Andrew Lee

May 7, 2016May 7, 2016

Drinking Beer in Portland, Maine

Portland, Oregon may boast popular breweries like Rogue and Deschutes, but Portland, Maine has quite a few breweries of their own.

Maine Beer Company
525 US-1, Freeport, ME 04032
Hours: M-Sat 11-7; Sun 11-5

Located in Freeport, ME near the giant L.L. Bean headquarters, Maine Beer Company boasts what I consider probably the best quality beer of the breweries in the area. Offering a $10 flight of four or $18 for a flight of eight, this brewery is pretty no-nonsense when it comes to naming their beers (e.g. Four of their beers are called Beer I, Beer II, Beer III, and Beer IV). While the $18 may seem a little steep, their pours are very generous and the beers are very strong, so you’ll be feeling nice and good by the end of it.

They have a wonderful seating area outside next to the giant solar panels that power the place and offer pretty good pretzels from a local bakery called When Pigs Fly that would’ve been better if they found a way to serve them hot.

Allagash Brewing Company
50 Industrial Way, Portland, ME 04103
Hours: 11-6

Allagash is probably the most popular company to come out of Maine since most people know of their Allagash White. It’s located technically in Portland, but resides in an office park outside the city; you’ll think you’re lost until you roll right up to it. Allagash offers a free tasting of a flight of four that they choose for you. Their beers are very good, though I could have done without the sour one, and Allagash’s tasting area/patio probably offers the most “fun” since there are games such as Cornhole, playing cards, Jenga, etc. available for the patrons.

Shipyard Brewing Company
86 Newbury St, Portland, ME 04101
Hours: M-Sat 11-5; Sun 12-4

Shipyard is the least well known nationally of the Portland breweries we visited, but it is a local New England favorite. Their brewery is located in the city itself, and their tasting room feels more like a tourist gift shop than a brewery. That being said, in addition to all the souvenirs you can buy, they offer a free tasting in the back tasting room and unlike Allagash, you can pick which four you’d like to try. Their beers are unspectacular, but solid. They could up their glass game a bit though as the tastings were served in dixie cups. All that being said, the server was the friendliest of the three breweries we visited, and I did come away with an awesome Shipyard beer bucket.

Duckfat
43 Middle St, Portland, ME 04101
Hours: Sun-Thur 11-9; Fri & Sat 11-10

On a somewhat related note, Shipyard is a block away from Duckfat, a local Portland favorite eatery. All I need to say is this: Get the Poutine fully loaded with duck and egg. That is all.

May 4, 2016

Quick Hits: Malibu Cafe

Malibu Cafe
327 Latigo Canyon Road
Malibu, CA 90265

Monday: Closed; Tuesday-Saturday: 11:30 AM – 10 PM; Sunday: 10 AM – 9 PM

Malibu Cafe is one of the more unique brunch locations I’ve had the pleasure of visiting. Located on the Calamigos Ranch, this venue is a bit off the beaten path so you’ll need to plan a bit to get there unless you live in the Malibu/Thousand Oaks area. The restaurant is mainly all outdoors and looks very much like an adult playground. Besides the numerous tables for dining there are activities set up such as a giant chess board, outdoor bowling alley, giant Jenga, Cornhole, paddle boats and rowboats, and of course several bars.

This place is a perfect afternoon spot for big groups if the weather is nice out (and let’s be real, SoCal weather is pretty much always nice). I’ve been told at night the garden lighting in all the trees light up and make for a really cute bistro feel. The food overall was pretty good, the Mac and Cheese balls were fantastic, but the service could use a little work. The waiters were very polite and personable, but they took a long time to get us basic things like napkins, water and our check (in their defense they said the credit card machine was down). Luckily, we wanted to just hang out outside and enjoy the weather anyways so it wasn’t as much of a bother.

March 15, 2016

Quick Hits: Chaia

Chaia
3207 Grace Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007
Hours: M-W 11-8, Sat 10-8, Sun 11-6

When I first heard the idea of a vegetarian taco shop in Georgetown, my immediate reaction was one that any meat eating person would have: That doesn’t sound good.

I was wrong.

Chaia’s tacos are in fact very good. Using some interesting combinations of hearty vegetables, the tacos have a ton of flavor and you won’t be left feeling hungry afterwards. There aren’t a whole lot of options, but the three that I tried were all quite good (all with corn tortillas). I put them in order of my favorite here:

Creamy Kale + Potato with pepperjack, poblano crema, green sauce + pickled onions
Winter Squash with caramelized onion, ricotta salata, chipotle yogurt + mint
Mushroom with feta, red sauce + cilantro

Do I still think tacos with meat are better? Yes. However, my view of what typically makes good taco filling has been significantly altered and I can honestly say that I’ll be going back.

February 14, 2016

Tour guide for Italy

If you’re looking for a personal tour guide when you’re in Florence, Siena or the surrounding area, here’s the contact info of the woman we hired. She’s very knowledgable, laid out a good itinerary based on our wants and needs, and is relatively affordable. Obviously, there are hundreds of tour guides in Italy, so if you find another one who you think will give you a good tour for a better price, I won’t sit here and tell you that you HAVE to hire this woman. But we were perfectly happy with the service she provided.

Elisa Camporeale, Ph.D.
Art Historian — Tourist Guide
Florence, Siena & Provinces
elisa.camporeale@gmail.com
+393285693802
http://www.tuscanyrevealed.it

For 10 people, she charged 30 euros per person for the day. I’m sure you can negotiate a price depending on your group size and the season you visit.

February 8, 2016February 8, 2016

Places to eat in Florence

First of all, I’m going to put this out there and say there probably isn’t a bad place to eat in Florence. My best guess is even the worst place to dine in Florence is probably still better than going to Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill or Carrabba’s. So that being said, here’s a quick list of some good spots to check out:

All’Antico Vinaio da Tommaso/Osteria all’ Antico Vinaio
Via De’Neri 65/74 Firenze 50122

This suggestion came from several different friends, and it’s hard to argue with them that this place has the best cheap eats in the city (or actually in the world in general). Split into two locations, there’s a sit down restaurant and a take-out storefront across the street from one another. My buddy and I opted for the take-out, which around lunch time had a line that was about a 10-15 minute wait. It was worth it despite having to avoid all the pigeons hanging out above shitting on everyone. For 5 euros, you can get an incredibly good sandwich. The great ciabatta bread, delicious meats, and really fresh tasting vegetables and cheese practically had my eyes popping out of my head on the first bite. You can order the sandwich however you want, but for the sake of not being that annoying customer, I opted for one of the Top 5 sandwiches they have on the chalkboard. Stop in here for lunch.

Gusta Pizza
Via Maggio, 46R, 50125 Firenze

Obviously you have to stop into a place for pizza when in Italy, and again, you probably can’t go wrong with most places. We came here at the suggestion of a friend (this will be a common theme), and it was perfectly good. Would I say walk out of your way to find it? I wouldn’t go across the city to do it, but if you’re in the vicinity you should stop in. The pizza was as solid a pie as I’ve gotten anywhere, but didn’t go beyond. The menu is simple, there’s not a whole lot of fancy pizzas to order, but the price is nice and it will definitely hit that pizza craving spot.

Ristorante Mastro Ciliegia
Piazza di San Pier Maggiore, 4R, 50122 Firenze

Another good pizza stop, one that was not suggested by anyone but rather we just stumbled upon because we were hungry (and hungover). Its rather pleasant setting in Piazza di San Pier Maggiore actually made it one of the more relaxing parts of the trip; we got to people watch in a piazza that wasn’t huge so the low noise level was enjoyably peaceful. Try the truffle and prosciutto pizza — it’s excellent there.

Osteria Vini e Vecchi
Via dei Magazzini, 3, Firenze

From the outside you might mistake this place for a tourist trap, especially since it’s super close to the Uffizi. Don’t be fooled. This great mom and pop restaurant had one of THE best Osso Buco’s I’ve ever had. Add a Pappardelle with duck and you’ve got yourself one helluva meal. It’s a perfect spot for a low-key meal after the museums. And if you’re so inclined, we got a tip from a friend to ask the waiter for some of their homemade limoncello that wasn’t on the menu. When we did that, the waiter gave us a little grin, a wink, and brought out a bottle with two shot glasses and a pat on the back that felt like he was saying, “If you know this exists, then you’re in the club”.

Ristorante Osteria Zio Gigi
Via Folco Portinari, 7-r, 50122 Firenze

Here’s another place we just stumbled into, and again it was a big score on our parts. This restaurant had a great local vibe, and boisterous atmosphere. The staff really makes you feel like you’re part of an Italian family, like you’re their kids. The chef, who by my best guess was maybe the father, came out of the kitchen frequently to loudly serenade us with Italian opera, much to the embarrassment of his female wait staff who had the faces of “Dad, stop it!” written all over them. As for the food, it was excellent (like everything on this list), but we did a number on ourselves in this place. Since this was our last dinner of the trip, we decided to go all out, and all out we did. We each ordered a 500 gram florentine steak, which was already more than enough. But on top of that we each had a plate of tortellini. The food was amazing, but you know what they say, “Too much of a good thing…” Even our waitress acknowledged the fat shits we were and gave us complimentary digestifs at the end of the meal with a hearty laugh telling us “This will help with your” while rubbing her belly.

Gelato

Just eat it. Everywhere. It doesn’t matter what place you go to. We went to everyone’s suggestions and they were all amazing. But if you HAVE to be directed somewhere, Gelateria Dei Neri is as famous and popular as gelato places get.

October 31, 2015

Loro Ciuffenna

After our long weekend in Amsterdam, we hopped on our flight to Italy and began that segment of the trip in the Loro Ciuffenna region. Located about an hour south of Florence, Loro Ciuffenna is a nice Tuscany getaway from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Our group rented out a giant villa via AirBnB near the small town of Arezzo, which is easily accessible by train from Florence. The villa itself however requires a car, so if you want to stay there, renting one is a must.

Here’s the link to the villa we stayed in.

There’s not a whole lot to do in Loro Ciuffenna, which is perfect if you’re looking to just relax and enjoy the rolling hills and vineyards. However, with your car you’re within driving distance of Siena, Florence and several other Italian cities that make for good day trips.

We spent only a few days in Loro Ciuffenna, and most of it consisted of getting good and drunk off of delicious Chianti wine. Our group also hired a chef to come to the villa a couple times and cook us some Italian meals (they clean up too). But here are some other highlights from Loro Ciuffenna before I get into the ins and outs of Florence in the next post.

Toscana Mia Cooking School
Località Poggio S. Polo, 2, 53013 Gaiole In Chianti SI, Italy

This was A LOT of fun. I would highly recommend this cooking class, especially if you’re in a group and want to experience Italian cooking in a local’s home. It’s a bit far outside of Florence, so you’ll really need to either be in the Loro Ciuffenna area or in Italy for a while and can afford to spend a whole day doing this activity. The standard menu that they’ll teach consists of Bruschetta, Mushroom Tagliatelle, Tuscan Chicken, and Panna Cotta (and of course plenty of Chianti is provided throughout). Though when booking the class you can request any particular Italian fare you want to learn how to make.

The family run cooking school isn’t as “individual” as I had hoped; I thought that each person would have a station and everyone would be able to make their own individual meals. However, there was plenty of food to be made for the whole group, so everyone had ample opportunities to help cook each segment of the meal. This class is great fun for any group, family, or couple looking to get a little messy and enjoy a fantastic meal that you can say you helped create.

Ristorante La Cantinella
Localita’ Montemarciano
70/G, 52028 Terranuova Bracciolini AR, Italy

This is one of the best meals I had the entire trip (if not the best). Ristorante La Cantinella is a fantastic restaurant to go to if you end up staying in that villa. I’ll be honest, the food was amazing, but not amazing enough to travel far to try, so if you’re staying in Florence, I’ll have recommendations in the city for you in a few posts. But regardless, the meal was truly wonderful, and the ambiance was classy, but relaxing at the same time. If you’re able to get a table on the patio, you can watch the sunset over the Tuscan hills. And this place was very affordable – for the type of food we were getting, the price was probably half of what you would pay at a nice Italian restaurant in the States. Even the good bottle of wine we had was only about 16 euros. My recommendations: try the Pici with Duck Ragu and the Rabbit with Spinach.

Antica Macelleria Falorni
Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, 71, 50022 Greve FI, Italy

If you do go to the cooking school, stop by the nearby town of Greve. Within the main piazza is Italy’s oldest butcher shop. Packed with wall to wall meats, this place is every vegan’s nightmare, but certainly is a sight to see. Be sure not to miss the cheese cellar downstairs as well.

October 18, 2015

Quick Hits: The Pantry

Like I said earlier, the food in Amsterdam isn’t exactly world famous cuisine. They seem to have imported a lot from other countries; for example, there are a ton of hamburger places in Amsterdam. That being said, we still wanted to find a place that had local cuisine. Lonely Planet rarely misses, but in this one case they weren’t up to par.

For good local fare, I would not go with their recommendation of Bistro Bij ons, which is near the Anne Frank House. I’ll just make a long story short, the service wasn’t good. They weren’t mean or anything. Just very, very inattentive. They never took our food order, but when the bill came, they tried to charge us for food. And it wasn’t like the place was packed. It was me, my friend and a couple – that’s it. The waitress was apologetic, but it’s not worth wasting your time going there.

Where should you go? The Pantry.

The Pantry had fantastic service, a really cool eating in someone’s dining room feel, and good, hearty food for the chilly Amsterdam weather. The place is small, so there’s a solid chance you’ll need to wait a little while. We ordered some Bitterballen beef croquettes as an appetizer and we each ordered something off the “Traditional Dutch Dishes” menu as an entree. I ordered the “combination” menu which consists of three different types of mashed potatoes (a carrot/onion/beef, a kale, and a sauerkraut) with either a meatball or a sausage. It’s definitely worth trying.

September 25, 2015September 25, 2015

Video: Amsterdam Nightlife

The Red Light District

No trip would be complete without at the very least a stroll through the Red Light District. Before I begin, I’m going to say up front that I didn’t pay for any prostitutes. Thought about it. But didn’t.

The Red Light District was relatively difficult to find at first because we weren’t totally clear on the “area” that all the guidebooks were telling us. So when we arrived at a side street with only 4 or 5 windows, I was at first not all impressed and thinking to myself, “THIS is it?” Then we turned the corner.

Up and down the canal were dozens and dozens of women in glowing red windows. Interspersed with the actual prostitutes were several theaters showing weird sex shows. The prices from what I understand are about 50 euros for 15 minutes, 100 euros for 30 minutes, and so on and so forth. The price is however negotiated beforehand and varies based on the race, age, etc. of the prostitute. Obviously taking pictures is a huge risk so I really couldn’t get that many photos in.

My biggest overall reactions/takeaways from the stroll through the Red Light District were this:

1) I was surprised at how clean it was. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of dirty shit was going down on that street behind the curtains. But in terms of walking around, I absolutely thought it was going to be like Bourbon Street in New Orleans — dirty, smell of vomit and beer, drunk people sloppily all over the place, lots of noise. It was quite the opposite; it was clean, everyone was pretty reserved, and there was a general understanding of “don’t be that douche” atmosphere in the air.

2) The prostitutes were actually not that unattractive. I’m not sure why I was picturing that they would all be relatively gross, but in general, these women were all pretty good looking.

Club Escape

For a more traditional night out, I would highly recommend Club Escape in Rembrandt Square. Again, this was a suggestion from the bartenders at NJOY and it didn’t disappoint (though amusingly our first impression was one of “What the fuck?” because there was security guard putting a headlock on a clubber immediately as we walked through the metal detector). The night we were there it was a 16 euro cover and the party really got going around 12:30 AM.

I’m not a huge clubbing guy, but this place makes it almost impossible not to have a good time. The main electronic dance music hall (EDM) featured a phenomenally good female vocalist and saxophonist (be sure to scroll down to watch more video of those two) who performed center stage in the middle of the club. It was awesome. The music was a great mix of classic 90’s dance tunes, modern EDM, and a bit of 80’s hip hop thrown in. There’s also a side, smaller room upstairs that’s dedicated purely to hip hop. (Note: depending on what’s on the line-up each particular evening these types of music are subject to change obviously). And aside from the dude who got thrown out when we first came in, the crowd was the right amount of enthusiastic, but not out of control. Club Escape’s a great place to go until the wee hours of the morning.

September 22, 2015

Amsterdam, Netherlands

It’s easy to say that I’ve had a pretty good year of traveling in 2015 and my final trip of the year started off with a weekend in Amsterdam and then a week in Tuscany/Florence. Amsterdam has always been on my bucket list and this city offers far more than its deviant reputation of the Red Light District and legal marijuana. It boasts several amazing museums, canals and bridges that arguably trump those in Venice, and a great nightlife. And it is all very doable in a 3-4 day weekend.

Our trip didn’t start off too well however. I won’t get too much into the details so I’ll truncate it a bit. First off, don’t fly United Airlines internationally. Just don’t. Secondly, if you’re going to use AirBnB be aware of a few things. 1) Their help numbers didn’t work when I tried to reach them in an emergency. 2) If you book an apartment through AirBnB, be sure that the apartment you’re choosing has been thoroughly reviewed positively. It should have at least 15 reviewers give it a thumbs up. We rolled the dice on a place and let’s just say our first morning of Amsterdam constituted of an unguided walking tour of the city with our luggage. (In the end, we got into the apartment we rented, but it was completely unprepared, dirty, and smelly and the apologetic owner claimed that she had cancelled her AirBnB account the week prior…)

After that unfortunate morning, we put aside our frustration because we were set to explore. The first thing you’ll notice in the city is how big of a biking culture it is. I’ve never seen so many people on bikes in my life. Be sure to be careful on the sidewalk, because unlike in the US, the bike lanes are part of the sidewalk and not the street, so if you stroll into one, you will most likely get in the way of the cyclists.

Getting around the city center is easy by walking and almost all of the locals speak impeccable English. With words like “flüggåәnkб€čhiœßølįên” (for you EuroTrip fans) you’d think getting around Amsterdam would be more challenging, but the Dutch are all very fluent in English (at least the ones we met) and it came close to feeling like we weren’t even in Europe at various points because of how comfortable we felt.

One other thing we were told is this, and you should know it going into your trip. GET ALL TICKETS IN ADVANCE. It’ll save you a ton of time waiting in line for the museums. They offer package deals as well that include various combinations of canal rides and museums that I would highly recommend you take advantage of to save some money. Also, apparently the locals don’t go out on the weekends because they don’t like dealing with tourists, so their “going out” nights are Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Here are a few of the things we did on the first day:

Heineken Experience

This is worth checking out, especially if you’re a beer drinker who’s done a few brewery tours in the U.S. This is like a U.S. brewery tour on steroids. No need to get an audio guide because the whole thing is in English. The tour itself begins with a pretty standard history of Heineken, the beer making process, and then a tasting. Then it gets a little wild. First you go on a “Star Tours” like ride where you’re in a room that moves and sprays mist and stuff at you while a movie plays showing the beer making process as if you were in “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”. Then you walk through an Epcot Center like multimedia chamber with all sorts of random games, light things, music, etc. The end of the tour consists of a lounge area that looks like a nightclub where you can get two fresh, cold Heinekens as part of your ticket fee. Be sure to check out the tables with the electronic table tops. You’ll notice that wherever you set your beer, an electronic “coaster” pops up underneath it.

NJOY Cocktail Bar
Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 93
1017 PX Amsterdam, Netherlands

Be sure to grab a drink at NJOY. We actually just chose this place randomly to get a quick drink before exploring for the evening and it paid off. First off, the drinks were amazing. Expensive, but amazing. If you’re lucky enough to get the bartender we had, order an Envy (it’ll be a flaming cognac drink) or a “Rum Old Fashioned” which isn’t on the menu but a libation that our guy put together himself. Secondly, the bar looked like it was owned by Prince. Everything was in purple. For the people in DC, imagine if Little Miss Whiskey’s on H Street was actually a classy place — that’s NJOY. What really set the place apart though was the staff. The staff were friendly and sociable enough, but what put them over the top was that they went out of their way to put together a full two page list of things we needed to see, do, where to eat, drink, etc. And we utilized this list to a great degree throughout the trip and never came across anything on it that wasn’t a very good experience including where we went to dinner afterwards…

Castell BAR-becue Restaurant
Lijnbaansgracht 252-253-254
1017 RK Amsterdam, Netherlands

Which brings me to Castell. In general, Danish food isn’t anything to write home about. In fact, they love American hamburgers in Amsterdam so much, there was practically a burger joint on every block. But this place Castell could arguably be the best meal of the trip (it was definitely my buddy’s favorite, though I reserve my favorite for a Tuscan place I’ll blog about later on). The place was packed when we got in, so make a reservation. We just happened to be lucky enough to grab two open seats at the bar. Castell has a dive bar vibe, but at the same time hip, trendy and classy. The bar area ended up being pretty awesome because it had really, really comfortable bar chairs, and the counter was cushioned on the end to put your elbows on comfortably. The steaks, oh my god the steaks. Perfectly done. Can’t say anything else about it, just perfect. Now admittedly, we were drunk when we ate here, but I’m fairly confident the food is amazing there no matter what condition you’re in.

Next up: I’ll get into what Amsterdam is notorious for — The Red Light District.

July 27, 2015

Video: Gay Pride Parade, San Francisco

Fresh off the Supreme Court ruling in support of same-sex marriage, the annual Pride Parade in San Francisco just so happened to be slated the same weekend that we were there. Needless to say it was a huge celebration; I really don’t think I’ve been around so many happy people (straight, gay, and whatever the person wearing the giant penis was) in one mass grouping like that before.

Unsurprisingly, the parade was loud, colorful, “fabulous”, hopeful…you name it, and that’s what the parade was. And it was long too — it started at 10:30 in the morning and wrapped up at 5:00. We only had so much energy for a few hours of the spectacle, but it was more than enough to get me exhausted. By the end I was covered in Mardi Gras beads and had about 6 different rainbow colored “Livestrong” wristbands on my arms. It was a sight to see and I’m really glad I got to experience it.

The Pride Parade has to be seen more than told so please enjoy some of the videos and pictures from the event.