Donovan's & Mackenzie

Norwalk, CT
http://www.donovanssono.com/

Menu

Beers on Tap: Bass Ale, Bud Lite, Captain Lawrence Pale Ale, Dogfish 60-Minute IPA, Guinness, Magic Hat #9, Newcastle, Shocktop, Samual Adam's Seasonal, Stella Artois.

Happy Hour: M-F 3-7, $1 off all drinks, free hors d'oeuvres


Though there are plenty of delicious and deserving restaurants in our hometown of Stamford, sometimes you just need a change of scenery. So on a snowy night this past Friday, we took Food Plus Beer on down to South Norwalk for beer and burgers.

After parking near the Maritime Center and thinking about how cool the shark tank is, we made our way to Donovan’s & Mackenzie restaurant a few blocks away. During this walk, approximately 43 snowballs were formed and thrown at road signs, telephone poles, and girlfriends.

With cold snowball hands, we entered Donovan’s & Mackenzie to find that it had set a new record for “most TVs simultaneously tuned to Olympic Curling.” They had at least five or six TVs set to the broom-heavy sport, shattering the previous record of one. Furthermore, the patrons were loudly cheering for the Canadian team. I still haven’t figured out whether their excitement was genuine or sarcastic.

I ordered a Dogfish 60-Minute IPA from the decent-sized beer menu, and started to look over the menu. This, of course, was a formality. It was destined to be a burger night and that’s just all there was to it. I ordered a Bacon Mushroom Cheeseburger, Kyle had the same minus the fungus.

The beef was high quality and flavorful, and the bacon was big and thick…exactly the kind of bacon one hopes for when one orders bacon on a burger. I found the burger to be one of the messiest I’ve had in recent memory. That’s not necessarily a gripe…what the hell do I care if I’m licking ketchup off my fingers? No one’s looking at me anyway – Curling’s on.

The fries were “crispy, yet soft” as one friend of the blog implored me to write. I tend to agree, but I must also note the subtle, delicate notes of potato throughout.

‘Twas a nice little night in ol’ SoNo; I daresay we will be back before long. As we made our way back towards the car and thought about the sharks at the Maritime Center once more, we finished our trip just as we had started it: With a 4-seam snowball falling about 2 feet short of a nearby “No Parking” sign.

I’ll stick to watching winter sports.

-Ryan