Meat & 3

Remember my chef friend Chris Herrin? He is the one who worked at Thomas Keller's Bouchon At the Venetian as the head pastry chef. Then he opened his own bakery Bread & Butter a year ago.

Tonight he opened for regular business a dinner place just 190 steps north of Bread & Butter. It is called Meat & 3. I took the kids to go check it out.

Meat & 3 is down home comfort food. You pick a meat (today they had a choice of 4 and they plan to expand the options in time.) Then you can pick a meal with 1, 2, or 3 sides. Price for a meat and three sides was $14.95.

They also will sell dinner for 4 ($39.95) or whatever number with bigger sides to take and go too!

Chris served us up one of everything so here is my review on the food.

Meats- you really can't go wrong here. I loved the roast chicken and brisket best but Sabrina and Jon liked the fried chicken best (and Jon doesn't usually even like fried chicken.) the porchetta was also very moist and tender with good flavor. If you like pork loin you would love it.

As for the cold sides- this is another example of Chris making me love something I don't normally like ;). The potato salad was amazing as was the coleslaw. We also liked the farro carrot salads.

The hot sides- Harrison loved the black eyed peas, everyone loved the mashed potatoes (might have to get some of those for thanksgiving since they were soooo much better than mine.) I loved the glazed root veggies. They were delicious!

Dessert- we tried the following pudding cups: strawberry shortcake, pistachio, banana, carrot cake, vanilla and lemon meringue. I think here you pick the one you would like best in original form. My kids all liked the vanilla best. It was my second favorite. I also really liked the carrot cake pudding cup. But for me there was no topping the lemon meringue. It was amazing! It has the perfect balance of sweet and tart with a light browned meringue on top and a vanilla pudding under the lemon curd. A perfect portion and a perfect end to a great meal.

Next time you are wondering what to do for dinner, stop over at Meat & 3 and let Chris do your cooking. Take it home and put it in nice dishes and let everyone think you slaved all day :). They don't need to know you had help.