rob "i drank what?" c.'s Profile

The first time i went here was a few years ago during a frenetic weekend rocking the midwest with my younger brother; i'd gotten off the plane in Omaha a half-hour earlier, so clearly we had to get some beer as soon as possible.  It was 11am.  This is perfectly normal for us, i assure you.  So we drank some beer and ate some food and were off to a fine start.

More recently, i was back there, with much of the same people, but had to take it a little easy since some of us had to drive to Kansas City shortly thereafter.  The beer's good, still, and i drank plenty, as we savored numerous appetizers and a late lunch.  In particular, the stout and IPA combine for a really great black and tan, in addition to standing well on their own (the latter in particular is tasty without being overpowering).  

The food's really good, too; and pretty reasonably priced.  i liked the crispy-crusted pizza quite a lot.  

i'm not really sure how the playing cards got on the ceiling (someone said it involved a magician), but i'm sure it is interesting.  Also, i noticed they have billiards; not sure if that was always the case, but if i lived around there, i could see myself spending a lot of time and money there.  

If you should find yourself in Omaha, drink beer here.

A quasi-fancy restaurant that nevertheless serves ideal post-drinking breakfast food, and mass quantities of it.  To me, hash browns are of crucial importance for recovery from drinking (although i wasn't really even hung over this morning), and their potato pancakes (they have something they actually call hash browns, which i didn't try), are basically the ideal thing.  Stringy-cut potatoes fried to heck in butter and grease and formed into a crispy slab.  In my case, this went with two giant biscuits slathered in a good sausage gravy.  Good stuff.  I'd rate it better, but the service was seriously apathetic, and multiple missing items had to be repeatedly requested.  Other than that, though, it's hard to be too grouchy with delicious breakfast at hand.

Routed here by the Yelp iPhone app, i nearly missed it, seeing as how it's basically up the stairs behind an all but unmarked door.  i asked the bartender whether or not that was intentional, and according to him, the rise in popularity of the Glenwood area didn't sit well with the owner, who preferred to retain something of a speakeasy vibe, considering that the Rockford apparently predated the rest.  Or, as he put it, he was in favor of secrecy, so that he didn't have to deal with "meatheads in visors shouting at me for Jager bombs".  So i tipped him well out of sympathy; no one should have to deal with that.

Now, having said that, what do you get behind that door and up the stairs?  What looks like a spacious living room and dining room, but with clean, modern tables and chairs and a comfortable bar.  The staff and the regulars alike seem to make themselves at home.

The beer selection and menu both seem to intentionally avoid ordinary fare.  I had a really good roast beef sandwich with a bunch of stuff piled on it, and some really awesome cheese grits for the side (hint: they don't mean french fries by 'sides').  Tasty with a well-chosen pint of a local brew.  

Exactly what i was looking for after a long day in my company's Raleigh office, the locals having ditched me, something about their families being important.  Whatever, their loss.

Having just completed my fifth Pan-Mass Challenge last weekend, i'm taking some time out of my busy schedule of eating everything in sight to tell everyone how awesome an experience it is.  

First and foremost, it raises a ridiculous amount of money, 99% of which goes to The Jimmy Fund, a great cause that pretty much every Bostonian knows about already.  The folks who run the PMC are thorough and efficient, and get the most out of everything and every cent that's donated to them.  

Besides that, it's a really great experience, whether you're riding or volunteering; this is the closest thing we have here to something like the Tour de France; not in that it's a competition, but that it's a traveling show that brings people across the state to roadsides, to the foot of their driveways, to their front lawns, from 6am on, to cheer on, entertain, and be entertained by thousands of riders of all speeds.  

Whether you're a fast rider, or just starting out, strangers on foot and on wheels will be exhorting you to climb the hill, and thanking you for doing it.  Volunteers will be keeping you hydrated, fed, and pointed towards the same goal, and you'll have a good time doing it.  

It's not any kind of luxury vacation; you sleep in a tent or a barracks, you eat sandwiches and grilled food, and drink gatorade and beer.  But with the right folks, it all tastes good.  The sleep, well, you don't get a heck of a lot of that.  

With legs burning and a few choice profanities, you'll top the last hills out towards P-town, and roll in to deafening cheers.  Drink some beers, ride the party boat.  Get home, get some sleep, eat everything in sight.

And mark down the sign-up date for next year.

For the longest time, i'd allowed a coworker's rough experience at Little Pusan to give me an excuse not to give it a try.  I don't know exactly what it was, but i'm told that it ended with him and the server throwing things at each other.  So, today with a friend in town, i decided what the heck.  

It seems to me that the service might be dependent on who you're with--some of my coworkers are avowed regulars, and the lady there seems to be quite fond of them, to the point of trying to give one of us smaller portions so they could finish.  But maybe i was just lucky.  

At any rate, the food is yummy, the bowl of goodness is like a healthier version of a skillet at Denny's (and i mean that in a good way).  No idea whatsoever how authentic it is or isn't, but i don't really care, either.  The plate of pickled stuff beforehand is probably more so, but it wasn't to my liking.  

It's more expensive than other options in the 'nard (an expensive town for lunch, despite how far away it is from the city), so maybe it's not a regular option, but i'd definitely go back.  And if i can't bring friends, i'll just have to rely on my considerable charm to get good service.

Rolling out of work at 8pm with a couple of colleagues from out of town, there was one last urgent matter.  Food.  One of the folks from North Carolina had a craving for Mexican food, but didn't want to go downtown.   i'd heard great things about Taqueria Mexico, but had never been.  They were fine with that, but nevertheless, there was a bit of pressure; after all, we'd put in a thirteen-hour day, and made significant breakthroughs and no merely average meal would sate the need to both replenish and relax.

They were skeptical when we walked across the bridge, and moreso after turning onto a residential-looking side street, but the steady business and very DIY-looking aesthetic were reassuring.  

On a humid and stormy night, we didn't have to fight anyone for a table.  A wide selection of bottled Mexican beers and a basket of chips were just the thing while sarcastically cussing away the nonsense the day had put us through and shooting the general breeze.  

It's true that the presentation of the food is utilitarian at best, but frankly i don't care.  It's delicious.  All of it.  And cheap.  

And the people are friendly.  And i'll take people here anytime.

To start with, they lose a star for the circa-1999 neo-swing music torture while you're waiting for the movie to start.  Initially, assuming that those songs aren't like fingernails on a chalkboard for you, it might be preferable to the lame ads, stupid trivia, and corny puns pre-movie at another theater, but the second go-round, it's time to start gnawing on the armrest for sure.  

Now that we've got that out of the way, though, this can be a very, very good place to see a movie.  It is advisable to get there early, because for some films, sitting in the front row makes it tough to take everything in (the first movie i saw there was 'attack of the clones' and there was way too much going on at the end.  Sit back of the aisle for best results.  

The seats are comfortably squishy, and have good enough leg room for me (i'm tall).  

And yes, though the image is awesome, it's the sound and the ass-shaking chairs that leave the biggest impression.  Not all movies take the best advantage of this, but the new Batman movie was good.  

And then, after the movie, you can lounge around on someone else's furniture and make yourself comfortable until they ask you if you want to buy it.  And then move on to the next comfy couch.  There are a lot of couches.  And then if you're good, ice cream, or roast beef.  

i'm never good.  but that'd be another review anyway.

What a sheltered life i must have led, food-wise, to be so surprised at the existence of a restaurant devoted entirely to crepes.  Raised as a suburbanite who once marveled at the discovery of a third choice of major fast-food franchises, slowly have i expanded my horizons to include a plethora of options i might once have thought utterly baffling.  Such as crepes.  

Which i had never really understood to be functionally interchangeable with omelets, but Paris Creperie seemed happy to fill them with any number of exciting options in a rather similar fashion.  Naturally, i got plenty excited at the sight of broccoli on the list and ran with that.  

And they're pretty good.  i sort of expected them to be a little lighter and fluffier, rather than chewy and structurally sound, but even so, yummy.  i'm told they also make smoothies.  i don't know what those are.  Perhaps they're like a shake.  i'll ask Grimace next time i see him.  

Apparently this place also gets crowded, but at 0930 this one Sunday, it was no problem at all.  It was good.  Not as good as, say, sausage on a stick wrapped in a chocolate-covered pancake, but you know, pretty darn good.

Seems to me that whereas a great many bars distract themselves with things like food and stuff (rather understandably even), the People's Republik is primarily focused on drinking.  The world needs that.  They've got food and stuff, apparently, but it's mostly a bar.  Small tables, dartboard, bar, sparse (but awesome) decor.  Good beer selection, and a bonus star for a really authentic-looking bizarrely-dressed disheveled townie across the bar.  If i lived anywhere near it, i'm sure i'd be back frequently.

For being out in the middle of nowhere, the 'Nard has a few pretty decent places to eat, but considering that i spend basically every day there, there can never be too many.  It is with that in mind that Willy's is such a welcome addition.  

The food is really very good; be it chicken or beef, it's grilled up and made to order from what appear to be fresh ingredients; i had a pizza kind of sandwich with chicken, marinara, and provolone.  The sauce absorbed flavor from the chicken as it cooked, and it was warm and tasty.  Better still, it was fast--this is a pretty unusual thing for Maynard, as most places that are any good, and a few that aren't just can't deal with the lunchtime rush.  All this at a price that's totally in line with the (pretty spendy) typical price for lunch fare in town.

Provided that both the speed and the quality keep up, they'll get plenty of my business in the future.