Date Night - Week 11: Sauce

At the recommendation of reader — and student — Liz MacLean, Jeremy and I ventured into Bridgeville on a Saturday night to check out and their top-rated gourmet burgers. Ok, Jeremy was there to check out the burgers. Liz recommended that I try the mac and cheese. 

We arrived around 7 p.m. and met with a 30-45 minute wait, so we tucked ourselves into the one tiny bench in the entrance area behind the door. The place was packed. The main dining area and bar are side-by-side in a long, narrow room, but managed to feel cozy and inviting with soft lighting and oversized, padded booths. The Pens played on the flat-screens above the bar and the noise level, while elevated, was far from overwhelming. 

The hostess called us after 20 minutes, which surprised us both, but were then led past the main dining and bar area through an empty, winding hallway into a white-walled, decoration-less back room that seemed to be mainly for accommodating overflow. 

We were seated at a high table with barstools rather than chairs, right against the wall at the entrance to the room, and it was a bit awkward and uncomfortable. A party of about 15 was seated at a long table in the middle of the room, and several booths were full along the opposite wall. There was nowhere for me to put my purse – not a hook or a shelf, and I didn’t want to put it all the way down on the floor, so I looped it over my knee for the duration of the meal, which got old, as did not having anywhere to put your feet except oddly underneath you on the barstool. 

There wasn’t music in the room, nor was there sound from the TV, but the space echoed the conversations around us. And I learned more than I ever wanted to know about sex-ed for pre-teen girls from a nearby table. Jeremy was seated practically on top of the TV – he’s tall, and if he sat up straight, his head blocked the view.

We ordered beers – Sauce has a decent list of imports and domestics — and also the “get ‘em loaded fries a la sauce” ($7): fresh-cut sweet potato fries served in a skillet and covered with cheese, sour cream, onions, and bacon on the side. They come with Ranch for dipping and are an absolute pleasure. There were a number of other traditional appetizers on the menu that looked good — spinach and artichoke dip, chicken quesadillas — and other more unusual ones that we’d love to try, including a wild mushroom flatbread and deep-fried pickle spears.

Unfortunately, the dish took more than an hour and fifteen minutes to arrive.  Our salads and entrees came out almost immediately after and our tiny table was overcrowded with food.

The food, however, was worth the wait. The salads – mine a house and Jeremy’s a Ceasar — were fresh and crisp and served cleverly in mugs with dressing on the side. 

Jeremy had the Buffalo BBQ Burger (with BBQ sauce, aged cheddar, and bacon, $12), which arrived in a skillet for a fun and unique presentation. The burger was cooked as requested and the sauce — there’s a pun ready to bust out here, I think — made the meal.

Liz told me I couldn’t leave without trying the mac and cheese, so I opted for that as my entrée, and wasn’t disappointed.  Sauce offers a “Build a Mac Skillet” ($10) with a number of toppings you can add in:  a number of different types of cheeses, tomatoes, mushrooms, onion straws, peppers, chicken, ham, and bacon. I loaded mine up with cheese. The skillet serving style served both fashion and function in the case of my meal — the skillet stayed far warmer than a plate and my cheesy dish stayed warm and gooey until I had to ask for a box to take the rest home. It was just as good reheated the next day.

By the time we finished eating, the large group in the center of the room had left, and only one other booth was occupied.  The room was now awkwardly quiet, we had been sitting at the high table for nearly two hours, and so we both opted out of dessert.

Long story short:  The food was great and we’ll definitely give Sauce another visit.  But we’ll wait longer next time to sit in the main dining room, and I want the “To Be a Kid” skillet of chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, and hot fudge. Maybe as my entrée.

Sauce is located at 500 Washington Pike in Bridgeville. 

They’re open nightly until 1:30 a.m. Monday through Friday they open at 11:30 for lunch. 

Saturday and Sunday they open at 8 a.m. and serve breakfast until noon.