Homeroom: Home of Mac and Cheese
My last book club meeting was held at Homeroom in the Lake Temescal neighborhood of Oakland. We were looking for a place that serves comfort food, so Homeroom was a good choice as they specialize in one of the most comforting American foods…macaroni and cheese. Last year I sampled Homeroom’s garlic mac and cheese at the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival and thought it was great.
Six of us arrived early on a Saturday evening and after a short wait, we were given a table outside. After some discussion and seeing dishes of mac and cheese being served, we decided on getting three different flavors to share as well as some side dishes.
The Trailer Mac is described as Cheddary mac with Niman Ranch hot dog and topped with crushed potato chips.
I picked the Vermont White Cheddar described as the creamiest, sharpest, mac made with velvety white cheddar from Grafton Village cheese in Vermont
The Ivy Leaguer: Truffle Mac was the priciest mac on the menu with creamy black truffle gouda melted over sauteed mushrooms and fresh thyme.
The Trailer Mac was a little on the salty side. My favorite was the Vermont White Cheddar, although the Truffle Mac was nice as well.
We had three vegetable sides which I enjoyed very much. It balanced well with all the cheesy food. We had peas in butter and mint, roasted cauliflower, and roasted Brussels sprouts. (sorry, forgot to take the photos)
The food was comforting and quite heavy which left us with a little room for dessert. We thought to share two desserts. We ordered the creamy peanut butter pie which was on a graham cracker crust and drizzled with chocolate. It felt like I was eating a peanut butter cup. It was quite rich.
The second dessert was Banana Crème Pie which was layers of bananas, pudding, caramel and vanilla wafers, served in a mason jar. I was looking forward to it because the last time I had pie in a jar, it was wonderful. I was pretty happy with the few bites I ate. I needed something on the lighter side and the flavors were great.
I had a good experience at Homeroom and would go back to try their other creative flavors of mac and cheese. They recently started a curbside Drive-thru where you place and pay for your order online in advance. It’s nice to have an option for homemade mac and cheese whenever you want.