Mrs. Teabody & Co Visit Volt Family Meal

Bee's Knees, Mango Twister, Vodka Cobbler

Busy schedules and varied pursuits often find even the best of friends scrambling to spend quality time together so it's no surprise that a once-a-year outing for a trio of loosely-knit friends – all food-fondies -- ended up in a new-for-us restaurant. Tuesday evening took us to Family Meal, an odd and misleading appendage for a very trendy joint. Want to find it? Drive to Hagerstown's Valley Mall on Halfway Boulevard and hang a right on the circuit road—the one toward Macy's and the theatres. As soon as you see Toys-R-Us, heads up, and there it is tucked away in a corner-- all low slung and brandy new with ample parking. It's cool inside, clean and minamalist and we were quickly led to a booth, food-menued and bar-menued by a peppy youngster and no sooner were small squatty water glasses in place than our attractive and friendly “Ali Layne” dropped by. “Give us two minutes and we'll order drinks,” we said perusing the bar menu the length of our arms and chortling over the crafty names and surprising mixtures. We all three narrowed our choices , consulted Ali and orderd a Bee's Knees, a Vodka Cobbler and a Mango Twister along with a pail of appetizer Chesapeake-seasoned Kennebec fries because yours truly grew up on Kennebecs and how could that go wrong? We pay for this delicious choice later. Ours were “crafted” cocktails and they took a while. No worries. A young man arrived with our largish pail of seasoned Kennebecs with dipping sauces and shortly afterwards our cocktails arrived. We were out of the gates like horses at Belmont sharing sips and dipping fries and these all by themselves are worth a trip. They are scrumptious.

Soon enough the other starters arrived:

Brussels sprouts 

Brussels sprouts with sherry vinaigrette, ricotta salata and red onion. This was the hit of the appetizer course. So VERY delicious, and I do not sigh over sprouts. I'd have them again right now if I could. That good.

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 Mussels with white wine, smoked tomato, garlic and potato. Lovely thick sauce, perfectly cooked and the potato was a nice touch. “You want mussels bread?” I do. I did. Quibbling note here: they charge a buck for mussels bread, and as the sauce is very thick, probably not needed. This is the sort of nickel/dime nonsense that grates on my nerves.

Mussels

Creamy tomato soup with cheddar crouton. Nice, fresh flavor, nothing out of the ordinary. The “crouton” was actually two fat fingers of corny corn bread that may have been flash fried. Tasty.

Tomato soup

Hoecakes. Curiosity got the best of us. They are little pancakes topped with pimento cheese, pepper relish and bacon -- a mixture that tastes like every pimento cheese mixture we've ever tried. Not bad—just not thrilling. Not a repeater for us.

Time for the mains event and they were beautiful!

It  is only fair to interject at this point that we were completaly sated. Servers could have brought out the most fabulous culinary creation in the world and we would have felt the same way. What she brought included: Steak chimichurri with grilled potatoes and peppers. Flavorful, pretty, nicely seasoned. 

Grilled porchetta. This didn't look like what our trusty iphones had prepped us for. It was a pork chop, a pretty one, nicely cooked. 

Cucumber and melon: this consisted of two little opposing stacks of a pickled cucumber and melon with golden raisins and capers all surrounding two little mounds of mozzarella—the uber fresh kind called “burrata”. This was my choice. I liked it but my friends hated it and said they always served burrata wih sea salt. I salted. It helped. But I was full. I picked at it. Take home boxes were delivered.

 It must be understood that we REALLY liked Family Meal.  In fact I dragged two fresh folks back a week later. This is a very good restaurant.The people making food here know exactly what they're doing. The owner is hugely successful in the Metro area for very good reasons. “Ali” was well-informed, efficient and pleasant throughout. 

All that said, if you do order the Kennebec fries, do yourself a favor and make them the only thing you order on your first visit because they will rip your appetite right out of you---which probably explains why my mother served them so often. The menu for Volt Family Meal Hagerstown is easily accessed so have a look. A bright, fun exciting place to spend some time and money.