Ground Round
It's been about 20 years since my brother, Dave and I have been able to come in here and have a meal at this restaurant. But we're back, baby.
Ground Round is back.
We are in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, which is now the home of the fully relaunched culinary icon known as the Ground Round. In its heyday, there were over 200 Ground Round locations. They started to tail off until one day a guy named Joe Shea and his wife, Nachi, they decided to buy the brand. And now Ground Round is back, and I got to tell you better than ever.
The Ground Round was a very popular, beloved restaurant from back in the day. It was fun for the adults. It was fun for kids. And then It just takes them back in time to maybe simpler times. So those combinations of items. I think is what people remember so fondly.
From the second they hung a Ground Round sign, people started going insane and since they opened, it has been jammed every night.
Now in terms of atmosphere, it's a big place, beautiful, post and beam wooden construction. They have high ceilings, massive chandeliers, a big bar. You have classic Tom and Jerry cartoons playing on the televisions. Basically, anybody from the If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, if you grew up in New England, you want to be right here.
There's so much charm and character in this building. You're greeted by the smell of popcorn, the green and yellow hues, which are notorious for Ground Round.
We've had a lot of guests say this location is something that the Ground Round wishes they always were. few folks say, you know, this is everything the Ground Round wishes they were in the old days.
You know how smell evokes the most potent memories? Well, the second you walk into this restaurant, it's all about the popcorn.
I absolutely love popcorn. Here it is bottomless. You can sit at that bar enjoy that salty, crunchy popcorn with a nice big beer or a pitcher of beer, which they are bringing back.
We make freshly, freshly popped popcorn every day, and we make it all throughout service and it's bottomless. If you notice it's empty, we'll bring you more. If you do, We'll just keep it flowing.
As soon as I heard they were bringing back the Ground Round, this was the first dish that came to mind the legendary Pot O Gold.
Pot o’ Gold is one of our appetizers. It comes with boneless tenders. It comes with mozzarella moons, our steak and cheese egg rolls and then onion rings in a tortilla shell.
It comes with a trio of dipping sauces so you have all the food you want and all the dips that you want. And then when you're done eating everything inside of it, you can still eat the bowl itself. And there are even more appetizers on the menu. Of course, you have the classic chicken wings, the Buffalo was the number one seller. And then there's Dave's personal favorite, the potato skins.
I ate so many potato skins when I was little. I thought they were their own food group. These are great. They're big. A lot of potato, a lot of cheese, lot of bacon, scallions in the horseradish, sour cream, one of my favorite appetizers.
Listen, Ground Round was never a place for fine dining. It's a place to get a beer and a burger and the Ground Rounder Burger is their signature, and this is a great one.
The Ground Rounder is made with a blend of brisket and sirloin. It's got Applewood Smoked Bacon, beer infused cheese, and it's all served on a pretzel bun with fried pickles on top. To me, this harkens back to the glory days of Ground Round and yet I think the food has become that much better here.
Ground Round was always known for their baby back ribs and their steak tips. And now you can get them both on one awesome plate.
Our steak tips are cut in house by our chef every day. Very tender, very flavorful. And then we have a house marinade, so it has a nice flavor in addition to the meat, which has its own great taste and flavor. And then the ribs..we have a house made sauce that we brush on it. That's phenomenal. And then we slow cook them so that they fall off the bone.
he Ground Round is not a steakhouse, but they take steak very seriously here. They even butcher the cuts themselves. Dan, I bet you never thought you would see a Steak Au Poivre at the Ground Round.
Definitely not. But I'm happy that we got to taste this thing. So the steak au poivre has a 28 day aged bistro filet sirloin. The key is the house made peppercorn cognac cream sauce that goes over the top. And it comes with two sides, and it only costs a little over 30 bucks. Now that's a Ground Round kind of deal.
Desserts lean heavily into the nostalgia category. Here, pretty much every table is ordering dessert, and it's easy to see why. Hardcore Ground Round fans will be happy to know the cinnamon dippers are back as well. It's all served over a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, so you get the hot and the cold and the dipping sauces. It's just delicious.
The number one selling dessert by far, and I mean, both for kids and adults, is the Slider Sundae. Yeah, this is ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, and Maraschino cherries served in the mini helmet. Now that’s some of the best plate presentation I’ve ever seen.
The Andelman brothers had dozens of fist fights over who would get the Red Sox helmet.
I mean, it's not the most impressive ice cream sundae in the world, but the helmet makes it awesome.
I don’t care if it's fashion or music or food, everything comes back in style eventually and right now there's nothing hotter than The Ground Round in Shrewsbury.
We'll see at the Ground Round. Right Peanut?
