Barry Trotz has talked often about the Capitals playing ‘a heavier game’ — finishing checks and forcing opponents to get rid of the puck sooner than they’d like to — in his first season at the helm. It doesn’t hurt that Washington is the NHL’s heaviest team, averaging 210.1 pounds per active player, despite the lack of poutine in local establishments.
That could change thanks to Mark Huddleston, manager of the Glory Days Grill in Centreville for more than five years. Huddleston was in his car last week during Trotz’s interview with 106.7 The Fan’s Chad Dukes when the discussion turned to the French-Canadian classic gravy-on-fries.
“Why is there not more poutine available in the contiguous United States?” Dukes asked Trotz, a Manitoba native. “As an American, I am actually rather embarrassed by this.”
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“You know what, I don’t know,” Trotz said. “…I can’t figure that out either. When I first came to the States 25 years ago, I said, ‘Gravy on fries?’ and they looked at me sideways. I don’t get it. You put gravy on your potatoes. Fries are potatoes. Why don’t we have more gravy on them? I’m with you on that.”
When Dukes, a regular at the Glory Days in Centreville, stopped in to Huddleston’s establishment on Monday, his friend whipped up an improvised version of the dish.
“The authentic recipe involves cheese curds, which is not something we have in the kitchen,” Huddleston explained. “We just used fries, house-made brown gravy and took some fresh mozzarella, chopped it up, and melted it down. Sprinkled a little parsley garnish on it and there you go.”
Huddleston doesn’t have any plans to add poutine to the menu, but it will be available by request. He also said it will be available at all Glory Days Grills by the time the puck drops for Game 1 on Wednesday.
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“It’s simple enough from an execution standpoint here in the restaurant,” said Huddleston, who has been a Capitals fan since he moved to the area in 1992. “If someone asks for it, we’ll make it.”
[Remember Dale Hunter’s ugly hit on Pierre Turgeon]
And if Trotz needs a poutine fix before a potential trip to Ottawa or Montreal for the Eastern Conference finals, he knows where to go.
“That would be awesome,” Huddleston said. “We’d love to have him.”
Now, if we could only get Capitals GM Brian MacLellan to share his secret Beef Wellington recipe.
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