Fogo de Chao, various locations

A person in upper management at the company I work at told a group of us about Texas de Brazil last summer and it sounded fantastic, so I mentally decided to check it out online, then forgot. But when my mom and I went on a cruise I saw an ad for Fogo de Chao, and it looked like a similar place. And Lo! There were two relatively close! This time, I mentally filed it away for a cold winter weekend night out.

Both of these restaurants are 'Brazilian Steakhouses' called Churrascaria. They serve meat cooked in the traditional Gaucho way: flame cooked, lightly seasoned very very prime cuts of good beef, pork, lamb and some chicken. They serve 15 different kinds of meat.

It is not your usual restaurant. Here is how it works: there is a fixed price per person that includes the 'salad' bar and all the meat you care for. It does not include alcohol or dessert. I'm not sure about sodas, but our teas were included. You go in, they explain the menu, you hit the 'salad bar.' When you are done, they give you a fresh plate.

This is where the fun begins. Each person has a small card; one side is green and the other is red. Up until now, the red side has been facing up. But, wait! You want meat now, right? Put the green side up and all of a sudden there are dozens of Brazilian men dressed as gauchos holding 2" long skewers of meat speed-walking towards you! No kidding, it was less than 10 seconds between the time Matt turned his card to 'green' and he had *3* guys standing there slicing meat onto his plate. They ask you how done you like it, and they start carving.

Then, turn the card to red really fast, because there are more guys headed your way! Sometimes that doesn't stop them, if they see you making eyes at whatever they are carrying they will stop anyway. The one we went to in Baltimore was huge, and there were probably two dozen of these guys speed-walking through the place, they have a set circuit they go around.

The service is fantastic, there are other waitstaff other than the gauchos that fill your water, bring fresh plates, and at least 8 times we were asked if everything was up to our liking, etc.

The breakdown of the menu:

• The 'salad' bar is more like an antipasto bar: marinated artichoke hearts, sliced red and yellow bell peppers, tomato and mozzeralla salad, proscuitto and parmesan, and olives olives olives.
  
• They have 15 types of meat: prime, top, and bottom sirloin, ribeye, filet mignon done two ways (one is bacon-wrapped), beef ribs, seasoned pork tenderloin and another in crusted parmesan, pork sausage, two types of chicken, and lamb done two ways. My personal favorites and I will highly recommend the pork sausage Linguica, the Picanha beef (my absolute favorite), and the parm-crusted pork.
• The side dishes included parmesan popovers, fried bananas (which I could happily dine on anytime), a very good cheesy mashed potatoes, and toasted slices of polenta.
  
• If you are a wine person, this is the place for you. The different rooms are separated by floor-to-ceiling wine racks. The expensive stuff is behind glass, probably in a humidity and temperature controlled room. Everywhere you look is wine.
• The dessert menu (if I recall correctly) included flan, cheesecake, ice creams, a chocolate cake, creme brule, strawberry cream and (what we had) papaya cream, which was glorified ice cream, but very very good.

The cost is high enough ($46.50/person) that we won't be back for a while. It was a serious treat for us. When we do go back, we will check out the one in Washington, DC, instead of Baltimore if only because of the traffic. We can hop the Metro into DC and walk, which will be a lot easier and cheaper than driving into Baltimore.

Fogo de Chao, Churrascaria

Houston, TX; Dallas, TX; Austin, TX; Philadelphia, PA; Chicago, IL; Atlanta, GA; Beverly Hills, CA; Washington, DC; Minneapolis, MN; Baltimore, MD; Indianapolis, IN; Scottsdale, AZ; Miami, FL; Kansas City, MO.

AND

Six locations in Brazil.

Ashcombe's Farm & Greenhouse, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

Ashcombe's is THE greenhouse to go to in the area. Seriously, even though it is almost an hour away, I make this pilgrimage several times a year and am always glad I did.

This place is huge. Big. Parking is on one side of the street, along with the nursery for trees, shrubs, roses, etc, and then you have to CROSS THE STREET to get to the main part of the building, which includes a deli, a country kitchy store, a farmers market (in season), an outdoor furniture and sculpture section. All this is IN ADDITION to the greenhouse, which is the best greenhouse I've ever seen and by itself is worth the drive.

I will touch on the best parts, but believe me there is so much more:

• Their herb selection is amazing. I go nowhere else for my herb plants now. They must have 30 varieties of Thyme. Just Thyme! Then, maybe 20 of basil, 15 rosemaries, and a lot of more difficult to find types like borage, lovage, curry, patchouli, lemon grass, and several scented geraniums.


• There is a working beehive within the greenhouse. From inside you can see the bees in their hive, and from the outside you can see them going in and out of the building. They also sell several varieties of honey.


• They have lots of spring bulbs around easter, and not just your basic tulips and dafodils. I found a really nice Iris reticulata, which is a short iris (maybe 6") that blooms in the late winter, and they also had white grape hyacinths and blue and red large hyacinths.


• You need veggie plants? They got veggie plants. LOTS of veggie plants all summer long, depending on what goes in when.


• You need daylillies? Ferns? Hostas, irises, clematis, rock garden plants, potting soil, soil amendments, organic stuff, pots, tools and shovels and knee pads and bird houses and seed and orchids and flower or veggie seeds and wind chimes and things you never even knew existed? They've got it.


• They also have a butterfly habitat every year, from pupa on up to flying butterflies, and they have a release date event every year.


• They have classes for adults and kids, some free, and events going on all summer and fall.


• And the farmers market and deli? And bakery?? OMG fantastic stuff.

I really can't rave about this place enough. If you are a local gardener, this is a trip you must take. Please be sure to check their coupon page, their events calendar, and they do have lists of annuals, perennials, herbs and other things they will be carrying.

Ashcombe Farm & Greenhouses
906 West Grantham Road
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
Phone: (717) 766-7611

MAY HOURS: Monday through Saturday 8am-8pm Sunday 11am-4pm (Closes Sunday the rest of the year)

Fitzgerald Pottery - Dillsburg, Pennsylvania

One of my friends, Tim, has a pottery addiction. I'm not sure how it started, but whenever he comes down we wind up going to one or two of the pottery shops in and around Gettysburg (I'll review some of these at a later date). On his most recent trip, I did a web search and found a potter that we had not been to before. And lo! It was on our way to Wegmans and Ashcombe's in Mechanicsburg. We had to go.

It was pouring down rain that day. I'll use this as my excuse for missing the road. Actually, my mother and I went more recently and I found that the road is not well marked anyway. Either way, I missed the road and we had a nice, short toddle around the countryside trying to find our way back.


While I thought their display area was tiny, I was very pleasantly surprised by their work. It is gorgeous. This is the type of pottery I would gladly shell out money for a full set of tableware, I just love their glazing technique and colors. They have a unique style, too, and a wide variety of items for any budget. Mugs, beer mugs, casserole dishes of all sizes, platters, plates and bowls, as well as decorative items like pumpkins and candle holders.


When Tim and I were there, we hovered around their 2nds rack, and while some items were obviously cracked or in some other way not perfect, most of them were just as usable and beautiful. I picked up a bread tray for a friend (had a small crack, at $28 it was half price), Tim picked up two small plates. We also had a chance to watch a woman throwing some future liquid soap dispensers.


My mother and I went during their Christmas season open house, which was very nice. The whole workroom, which is very large, was cleaned up and made into a showroom. It was wonderful, I wanted it all. Of course, I couldn't *get* it all, so I settled for a small dish and two of the hanging flowerpots I fell in love with the last time I was there. The flower pots (small ones are $26, large $36) are for gifts, the bowl ($8) is for our sponges at the kitchen sink. Mom got a candle holder for $10. They also had some santa and snowman candle holders similar to the pumpkin ones they had around Halloween.


Fitzgerald Pottery is just of Rt. 15, south of Dillsburg. It is easiest to get to from the southbound lane, otherwise you will be turning across heavy, fast moving traffic. It is the same road that has the huge Antique Barn off the Northbound lane. Keep this in mind otherwise you stand a better chance of missing the road. The pottery itself is on the left side of Range End Rd.


Please check out their website for more images of their work, or better yet stop in sometime and check them out for yourself.


Fitzgerald Pottery
954 Range End Road
Dillsburg, Pennsylvania 17019
Phone : 717-432-8124

Monday - Friday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Saturday 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Lincoln Diner - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

I first started going to Lincoln Diner in Gettysburg when I was in high school. It was THE hangout for the group I followed, much to the dismay of the waitresses at the diner. We would go in and order coffee or sodas and snacky items. My favorite memory was going in with a couple friends and munching down on orders of french fries with gravy. I don't know why that was soooo good, but there you go.

Lincoln Diner is located right off the square in Gettysburg, one block down on Carlisle street, right against the railroad tracks. Sometimes if you are lucky a train will go by and you can watch it go, literally 15 feet from your table. There are two sections, the front section is booths and stool/counter seating. This is the smoking section, also, and it is open 24 hours. The back is table/booth seating, non-smoking, and closes around 9pm (I think).

When I used to go to the diner in high school, it was a little run down, someone had apparently gotten the great idea that the traditional chrome look of diners was really outdated and had ripped it all down years before. About 10 years ago, they finally brought the chrome back and it now appears as it did years ago, in full chrome and neon as seen in the picture above.

Service is good, the food is typical diner: (large) breakfasts all day, soups, sandwiches, fries (with gravy, please!!), salads, , burgers. I've never ordered entrees there, but I know they have broasted chicken, fish fillets, steaks, etc. with veggies, mashed potatoes, the usual. They also have some of the best milkshakes in the area, but one of the things that most people comment on is the desserts.

Beside the main door there is a revolving, cooled, 3-tier dessert display with 3-layer chocolate cakes, strawberry pies, eclairs, boston cream pies, and just about any other thing you can imagine there for your drool-enticing viewing, not to mention some very good baklava and sundaes. They actually have maple walnut sundaes! And to top off their dessert menu is The Thing: 8 scoops of ice cream, 4 different syrups/sauces, and several toppings that I cannot remember right now. No, I've never had it.

It remains THE hangout for groups of high school kids today. This is one of the three drawbacks I will mention about the Lincoln Diner. I think the kids flock to it primarily because it is open 24 hours and they don't seat you, so you can walk in, gab with friends, and walk out again. They also don't pay much attention to teen smokers.

Problem 2 is that they don't accept credit cards or debit cards, but you can plan ahead and hit an ATM machine before you go. They do accept traveler's checks.

Problem 3 is the parking, which is small, tight, and problematic in getting out of the lot without hitting someone else's car. My recommendation is to park in the sole Gettysburg parking garage, which is across the street and down Racehorse Alley that runs between the Gettysburg Hotel and the Majestic Theatre.

The bottom line, though, is that if you are looking for a large mushroom and cheese omlet with some of the best breakfast potatoes around, or a chocolate milkshake, or (sigh) gravy fries, this is the place to go.

Unfortunately, they don't appear to have a website.

Lincoln Diner
32 Carlisle St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325
(717) 334-3900

Greencastle Coffee Roasters – Greencastle, PA

My husband and I are coffee drinkers. We prefer to go to a roaster to get our beans because we have….specific tastes. That means we like our coffee rich, flavorful, and lets not mince words here, just plain better than store-bought coffee that may have been sitting around for months if not years in a warehouse. We also like to try out flavored coffees and specialty Organic and Fair Trade coffees.

Enter into the picture Greencastle Coffee Roasters. Right on Rt. 16 and near Rt. 81, about a half hour from our house, they have not only coffee and coffee paraphernalia, but also a large variety of tea and tea paraphernalia, a large selection of Asian foods and ingredients, a peanut roaster, snacks and munchies and great music playing all the time.

Coffee first: they offer the largest variety of flavored coffees I’ve ever seen. Yes, they have the standard vanilla, hazelnut, and chocolate almond. They also have delights such as caramel apple, coconut, exotic mint, and peach brandy. They have over 100 flavors, and many of them are offered in decaf as well.

For their unflavored coffees, they offer:

• Asian: Chinese Yunnan, Golden Java, Indian Monsoon Malabar, etc.
• African: Ethiopian, Yemen, Malawi, Tanzania Peaberry, etc.
• Latin/South American: Brazilian Bourbon Santos, Venezuela La Palmita, etc.
• Hard-to-find: Galapagos Boobies (really), Laos Bolaven Plateau, Nepal Himalayas, etc.
• Organic and Fair Trade: Sumatra, Peru, Honduras, etc.

Many of these are also offered in decaf. They have a nice selection of french presses, coffee grinders, and they will grind your coffee for you or sell you whole-bean coffee if you wish.

One of the nicest options is the sampler bags that they have hanging on the walls for about $1.25/each. We have purchased samplers of various coffees to try and have liked some or disliked others. Then we know what to buy more of and what to avoid.

Tea: We're also big tea drinkers. They carry Loose-leaf varieties, mixes, fruit teas, etc. such as Yerba Mate, Jasmine Green, several varieties of white teas, several decaf teas, and flavored black teas. They also have several tea strainers and diffusers. The last time I was there I finally saw a tea brick, which is black tea pressed into a 5x8 inch block with a decorative motif in relief. They used to be broken up and used as currency way back when tea was the import of importance. They also have samplers of teas available.

Asian Foodstuffs: I was so excited to find their Asian food section. This is the only place I have ever seen Kaffir Lime Leaves for sale, or tamarind paste. I was so happy to find both of these. They have also a large selection of different rice in various sized packages, several sauces, candies, pastes, beans, noodles, soup mixes, etc.
Snacks: they have a peanut roaster, and you can get peanuts anywhere from lightly to darkly roasted as you like. They have some candy, dried fruits and vegetables, sesame sticks, and wasabi peas.

The only beef I have with the place is they do not serve any coffee, but in the long run I can live with that.

All in all, this is a great local find. Tea and coffee samplers make great stocking stuffers or small thank you gifts. Please see their website for full list of coffees and teas, coupons, and other information. You can also order online.

Greencastle Coffee Roasters

164 E Baltimore Street

Greencastle, PA 17225

1-877-597-1900

(717) 597-1900

Isabella's Tavern and Tapas Bar - Frederick, Maryland

It only seems fitting that I have my first post be about Isabella's. If I had to pick only one place to dine out in the area for the rest of my life, this would be it. Isabella's has such good food and service, great atmosphere, and an overall feeling of relaxation that I can't help but want to take everyone I know there for dinner.

I originally went to Isabella's with a coworker. I don't remember what we had, but I do remember being so impressed that I dragged my husband, Matthew, there within 2 weeks. He was also impressed. Since then I have been there several times with Matt, several times with my best bud, Tim, and have made it a Mother's Day tradition for the past 3-4 years.

Isabella's is a tapas bar. If you have never had tapas you are missing out on a real treat. Tapas is a traditional dish in Spain where you are served a series of small dishes (think appetizers) over a period of time. Usually, they are shared among friends over wine and good conversation. This is not a quick in-and-out meal, no, these meals are to be savored, enjoyed, and time is supposed to be spent over them. In Spain it is common to travel from tapas place to tapas place over a period of hours, trying new things and moving on.

Ordering at a tapas bar is a little different, too. Usually the waiter will ask me if I've been there before. If I am with someone who hasn't, I'll generally tell them so and the waiter will tell my guest that it is expected that you order 2-3 things, they come out as they are ready (cold items coming before hot ones), enjoy them, then order more things when you choose. They will also give you fresh bread to dip into the olive oil they have in bottles on each table. The bread is also good for dipping up leftover sauces from each dish. They will generally leave one menu at the table for future ordering, and will check back from time to time to see if you would like to make further orders.

Some examples of things to order: my favorites include the Serrano Ham with Melons drizzled in olive oil, French Fried Asparagus with Tomato Aioli, and the Cinnamon Brownie with Hazelnut Ice Cream. I also like the Fried Potatoes with the Spicy Tomato Glaze and Garlic Aioli. Tim especially likes the Spinach Sauteed with Pine Nuts and Raisins. My mother is partial to the cold Grilled Eggplant Salad with Capers, Peppers, Caramelized Garlic, Onions, and Olive Oil. They also have a lot of seafood on the menu, cheeses, lamb, and quite a number of vegetarian dishes. They also will usually have some specials every day, and will give you a list of those along with the menu. I just saw one that I need to order next time I go in: Bacon-wrapped Dates Stuffed with Chorizo and Mild Goat Cheese.

One of the most interesting thing on the menu to try is the Chicken with Chocolate Sauce. No, this is not Hershey's syrup. The Spanish chocolate sauce is a traditional, chili sauce that is not sweet at all. Each time I've had it I've been surprised how the rich chocolate taste creeps up on you after the chili passes. It is very interesting and not for everyone, but definitely worth it to try at least once for the experience.

They also have entrees on the menu, such as Paella or steaks, but to be frank: this is a tapas bar. Order tapas.

Their wine list is obviously Spanish and Portugal heavy, but they have a large selection of wines from all over the world by the glass or bottle and at all price ranges. They also have a fully-stocked bar and of course a selection of non-alcoholic drinks as well.

They are located in the historic area of Frederick along with many other fine restaurants and upscale shops. It is right around the corner from a convenient parking garage (only $1 on weekends!) and is a short walk from the Weinberg Theater and the Mural Bridge. The interior of the building is all brick with some Mediterranean-inspired decor on the walls. The ceilings are old-fashioned tin. There are both tables and booths, the booths have wooden high-backed seating.

Reservations are recommended for groups, special dates (I learned the hard way to make one on Mother's Day), and possibly Friday and Saturday nights. They do have a lunch menu, but you can also order off the dinner menu for lunch.

Please visit their website for full menus, special events, pictures, map, and other reviews.

Isabella's Tavern & Tapas Bar

44 N. Market Street

Frederick, MD 21701

Telephone: 301-698-8922

Hours: Tuesday-Friday lunch: 11:30-2:30

Tuesday-Thursday dinner: 5:00-10:00

Friday dinner: 5:00-11:00

Saturday: 11:30am-11:00pm

Sunday: 12:00pm-10:00pm

Closed Mondays

Welcome mat is now out!

Welcome to South Central Pennsylvania Gems!

In this site, I will be introducing you to many local shops that I have found to be exceptional in quality, style, and service. These will include restaurants, small and ethnic food stores, artists' studios, greenhouses, and boutiques to name a few. It will include places in and around Gettysburg, Mechanicsburg, Harrisburg, Hanover, Waynesboro, Greencastle, and Littlestown (all in Pennsylvania), and Frederick, Thurmont, Emmitsburg, Hagerstown, and Westminster (all in Maryland).

I certainly hope you find something here that strikes your fancy, and feel free to suggest places to me that I may not yet have visited.