[My ongoing series for 2016 continues ... with the THIRTY-NINTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA (coming to you on sequential Thursdays. All. Year. Long.)!]
Establishment: Funky Buddha Brewery
Location: Oakland Park (Oktoberfest)
Meal: Dinner
Drink: should have been a Buddhafest, but they ran out, so it was some craft brewed Blonde instead (not pictured)
Appetizer: n/a
Main #1: Grilled Bratwurst
a funky buddha specialty, beer-braised then grilled and served with our brewer's cabbage, doc brown ale mustard, and caramelized onions on a fresh baked poppy seed bun
Main #2: Chicken Schnitzel
hefweizen marinated chicken cutlets pounded thin and served with doc brown ale mustard and beer pickles
Side(s): Kartoffelpuffer
shallow pan fried potato pancakes with muy bonita applesauce, sugar and cinnamon
Dessert: Tap Room Pretzel
our famous pretzel is made with spent grain from floridian hefweizen and the beer itself, served with whole grain doc brown ale mustard and fuhgeddaboudit red ale beer cheese
Server: Name unknown
Website: https://funkybuddhabrewery.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunkyBuddhaBrewery/
This was a doubly unique stop on the tastes of Florida tour. The rules state that it has to be a place to which we've never been ... and we've been to the Oakland Park Oktoberfest celebration each year since the big move to Florida in 2014 -- however, this year, the food supplier from years past was *replaced* with the Funky Buddha, and that was a place at which we had never eaten (although we did poke our heads in the door to use the bathroom during a pet event they sponsored). Secondly, it was a festival as opposed to a sit down meal in the establishment. However, as you'll see below, that had no affect on the score tabulation:
AMBIANCE: 9/10 (it was an oompah-oompah party, with emphasis on the oompah and double emphasis on the party, so it was an ambiance that couldn't quite be beat ... just one point lost for the band playing the chicken dance song -- probably to get more people out on the dance floor than were going out for the traditional polkas -- which took me out of the Oktoberfest spirit)
FOOD: 9/10 (it's an outdoor festival ... so normally the expectation would need to be lowered ... but I have to say that there wasn't a single dish that disappointed ... now that I've reviewed the descriptions and realize that almost every dish had a doc brown ale mustard component, maybe it's just that I'm a big fan of that being added to any food, but every single thing was super flavorful ... and the brats were good and juicy, as was the chicken schnitzel ... plus that pretzel, though [as the kids say] ... just a point lost because the potato pancakes could have been a little thicker)
SERVICE: 9/10 (the lady who took the order originally informed us that there would be no pretzels, but after I insisted that we had just the number of tickets to get exactly what we wanted, she double checked and the order was fulfilled after all ... the food, once ordered, came quickly [and hotly] by the well coordinated crew behind the order taker ... the only complaint was that the lines were soooo long, which was a sign that the food was soooo good, but still it was an annoyance)
BACON: 5/10 (so I didn't see any bacon on the menu ... but I'm also not exactly sure that bacon and Oktoberfest are traditionally companions ... as such, I'll split the difference and chalk it up to cultural sensitivity [as I do for the Mexican restaurants in this countdown])
BONUS: 10/10 (+3 for being such a difference in quality of food from the restaurant that supplied the meals in years past, +3 for an amazing soft/hard pretzel, +3 for the funnel cake [not pictured and not from this restaurant, but also available at the festival] and +1 for being a place to which we will most definitely return [if not at next year's Oktoberfest {our fourth in a row}, then for sure in the main restaurant some other time])
TroyScore: 42 out of 50 -- aka 84, a solid B (it would have been higher had they found a way to work in some Speck into the dishes ...)
