Thursday, April 17, 2008

Sunday Soup, from Chaucer to Saucer

Sunday afternoon, as I breathed a long, deep sigh of relief for drawing very near to the end of a long and arduous work project, I decided that my body and soul were desperately in need of some rejuvenation. My husband and I, not unlike the group from Canterbury Tales, embarked upon an April pilgrimage, but rather than heading for the shrine of St. Thomas Becket, we were headed to the downtown shrine of St. Arnold, St. Pauli Girl and many other beers featuring "patron saint" nomenclature. In other words, the Flying Saucer.

I have to be perfectly honest. It was not the beer that drew us to the Saucer. Well, not directly. It was the beer cheese soup. Many Fort Worthians have pigeon-holed the saucer as a bar rather than a dining destination. In my opinion, this is a grave oversight because the Flying Saucer's un-pub-typisch cuisine is elevated in my mind to the highest status of pub-grubbery.

And there are few greater feelings than sitting in the Saucer's main hall on a sunny (but kind of chilly) Sunday afternoon, enjoying a pint of really good, fresh, German beer (that you totally earned by working hard all weekend) and laughing at the funny quotes folks put on their UFO club "saucers".

If you are a Saucer-newbie, consider this as your official Saucer-primer. To thoroughly enjoy your Saucer experience, select a comfy-couch vignette (if you won't be dining) or a table with an excellent view of the west wall (if you will). Next, check out the fly-paper (it will be a light green piece of paper that is rolled up in a pint glass on your table) and select a beverage, but make it a good one; something rich and heady like a doppelbock from Germany or perhaps an ale from Scotland.

When your server arrives, ask immediately for a bowl of pickle-flavored popcorn. It isn't on the menu and you won't see it on your bill. They offer it "gratis", but you kind of have to be in-the-know. If you are hungry, I highly recommend the beer-cheese soup. It is delightfully spicy, goes great with most beers and it comes in what appears to be a freshly-baked bread bowl which tends to gradually flake off and become integrated into your soup, thus increasing its volume and prolonging your "eat-time". In other words, it grows. I also think it has something to do with the fact that the soup hides in the bread and only comes out when you squish it with your spoon, but that could just be my imagination.

If you aren't a soup person, or you doubt my description of the soup's stick-to-your-ribs ability, go for the bratwurst plate. They do up just as well as that pub I visited in Heidelberg last June and their German potato salad is spot-on. They also have a wide range of salads, popular sandwiches and deep fried nibbles. Heck, they will even tell you what beers bring out the best characteristics in certain foods. Fancy, huh?

So the next time you want to revel in good conversation in a relaxed atmosphere while enjoying a nicely drawn pint, head downtown to the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium where you just might find something on the menu that is (pardon the pun) out of this world.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the insight on the pickle flavored popcorn. I had no idea that was an option. For a non-beer drinking girl (vodka anyone?), the patio is another great reason to head to the Saucer.