Nosh Pit

A couple days ago I was out on the back lawn.

I was digging up lawn to put in a little garden where the little lawn I dug up had been.

It was a very satisfying experience.

I’ve wanted a garden for a long time. I wanted to grow tomatoes and kale and basil and sage and asparagus and dill and wheatgrass and mint and sunflowers and potatoes and garlic and strawberries and more things that I can’t think of right now.

But it wasn’t because I’ve wanted a garden for so long
that the experience of digging up the lawn was so
dang satisfying.

It wasn’t because it felt good to work hard outside listening to birds yakking in the air on the first warm day of
spring either.

And it wasn’t because I brought iced lemonade out
with me to sip at either.

Don’t get me wrong.

All of that shyt was very good shyt.

But it dawned on me that the reason digging up the lawn was so satisfying to me just then was because of one simple truth about me;

I hate lawns

Let me rephrase that.

Hate isn’t a word that should just get thrown around after all. It’s got too much weight.

I friggin don’t like lawns, bud.

There.

Chilled it out for yah.

You see, the lawn is a strange beast…

Like most of the useless crap that we’re so taken with here in the first world, the desire for a lawn was passed down to us commoners by the wealthy individuals of
mostly European history.

What fun!

As you may have already guessed; to our wealthy persons of history, the lawn was a status symbol.

Well, to be fair it didn’t start that way.

It sounds like the whole thing got started when people living in castles cleared large areas of trees surrounding their castles so that their enemies couldn’t sneak up on them using the forest as cover.

Grass filled in naturally where the trees were
cleared, and presto!

Lawn.

However, that lawn is a little different than the lawn we know. That’s more of a grassy knoll.

There’s a big difference between a lawn and a
grassy knoll.

Don’t believe me?

Picture a grassy knoll.

Nice, right?

Now a lawn.

You see?

Anyway, the lawn that we all know and most of us have today began as a status symbol.

And in many ways, it still is one.

But there’s a difference:

Back then cultivating and keeping a lawn was a symbol of wealth, and now it’s a symbol of merely having a lawn.

Congrats!

And even if it did still mean that you were wealthy
— who cares?

Aside from the whole status symbol thing, there’s plenty more not to like about lawns too.

Lawn maintenance is somewhere around a $40 billion / year industry.

To put that into perspective, the United States budget for the Department of Education in 2018 was $59 billion.

How bright!

And there’s more.

The EPA estimates that ⅓ of all public water is used to water lawns and that, based on water consumption, grass is technically the leading crop in the united states beating out both corn and wheat.

Yahoo!

And the last one for now…

About 65 thousand people are hospitalized each year with lawn-mowing related injuries.

That last tidbit about the hospitalizations, albeit completely true, was something I included to make you feel better.

Don’t get me wrong.

I don’t like people being hospitalized.

But if you’re injured by yr lawn, you had it coming dude.

Hey…

You know what place doesn’t have a lawn?

Nosh Pit.

Which is perfect. Because that’s where we’re headed.

***

From the outside Nosh Pit looks like it could’ve been a bar in a past life. A light bricked square and squat building with glass block windows on the front and an old heavy door. The Nosh Pit food truck was parked outside in the driveway next to the building when we got there. That was a cool and familiar sight to see because my first taste of the Nosh Pit was from that very truck long before there was a
standing restaurant.

Many moons ago…

I guess it wasn’t really that many moons ago. Just a couple of years worth.

Some moons ago…

Inside Nosh Pit is a lovely place to be. The ceilings are high, there is a ton of natural light, the tables are long and set up for communal eating style, and it just feels comfortable.

Sort of like yr at a friends place even.

If yr friend had a place that was a lot nicer and roomier
than yours.

And if that friend also had a curious obsession with huge dining tables.

It’d be that friends place.

WHAT WE ORDERED

Drinks

To drink we just sipped some water and split a bottle of the super berry kombucha from Neu. That fresh juicy booch was slaying it in that gentle sunlit dining room, and we were off to a very solid start.

*Quick mention here that Nosh Pit doesn’t sell alcohol, but it is b.y.o.b. so you can slug-a-lug or sip-a-lip out if yr feelin’ it.

Munchables

For food, we went with a bowl of dill pickle soup and an order of the latkes to start out with, then on to chef B’s buffalo wings and the Larry sandwich for dinner.

And we just shared all that shyt because that’s what we do. We’ve found that it maximizes scarfibility.

Dill Pickle Soup
We knew we’d like this straight away. It has pickle right in the name. And that’s a mighty good start. You wouldn’t think of a soup that has carrots and potatoes and loads of black pepper and onion would feel so light, but this does — and in a very good way. Must be the pickles. Who’d a thunk it? Anyway, really nice way to start the meal. And that broth was so dang good and briney that I just picked up the bowl near the end and slugged it down.

Latkes
I’m sorry to say it with these words but I have to. The latkes are just bangin’. I didn’t want to write bangin’. But for some reason that was the first word that came out of my mouth to describe them at the table. So it’s an honest bangin’. I’m not afraid of who I am. I just didn’t know I was a person that described any flavors as bangin’ until then. The latkes help unveil that truth.

I’ve never had any latkes outside of the traditional ones that were made with eggs and served w sour cream — so it’s been a long time since I’ve had a latke. And though these are far from the traditional, being made with carrot and beet with onion, they still hit that same almost melt-in-yr-mouth-ness of the traditional ones with an even prettier color and, in my opinion, better consistency.

And they’re served with this banana jam. My gawd. Here’s another honest and strange reaction I had while eating this dish. The banana jam was so dang good that i just wanted to spread it on my face, run into the woods, stop in a small clearing where the sun was shining through, and throw up my arms and turn my banana jam face to the sun. Does that reaction make any sense to you? If not I can’t help you, and you’ll just have to try the jam yrself.

Chef B’s Buffalo Wings
In my opinion, you can’t really miss with veg buffalo wings. And these ones sure didn’t miss.  But they went beyond not missing. They hit a swish. Nothin’ but net. They’re made from a mixture of seitan and jackfruit instead of the much more commonly found buffalo cauliflower wings, and the consistency was really nice. The buffalo sauce was nice and astringent and the herbed green ranch is so satisfying on there. As a side note, I realized that I’m partial to any green sauce — once I see it I’m already rooting for it to be good. I don’t know why that is. But in the end, they’re always good. Hmm.

The Larry
Such a nice take on a Reuben! We loved that Nosh Pit doesn’t avoid flavors with some brine and some beet and some funk. So much more fun than a lot of the safer flavors and options there are floating out there. Even though we love a solid tempeh Reuben, we just really enjoyed the beet ‘meat’ in this one. Kinda surprised that it wasn’t on rye, but it was really good on the sourdough anyway. Solid choice, the Larry.

Well, that wraps it up, my buds.

Do me two favors.

1. Go eat at Nosh Pit fer gawds sake. It’s delicious.

2. Destroy yr lawns. DESTROY ALL LAWNS.

Haha, but for real get some wildflowers or a garden
or something.

Til next time

xoxo

J