A tale of two bars

      One of our favorite pastimes is listening to live music. It doesn't really matter what kind, as long as it is done right. So on Friday and Saturday night we visited two different bars, had two different experiences and had fun at both,
      Our first stop on Friday night was Ginko Blue,a great little intimate club playing live blues music on this particular night. Located on Fore Street, this Bar has a real modern interior with great lighting and a beautiful bar. Unfortunately, in designing the furniture, sight lines were not taken into consideration. Very tall chairs and round tables block the view of the very small stage for all but a very few customers. Add to this the $12, yes you heard correct, TWELVE dollar martinis and $6.00 local beers and you have an expensive night. But the band was smokin, Poke Chop and the other White Meats, and we had a young crowd sit with us and it was a fun, (but expensive), night none the less.
      On Saturday night we went to a totally different kind of bar. The Big Easy could nicely be called a "dive" bar. Located below street level, on a particularly dark side of Market street. At first glance you wonder if you should enter, but please do. Once inside it is very dark but there is a ton of room and a really huge stage.The bartenders are really friendly, and the drink prices, DIRT CHEAP, don't expect fancy pants martinis here but they have a great selection of beers and a couple rounds for you and the missus wont even cost you a $20 spot. The band this night was the Tone Kings. I like them but the wife, not so crazy about their music, a bit too mellow for her taste. BUT, suddenly a guest guitarist came out of the audience. Younger guy from England, if I remember correctly. WOW, this guy was sensational. All in all, a great time was had by all.
      If you are in the Portland area, I would suggest both of these bars. I give Ginko Blue a B, because the sight lines to the band are not great and the prices are high. I give the Big Easy an A, this would be the kind of great place I would hang out if I lived here.

Maine Foodie Tours Review

     One of our absolute favorite activities is to take a walking tour of the area we are visiting. And if the walking tour includes, history, food and alcohol we are in TOTAL heaven. For our trip to Portland we booked a foodie tour of the old port area. Staring at 10:30 am at the Old Port Wine Shop (what a PERFECT starting point for us two), This a great little wine shop with some very eclectic wine. You should definitely make a stop if your in the area.

      Our first official stop was Vervacious, right next door, http://www.vervacious.com/. This is a great gourmet shop of flavored salts and vinegars. We had a really nice sampling including Anise salt sprinkled on apples YUM and chocolate balsamic vinegar and a nice mead wine. Some pics of Vervacious and the walk to our next stop.

      From there we walked to a great little mixed use market with several different vendors sharing the rent on one building (pizza, sandwiches, beer store, cupcakes) and our stop was for a selection of great local Maine cheeses. We continued our walk and went next to Stonewall Kitchens, http://www.stonewallkitchen.com/, now a giant food emporium but originally started by two people to sell homemade Blueberry jam. And what else to eat but fresh baked blueberry scones topped with the now world famous jam. Heres a quick pic;

      After another walk, (good thing we were able to walk off some of these goodies), through the historic old port area, we were in a locals only fish store, the Harbor Fish Market, http://www.harborfish.com/about.php. This is the exact kind of store I would visit every week if I live here. Tons of extremely fresh fish, the boats deliver at the back of the store, that FRESH. We tasted some incredible smoked fish made in Maine and we ended up going back later and buying three packs.

      From there it was off for chocolate, YUM!! We stopped a a teeny, tiny little shop called Dean's Sweets, http://deanssweets.com,  making incredible truffles. The ginger/wasabi was to die for. From there, time for some more sweets, over to the Two Fat Cats bakery, http://twofatcatsbakery.com/,  for one incredible whoopie pie. And our final stop, liquid refreshments at the Shipyard Brewery, http://www.shipyard.com/, While I am not a huge fan of Shipyard beers, this was a fun and informative stop. Last set of pics;

      This was an incredible walking tour, one we would highly recommend. I give Maine Foodie Tours an A Plus.

Hampton Inn, Portland Waterfront

      As last week was the dear wife's birthday, and as I got to go to Fort Lauderdale on a business trip, and as the wife had not been out of the state in a LONG time, I decided to treat her to a weekend away. Since Maine was celebrating its restaurant week and since we both loved our last trip to Portland, it was decided, off we went. perusing tripadvisor, I was surprised to see that the Hampton Inn waterfront was number one for hotels in Portland. And since they A) had very reasonable pricing with breakfast include and since B) they were on Fore street which is where one of our favorite restaurant in the whole wide world is located, (shockingly called Fore Street), our room for the weekend was decided.

      Upon arriving the first thing you notice is, woah, this is a brand new building, last time we were here it was a sausage factory (two years ago). next you see that it is valet parking only, ($15.00 a day), so factor that in when you price this hotel. Very nice lobby with alot of room for seating, breakfast is included, (standard breakfast, premade eggs, sausages, potatoes, some pastries, standard free hotel food, buy HEY its free). I had reserved a king bed room, no view, (we were planning on being night owls). When we arrived into are room A) they aren't kidding, view is a parking lot  and B) king rooms unbeknownst to me have no tubs, showers only. As the wife loves soaking in a tub , this is a problem. So back to the front desk I go and the receptionist is extremely helpful, there are no king rooms available with tubs in this hotel, (something to remember), but she switches us to a double queen with a view of the ocean for no extra charge, YEA. Here are a few pics of the room;

      As always the pillows at these chain hotels SUCK, all air and no substance. But the bed was comfy, the room pretty quiet, (why are doors shutting so loud in hotels?) and there is a brewery attached to the hotel, (how convenient). And as always, location, location,location. You can easily walk from here to any spot in the old port area in only a few moments. AND our favorite restaurant in the whole world, Fore Street, is only a block away, (complete review coming soon).

      In conclusion, if you are visiting the Portland, Maine area, I would strongly suggest you stay here. Strong points, include free breakfast, free wi-fi, great location AND a brewery attached to the hotel as a sort of extra bonus, Weak Points $15 a day parking, poor pillows and a bit noisy inside. Overall I give the Hampton Inn Portland Waterfront a solid B+.

Jet Rock Bar and Grill

      OK, admittedly reviewing a restaurant located in an airport is weird, But with more airports bringing in higher quality food, I thought it was time . So my trip home from Fort Lauderdale took me through Philadelphia and with a two hour layover, I did a little shopping, (wife's b-day in two days), and then went looking for a place to eat. I could of gotten a meal at Legal Seafood's, or at one of many fast food joints, but I kept looking and eventually stumbled onto Jet Rock Bar and Grill. Sort of a pub and food place with over 40 different beers on tap. I sat down at the bar as my usual and was given a menu and beer list. After perusing the very large list I ordered a purple haze and since I was in the city of brotherly love , a Philly cheesesteak.

      And here is where things went down hill, my server was dealing with some jerk at the end of the bar who wanted his meal cancelled cuz it was taking too long and was giving her a real hard time ( jerks in airports making everyones life miserable, hope he got strip searched by TSA). OK, it happens, if your in the service industry you will have to deal with this at some point, but the problem was she proceeded to deal with it by becoming everyones worst server ever, surly, non responsive, dismissive, HEY LADY, I wasn't the jerk. Anyways the beer was very good, the sandwich was OK but the service ruined the whole meal. Go here to get yourself a great brew and a pretty good sandwich and hope you don't have my server.

Food,                     2.5  OK sandwich, your average airport food.  

Beer and Wine,    4.0  Nice beer and wine selections, best I have seen in an airport.
Service,                 2.0  AWFUL, if you can't shake off a bad customer, find a different business to be in.

Ambiance,             3.0  Its a bar and loud but for an airport it's OK.

Price,                     2.0  Airport pricing, enough said.

Overall                  2.70  If not for the server, I would of actually liked this place. If I am stuck in Philly again, I would go here. Hopefully my server will be gone. 

Hi Everyone,

    Sorry for the VERY long hiatus. Karen and I decided to try something new and we purchased a  repossessed house through an online auction. We then spent our summer flipping it. Turns out it was fun, frustrating,creative, relaxing, nerve wracking and even more adjectives!. But after all was done we sold it to a great couple who will be a wonderful addition to our neighborhood and actually came out ahead (didn't look good there for a while).Will we do it again? Remains to be seen, is it a new career choice, NO, way too stressful. Now Fall is here and we are ready to visit some of the new restaurants that have popped up since the last time I wrote. You will see a huge flurry of posts, all of them very old, but they are written so I will publish them all in the next couple of weeks and after that a more current rotation of restaurants and food items we have tried at home. Thanks for your patience and here is the first batch of posts.

Thanks,
Andy

Quarterdeck Review

      The Quarterdeck is a chain of sports bars in Florida. Having spent over an hour waiting for a water taxi that never came, AND having spent the day in airports, we were starving and just wanted ANY place we could find within walking distance to eat. We stumbled across the Quarterdeck and were told there was a 45 minute wait but the bar had seats available, so in we walked and away we ate. I really wasn't expecting much but was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food and most of all the service.

      Think about Fort Lauderdale in late February, vacation central, so while the Quarterdeck is a very large place, it was PACKED to the rafters. And to top it off, we found out a couple of servers had called in sick, (can't blame them is was 80 and beautiful). But the bartender came over right away with menus and took our drink order, and was back with the drinks in a flash. I noticed they had a very large raw bar, so I asked about the oysters (this can be a scary proposition in a sports bar but what the heck I was feeling lucky). I was assured that the blue points had arrived fresh that morning so I ordered a half dozen. My fellow worker decided to start with the peel your own shrimp. Both plates were exceptional, the oysters really fresh and the shrimp huge, with a whole bunch of them. For our entrees, I went with a really unusual sandwich, blackened fresh grouper, fresh mozzarella, basil and cappicola on a ciabbata roll, and my buddy went with blackened fish tacos. The fish in both entrees was incredibly fresh, and while on paper my sandwich sounds weird the blackened fish, the fresh cheese and the salty, slightly spicy ham worked PERFECTLY together. This was a perfect start to our Fort Lauderdale business trip and highly recommended.

Food,                     3.25  Sports bar food but very well done
Beer and Wine,    3.75   Nice beer selection, typical grocery store wine selections.
Service,                 5.0     I have never given anyone a 5 but this poor guy was HUSTLING, and yet he was pleasant and took the time to explain the menu to us.

Ambiance,             3.0     Sports bar, enough said.
Price,                     3.5      One of the most reasonable of all our Fort Lauderdale meals.

Overall                  3.70 A really nice local chain with above average food for a sports bar. I would recommend them if you are in Florida.

Bahia Mar Review

      The next few posts will be all about my recent business trip to Fort Lauderdale. Starting with the hotel we stayed at. But first, a well deserved shout out to Delta Airlines. I know, I know, it's very unusual for ANYONE to have anything nice to say about an airline in this day and age, (Still love you Jet Blue, lower your prices). And after the total fiasco we had with Continental last year, (stuck on the runway for 1/2 hour waiting for a plane to leave our gate, only to find out said plane was broke, missed connecting flight to Vegas, no hotel vouchers as it was FAA fault, RIGHT !!!). So we had a very tight layover at JFK , 40 minutes, and when the plane had to go through deicing, I was really worried about missing our connection. But then the captain,(are they always captains? No privates or Corporals in airline speak? Wouldn't fill you with a ton of confidence would it, to hear "This is Private Ed, way up here in the driver thingy seat, letting you know we will be flying way up high today), came on and said they were given a more direct route and we would make JFK in 50 minutes, YEA, leaves plenty of time to catch the next plane. Got to the edge of the runway and he turns off the engines, oops, that is never good.

      Broken engine sensor, back to the terminal, NOW here is where the tale takes a strange turns, once back in the terminal, we are told, we will call out your cities and you can come up and get new flights, we have them all rescheduled for you. WHAT?? no begging, screaming, hollering, WHAT? So we get new assignments, getting into Fort Lauderdale at 7PM that night, sigh, there goes my afternoon of vacation. But she says, stop at the service desk in JFK and get meal vouchers or she may be able to get you an earlier flight. Well, meal vouchers are way more than we got last year, (YOU SUCK, CONTINENTAL), so off to the service counter we go and surprise number 2, really nice lady says we have a 1pm flight out of Laguardia, I can pay for your cab, if you don't mind going back through security again, gets you into Ft.Lauderdale at 4 pm so you can enjoy a bit of 85 degree weather, WOO HOO, Delta we love you !!!

      Oh yeah, this is a review about the hotel. So what have we learned so far, Delta good, Continental bad. Bahia Mar Doubletree Hotel, just OK. This is quite an old hotel, that Hilton has bought and is updating. At this time the furniture seems pretty updated but the bathrooms, walls and doors are still very old. The good, location, location, location. Right on route 1A1, with the ocean on one side and the waterway on the other. And only a short walk to all the action of the Fort Lauderdale strip. AND a water taxi stop just a few hundred yards away, (but good luck catching one, we waited for an outbound boat for over an hour one night and one never came, not a very efficiently run operation).

  The bad, doors and paint in room are very chipped up. bathroom is old and looks it. Be aware that if you stay here with friends the bathroom door is a pocket door made of slats, not much privacy. Good and bad, the employees, Karen at the front desk and Patricia at the concierge desk were both incredible, extremely helpful, (Poor Patricia must of made and cancelled a dozen restaurant reservations for me ,as the boss's flights kept getting delayed). On the other hand, the first morning my colleague and I went to breakfast, I asked for a menu and the employee told me "We are doing a buffet for $17.00 each, (not exactly a lie as you notice he did NOT say we couldn't order a la carte, just never offered us a menu, so we paid over $40, (18% tip automatically added), for a really sub par buffet that at Hampton Inns is free. The 2nd morning we had a better server and she gave us menus, but the sausages I received came out ICE cold , so not a whole lot better. She was very apologetic but for some reason the kitchen just could not get them back out to me before we were all done and leaving, (why not pull some out of the buffet, I assume those were hot?).

      So all in all a totally average experience. Location is great, views are incredible, some employees are wonderful, some not so much. Some of the room is updated, alot of the room still needs serious work. If you can get a great deal, I suppose the location would make up for the rest. But as we paid $180 a night, I would not stay here again for that price. Not before I was assured the rest of the updating was finished. All in all I give the place a 2.5 stars (out of five).