After all this time, I've finally had dinner at the Revelry!
LOCATION: 1290 UNIVERSITY AVE, ROCHESTER, NY 14607
My cousin Kim drove in from Buffalo for a few days so she figured it'd be a good time for a girls night dinner with me and our other cousin Kristie. She suggested the Revelry and she didn't have to convince me to say yes.
Clearly the three of us can eat because we ordered so much off the menu with a few other possible choices to add if we were still hungry. after 5 dishes we weren't but it's evident that this menu is full of great plates.
Right off the bat we started off with a half dozen of the Chicken Fried Oysters which was such a great choice. The batter was light and the oysters weren't too strong yet you could still really get the flavor of them which was perfect. Kim decided she wanted a salad too which we were fine with so we ordered the Escarole Salad which comes with shaved red onion, dill, warm ham vinaigrette, and a local fried egg. The yolk from the fried egg mixed with the vinaigrette so well to coat the salad. The ham was a little salty and not the biggest hit with all of us but overall a really good salad which we basically inhaled. We also ordered the Baked Mac and Cheese which is made with a duck confit, roasted green chiles, and a cornbread crumb on top. I wasn't as big a fan of it but Kim and Kristie flipped. I don't really like green chiles which were fairly prominent and I don't throughly enjoy cornbread on top of that so this wasn't the dish for me but even I can admit the texture of this mac and cheese was on point and hard to achieve for sure.
For the main courses we ordered two dishes to share. First off we HAD to get the Pasture Raised Fried 1/2 Chicken which comes with smashed red bliss potatoes, collard greens, and a sir-racha sauce. Kristie has come to the revelry multiple times and raved about this fried chicken so it was a must on my list now that I'd finally made it there. It was well worth it. This was the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life. Easy. The breading on the outside was crisp but light and the chicken itself was the furthest from dry chicken could be. It was so tender and moist it was perfect. Kristie says it reheats perfectly the next day too which is incredible but I believe it because it was so fantastic . The mashed potatoes on the side were a great flavor but I personally wanted a more rustic cut on the mash and it ended up being very smooth and whipped. Not my favorite texture but the flavor was there.
Our second main dish was the BBQ special which was a braised brisket with fried pickles and you guessed it, yet another mac and cheese. The brisket was a wonderful texture, not too chewy or tough and a great bbq flavor if you like that. The fried pickles were a great tangy twist to the bbq as well with a nice clean crisp crust. This mac and cheese was my favorite of the two. Saltier for sure which was a minus, but this one had bacon and no chiles so it won my heart easily.
Honestly, everything we ordered was great. Dinner was full of clean crisp flavors that complimented each other well and were filling yet we still had room for dessert! (Maybe it's just because we're bottomless pits...)