries - which, appearance-wise, held much promise - were not good at all. Not only were they not hot, they had a sort of reheated quality to them which left them pretty much untouched on my plate. The sandwich, however, was quite delicious, with plenty of avocado and porky bacon.
Kevin chose the crab stuffed piquillo pepper salad. He seemed to enjoy it, and it was certainly on the kind of greens he likes! I thought the combination of the assertive pepper and the creamy crab filling to be a good match, especially with the mustard in the dressing.
Kaitlyn, due to several food restrictions in her diet, was left to order a bunless, topless, garnishless burger. I did not photograph it.
We had three desserts - key lime pie, a mocha brownie sundae and the Georgetown blackout cake. All were huge and all were devoured. I personally found the key lime pie to be the best, and I really want to know how they made the peanut caramel sauce that came with the brownie! Kaitlyn ate around the strawberry garnishes.
Not a whole lot left to photograph, by the time I thought about it! Lots of smiles though.
At the end we had the server (Paige) take a group shot of us, in our food induced somnolence. She did a very good job, putting up with this relatively demanding crew. While some of her service techniques are not exactly what our staff is trained to do - mostly not waiting for the whole table to be finished before clearing and the auctioning off of the entrees - she was very nice and got everything accomplished that we expected, creating a vacation atmosphere for our afternoon in her dining room, rather than a working lunch.
We are so glad the Granary is Back! We will be too.
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