Jay About The Guild

Back in the mix!  So my special lady and I had a break in the action this weekend so we took a few minutes and had dinner at the bar of Burlington's newest steak joint The Guild. Part of the Farmhouse Group http://www.guildandcompany.com/farmhouse-group/dynasty the Guild is another so far successful venture that we were psyched to try (had a snack one day but that doesn't count).  We started with drinks, my wife had a glass of wine (granache) that was a little thin and blah.  I had a Manhattan that was made w/ rye as it was supposed to and was excellent.  I also had a not great bottle of Pinot w/ our meal showing that the moral of the drink story at The Guild is go liquor! Or maybe beer.  But mostly liquor!!

As for chow we received the amuse bouche which I am blanking on but it was a nice little bite. We then moved to apps.  We shared a fennel and mushroom soup and marinated beets.  The soup was thick, rich, and flavorful.  The roasted(?) fennel pieces were nice but the primary flavor was the mushrooms which were earthy and quite good.  The beets were cut in chunks, marinated lightly in lemon and cider I think and sitting atop Does' Leap chevre.  It was great.  The beets were sweet and fresh and the taste w/ the cheese was excellent.  So far so good.

Next on tap was the dry aged burger and this is where we ran into some trouble.  We waited a really long time between courses and it was starting to get touch and go.  The apps had appeared very quickly and people on either side of us had already ordered and eaten meals that featured steak which I assume would not take much less time than a burger even if flared very rare.  We finally received the burger and it was good.  The bun was pretty good and the burger was complex and very nice.  My lady thought it was a little undercooked for our medium but I find that always happens when the kitchen realizes they f*d up and try to jam food out.  With good meat I don't mind more on the rare side.  The grilled mushrooms were quite good and so was the Hazen blue even though the chunk was a little heavy handed.  Overall it was a very good burger.

One of the bartenders whom I recognized from the Farmhouse was very nice and spent some time giving us background on the restaurant, their sourced meats, and the possible future endeavors including a Farmhouse Group butcher operation.  It was pretty interesting.  They also gave us a delicious rich mocha mousse cake to make up for the delay on the burger.  I harp on service around here all the time so you can call me a sucker if you want but when a place does the right thing to satisfy a customer, particularly when something has been messed up... I appreciate that.  In the 2 times we have been to the Guild, food has been good, drinks have been very good, and the service has been excellent.  So there you go.