Barcello's

So I should have known that when I started to type this and it just saved Barcello as I hit "enter" instead of an apostrophe that it was an omen of what was to come.

So I went to Barcello's on Christmas Eve with my dad. Figured I should eat lunch before trying to cook a feast and eating it while I was in the process. Dad's dish took forever, but meatloaf was on the menu so I could wait.

In the past, they've had the most incredible meatloaf. Tender, not dense, and filled with a little bit of everything - like what ever is on hand from other daily specials. Chunks of mushrooms, different kinds of peppers, chourico, & bacon could often be seen throughout the narrow, but tall pieces of meatloaf, sliced thick and swimming peacefully in a garlicy (you can see the chunks of garlic floating) and thin (though wonderful) gravy.

This time the meatloaf was very dense, as if it was packed tightly into a pan to cook, and probably contained a bit too much breading for this foodie. There wasn't a speck of other food chunks to be found in the meatloaf. It looked as though this loaf was short and very wide, and the slices were significantly thinner than what I remember. (The weight of the portions could still be the same.) The gravy, however, was a thick, salty gravy that sat too long under the heat lamps and had formed a skin.

Now please keep in mind that I LOVE gravy. I don't mind if regular gravy is a little thick - especially if it's been poured over something and reheated and the gravy on the corner of the piece of meat or the edge of the potatoes gets a little thicker and forms a skin... that's almost the best part! But this was not the garlicy thin gravy I had come to love.

So this trip to Barcello's was a bit of a let-down, but maybe they'll go back to their awesome old fashioned meatloaf recipe.