The George and Dragon
- Fort Lauderdale
I was asked to check out a new place in Fort
Lauderdale called "The George & Dragon." Nestled between Oakland Park
Boulevard on the east side of Federal Highway, the building is impressive
with columns and crown mouldings everywhere and spotlights in all the
right places. It looks elegant from the outside, but wait till you see the
inside. It can take you a good couple of hours just to look at all the
pictures on the walls. There are over 1,000 pieces of memorabilia and
photo's from the 18th century to modern times, including sports, music,
theater, history and modern photos. This place is 4,200 square feet-a lot
to look at.
Upon entering there is a beautiful etched glass of the George and Dragon logo (St George is the patron saint of England). You then walk into the "Penny Lane" bar, an upscale traditional English pub atmosphere, non smoking piano bar (the first of its kind in Fort Lauderdale). To the right you can step into the "Abbey Road" bar. This is the smoking section of the house. It features late night music, dancing and live entertainment. They have a rather unusual premium bar set up, as all the bottles are on optics, which is to say they are on a stand with a generous 1 1/2 oz pour. Full liquor, 32 domestic and imported draft beers, and four hand-drawn ales (very unusual) round off the selection, which is more than enough from which to choose.
We opted to try out the fine dining in a breath-taking looking restaurant- indeed very spacious. I tried the soup sampler ($4.95), which is a taster size of all three soups. These included Ormer Chowder (English Channel version of Conch) a sweet perfumed Windsor onion soup, which is laced with clotted cream and ruby port wine, and a simple cream of tomato. My dining companion had the Atlantic Smoked Salmon ($9.95), garnished with sour cream, black caviar, Bermuda onions, chopped egg and lemon. Nice presentation!
Other offerings to begin are crispy fried calamari ($7.95), Scotch egg with Branston Pickle ($5.95), a colossal shrimp cokcktail ($12.95), our west country pate with baby cornichons ($6.95). The menu is decidedly British with the emphasis on quality. Moving on to the main course, i chose a stuffed Tilapia. This is fast becoming a popular fish. It was served Piccadilly style, filled with sea scallops and jumbo lump crabmeat, accompanied with brandy and Lee & Perrins white butter sauce, and garnished with a sweet pepper confetti($21.95). Our other main course was the British Blue Boy filet ($21.95), a healthy sized beef tenderloin served atop a grilled Portobello cap. The steak was topped with Stilton Blue cheese crust and came with a lake of port wine demi-glace.
The Fillet was fork tender and i love beef with blue cheese. They seem to go well together. We sipped on a nice bottle of St. George merlot($25). (They don't have their wine lists operational yet). I soaked up the "Upper Crust" British atmosphere. Our waiter suggested we try the fresh house made deserts. Believe me, they didn't steer us wrong at all. They had a dessert called "Spotted Dick" and it is apparent it is a big talking point. We settled for the coffee Queen Charlotte ($5.95), a tiramisu style Cheshire cheese whipped with cream and soaked lady fingers. We also had a chocolate decadence ($5.95), an individual warm torte with a soft flowing chocolate center on a pool of raspberry sauce. Mmmm! Delicious it was.
Other items on this well thought out menu include: D-Day chicken ($15.95) with a calvados and apple cream; rack of lamb (one full pound) with English mint sauce and natural juices ($25.95); Pork tenderloin with a Devon cider reduction and a spinach and carrot mould ($16.95); potato crusted Atlantic Salmon with a Balsamic hinted tomato sauce and tossed artichokes with rappini ($17.95); sea scallops and Jumbo shrimp "Cassoulet" in a mild curry cream ($21.95); and harvest grilled stuffed peppers filled with pearly barley pilaf ($12.95) are just a few of the items offered.
Now step into the pub- "Pub Grub" as they call it- and it's all different. They have freshly baked pies, such as Beef & Guinness ($8.95); Suffolk Chicken pot pie ($8.95); and Cottage pie ($7.95) that are all carefully prepared by good chefs in their kitchen. Of course they do feature items such as Fish 'n' chips with mushy peas ($9.95); Bangers 'n' mash with onion gravy ($8.95); and scotch eggs (it's a hard boiled egg with sausage meat wrapped around it), breaded and fried ($5.95).
There is a late night menu as well. There really is too much to mention, so you'll just have to go there and try it yourself.
Steve Howes and his charming wife, Violet, together with, Pat Argento and Bruce Falaski, open their doors and will give you the best of "British" hospitality. The George and Dragon is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. till 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It is located at 4140 North Federal Highway (954-568-2207). See ya there MATE!!!
James
Docherty, Executive Chef of the Culinary Institute of Fort Lauderdale.
The George and Dragon is located at:
4140 North
Federal Highway
Fort Lauderdale,
Florida 33308
Phone:
954-568 2207
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