Wow, it’s not even the end of the first month of the year, and we’ve already used two of our Groupons or Living Social coupons! (This is mostly because we love to eat, and we are trying to save some money for our upcoming trip back to California next month, but I like to think it is also because we are being really on top of our game this year.)
On this cold, blustery winter evening, we decided to treat ourselves to some dinner that didn’t require us to operate a stove or drive on the icy streets. We had a Groupon remaining from 2010 for the 4 Wood Grille, a new-ish restaurant down the hill from us, attached to a bar we’d visited occasionally in our college days.
The 4 Wood is like the charming Yinzer-version of classy. The bar and the restaurant are separated by a wall only in some areas, so you can see right into the bar from most tables in the dining room. 4 Wood is right underneath the Forward Lanes bowling alley (the name of the street is Forward, which explains the pun in the restaurant’s name), so you do hear a decent amount of bowling sounds while you’re eating, but the place is clean and cozy, and the food is just awesome.
We started the night out with a bottle of Tamas Estates Double-Decker Red Wine. 4 Wood does not have a terribly large wine list (they have more of a focus on yummy specialty cocktails and martinis), but we were pleased with the way this complimented our meals.
I got the grilled chicken salad. You can see how much meat you get – I even had to take a little piece home in a napkin to share with my Lucy pup! And like any good Yinzer salad, there was a healthy pile of fries on the top.
Michael got the cajun chicken salad, which he also loved. Our only real complaint about the salads were the tomato quarters. I think both of us are more partial to either grape tomatoes or tomato slices, instead of the big chunks. But overall, we both thought the salads were great, and quite filling!
But even though those salads were filling, the fries left us wanting more! We got a small fry to share while we finished off the wine. These fries reminded us of the fries they serve at the Nathan’s Hot Dog stand at Coney Island. Yum!
If you’re looking for a reasonably-priced but nice place to have dinner, 4 Wood is a really good option. More than half of our meal was covered with our $30 Groupon, and the service was fast and attentive. Needless to say, since we live just around the corner, we are definitely going to be back soon!