Category: Review

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A couple of places to eat in San Diego

So, taking a little break from the Egypt talk, I was recently in San Diego a few days after my Arabian adventure.  Although it was a work trip, my colleagues and I were able to see some of the sights of the town.  I won’t talk about seeing the things that most people visiting San Diego would see (San Diego Zoo, U.S.S. Midway, which is AWESOME by the way, etc)  even though all those sights are very well worth checking out.  I’d just like to quickly mention a couple places to eat if you’re out and about downtown.

The first place is Currant American Brasserie.   This restaurant is just south of the Gaslamp District (a fantastic bar and restaurant scene in San Diego), near Petco Park.  The menu is simple; it has your typical sandwiches, salads, and deserts.  There is also a pretty good brunch deal with $8 all you can drink mimosas.  We ate on the outdoor patio, so I didn’t get a real good look on the inside, but when I went in to use the restroom, the interior had a sort of New Orleans architectural style.

Despite the vanilla choices on the menu, the food was extremely good.  We started off with an appetizer of taters tots with a spicy habanero ketchup.  The tater tots were nice and crispy on the outside, but the inside was more buttery mashed potatoes than the shredded potato Napoleon Dynamite/Ore Ida style tater tots.   Three of the four of our group all ordered the Chicken Club sandwich.  I’d have to think really hard to come up with a place that made a better chicken sandwich.  The chicken was juicy and grilled to perfection and was smothered with a chipotle aioli that gave it a nice chili-garlic taste.  The key though was the avocado.   Southern California is known for the fruit and the sandwich had a generous heaping of it.  And finally the french fries were the perfect compliment to the sandwich.  They were pretty close to the McDonald’s style fries, but with a nice thyme seasoning.  Currant is a great place to eat if you want to get a bite to eat without having to have to deal with the hustle and bustle of Gaslamp, but still want to be close enough to head to that area for a drink afterward.

140 West Broadway
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 702-6309

Open Weekdays 11:30am-12am; Weekends 9am-12am

The second place I’d recommend checking out is Fillipi’s Pizza Grotto.  From what I understand, this restaurant now has several branches, but the original is in the Little Italy district of San Diego.  The Little Italy district’s main road is India Street (not sure how that happened) which is where Fillipi’s is located.  From the outside, the restaurant doesn’t look like much, especially being next to the shi-shier venues on the main drag.  In fact, we walked right by the main entrance at first because there were some local, old Italian guys sitting outside the market which makes up the front of the restaurant; its very a nonchalant looking entry way.  Once we went it, and walked through the small little market, we were seated in the back.

The restaurant is very much an Italian mom and pop restaurant.  Nothing fancy, nothing flashy.  The menu was really, really simple – pizzas, pastas, soups, and salads and that was it.  The lamanted white menu didn’t even have any descriptions or many varieties of pizza and pasta.  The menu simplicity actually admittedly made me not expect much from our meal for some reason.  But once we took a bite into our food, there was nothing cheap about it.  The pizza I ordered was excellent.  The crust had a little more thickness than what you’d expect from a New York style slice, but was nice and crispy unlike a Naples style pizza (where the sauce and cheese sometimes makes the crust soggier).  The pizza was delicious; and that was the least impressive dish on the table.  The pastas were by far the favorite of the group.  The homemade pasta on all the pasta dishes tasted really fresh (if you haven’t had fresh/homemade pasta, go to a local Italian store or even Whole Foods and get the pasta from the refrigerated aisle.  You’ll be able to tell the difference immediately from the raw, uncooked box pasta you get normally).  The linguine with clams had a nice creamy taste, and the bits of clam weren’t too overbearing on the dish.  The bolognese sauce on the ricotta lasagna actually melted in your mouth with savoriness was easily my favorite of the entire meal.  And you get a good amount of food.  Admittedly the portions aren’t as big as a Maggiano’s or Buca di Pepo chain size, but be prepared to share.

Now I’ll get back to Egypt in the next post.

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Edfu Temple

Before I get into our next stop, I have to tell you all about the experience of leaving Luxor.  As we departed the city, we were put into a holding pattern at one point with several other boats.  Here’s the deal with the Egyptians: they’ll find any opportunity to get a sale.  It’s the dead of night without any light other than that coming from out boats, and a fleet of rowboats comes along side our ship.  All I hear is commotion, so I go up to the top deck to investigate.   I see a crowd of my fellow shipmates looking over the side and down at a bunch of sellers screaming “Hey Lady!  Look over here!  Look over here! You like this carpet?!  You like this shawl!?  Pure Egyptian cotton!”  It was highly amusing and bizarre.  Just when I was thinking to myself, “how are they planning on getting that stuff all the way up here?”, I see one of the sellers hurl a carpet up four stories onto the top deck.  It was unbelievable watching items and money being thrown back and forth from the rowboats to the top decks of our boats.

After the show that evening, we finally made our way to our next stop: Esna, which was the town that had the Edfu Temple.  In order to get to the temple we took an enjoyable donkey carriage ride into town.  The Edfu Temple is the first temple we had seen on this trip and it was pretty amazing to see how well the structure had held up over thousands of years.  It was so well maintained and intact, I could have used an extra hour there to explore.

Once inside the temple, here are a few of the highlights:

-The Greeks actually built this temple, but were paying homage to the classical Egyptian style.  On the walls were several hieroglyphics portraying the god Horus slaying Set.

-A giant portrayal of the Goddess Nut.

-The Nileometer which was a room with a set of stairs connected to a canal that measured the level of the Nile during the year.  You could see how high the river was based on at what stair the level of the water was at.  Although the temple seemed a little far from the Nile, back thousands of years ago, the river was far higher, larger and closer to the temple.

-One of the rooms was a laboratory.  On the walls were carved several “recipes” for incenses, elixirs, and medicines.  For example, there would be a carved image of Horus holding a cup with grapes in it, or some sort of cauldron, or some other item and next to it was the hieroglyphical ingredients for the item.

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Egypt

It’s hard for me to get over the fact that I’m sitting back in my apartment after the whirlwind that’s been the past couple of weeks over in Egypt (Update: actually I’m in a hotel room in San Diego now).  One blog post wouldn’t nearly do the trip justice, so I’ll be posting several over the course of the next few days.  I’d also like to give a shout out to the other travelers from around the world that we met who made the trip that much more memorable.

Egypt was everything I expected and much more.  My trip consisted of seven days on a Nile cruise and three days in the city of Cairo.  My family flew out of JFK airport in New York on New Year’s Eve direct to Cairo on Egypt Air.  I’ll be honest, I have no idea why I didn’t expect much from Egypt Air, but I was happily surprised to find that it was one of the nicest airlines I’ve ever flown.  The seats were comfortable, spacious, and had the biggest TV screens on the backs of the headrests that I’ve seen on any airline.  Seriously, the screen had to have been a foot by a foot (bigger than my laptop screen).  And the media offerings were extensive.  The food was excellent (the dinner consisted of chicken, farfalle, grilled veggies, chocolate cake, and salad.  The breakfast offering was scrambled eggs, sausage, tomatoes, fruit salad, a large croissant, and tater tots.  The tater tots were crunchy too) and the staff treated us like kings (or pharaohs I guess would be more appropriate).

Once we landed in Cairo, we took a quick flight to Luxor and met up with our guide Remon or Re, who took us to our boat.  Now when I heard we were doing a river cruise, I pictured that we’d be the only ones on the water.  I was sorely mistaken.  Our boat, The Crocodillo, was one of about 400 river boats that travel up and down the Nile.  I don’t know why I should have expected otherwise on one of the world’s oldest water ways.

All the boats dock along side one another in a way that requires you to walk through several boats to get to yours.  It sounds confusing, and believe me, after traveling for an entire day it was in person as well.  Each boat has double doors on it’s lower deck that goes into each boat’s lobby area.  So in order to get to the Crocodillo, we walked through like 4 or 5 lobbies (and I was thoroughly confused as to what was going on, thinking that the boat had like 4 lobbies on it).

Once we got checked in, our room was small for three people.  But from what we’ve heard about the other rooms, it was the largest on the boat so we were able to make due.  We weren’t going to be spending much time in it anyways because the boat had a great top deck for sunbathing, swimming, and lounging around.  They had a afternoon tea on deck every day and provided breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the dining room on the lowest deck.

So while our boat was old (I’m going to nerd out here for a moment and make a Battlestar Galactica reference.  Our boat had a sister ship that most of the passengers on our boat also had originally tried to get on called the “Carnival”.  Essentially the Carnival was the Pegasus and ours was Galactica), our boat had character and a really fun group of passengers that made the next few days very enjoyable.

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Looking for a Bed and Breakfast? Check out airbnb

Most people planning a vacation will go to the usual websites such as Orbitz, TripAdvisor, and Travelocity to find hotels, flights etc.  My friend Bruno passed along this handy site for those looking for a good deal on Bed and Breakfasts’ or private vacation rooms to rent out for a few nights.  The apartments do look pretty sweet if you’re looking for a place to stay a little bit off the typical hotel grid.  The site is http://www.airbnb.com/.

Finding a place to stay is easy, the search option works much like Kayak, etc.  The Airbnb Collections is a neat feature that narrows down and showcases the most popular locations around the Globe and the deals available.   If you’re looking to be a host on the website, the site makes it Craiglist style easy to do as well.  Airbnb works with you to set prices, review clients (you get to approve who stays), and will send a professional photographer to your location so that you don’t have to worry about posting pictures on your own.

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Skydiving in Chambersburg, PA

Most people have a list of things they want to do in life before they die.  Whether these things are big or small, everyone at some point has said “I gotta try that sometime”.   They even made a movie about this very idea recently called “The Bucket List“.   Now I’m not saying that I have a terminal illness, but one of the things I’ve always wanted to give a shot was skydiving.

People skydive for several different reasons.  Some jump for the adrenaline; some to try something that scares them.  Others jump to prove something to themselves, and I’m sure a few people are just plain crazy.  I think my reason for wanting to do it was a combination of all of those things.

Now as an idea, the desire to try jumping out of a plane is not very uncommon, however I would never had gone out of my way to find a place and make it happen on my own.  So when my buddy Vik calls me up and invites me to go with him and his friends, I “jump” at the opportunity (sorry, had to throw the pun in there).

One of Vik’s friends has experience with skydiving and took us to Chambersburg Skydiving Center, which is in southern PA, about 2 hours away from D.C.  Much like the website, the actual skydiving center isn’t much to look at.  The hangar and airfield are in the middle of farmland and the plane that takes the skydivers up is a simple 2 propeller Cessna.  Up until we arrived, I was surprisingly calm, telling myself that thousands of people from soldiers to civilians jump out of planes everyday.  But once you get there, pay (skydiving is not cheap by the way) and they sit you down to watch the instructional video and you start signing waivers saying “You could die doing this“, your heart starts to race.  You would be a total psycho if it didn’t (the instructor in the safety video even acknowledged the fact that it’s absolutely normal to be afraid).

After the video, the instructors take you outside to a mock airplane door for some rehearsal on what positions to assume, the procedures, and answer any questions you may have.  The type of jump that I was doing was a tandem jump, so I wouldn’t be doing as much of the work, but there were still several important points that my instructor, John, showed me about the skydive.  I’ll say that the confidence and thoroughness of all the seasoned jumpers put my mind immediately to ease.   They were the perfect combination of easy-going and competent.   And just knowing that they’ve all made hundreds of jumps helped calm us all down.

Also luckily for us, it was a beautiful November day.  Temperatures were in the mid-60s and there weren’t any clouds or wind to affect us.  Jumping out of a plane was enough of a heart-stopper, we didn’t need high winds and freezing temperatures on top of it.  After gearing up (and feeling like a total bad ass in the jump suit) we load up into the plane.  The cabin is small and cramped, holding about a dozen people sardine style.  As we climb in altitude, John starts to attach himself to my back and goes over again the procedure for when we get out of the plane.

It’s a tight space

At 14,000 feet, the door opens.  I pop my goggles on.  My heart is speeding up.  The wind is deafening and all I can hear is “Go, Go, Go” as the instructor orders each of the seasoned individual jumpers who rode up with us to jump.  Once those folks are out of the plane, my videographer (once I figure out how to convert a DVD, I’ll post the video) hangs right outside the door on the aircraft to film John and myself as we get to the door.

This is my defining “Oh Shit” moment

I slide up to the edge of the door and it finally hits me.  “Oh Shit” – literally.  And it wasn’t a reaction necessarily of fear, but more of a “I have no idea what’s going to happen next” feeling.  John thankfully doesn’t let me ponder this for long as I hear “ONE! TWO! ….”  I don’t think he even yelled “Three!” as he pushed the two of us out of the plane.  That first split second I’ll never forget.  It’s not the sensation of falling like on a roller-coaster because the plane is already going so fast.  It’s more of a feeling that your body has no idea what is going on.   The wind hits your face, and my eyes immediately begin to water.  After a second or two, I get my head together and remember to get into the skydiving position that we were instructed to get into.  From there, it’s literally flying.  There’s no other word to describe it.  I look up and I see the videographer right across from us.  Even as we’re free-falling I distinctly remember thinking to myself how cool the collected that dude must have to be.

I don’t think Tom Petty ever did anything like this

I did my best to try and smile for the camera, but when the wind is going 120 mph into your mouth, it’s a challenge.  What’s amazing was how quickly you can fall from 14,000 feet to 6,000 feet.  It was probably at most 60 seconds.  Once our altimeters hit 6,000, John hit me on the head three times and yelled “Pull, Pull, Pull!”.  I reached down and yanked the cord to open the chute (John said afterward that I didn’t hear him the first time and was a second away from doing it himself).

Yeah, my crotch definitely felt the parachute open

When the chute opened, my body was thrown up and back.  Not only did my legs almost kick me in the face, my groin yanked upward and I thanked god that everything on me was “centered”.  The 5 minute glide down was so serene compared to the windy craziness of the previous minute.  John and I chatted and we made some acrobatic turns in the area, which gave me more of the roller coaster sensation that you don’t get in the initial jump.  I was amazed just at how free I felt.  Suspending in air like we were really gives you time (even as short as it was) to appreciate the view and too be honest, just being alive.

Coming in for landing

As we neared touchdown, John reminded me of the procedure (another nerve-racking moment because failure to follow his instructions would have lead to my legs being broken by the ground) and we slid into the landing zone like we were sliding into home plate.

Thanks John for not letting us die

Hitting the ground, with all my senses returned,I literally couldn’t stop laughing with glee.  We had all done something pretty amazing, something that most normal, sane people wouldn’t even think about trying.  But I’ll tell you this: the adrenaline rush is addictive.  The only thing we could think about was going up again and taking it to the next level.  I think when the opportunity arises, next time – I’ll be launching out of the plane on my own.

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Charlottesville, VA – Day 2

Waking up the next day was a little tough considering the festivities the night before, but we had a full day of activities ahead of us.  Our first stop was Bodo’s Bagels, a local bagel chain that Matt swore to us had the best breakfast sandwiches in the area.  Judging by the line of customers at the location we went to (and seeing the crowd outside the UVA campus location) it appeared that most of the people in Charlottesville agreed with him.  There wasn’t anything flashy about the restaurant and line moved quickly.  Bodo’s offers the usual bagel flavors and cream cheeses, as well as the typical bagel sandwiches.  The menu also features lunch sandwiches at a reasonable price.  I think the best way to describe the place is that it’s the blue collar Bruegger’s Bagel.

As much as I wanted to love the place, I was lukewarm about what I had.  I ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich on an everything, whole wheat bagel.  I wasn’t blown away by it.  Maybe it was because it was Sunday morning and busy, but the bagel itself wasn’t very toasted, and the kids in the kitchen left off the cheese.  The bagel itself was actually pretty good and like I said earlier, the price was cheap.  I’m more than willing to go back there and give the place a second try to really impress me, but I have to admit, I still prefer Bruegger’s Bagels.

After our breakfast, we had a few hours to kill before heading to watch the New England Patriots game.  Since we were in Charlottesville, it wouldn’t have been a trip down there without at least a trip to the Monticello area.   Our first stop however was at Carter Mountain Orchard, which is down the road from Monticello.  The orchard was located high up on a hill overlooking downtown Charlottesville.  The view was spectacular, and it was so serene being able to just sit back and enjoy the view.  Since it was early November (which is past the prime season for apple picking) there wasn’t much of a crowd.  But there were still pumpkins to be sold, hayrides, and it looked like there were actually still some apples that you could pick.  For those of you who don’t know, when you pay the orchard for a bag and go into the orchard, you keep the apples you pick.  You don’t give them the apples.  Yes, Mel asked us this.

We didn’t end up taking any hayrides or picked any apples.   But we did enjoy the hot apple cider for 50 cents and a delicious apple cider doughnut (which tasted almost like a apple pie strudel crossed with a churro crossed with an old fashioned doughnut).

After the orchard, we made our way to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson.  We arrived to the main visitor’s center and quickly came to the realization that we had spent so much time at the orchard, that we didn’t think we’d be able to squeeze in a trip to the actual house that TJ built for himself.  The price to see the house (which required a separate bus ride up the hill) is $17, and we elected to save the actual house visit for another time.  There was however, time to see the free museum exhibition, which consisted of an impressive gallery of antique items that Jefferson owned (such as his journals, pocket watches, dishes, etc).   There were also interactive computers and movies about how TJ built the house and his general history from youth through the Revolutionary War to his death.  Walking through the museum, both Mel and I regretted the decision to skip seeing the actual house, but it gives us an excuse to return.

We wrapped up at Monticello and headed back into town to Wild Wing Cafe.  This chain restaurant is pretty similar to any sports wing bar like Buffalo Wild Wings or Quaker Steak, so there isn’t really much to tell other than it was uniquely connected to an old-school Amtrak terminal.  I can say the wings there are very good however.  The “Virginia Fireballs” were tasty and spicy enough to have a kick, but not make you wish you had a glass of milk next to you.  That isn’t the case however with some of their other wings.  Both Matt and I each tried a “China’s Chernobyl” wing, and were literally sweating bullets in our seats.   To Mel’s credit, she ate an entire plate like it was a plate of cheese.  So we challenged her to try the “Braveheart”, which is Wild Wing Cafe’s hottest wing. The waitress brought her one wing, amusingly garnished with lettuce and jalapeno peppers, and we (along with every table around us), watched Mel take it down.  Mel being the spicy food lover she is left us disappointed initially, and gave no indication that the wing was at all the spicy wing it was talked up as.   Then a minute later, it set in and she gave us the painful look on her face we were waiting for.  Her exact words were “It’s not the heat, it’s the knives going into my tongue that hurts”.  But she’s got more balls than I do; bravo, Mel.

Let’s just say the weekend didn’t end on a high note as the Patriots got their asses kicked by the Cleveland Browns.  But that wasn’t enough to dampen what was a fantastic 48(9) hours of good times and I’ll be taking a trip back down there for sure before Matt’s time at UVA is up.

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Charlottesville, VA – Day 1

So my buddy Matt has been a student at the University of Virginia (UVA) law school and is in his final third year.  The entire time he’s been there, he’s been trying to get me to drive down from Washington, D.C. to check out the sites of Charlottesville, Virgina where the university is located.  I finally decided to get my butt down there this past weekend had a great time and have come to the realization that I should have done the trip much sooner.

Charlottesville is located about two and half miles south of Washington, D.C.  If you Google map, and/or Garmin the directions, both will tell you to take 95 south all the way down.  Here’s a tip from the locals: Take 66 West, to 29 South if you’re coming from the north.  The trip may take a little longer distance wise, but there’s a very good chance that you’ll hit traffic on 95 and waste seeing a good amount of pretty (for lack of a better word) foliage on the way down.

So I jumped in my car, along with my friend Mel, and we got down to UVA around 1 PM on Saturday.  The first order of business was lunch since we were all pretty famished.  Matt took us down to the “Corner” which is essentially Main Street UVA.  There you run into a street full of undergraduates and can buy any sort of Cavaliers gear that you can imagine.  For lunch we grabbed a couple of slices of pizza at Christian’s Pizza on the Corner.

Christian’s was a perfectly decent take-out pizza joint (you could eat there as well, which is what we did) with the basic offerings of pizzas, calzones, etc.   The pizza itself was above average, but not spectacular.  I had a chicken parmigiana slice and a spicy chicken and peppers slice; both were quite tasty with a nice NY style thin, crispy crust.  Although, I was a little surprised at the price and thought that it was a bit more expensive than it should be considering it’s a local college pizza place.

After we ate, Matt took us to the main UVA campus.  Needless to say, Thomas Jefferson (who founded the school) went to great lengths to make it architecturally majestic and he succeeded.  Being in the college textbook business (my day job), I’ve seen quite a few college campuses and this one was up there with some of the finest.  We walked by the statue of TJ on the Rotunda, where the students go to get some good luck before their exams.  After walking by the Rotunda, we strolled over to the “Lawn”.  The “Lawn” was a site to see.  It’s pretty much how you would envision the perfect college campus scene.  A perfectly green strip of grass running down with trees along side.  On the “Lawn” were families, dogs, students studying, a group playing football, and anything else you can think of as being stereotypically “American”.  I half expected to see Joe Montana quarterbacking group playing football and John Mellencamp playing the guitar under a tree.

The most unique and impressive thing about the “Lawn” however were the  unique little dorm rooms within the building along the outside that actually formed the courtyard.  Each one of these one bedroom dorms were actual rooms from the old days.  They were small, had wooden floors and walls, and were heated by wood.  From what I could tell as well, each came with a rocking chair of some sort.  According to Matt, the only students who were lucky enough to reside in these “Lawn” dorms pretty much had to be the All-Stars of UVA (the high caliber students who excelled in class, star football players, or were very active on campus), and they had to apply well in advance for these 20 or so dorms if you wanted one.

After getting the tour of UVA, we decided to take a drive down to the Starr Hill Brewery.  Starr Hill is a local brewery that makes the award-winning Dark Starr stout and Jomo lager to name just a few.  For those of you not in the Mid-Atlantic region reading this, you probably haven’t come across this brand since they’re not huge outside the area.  But if you do come across it at any point, I would highly recommend their brand.

The brewery itself was nothing special; just a typical factory with huge steel containers fermenting beer, a place for the hops, and a machine to bottle the batches.  But the 30 minute tour itself was quite informative, run by one of the 27 employees there.  Their passion for beer is evident, especially during the tasting session at the makeshift bar they have set up.  During the tasting, they let you try all 8 beers that they have on tap (a mix of all year, and seasonal beers), and give you a little story behind each type.

We went back to the main Charlottesville area after the brewery and picked up a few more of Matt’s friends.  We headed to the Mall area of Charlottesville which is a quaint little outside, walking commercial area.  Along the brick corridor, which had a hint of a European feel to it, were shops, cafes, movie theaters, and banks.  We stopped over at Miller’s Downtown, a great little old-school drug store turned into bar, for a quick drink.  The place itself is nothing to write home about, but it was comfortable and had a dark, pub-like feel to it.  The beer list there was quite extensive, and the prices were good considering the offerings.  Since we had just come from the Starr Hill Brewery, I decided to help out the local company and ordered a Jomo Lager.

For dinner, we made an attempt to go to Blue Moon Diner, a little diner near the Corner area.  Much to Matt’s chagrin, the Blue Moon Diner was closed that evening (yes, on a Saturday night) and Matt went on a rant about how they have the best breakfast and great burgers, but that the hipsters who work there are so unreliable.  So, I guess if you ever make it in there when it’s open, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

But alas, our back-up plan was Boylan Heights, also on the Corner, two doors down from Christian’s Pizza.  Boylan’s had more of the modern, sports bar feel than Miller’s, although there was a random giant-sized painting of the movie “Rushmore” that I never really got the story of why it was there.  I’ll say this much, if this was the “back-up” for getting burgers to Blue Moon, than Blue Moon must be awesome because Boylan Heights had one of the best burgers I’ve tasted.  Literally, the burger could probably be in the Top 7 or 8 best burgers I’ve had the pleasure of consuming.  Their gourmet burgers have patties that melt in your mouth and a bun that is buttery and soft.  The patties are probably the size of a typical Five-Guys or In-and-Out patty, but Boylan’s are far juicier.  The burger I had, “The Room 121”, has a Boylan’s sauce which I’m not totally sure was, but tasted a hell of a lot like a mix of Thousand Island Dressing, Ranch, and Honey Mustard and was delicious.  Also, the menu offers a build your own burger option on a form that you fill out (much like at a sushi bar).  And the prices there were reasonable, not any more than you would pay at Chili’s or Applebee’s, but the food was far superior.  If I were a UVA undergrad, my freshman 15 could have easily  come directly from Boylan Heights.

After finishing our delicious meal, we headed back to Matt’s apartment for some pre-game fun with his law school pals and a growler of Starr Hill Gift ale that we purchased at the brewery.  After some drinking games, we grabbed a taxi for the Biltmore Grill, which was back on campus.  From what I understand, the Biltmore’s patrons consists of more of the older crowd (graduate students, law school students, etc), versus some of the other bars in the area that allow kids of a questionable drinking age into their venues.  I can’t really say anything exceptionally good or bad about the Biltmore.  The drinks were cheap, the crowd was fun, and the place had a huge patio for the smokers.  And since we were switching the clocks back that evening, we all celebrated Daylight Savings Holiday when 2 AM turned into 1 AM, allowing us another solid hour of killing our brain cells.

When the night was done, we jumped back into a cab to head home, when it was explained to me that the cabbies in Charlottesville work in a far different way than they do in any major city.  Most of the cabbies actually give out their business cards in order to get repeat business from the students.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but the cab we took to the Biltmore was actually called ahead in advance by one of the girls in the group, who had used that cab driver’s services before.  It was quite bizarre, yet refreshing having a cab driver be extra nice and conversational with you because they want the repeat business.

Up next: Charlottesville, VA – Day 2 (obviously)

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Virgin Mobile Freefest Part II

After Temper Trap wrapped up their show with “Sweet Disposition”, we moved onto see Jimmy Eat World.  Some of us went over to Trombone Shorty and you can read about that act here at Dwain Smith’s blog in his “Media Binge” section (I heard it was quite an excellent performance).  Of all the performances, Jimmy Eat World was probably the least exciting.  I’m not saying that they weren’t good, because they were.  But as far as early 2000’s bands go, they weren’t exactly the go-to band that everyone had targeting on the day.  They just played a relatively vanilla show, but it was fun hearing “Sweetness” and “The Middle”.  It was actually kind of funny because most of the crowd responded like they were listening to it on the radio.  People got into it and were happy to hear it, but still kept their conversations going, milled around, etc.  I’d give Jimmy Eat World a “B-“performance.

As Jimmy Eat World wrapped up, more people started coming over to see the next band: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.   Edward Sharpe is a new band that has just recently gotten popular with their hit “Home”.  You’ve probably heard it on the radio or seen the new NFL commercial featuring the song.   The band looks like what the Arcade Fire might look like if they came out of the woods of West Virginia.

 

Alex Ebert, lead singer of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Yes, his name isn't Edward Sharpe.

 

But their music hits that perfect combination of folksy, bluegrass catchy tunes that have been a hit on the airways.  They played “Home” as well as their other popular song, “Janglin”. (See the Ford Fiesta commercial).   B+

Joan Jett came on after Edward Sharpe.  Now I must admit, I knew who Joan Jett was, but I really honestly couldn’t tell you before the concert a name of a song she sang.  I also have to confess that it wasn’t until around the time of the concert that someone had to tell me that the Sunday Night Football song on NBC was actually a Joan Jett song that Pink/Faith Hill reworded.  Joan Jett did in fact play “I Hate Myself for Loving You” as well as her other hits, such as “Love Rock n’ Roll” and “Bad Reputation”.  The fact that this was probably the only time I’ll see Joan Jett was the only reason why I actually skipped Thievery Corporation for her performance (those guys tend to play a lot of shows in the D.C. area), but I don’t regret the decision. Because even though she looked a little old to be up there, she was actually still rocking out like it was 1981.  Joan and “The Blackhearts” get a B.

Next to come on the main stage was a band that I was looking forward to seeing and was one of the highlights of my day.  Matt & Kim comprises of married, dance, punk duo Matt Johnson (on keyboards and vocals) and Kim Schifino (on drums) and easily win the prize for cutest musician couple I’ve ever seen on stage.  Their enthusiasm, humor, and pure joy was intoxicating.  I’m not sure if they were on something, but they both had smiles from ear-to-ear throughout the show.  Their biggest hits to date are “Good ‘ol Fashion Nightmare” and “Daylight” – both can be heard on the first episode of NBC’s “Community”.  They performed those hits as well as a few covers (such as their rendition of “Let Me Clear My Throat”) because it seemed like as much as they wanted to play their music, they really wanted to get the crowd going and just plain have a good time.   Matt & Kim get an A-.

From Matt & Kim I moved with a group over to Ludacris.   Now you’d have to be living under a rock to not know who this guy is.  Even if you can’t name a song of the top of your head that’s his, you more than likely have one of his songs on your Ipod and don’t even know it.  That’s probably the biggest reason why I went over to his act.  To a lot of people at the concert, Ludacris probably should have been the headliner for the day and of all the performances I saw, his may actually have been the most packed.  While I enjoyed his performance a lot, I don’t listen to much hip-hop so I wasn’t as caught up as most of the crowd.  The one complaint I heard from most people was while he performed well, he actually only performed parts of a lot of songs, rather than a few whole ones.  But what can you do, it’s a free show.  Luda gets a B.

 

That's right, Yous a ho.

 

I actually left Ludacris before the end of his set in order to catch Sleigh Bells.  As day turned into night, it was a little tough to find my way to the “Dance Forest” where they were playing.  The “Dance Forest” was a stage on the edge of the pavilion where there was a thick grouping of trees (Obviously. I have no idea why I just bothered to write that last sentence).  It was hot, it was dusty from all the dirt kicked up, and it was really, really f**king smoky.  The trees trapped in all the dust and smoke and it was pretty difficult to see/breathe.  That being said, Sleigh Bells broke through all of it.  They were another boy/girl duo, but unlike Matt & Kim you got the impression these two had a lot more angst and they tore through your ears with hard, electronic rock.  Think Evanescence meets the Insane Clown Posse meets any European DJ.  Their performance was easily the most intense of the day, and maybe even that I’ve ever seen.  The sheer volume of the electric guitar, while rocking, also felt like you were getting hit by a train.  Apparently, there was something of a mosh pit going on up front where two of our group got sucked into inadvertently.   And although Sleigh Bells only had 30 minutes, they made the most of it.  Most of their music hasn’t hit the mainstream yet (although I just saw the new commercial for Honda that features they’re song “Riot Rhythm”), but I’m guessing songs such as “Rill Ril”, “Tell ‘Em” and “A/B Machines” will make Sleigh Bells a household name soon.  They get an A-.

The finale will be next.

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Virgin Mobile Freefest Part I

Last week, those of us in the D.C. area were treated to a free, all day music festival for the second straight year; courtesy of Richard Branson and his Virgin empire.   The line up, while not as impressive as last year’s in my opinion, still had enough acts that I wanted to see that would make the trip up to Columbia, MD worth it.

The event (I just found myself cringing that I used that word, damn you NBC!) was held at the Merriweather Post Pavilion.  The actual pavilion (where normal shows perform during the year) acted as the main stage, and they set up a second west stage about 200 meters away.  There was also a “dance forest” set up – I’ll talk more about that later.

If you ever decide to see a show at Merriweather, here are a couple of tips.  1) Bring a bottle of water.  Yes, they’ll let you bring in one factory sealed bottle – which means as long as that gallon jug of water you want to take in is sealed, it’s all good.  And you don’t want to be paying $7 for a bottle once you’re inside.  2) Park at the Columbia Mall. The mall is literally a stone’s throw away from the back entrance of the pavilion.  State police “tried” to tell people to not park at the mall so that there wouldn’t be congestion, but we got away with it pretty easily.  If you park at the mall, park on the food court side.  You can get out of the area quicker and instead of paying $10 for a shitty plate of 3 chicken tenders (which I ended up having to have to do anyways since I got hungry 6 hours into the festival), you can hit up the food court at the mall before you go in.  Actually the food court is rather impressive with, seriously, pretty much every food vendor available.  This makes the pavilion actually a pretty good place to see a show during the week, since with the mall being right there, you can eat dinner before the typical 7:30 start time.

But back to the Freefest.  Before we went into the show, my group of friends had decided on what acts they most wanted to see.  Since a lot of the bands’ performances overlapped with each other we all did our best to try to plan so that we could get to and from the Main and West stage as well as the “dance forest” at the right times. Since most of the acts were on average 45 minutes, there was a lot of walking around.  But also, because the acts were generally shorter, all the bands played more of their famous songs and crowd pleasers to satisfy the masses.

As we walked in we noticed that the event holders were smart enough to have convenient tents and covered beds for the concert goers to relax in between shows.  There were also several vendors giving away souvenirs such as those plastic back sacks, wristbands and bandannas (that they refreshingly soaked in ice cold water before they gave to you).  Jeremiah Weed was also there with their sweet tea.  Yes, it was $10 for a Dixie cup sized cocktail, but it was damn tasty and damn refreshing on the last hot day of the year.

 

One of the cozy relaxation beds

 

(Thanks to the DCist for the pictures, my camera is broken)

Collectively, we all started at The Temper Trap on the west stage.  Most of you probably know the song “Sweet Disposition” from either the Diet Coke commercial, or the movie 500 Days of Summer (good flick to check out btw).  They were a solid B+, and I learned that they have both an Indonesian lead singer (the first of a few vocalists that day that I discovered I had wrongfully pictured in my head) and the most animated bassists I’ve ever seen.

I’ll get to more of the concert in the next post.

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Ted’s Bulletin

505 8th Street Southeast
Washington D.C., DC 20003-2835
(202) 544-8337

Open Daily 7am-10:30pm

Some of you may or may not know, but I’ve been living in Washington, D.C. these past few years.  Recently this town has becoming quite the go-to place because of the recent presidential election, various reality television shows (e.g. The Real World, Housewives, Top Chef, and much to the annoyance of the 33rd St. residents in Georgetown, that cupcake shop show on TLC), and of course the food.  D.C. has become quite the foodie town with high end restaurants popping up all over the place, along with competing burger joints left and right.  And I think it’s safe to say that most everyone in this city is a foodie.  My theory is it’s because of the size of Washington.  It’s not huge like NYC or L.A. where because there are thousands of places to eat, you don’t have to be picky because you’re overwhelmed by the choices around.  You’ll probably find a place within a block that will have what you’re in the mood for.  But it’s also not so small that there are only a few good restaurants worth trying.  Cities like D.C. and Boston are that right city size where the people tend to be more foodish because it’s still a growing restaurant environment, but the standard local places are still around.   So you’ll hear a lot of “I like this burger place more than that, I think the seafood here at this new place is better than there.”   And believe me, the folks in Washington have their opinions.

So as a resident D.C. foodie, I’ve banded together with a group of friends and we’ve been affectionately calling ourselves Team Dinner Out (TDO).  For the past year, every week or so the seven of us try out a new place to eat in the D.C. Metro area.  Choices have ranged from the swankiest of French bistros to literally hole in the wall, no table service BBQ joints (which “the hole in the wall” part was unbeknown to the member of the group who chose that particular venue for that week and tried to call for reservations).

This past week, to celebrate the one year anniversary of our group we had dinner at Ted’s Bulletin.  The restaurant is located south of the U.S. Capitol in an area called Barrack’s Row (named as such because at the end of the street is a Marine Corps barracks).  Ted’s just opened up recently and is the product of the owners of another popular restaurant chain called Matchbox.  Unlike Matchbox, which is quite good, but almost a little too fancy and shi-shi for the simple American food that they serve (think of a yuppie T.G.I.Friday’s), Ted’s has more of the home style feel.  The restaurant itself looks like something out of the 1930’s, with several wooden booths and tables, and a giant chalkboard with the day’s deserts and children’s menu written on the wall.

When we sit we’re greeted by our waiter who pours us water out of old milk bottles and we’re given what looks like newspapers that you would find in your grandma’s basement.  When you open the newspapers, on the inside are the actual food choices.  The menu itself isn’t anything remarkable (burgers, pastas, breakfast food, diner food essentially), but don’t let the simplicity of the choices fool you.  All the food we had was excellent.  Ted’s Bulletin hits that comfort food bulls-eye.

For starters, we ordered french fries covered in gravy (the white kind since there are two vegetarians in the group, and the staff was kind enough to bring us our special request) and it pretty much foreshadowed how good our meals would be.  Several of us, including myself, ordered the breakfast food (served all day) for dinner.  The hash browns were that perfectly brown shredded potato kind and the homemade pop tarts were delectable.  The bacon was crispy and wasn’t fatty, just the way I like it.  The eggs were just okay, I would have liked to have them a tad bit less dry.  However, to go along with my eggs and bacon, I had to try the Mac and Cheese, and I’m glad I did.  The side order I got came in a little iron cast dish, and the Mac and Cheese was savory, warm, and had a nice little bread crumb crunch on top.  Other members of our group ordered regular dinner type food.  The herb roasted 1/2 chicken probably could have been a little bit juicier, but it was still bursting with flavor. And of course, I can’t forget the milkshakes that two members of the group ordered.  These milkshakes were meals themselves, coming out in a full, large pint glass along with the still half-full shaker it was mixed in.  We tried the Cherry Vanilla and S’more shakes; both were heaven.  They also offer “Adult” milkshakes such as Bailey’s Caramel Macchiato and Spiked Thai Coffee that I need to go back and try sometime. If there was one flaw in an otherwise excellent meal, it would be the Peanut Chocolate cake.  To be fair, I was already pretty damn full when we started eating it, but it really wasn’t that impressive.  The cake itself was chocolate, but dry.  And the peanut part was literally peanuts on the back of the cake, with peanut butter acting as the frosting.  For how much it cost ($7.00) it wasn’t worth the extra calories.  I did hear however that the Blueberry Pie a la mode was quite good, so maybe I’ll give that a shot next time around.

All in all though, I would highly recommend this joint.  The price is right, the atmosphere is warm and inviting, and the food will leave you satisfied.  But be warned; the restaurant is extremely popular for brunch on the weekends, so don’t try to stop in at 11 on a Saturday and expected to be seated without a 30-45 minute wait.  Grade: B+