Not sure what to make of this, but it is amazing. #MindTrip
“Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens and “Clocks” by Coldplay played over each other.
It is estimated that 27 million people are enslaved today.
International Justice Mission is asking 27,000 Americans to sign a letter to President Obama asking him to help end slavery. Each new signature represents 1,000 of the estimated 27 million people enslaved today.
Will you stand for 1,000?
Go here and join the fight: http://www.ijm.org/content/sign-your-name-stand-for-freedom
The tales of glorious craft beer selections are true: rotating selections of Dogfish Head, Lost Abbey, Avery brews, to name just three.
Overall: 5/5
So, I first heard about Hops & Pie from my wife who went there with a friend. She came back telling me that they had Firestone Walker DBA on tap for $2 during their happy hour. If you haven’t tried any of the Firestone Walker brews, I do suggest it. My favorite is their Double Jack IPA, but the DBA is good too and for $2, it’s almost impossible to beat.
It was then that I looked at their beers on tap menu. I was amazed that a little pizza and beer hole in the wall on Tennyson would have such a fantastic selection. So I made my next “meeting” there.
Restricting myself to just what was on tap, I had a hard time deciding which ones not to order. I started with Lost Abbey’s Gift of the Magi because I wanted a high-quality golden ale, hadn’t tried anything by Lost Abbey before, and my friend said that it was really good. A wise selection it was. 5/5
My friend was as giddy as a former college offensive lineman can get because they had Dogfish Head 120 minute on tap. He had at least two of those. Again, he was an offensive lineman in college (and has maintained his girth) and therefore did not pass out like I would have.
He ordered their garlicky cheese bread and graciously shared it with me. I wasn’t even hungry, but once I started eating, I just wanted more. There must be something addictive in their marinara sauce. There was a tang to the sauce, creamy cheese, nicely cooked bread … perfect. 5/5
I wanted to try a dark brew next and so I ordered Avery’s Mephistopheles. If the label is on the creepy side, it was still an excellent stout, and I have since become a fan of Avery brews. 5/5
Alas, last-minute plans prevented me from trying their pizza. But that just gives me an excuse to go back. And soon.
Staff was friendly, quick, and helpful. 5/5
Finally, they’re expanding! This is great news because as the Friday evening got later, the place packed out. Not surprisingly, of course.
No complaints or concerns. Very glad they’re on Tennyson and excited that they’re doing so well. Do yourself a favor and come by.
Hopelessness and despair.
I hate to give a bad review to any business, particularly when I’m making it public. Someone has decided to put their efforts into opening and running a business, and as the husband of a small business owner, I really respect the hard work that requires.
With that said, El Bronquito is a terrible addition to Tennyson, and I really don’t know how to give any helpful suggestions to improve it.
My point of comparison is El Valle because it is another cheap Mexican restaurant nearby. I love El Valle because I can get a breakfast burrito from there for under $5 that tastes great and fills me up past lunch time.
So, I ordered the same thing here. I forced myself to eat half of it, and then saved the rest for my less-discerning kids (please don’t report me). I requested the hottest sauce that they had because the salsa they brought with the stale chips seemed to be part tomato paste, part water. It still had no taste, and I’m not one to eat jalapenos just to make myself cry.
My wife’s meal was similar. To say that it was forgettable would be a compliment, but I don’t think she’ll ever forget the distasteful experience.
All of this might be partially forgiven if it was incredibly cheap, but it wasn’t any cheaper than El Valle and might have actually been a bit more expensive.
I just don’t understand how you can open a restaurant and serve food that is so bad. It doesn’t seem worth the effort. And I have to say that it is mildly insulting: asking us to pay for food that is prepared with such sloppy indifference.
Finally, on the insulting note, the waitress was wearing a Steelers jersey the day before the Broncos-Steelers game. “Here’s your crappy food; I hope your crappy team loses tomorrow.”
Good thing I don’t care about football.
So, it is with a little regret, that I must say, please, overhaul everything or move on.
My first review will be of Axios, a Greek restaurant that opened a few months ago in the Highlands.
Overall Score: 3.7/5
My first experience with Greek food was in college when I was being all collegeish and adventurous. I tried dolma and it tasted like mustard. I don’t like mustard. However, in the years since then, I have discovered an insatiable love of lamb, and this, along with a widening palate, has drawn me back to Greek restaurants. So, it was with eagerness that I went to Axios for lunch last Monday.
We started with an appetizer:
It was very tasty. The pastry was not greasy or undercooked. It had a real nice flakiness that served as a great textual counterpart to the spinach and feta. The flavors blended really well, and the tzatziki was as good as I have had anywhere else. I would order this again, and so I give it a 5/5.
We then proceeded to the main course:
Axios is a pricier restaurant, and therefore our expectations were fairly high. Plus, we had both enjoyed the appetizer, and so were really looking forward to our respective meals.
The gyro was served wrapped in foil on a plate. That’s weird. I think there could be a more creative way of serving a gyro in a restaurant like that. I expect foil when I order a $5 gyro from a street vendor. Anyways, presentation matters, but it is not the most important part of any meal, of course. The gyro was good but forgettable. (In contrast, there’s a Lebanese hole in the wall in London that I still crave, and I tear up when I consider the Halal guys in NYC). 3/5
The lamb burger had better presentation and it was enjoyable, but again, I don’t feel any need to go back to Axios for it and it cost 12 bucks. 3/5
Just because we were playing the part of fancy critics, we ordered dessert and drinks afterwards:
The fig tart was excellent. The presentation was nice and the flavor was wonderful. Thanks to the sweet tooth of my wife, I have sampled many a dessert in many a restaurant over the past few years, and I can easily say that this is a personal favorite. 5/5
The description of the almond olive oil cake came directly from the menu, as did all of the descriptions, and it leaves out a fairly significant ingredient: onions. I have never considered onions a citrus fruit, but there were certainly onions in the citrus compote. It didn’t taste bad, but they were definitely noticeable and since onions are pretty rare on desserts, it probably deserves a mention. Anyways, this cake was again presented very nicely and the flavor was unique. The onion element gave an unexpected savory element to the already subdued sweetness of the almond flavoring. It was enjoyable both for its uniqueness as well as its flavor, but not a personal favorite. 4/5
Finally, the drinks. We had to try the ouzo because we never had before. They have a selection, and so we each tried a different one. Ouzo was described on the menu as an apertif that could also be enjoyed with a meal or as an after-dinner drink. The first ouzo was compared to grappa, and therefore I thought it would be a nice finish to the meal.
Presentation was not good. My only experience with grappa is from Florence, and so perhaps it is unfair to make a comparison between the two but it is what it is. The waitress served the ouzo in short water glasses and because of the coloring of ouzo, it looked like she was serving us cloudy water. Again, we’re in a restaurant putting itself forward as a higher-end take on the affordable lunch, so a little more is expected. And the taste wasn’t good either. I wanted to taste just the ouzo and so asked for them to be served straight, but instead, they added some water to it (apparently judging us as lightweights). Therefore, the result was a watery licorice flavored drink that gave a disappointing finish to the meal. 2/5
Finally, a quick word on service and ambience.
They have done a nice job with the interior of the restaurant. It is very tastefully done, with a very open feel in a fairly small space. The service was fairly friendly (she even gave us the fig tart for free because we couldn’t make up our mind between the two choices and went with her suggestion of the almond olive oil cake), though at times she seemed to forget about us. But as with any customer service, a little friendliness and a few personal touches (like the fig tart) can make up for some little errors. 4/5
In sum, the appetizer and desserts make Axios a very promising venue, but there is still room for improvement in at least some of the other elements that will probably keep us from going back there for a while.
Back from Texas, flush with Christmas cash, I decided we needed to check out the local establishments. I’m not a chain-hater, but I do love to support small businesses in our neighborhood that are trying to make a living by creating something excellent for the community.
Tennyson Street in the Berkeley neighborhood of Denver is host to several local businesses: coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, barber shops, Mac repair shop, etc. A few are pretty established Metro Frame Works, for example, who always serves great wine and art on First Fridays) and several continue to pop up. In just a year and a half since living here, we’ve seen a few come and go.
This week we visited Axios, The Winey Bean, Hops & Pie, and El Bronquito.
We chose these four to visit because each seemed to hold real promise as being a unique concept for the area (Axios and Hops & Pie) or a potential for a reliable new favorite (El Bronquito and The Winey Bean).
I will post a review of each of these places over the next week, and hope to continue to offer reviews of local places here because I’d love to see the good businesses really make it and the not-so-good businesses improve.
Stay tuned.
I’ve been getting to know some refugee families mostly cause I enjoy it and secondly because most of them could use my help — basically super easy things that most native English speakers take for granted like filling out forms. One guy in particular is gregarious and speaks great English, so I’ve…
We took a tour today to the coast and then onto Wicklow mountain where there’s an old monastery and some beautiful scenery.
Didn’t get rained on. Whoo.
You can’t fall in love with a city that you don’t walk in. (See lack of deep love for cities in Texas. (besides Austin))
So, I walked back from work tonight. In seemingly typical Dublin weather: a mix of sunshine and rain.
I was accompanied by some friends: Kindle and Beamish. Later I met up with Shiraz and one of his buddies, for free at the grocer’s.
I bought some groceries when it wasn’t raining. The cashier put them in a paper sack. I walked out and it was raining.
Enh.
I left work around 5:30, slowly made my way through St. Stephen’s Green (see James Joyce). Took a break at little pub. Walked some more. Stopped at the grocer’s. Walked some more in the rain. Arrived back at campus about 9:00.
Oh, I was also accompanied by Andrea Bocelli, Pat Metheny, and Radiohead (of course).
A wonderful evening.
“Today’s opinion is, in one significant respect, entirely consistent with our previous cases addressing taxpayer standing to raise Establishment Clause challenges to government expenditures. Unfortunately, the consistency lies in the creation of utterly meaningless distinctions which separate the case at hand from the precedents that have come out differently, but which cannot possibly be (in any sane world) the reason it comes out differently. If this Court is to decide cases by rule of law rather than show of hands, we must surrender to logic and choose sides … “
-Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia
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