Reviews

&pizza at the Hotel Hive – A Modern Pizza Place using Fresh Ingredients

March 23, 2022 By BadgerFoodie Leave a Comment

This is a restaurant review, it is the author’s opinion based on their experience at a given date and time. Readers should know that their experience may vary. I was not compensated by anyone for writing this review.

After spending a rainy morning checking out the White House, checking out the Lincoln Memorial, and getting a private helicopter flyby from my brother-in-law, we ended up at &pizza located at the Hotel Hive for a warm, dry, lunch. Interesting fact, the Subway you might see on Google Maps nearby is actually in the Department of State building and is not open to the general public.

From the outside, it may be easy to miss the entrance for &pizza. There is an “In” and an “Out” door on either side of a porch area with tables.

When you enter &pizza, you order on one end of the counter and they make the pizza on an individual tray in front of you. As you work your way around the counter, your pizza is baked, sliced, and boxed. On the far side you can add some final toppings as you pay and pick up your pizza.

Our group ended up ordering three different pizzas, White, Maverick, and a Craft Your Own with just pepperoni; and an order of garlic knots. The three adults in our group enjoyed each of the pizzas and garlic knots, and the two kids in our group (age 5 and 7) enjoyed the pepperoni pizza and garlic knots.

Personally, I thought the White pizza had the best flavor profile; however, the pesto sauce spread on the top of the baked pizza was a little overpowering to the rest of the flavors. The garlic knots were airy and had a light garlic flavor. They were a hit with the kids, so I only ended up with one.

The beverage selection was “unique” for our palates. I enjoyed the Mango Passion Fruit; however, the Ginger Berry Lemonade was a bit much. They did not have “traditional” soft drinks.

There was no indoor seating; however, there was a partially covered heated patio area that was comfortable on the rainy cold day that we visited. In addition, there is a porch in front of the building with tables. This particular location is located near George Washington University and had a steady stream of college kids coming through while we were there.

If we lived in Washington D.C., I would add &pizza to our list of regular spots.

ButcherBox Review – Grass Fed Beef and Heritage Breed Pork Delivered to Your Door

December 29, 2017 By BadgerFoodie 2 Comments

This is a review of ButcherBox.com, it is the author’s opinion based on his experience at a given date and time. Readers should know that their experience may vary. BadgerFoodie was not compensated by anyone for writing this review. If you purchase a ButcherBox subscription from a link in this post, you will receive FREE bacon & $20 off your first order, and the author will receive a discount on future boxes if they decide to order another box. Rest assured that this does not influence the content of the review.

What is ButcherBox?

ButcherBox delivers 100% grass-fed beef, free range organic chicken and heritage breed pork directly to your door utilizing a monthly subscription model. Their meat is free of anitbiotics, hormones, and GMOs. According to their website, their goal is to make 100% grass-fed beef more accessible than ever before.

The Standard ButcherBox comes with 7-10 lbs of meat, which according to the company is enough for at least 20 individual meals (at a 5-8oz portion size), which makes the price work out to $6.50 per meal. When you order your box you can pick any combination of Beef, Pork, and/or Chicken that you prefer. What you can’t do is specify what cuts of meat you want in those different categories. In addition, each month you can add on specific items such as additional cuts of meat for an additional cost.

My ButcherBox Contents

I ordered my ButcherBox on Black Friday for a December 2017 delivery. Since it was my first ButcherBox order I received one 12 oz package of free Bacon, and the Black Friday deal included 2 free Ribeyes, 2 Free Filet Mignons, and 2 Free New York Strip Steaks.

I knew I was guaranteed the free items, but I had no idea what the rest of my order would entail. I had selected the Beef and Pork option (skipping the chicken). When my ButcherBox order arrived, it included the following items:

2 – Filet Mignon 2x6oz
1 – Baby Back Ribs Whole
3 – New York Strip 2x10oz
1 – Ground Beef Brck – 2x1lb
2 – Boneless Ribeye 2x10o
1 – Boneless Pork Chop 4x8oz
1 – Top Sirloin 4x6oz
1 – Bacon 12oz

However, a few days after I ordered, I received an email that stated:

Bank Error In Your Favor!

This is embarrassing, but very tasty! We accidentally doubled the amount of free steaks in your recent ButcherBox.

Not a problem you say… you know someone who might eat them? That’s great!’

I’m still not sure if this was a marketing ploy, the old “over deliver”, or if it was an actual error. If we remove the free and “mistake” items, the December ButcherBox appears to have included the following items:

1 – Baby Back Ribs Whole
1 – New York Strip 2x10oz
1 – Ground Beef Brick – 2x1lb
1 – Boneless Pork Chop 4x8oz
1 – Top Sirloin 4x6oz

This would meet their description of about 20 individual (5-8oz servings); however, its hard to cut that 10oz New York Strip Steak into two 5oz services and still enjoy it the same 🙂

How was it shipped?

I was hoping to provide readers with an unboxing video; however, with FedEx losing my package for one day it was delivered right before we had to leave the house for a friend’s wedding, so I had very limited time to check out the contents and get the meat into the freezer.

I’m still not entirely sure what happened with my delivery, other than it appears to have been an error by FedEx, not ButcherBox. FedEx marked my package as delivered “left on the front porch” on Friday, only it wasn’t there or on any of my immediate neighbors porches. I contacted FedEx and they stated that they would create a tracking case and look into my missing package and someone from that team would get back to me in a couple of hours. Unfortunately, I was never contacted by anyone from the “Tracking Team”, but the package was delivered the next day, almost exactly 24 hours after FedEx had told me it had been delivered. Luckily, as you will read, ButcherBox did an amazingly good job at packaging the meat, so it was delivered in great shape and was still completely frozen even with an extra day of transit.

ButcherBox ships its orders Monday – Wednesday with planned delivery during the week. Occasionally, due to holidays or an unforeseen event that causes a delay, they may ship with a planned delivery of Saturday. They recommend using a home address to avoid any issues with businesses being closed when delivery is attempted. ButcherBox has multiple warehouses, so orders from the West Coast get shipped out of California, East Cost orders ship out of Delaware, and the rest ship out of Wisconsin. You should expect an email to arrive the morning your order is shipped with the tracking information. In my case, they used FedEx; however, according to their website they also use UPS.

The actual shipment is very well packaged. The meat is flash frozen and placed in a reusable insulated ButcherBox bag. This bag is then wrapped in two insulated blankets, one around the sides, and one under and over the bag.

Resting right on top of the bag is a plastic bag that contains a specific amount of dry ice, which is calculated based on your location and the expected transit time. The dry ice may be completely evaporated when delivered as it does evaporate over time in transit. I will be honest I was hoping for there to be a little dry ice left in my shipment when it arrived, as I love playing with dry ice.

Is it Worth It?

I’m still asking myself if ButcherBox is worth the cost. If I look at the cost I paid, $119 (normally $129) for the items I received, it was a good deal. However, looking at the normal ButcherBox subscription, if I take away the $10 discount, and the free (and mistake) items, my next box will cost $129 and will include an assortment similar to:

1 – Baby Back Ribs Whole
1 – New York Strip 2x10oz
1 – Ground Beef Brick – 2x1lb
1 – Boneless Pork Chop 4x8oz
1 – Top Sirloin 4x6oz

For my family, I don’t think the normal ButcherBox subscription is worth the cost, even when I factor in the convenience. Living in a rural area of Wisconsin I can find the same quality of meat from local farmers, at a lower cost. If I was in a larger city, where supply was more limited, and cost would likely be higher, I may have a different opinion.

Conclusion

My ButcherBox experience was great! I had one small hiccup with shipping; however, I was confident that if I couldn’t get FedEx to fix the error, ButcherBox would take care of me. Luckily FedEx was able to track down my missing delivery, and the packaging ButcherBox used ensured that the meat was not compromised.

The quality of the meat was high, and everything we have tried so far has had great flavor and texture. While we haven’t used them yet the “ButcherBox Kitchen” section of their website, has some great resources for cooking each of the cuts of meat. Getting quality meat delivered to our door was extremely convenient.

Overall, it comes down to the cost. While my December ButcherBox was a great deal, future boxes will not include the free steaks or the $10 discount that I had received on my first order. When I look at what we would get for the cost, and factoring in that our family routinely uses Ground Beef, Pork Chops, and Ribs, but we tend to save steak for special occasions, it likely isn’t worth it for our family.

I do think you should keep an eye on ButcherBox to see if you can find a deal similar to the one I found, and if you do, I would encourage you to purchase at least one box (with the deals) to try it out for yourself.

Want to try ButcherBox?

If you decide to try out ButcherBox, consider using the following link to receive a special deal:

Free Bacon & $20 off your first order:
http://fbuy.me/hcUoL

Pizza Pub Delivery in Wisconsin Dells – A Review from the Road

September 28, 2017 By BadgerFoodie Leave a Comment

This is a restaurant review, it is the author’s opinion based on their experience at a given date and time. Readers should know that their experience may vary. I was not compensated by anyone for writing this review. I will be submitting my receipt for partial reimbursement from my employer due to being in the Wisconsin Dells for work.

I’m on the road for my day job, and to be honest, was not really interested in leaving my hotel room to go grab dinner. This is a little odd for me because I enjoy the different dining options that Wisconsin Dells has to offer; however, sometimes I just need to take it easy. With two young kids at home, its rare that I get quiet time to myself.

Looking around my hotel room, I found menus for Pizza Pub and Bobbers Island Grill. I decided to go with Pizza Pub, mainly because I could order online.

Pizza Pub Menu

Pizza Pub’s full menu is listed on PizzaPub.com. They have traditional appetizers that you would expect to see in Wisconsin. Options range from Garlic Bread ($5.99) to Cheese Curds ($9.99). They offer salads, burgers, hot sandwiches, spaghetti, dinners, and pizza.

The online menu has pictures of some of the food items; however, not all items are pictured.

Pizza Pub Ordering

Ordering from Pizza Pub was extremely easy. Users have to create an account and are able to store multiple addresses. I selected the items that I wished to order, and specified any options. I ordered a Meatball Sub ($11.59) and an order of Chicken Wings ($11.99). When selecting the Chicken Wings, I had to specify between traditional or boneless, sauce (Hot, BBQ, Sweet Chili, Teriyaki, or Plain), and Dressing (Ranch, Blue Cheese, BBQ Sauce, Hot Sauce, Honey, Honey Mustard, Garlic Parmesan, Sweet Chili, or No Dressing). If you were curious, I selected Boneless BBQ Wings with a side of ranch.

Delivery from Pizza Pub

I placed my order on a week night, right in the middle of the traditional dinner time (6pm). The system stated my order would take approximately 40 minutes. This estimate was pretty close, as I believe the food showed up around 35 minutes after it was ordered.

The driver came was courteous, and my order was stored in an insulated pizza delivery bag. As the system had previously explained I had to sign the credit card slip, and was able to provide a tip at that time. Pizza Pub offers free deliver, with a minimum $10 order, so outside of taxes, there were no additional fees.

I was disappointed that my order was not accompanied with silverware. It is kind of hard to eat boneless chicken wings without silverware, and only two napkins.

Pizza Pub Food

The meatball sub was served with french fries and a pickle. Unfortunately, the first bite, a handful of french fries, left a lot to be desired. The fries were a little warmer than room temperature, were chewy and were under salted. At first I wasn’t sure if there was any salt on them; however, I did find a couple of granules of salt. I did receive a small bag that had salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and two napkins. While I was able to add salt to my desired taste, most people expect french fries to have a base seasoning of at least a little salt.

Luckily, the meatball sub did not follow down the path of the french fries. On the menu it was described as “Homemade Meatballs Covered with Our Homemade Meat Sauce, Topped with 100% Real Mozzarella Cheese.” It was obvious the meatballs were homemade. They were moist with a nice Italian seasoning, and had a mixture of meats. The four meatballs were served on a bun with marinara sauce and cheese. There was a section of the bottom of the bun that was soggy, and a potion of the cheese had fallen off of one half of the sandwich and melted together, by the time it was delivered.

I originally thought that they forgot the pickle; however, I eventually found it buried under the fries.

The second container was the order of Chicken Wings. According to the menu, the Chicken Wings were desicribed as “10 Traditional or 12 oz. Boneless (Hot, BBQ, Sweet Chili, Teriyaki or Plain) Served with Celery Sticks & Choice of Dressing”. As stated above, I went with Boneless BBQ Wings with a side of ranch.

It was nice to see that the celery was wrapped up in wax paper to keep them from getting covered in the BBQ Sauce. I was concerned that the container was plastic and was not insulated. This concern played out as the chicken wings were warm, but not as hot as I would have hoped or expected. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the chicken and the fact that it wasn’t chewy or dried out (Sorry, I didn’t want to use the word “moist” twice in one post…). The BBQ sauce was a little tangy and had very minimal heat. In case you were curious, the celery was crisp.

Overall Impressions of Pizza Pub Delivery

Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the delivery food that I ordered from Pizza Pub. The meatball sub and the chicken wings were good, but really needed to be a little warmer. In addition, the time that it took to deliver the food resulted in part of the bun becoming soggy, and the french fries becoming chewy. However, I do believe that if I had ordered the same food in the restraurant I would be writing a completely positive review. The food had good flavor, and I could tell from the meatballs and chicken wings that quality ingredients were used.

I know some people might be thinking this is slightly harsh, since the issues were related to the delivery process; however, as a restaurant that advertises its delivery service I expect that they have addressed the issues of keeping the food warm through proper storage containers and delivery processes.

With all that said, in the future I’d skip the delivery from Pizza Pub and go to the restaurant instead.