The Hammett House

Should you find yourself in or near Claremore, OK...I have a couple of places you need to visit. The first I'll share with you is a restaurant called Hammett Househttp://www.hammetthouse.com.
We found this delectable dining establishment based on an ad in our hotel's restaurant guide. Once we saw they had 14 pies available for dessert...the other menu items were pretty much a moot point. We're pie people. [Coincidentally, the prior week we had seen the Keri Russell movie “Waitress.” If you're not familiar with this movie, one of the recurring themes is Russell creating pies with OUTLANDISH names.]

So, we fired up Gertrude, the GPS Uber-Bitch, plugged in the address for HH and off we went. This is a non-smoking restaurant, but we managed to cope.
You can see their menu through the link I provided above. I'm just gonna tell y'all what the Dearly Beloved and I had.

I am a plumb fool for Fried Green Tomatahs. And these were wunnerful. The folks at Hammett House are very generous with the portions, too. Those 'matahs were tart and fried to what I think of as perfection. They were crispy, but no where near burned. The proportions of flour and cornmeal in the batter were just right, it stuck to the 'matahs without being so heavy it got in the way of enjoyin' the flavor and texture OF the tomatah itsownself. We ate about half of them and took the rest back to our room to have for breakfast.

We both ordered the House [garlic Ranch with a touch of horseradish] dressing on our salad. Nice salad, too. Crispy lettuces, chopped tomatahs, chopped onion. Just yummy.

We seemed to stuck on a couples ordering loop, because the Dearly Beloved and I both ordered the Country Fried Steak, which is Oklahoman for Chicken Fried Steak. But...they served it on TOP of the gravy. DB told me a story about WHY this may be done...and I'll leave it to him to relate that story on his blog . The steak was tasty, no fat, no gristle, good texture. You could tell it had been tenderized with a meat hammer, but shoot, that just makes it easier to cut and chew! And the Gravy was good, nice and smooth and served so hot...but we DID have to ask for more, BOTH of us. I guess those Okies don't eat as much gravy as we do. Cause the waitress seemed puzzled as to WHY she had to keep bringing gravy to the table.

I had fried potatoes with my steak, but Dearly Beloved, being a traditionalist, and braver than me, tried the smashed taters. He was disappointed and I was not. Their smashed taters came out of a box. 'Course my fried taters likely came out of a bag. But fried fake taters generally taste edible and more tater-like when smothered in enough gravy, while faked smashed taters cannot be saved by any amount of gravy. They just tasted like starch and chemicals no matter WHAT you put on them. The taste of the taters was pretty much a moot point, though. After a few bites of steak, I knew I was gonna concentrate on my steak and leave MOST of those taters alone if I was gonna have room for PIE.

Dearly Beloved and I discussed our pie options all through dinner. I shared with him that while he was at the Davis Museum the next day I was planned to return and BUY a “Double Crust Cherry Pie” to take to Flyin' Flo's home. She likes Cherry Pie and I thought it would make a nice hostess gift.

While we BOTH adore Chocolate, the “German Chocolate Pie” was NOT an option for me...I'm allergic to the coconut. The thought of citrus-y pies didn't particularly tickle my taste buds that night, although Dearly Beloved says he'd like to try a “Lemon Pecan” if I'd make it. I'm thinkin' he's a grown man. He knows how to read. He wants a Lemon Pecan pie? He can make it while I'm gone to Killeen or Canyon Lake.

ANYHOO... we wound up ordering a piece of Chocolate Cream Pie and a piece of Sour Cream Raisin Pie. ZOMG!!! I have NEVER seen so much whipped cream piled up on a pie in my LIFE!
But the TASTE, the taste was out of this world. I know some people throw the word HEAVENLY around....but y'all the ANGELS WEPT when this Sour Cream Raisin Pie was made! It is that good. The Cloves? The Cinnamon? The sugar? The Cloves?, No it's the Cinnamon? No it's the Whipped Cream....NO it the Clove and Cinnamon COMBINATION that makes this sooo good, well that AND the Sour Cream and the sugar...well and the Cream Cheese in the base. We're talking mouthgasm, plain and simple. Your taste buds will be doing the Happy Dance.

The Chocolate Cream? Dearly Beloved was thinking Chocolate Cream meant Chocolate Meringue, so he wasn't overly enthusiastic. Plus he had said, before we even ordered dinner, that he'd outgrown his like for the “fussy, ice-box pies” a long time ago. But I lurve them. Always have. I've NEVER outgrown my desire from a good cream pie. And the stores, and bakeries and my friends can keep their French Silk Pie. I'll stick with this Chocolate Cream, thankyewverymuch. It was so light but so sweet, it was like eating chocolate flavored baby's breath. AND it was topped with about 4” of whipped cream. Light, sweet, delicious, artery clogging, heart stopping WHIPPED CREAM, y'all.

The next day, since the Sour Cream Raisin is a refrigerated pie...I didn't go pick up the Cherry Pie to take to Flyin' Flo's until AFTER I picked up Dearly Beloved from the Davis Museum. You see, I got a Cherry AND a Sour Cream Raisin to take to her house. That's how much I LURVE her and CBL.
Tomorrow or Thursday...the other place I discovered in Claremore.