30 Sep Iron Rooster
The beauties and perils of moving some place new are plentiful. One of our first Saturdays in DC we experienced both.
I looked on a map and discovered that Annapolis is only 30 miles away, and I immediately concluded that we should ride our bikes there. Since we didn’t know the way, we turned to our friend the internet, downloaded a route on to our bike gps, and filled our water bottles.
We knew we would want a tasty brunch spot; so we turned to our actual good friends who had lived there, and they told us we should definitely eat at Iron Rooster.
Thus we found ourselves, on a gorgeous early morning, late summer Saturday on the large, busy, severely bike unfriendly Rhode Island Avenue for longer than we ever knew existed, and then on road after road after highway after highway that made Rhode Island look like a quaint pedestrian thoroughfare. Peril.
We got to Annapolis, jumped off our bikes, took several deep breaths in sheer gratitude that we made it, and marched directly to the Iron Rooster for a brunch that felt heavenly. Beauty.
Iron Rooster
It’s everything you want out of a brunch spot, even the decent wait–if you are going to have to wait for brunch, doing so along the water with naval academy midshipmen marching by is the way to do it.
We ordered brunch cocktails, since celebrating our survival of leg 1 from DC to Annapolis felt like a must and we needed something to slightly numb us to the reality that we would have to go back at some point and complete leg 2 of the journey (Note: bus tickets and departure times were considered). The cocktails were delicious, and strong, which nicely met both of our objectives.
What we ordered
The Bloody Mary
We think Blood Marys are a must at every brunch establishment, and we’re constantly assessing who’s done it best. We rank Iron’s bloody quite high on the list. It emphasized tomato more than horseradish, but it was garnished with the world’s largest piece of bacon and a spear of pickled asparagus which I promptly counted as a serving of vegetable.
Morning Glory
Given how petrifying our morning had been, this little guy did in fact live up to its name. It had double the elderflower (always a plus) with St Germain & elderflower cordial, muddled cucumber, vodka, and grapefruit. Grapefruit and St Germain cocktails, especially brunchy ones, both have a tendency to be slightly simple with either the grapefruit or the St Germain being the predominant taste. We were delighted that this wasn’t the case with this drink. You noticed both flavors, but neither dominated. It definitely wasn’t the perfect pair for the strong and bitter Bloody, but we would order this drink again in a heartbeat. And once we get our hands on Thatcher’s elderflower liqueurs we will do some home recreations.
See the rest of Iron Rooster’s cocktails here.
And our final recommendation to you: eat & drink brunch here, or dinner (they serve breakfast all day like any fine establishment should). And if you’re going to bike, fact check your route with a local before you do.
