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).

Five Guys Review

      OK, I am sure you are saying, what's up with another fast food review. But since this is our first 5 guys in Vermont, I think some people would want to know what it's like, right? RIGHT? Maybe not, but here goes anyways. Five guys has won numerous awards for its hamburgers and that in a nutshell is what they are, a fast food hamburger chain.Now you may say a burger is a burger but a Five guys burger relates to a pink slime McD's burger as equally as a Democratic congressman relates to a Republican senator, in other words NOT AT ALL.

      Now in a moment I will clear up our only confusion with the 5 guys ordering procedure. Since the South Burlington location (on Shelburne road in the same strip mall as the Shaw's) is small and the chain appears to be EXTREMELY popular with Vermonters, I would suggest ordering online. Online ordering is simple, you pick from the menu, (not hard to do as the entire menu is hamburgers of various sorts, hot dogs and french fries). Once you pick out your burger, you get to pick from 18 different toppings at no extra charge, (bacon, cheese, b-bque sauce was mine), pick out which fries, we got two large fries, one regular,one Cajun.  BIG MISTAKE, this was enough fries for 10 people not 4, if your gonna order large, make sure you are having a party. After your done ordering, pay with a credit card and you will have about a 10-20 minute wait. So jump in the car and head over to Shelburne Road.

       Once you arrive, you realize ordering online to go was the right choice. This place is SMALL, and CROWDED. Now comes the one point of confusion, as you have ordered and paid you would assume you move to the end of the restaurant where orders are being processed, WRONG, make sure you check in at the counter and tell them you are there for a pick up or your order will sit on the heater and never get called, I speak from experience. Anyways, after figuring out the right way to get our food, we were off, and as Mike and Kris don't live so far away, we arrived in no time to hot and juicy burgers and fries.

      Now what the picture doesn't show well is that each burger is actually a DOUBLE burger. Again the website or menu doesn't really mention this, they do list a "baby" burger but who's to know that is really a standard burger, one patty. Anyways we were totally full and Kris and Mike had enough fries to last a week.

Food,                     4.0   Be aware that I am rating this on a fast food scale and not a fine dining scale.
Beer and Wine,    NO  No alcohol, so no rating.
Service,                 2.5  Again think fast food, employees not really helpful just there to take your order.

Ambiance,             2.0  Really, get it to go.
Price,                     4.0  Pricey compared to the clown and king but WAYYYYY better food.

Overall                  3.125  OK, I know it's a fast food joint, so really what counts is food and price. And in this case 5 Guys really shines. the food is very tasty and appears to be way more natural than its competitors. And while the pricing is a bit higher than those others, you really get alot for your dollar. Is it the best burger I have ever had, God No, is it the best fast food burger I have ever had, very likely. 

    

Le Vent du Nord + the Pine Leaf Boys Review

       We had an opportunity to step out on Friday night to see a great double bill, put on by the Flynn and Lane series. Featuring two bands, playing very traditional music of their respective areas, but modernized for current times. We were allowed to participate in a lecture before hand about where this music came from, (France), and how it has changed over the years. I found the lecture really helpful in helping prepare us for the night of music we were about to see. And to have one of the founders of Vent du Nord also be there just enhanced the whole evening.

      The Pine Leaf boys took the stage first. From Louisiana, they are a traditional Cajun band. And even though the original music came from France and landed in Canada, it took a decidedly different turn when the Acadians were forced out of Canada and is not recognizable as original Canadian folk music anymore. As the lead singer told us, all Cajun music comprises of only three subjects, getting drunk, getting your heart broken and going to prison. And the absolute best Cajun music incorporates all three into one song. These guys were great, doing a wide variety of songs (well as wide as Cajun music gets, as they really only play two types of sounds, two steps and waltzes). Changing the tempos, singing mainly in French but every now and then in English, I really enjoyed these guys . For their last song they brought out the guys from Vent du Nord and all eight of them did a great rollicking "Whisky is my friend" song.

      After a short intermission. Le Vent du Nord came out. Now this is traditional French folk music by way of a little modernization. Absolutely great musicians, wonderful personalities, so much fun. If these groups appear in your neck of the woods, I would strongly encourage you to go see them . Yes, most of the evening will be sung in French but great music happens to be a universal language. The evening gets an A+ !!
   

Panera Bread Review

      For some reason, Seven Days, doesn't publish reviews for Panera Bread. I guess for the same reason they don't review McDonald's or Burger King. And while Panera is a chain like those others, I think the food is much better than your usual fast or casual food stop. So anyway here is my review.

      On this particular Saturday we were bored and decided to go to a wine tasting at our favorite wine store in the whole wide world, Dedalus, on the waterfront. Since we were going to be partaking of some rather yummy Austrian wines, we decided to go to Church Street for some lunch first. My first choice was the new taco place, but as we were walking through the mall we noticed Panera Bread. Having eaten at a couple of these in the past, we decided to try this instead.

      Panera is set up like most fast food joints, you order your food at a counter, picking from the menus posted overhead and then they bring your food to your table by locating you on a pager style beeper, (which wasn't working on this particular day, so the servers were having to shout while walking through the very large space). The problem with this is in the Burlington location, there is ALOT of traffic going through the same space as the line snakes through, and the lines can be HUGE. So this creates bottlenecks and confusion, in addition for people not familiar with the menu, (us for instance), you are walking past the bakery, looking up trying to read the menu, trying to find the correct line and trying not to bump into everyone coming and going . PHEW, alot of work involved in just getting your food.

     As you are looking for the correct line to lineup in, pay attention to the bakery you are walking by, it will come back to you in a bit. Fortunately, the place was packed so we had a bit of a wait in line. this gave us time to study the menu.When it was our turn to order, I went with the chipotle chicken panini and wifey went with the salmon Mediterranean salad. Now for my mistake, I was offered any item from the bakery for $.99 but since I had not paid attention to the bakery, I passed. My wife on the other hand spotted a strawberries and cream scone and got one of those . DUH, what a dunce I was, as the normal pricing for bakery items appears to be $2.99 AND on top of that the scone was DELICIOUS.

      Once you place your order, you now have the joy of finding a place to sit. It appears that Panera is a BIG hit with the downtown Burlington crowd. Of course, by offering free wi-fi you are guaranteed to have the laptop squatters taking up valuable table space for hours and hours at a time. I think after 45 minutes, Panera should be able to bring over a mini parking meter and if you don't constantly feed it quarters, out you go. ANYWAYS, we were lucky as we walked around the serving counter, boom a table magically opened up for us. As the wife sat down, I went off to look for the soda fountain, tucked wayyyy in the back, to get her soda. For some strange reason ,the lemonade is served behind the counter? Is lemonade really that much more expensive that you don't want to put it with the soda and coffee pots? So after delivering the soda, back up to the counter to get my now ready lemonade, weird way to do things.

       So how did all this taste once we finally got settled in and our food came to us? First, lets start with the scone. We ate this while we were waiting and it was delicious. Not at all dry and crumbly like a typical scone but rather soft and cake like with great flavors. In a REALLY quick manner our meals arrived;

      The food was very good,  my chicken sandwich was packed with meat and had the perfect amount of heat from the chipotle and smokiness from the bacon. As you can see wife's salad was HUGE, although I am not a big fan of cold salmon and to me it tasted a bit fishy. But the wife loved it and ate every drop. For $23.70, this place is a very good value for downtown Burlington. We left full and happy. And before I get nasty comments, I KNOW it's not local and I KNOW they truck in their food from all over the country and I KNOW they don't make everything fresh in house. But still, if you have to visit a fast/casual food place you could do ALOT worse.

On a scale of 1 to 5;

Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.
Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing

 Price,                And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     3.5  Very good food. With a very good variety, providing you want sandwiches or salads.
Beer and Wine,    NO  No beer and wine so no rating.
Service,                 2.5   Counter service only and it will be assumed you have been here before.

Ambiance,             3.0   Nice space but CROWDED. Be prepared to fight for a table.
Price,                     4.0   Very reasonable for downtown Burlington.

Overall,                 3.25  I am not a very big fan of the whole fast/casual food chains, but I must say this is

one of the better ones out there. If your in a hurry or just want something quick, you could do MUCH worse than this one. 

Mama Mia Review

      This review could be a landmine. As fans of Mama Mia are rabid in there opinion of what makes this such a great musical. So I am writing this from a different point of view. The point of view of a person who hated the movie, (PLEASE, Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep singing, YUCK), and someone who has never particularly liked Abba. Truly, I bought these tickets as a surprise for my wife. She is a huge fan of the movie and actually likes Abba's music. And since she puts up with me 365 days of the year, I figured I could put up with Abba for one day.

      So you can imagine my surprise when I realized I really LIKED this musical. First the energy of a live production exceeds that of the movie by a thousand fold. Second , what really surprised me was the humor. The play was MUCH funnier than the movie. So if the Broadway production of Mama Mia comes to your town, I wholeheartedly encourage you to go see it. You will like it AND your wife will really appreciate it. Go and have fun.

      I give Mama Mia an A and declare it a great Broadway production.