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Friday Evening, January 6

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We have been working on going out with Roy and Deb – for his 2022 birthday – for quite a while. They wanted to get it in before the end of the year and planned a date here on December 30. Then Roy pulled a muscle in his back, and we had to put it off a week.

Neither of us had eaten here before and found the complex like a maze as we tried to find this particular restaurant. There are other restaurants, a gym, a wedding going on in the Ballroom, a hotel and a variety of other things.

This is what we faced as we entered the parking lot, drove to the far side of these buildings and turned right – following the Cork & Cap Restaurant signs. When I made reservations, a note said there were 500 free parking spaces. It was so busy we had trouble finding one close to the restaurant.

This is where we needed to be, but still went in the wrong entrance. 🙂 We went up the steps on the left and found there was a large wedding going on in the next room. The kind staff guided us to the restaurant – which was down one floor.

I don’t think I ever spent much if any time on the east side of Lancaster but remember that Armstrong Cork was in this area, so googled the complex’s history

THE HISTORY OF URBAN PLACE – Home of Cork Factory Hotel and Cork & Cap

If 19th century brick walls and wood ceilings could talk, they would speak a familiar narrative. Enterprise & industry. American vision. An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. The buildings that make up Cork Factory Hotel once housed the historic Armstrong Cork and Kerr Glass companies. Today, the hotel preserves and honors that history. And it is not just in the architecture, it’s the attitude: honest, authentic and welcoming.

We usually tell Roy to order an appetizer to share. He looked over the list and decided the Edamame Potstickers looked the most interesting. They were absolutely delicious and were served with bean sprouts and a Thai chili sauce. I could make a meal out of this dish.

We were early (5 pm when the restaurant opened) so had the full attention of our waiter. He was funny and precise. Later he had to serve a reception in a nearby private room and apologized for not being able to give us his full attention. That didn’t matter because we were talking and eating.

Notice the stone (real stone) wall behind Deb and the original decorations on the wall. We have a lot of old historic buildings in our area, and I love to see when they have been restored.

Serving our entrees.

My Rosemary Roasted Chicken Breast – with rosemary lemon butter, collard greens, roasted potatoes and carrots. Oh, yum. Except I wasn’t impressed with the collard greens. I guess I don’t have southeastern taste buds.

Deb’s steak filet.

Roy’s Braised Beef Brisket with herb-infused gnocchi, rosemary port wine demi-glacé, served with roasted carrots, leeks, celery, and tomatoes

Cerwin’s Meatloaf with Three Cheese Macaroni – with sweet tomato glaze, tomato relish, wilted spinach, carrots and potatoes.

Deb got a vanilla Creme Brule with blueberries and strawberries. Cerwin and I shared one. The Creme Brule was delicious, but even better were the fresh strawberries. I don’t know where the restaurant gets these in the middle of winter. They tasted like they had just been picked.

Roy choose Cookies and Ice Cream. It was vanilla ice cream on a cookie which was chocolate chip on one side and chocolate on the other side.

The food was delicious and the ambience delightful, but even better was just having time with these two.