The Shed at Glenwood

This restaurant is located in the recent development off of I-20 and Glenwood Ave that contains adorable townhomes and condos. It opened in April 2008 and the chef is Lance Gummere, who served as Shaun Doty’s sous chef for more than a decade. His experience shows in his menu’s variety and in the different flavors he brings to each dish.

I would love to try this restaurant when the weather is a little warmer because they have a very nice outdoor patio. Parking is also extremely easy since they have their own parking lot and there is on-street parking as well. The restaurant itself is modern, yet simple and unassuming. Specials of the day and desserts are written on a chalkboard hung high on the wall by the entrance. The hostess station is very informal and consists of a person standing by the door as you walk in.

Personally, I was not overly impressed by the wine list, but it did contain a few good choices and most wines were reasonably priced. The special touch I loved, mainly because it was somewhat different, was that instead of bringing bread to the table, the Shed offers a simple bowl of popcorn with a very faint taste of what I assume to be bacon salt. If you don’t mind getting kernels stuck in your teeth before a meal, you will probably enjoy this break from the norm as well. Also, the waiter brought out a small chef’s tasting of mejool dates stuffed with pecorino cheese, which were incredibly simple yet a great way to start a meal. We then decided to order some of the raw oysters and a bunch of sliders. Their slider menu is rather large and adventurous so we decided to try the Roma tomato and mozzarella slider, the Cajun chicken club slider which was topped with crawfish and bacon, and also the specialty Scallop sliders topped with a jalapeno cole slaw. Both of us loved the scallop sliders and I don’t even like cole slaw. The scallop was lightly breaded and perfectly fried golden brown. Two scallops were piled onto one slider and topped with a house-made jalapeno cole slaw that contained the perfect amount of mayonnaise. The tomato and mozzarella slider was also delicious. The Roma tomato was breaded and fried, but was larger than the bun so it became a bit overwhelming as a slider but still tasted delicious. For our entrée, we ordered the bucatini pasta and the moule frites. The bucatini contained large chunks of crab meat, pecorino cheese, organic peppers and red pepper flakes, which made the dish surprisingly spicy. The pasta was a larger noodle than spaghetti but somewhat similar and absolutely delicious. Both the bucatini and the moule frites had the option of a half order or full order, which I thoroughly appreciated after ordering all of the different sliders. The moule frites included a huge bowl of mussels in a creamy white wine and garlic cream sauce and fries, which we ended up substituting for crusty bread to dip in the broth. Needless to say, there weren’t any left in the bowl by the end of the meal.

I wish I could say we saved room for dessert because that day the options included profiteroles, pumpkin cheesecake and a homemade ding dong, among a few other choices. I guess it gives us another reason to go back.

If dessert isn’t enough of a reason to go, this restaurant has a few daily specials including a $3 slider night on Wednesday, a $10 vegetable plate on Thursday night and 3 courses of comfort food for $20 on Sunday night. You can also purchase a $35 coupon for $15 on thegreenhalf.com. Now, there’s no excuse not to try this restaurant!