Where Will I Be

I am getting a few e-mails and messages from people wondering where I currently am and where will I be next. this made me realize that the blog is giving a fair (and overly rambling) snapshot of where I was, as I seem to operate on a three or four day lag. I will start posting overviews of my itinerary, as it develops.

Right now, as I type this (mid-PM on May 29th), I think I am in Texas, where I will be for the next 10 days or so:

- Tonight (May 29): a pit stop in Houston.

- May 30-31: Austin.

- June 1-4 (TBD): Dallas-Fort Worth.

Afterwards, a couple days in each of Houston and San Antonio, but that is still a bit murky.

I aim to be in Phoenix for Sunday, June 9 to see the Diamondbacks.

Further updates to be provided as I figure it out.


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Day 25 (May 27): Nouvelle Orléans, LA

Well, after three straight late nights, today was a bit of a write-off. There was a lot of seemingly aimless wandering, without really getting to where I thought I wanted to go. Yeah, it was one of those days. it was far from being a complete loss, however, because, hey! this is New Orleans, how could it be:

- I dropped a whack of money at Louisiana Music Factory, a kick-ass record shop that I had found the day before on Decatur Street in Le Vieux Carré. Now, record stores are my kryptonite (along with cute barmaids), but still, this place was amazing. Specialising in New Orleans and Louisiana music, the shop features bin after bin of jazz, cajun, bayou swing and creole music, both historic and new. (Evidently, the store ships to Canada.). I spent well over an hour in there and probably could have spent an afternoon. Of note, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of artists I recognised as past Ottawa Bluesfest performers. The store even had about 10 listening sections, each featuring 16 discs; I have not seen a listening station in years. My favourite find was three CDs from The Pine Leaf Boys, a young cajun band that was featured in the New York Times roughly seven years ago in an article about the rebirth of cajun music. I have never been able to find their discs in Canada. Also, I bought a t-shirt. (T-shirt count is at two for the trip; it is still manageable.)

- I stopped into Café du Monde, a New Orleans institution (well, at least for tourists) for café au lait and their famous beignets. The beignets were a lot lighter than I expected.

- Departing slightly from Canal Street (although not coming anywhere to making it to the Garden District which had been the plan; you know, one of those days...), I had dinner at Cochon on Tchoupipoulas (now my favourite street name ever, by far) in the Warehouse District. Cochon, which describes itself as providing 'Cajun Southern cooking' offers a mixture of small plates and main courses, with a local feel.

I opened with some fried, stuffed oysters, which had a nice kick to them owing to them being drizzled with a sauce that included chili flakes. My main course was a catfish courtbouillon, in great part because I had never heard the word 'courtbouillon' before coming to New Orleans. Essentially, it is quite a fair bit of catfish served with a broth of tomatoes, green onions and herbs along with rice. (The catfish was, I think breaded, so I am assuming it was pan-fried before being served with the bouillon. In any event, it still had consistency, so this was not fish soup...) It was extremely good and tangy.

Cochon had six local beers on tap, from four different breweries. (Faithful readers: are you detecting a pattern about the ubiquity of local and/or American craft beers in US bars and restaurants? Some of that is no doubt because I am seeking out good bars, but it is not just in those establishments...) Of note, I tried a Belgian amber that was infused with cane sugar ('Canebrake' beer) from Parish Breweries, which I did not notice anywhere else. I will give them points for originality.

I would definitely rank Cochon ahead of Three Muses, both for the quality of the food and for the approach to the menu, which offered mostly local cuisine, but with a different, more modern approach than most of the French Quarter restaurants aimed mostly, I am guessing, at tourists.

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Days 23-24 (May 25-26): New Orleans, LA.

I got to New Orleans around 3 PM on Saturday, the 25th, and met up with some friends of mine, who had been here for a few days. We (kind of) promptly headed to the French Quarter for drinks, food (oysters and jambalaya), more drinks, music, some drinks, music and drinks and more food (crab cakes). So, that took care of Saturday. We did, however, end up on Frenchmen Street, north-east of the French Quarter, which had evidently been recommended to my buddies. More on that later.

Sunday

I spent the day exploring the French Quarter (aka, Le Vieux Carré). To say that I was shocked at its size would not be an understatement; I was expecting a few blocks commercial and maybe residential blocks on two or three streets. The Quarter is roughly 13 blocks deep x 6 blocks wide; it is a mix of commercial, entertainment and residential buildings. The neighbourhood has been protected since the 1930s, so that the outwards appearance of the Carré's buildings, many (most?) of which date to the 1700s and 1800s, is maintained. The architecture is a mix of French and Spanish influences, with evidently some West African thrown in for good measure. One of the key elements are long, gorgeous, wrought-iron second-floor balconies. With the number of restaurants, bars and shops, one could easily spend days in the Quarter, without seeing anything else in NO. I almost did.
In the evening, I went back to Frenchmen Street. Evidently, Frenchmen Street is a much better bet to hear good live music than the bars and clubs in the Quarter itself. I was not disappointed.

I had dinner at Three Muses, another eater.com recommendation. Not a big place, they have a small plate menu, in a variety of styles, an extremely well-stocked bar, with a signature cocktail menu which seemed very popular and a good selection of local beers (NOLA Breweries and Abita on tap). To boot, they have live music; a 6-piece (plus singer) very good jazz ensemble was playing (stand-up (double) bass [you know what to do]; accordion; sax; two guitars; trumpet). I had a salad of romaine hearts, fried tuscan kale and fennel and kurobuta pork belly braised with apple cider and served with apple chutney and scallion pancakes, both of which were excellent. I also had one of their more popular dishes, the lobster egg rolls, which left a lot to be desired, as all I could taste was the fried wrapper. So, two-thirds of a great meal, with great music.

Afterwards, I checked out two music clubs in the area; first, BMC on Decatur, which had been recommended to a friend of mine as a great music place. On this evening, it was not, as it featured what appeared to be a house New Orleans-style R&B band (from what I can gather) which seemed to me to just be going through the motions.

However, the next club, Blue Nile on Frenchmen Street more than made up for it. TBC, a young 8 or 9 piece funky brass band, just electrified the place. I dragged my sorry ass out of there around 2 AM, and they were still at it. Also, they had over 20 taps, including a bunch of local flavours; I drank an IPA from NOLA Breweries called 'Mechahopzilla', which is an awfully cool name.

The highlight of the evening: a (somewhat) inebriated, (very) cute, (very) young woman repeatedly asking me if I was Dr. John. The only answer to that, of course, is 'You can call me Mac.'

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An Open Letter to the City of New Orleans...

No but, really, New Orleans, what the fuck? Are you trying to kill me? What did I ever do to you to deserve that? What the fuck, man? Because clearly:

1.- You think I don't drink enough:

- your bars are seemingly open all night.

- you tolerate, nay encourage, carrying around plastic cups of beer, large plastic cups of beer, styrofoam cups of margaritas, fishbowls of some sort of alcohol contraption and sundry other novelty plastic containers of alcohol.

- when those carry-arounds are empty, and it's too much effort to actually go into a bar, you have streetfront counters that provide refills.

2.- You think I sleep too much:

- your bars are seemingly open all night, and feature absolutely bat-shit-crazy-good music that gets one dancing until all hours of the morning.

- all-day breakfast is a staple restaurant offering.

3.- You think I don't eat enough:

- you have great restaurants on every street corner.

- gumbo, raw oysters, grilled oysters, jambalaya, muffalettas, beignets, crawfish étouffée, and, oh yes, I'll have a po'boy for dessert please. Also, the bread pudding and the sweet potato pecan pie.

So, clearly, New Orleans, you're out to get me.

And I absolutely love you for it...


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Where Was I: Tropicana Field, St-Petersburgh, Fla. (May 24, 2013)

Stadium Count

For the trip: 6 (already!)
Active MLB: 18
Overall MLB: 26.

Seat:

Section 127; Row G; Seat 6. About halfway up the LF foul line, the first row in the section, separated from the field by two rows of seats that were just off the visitors' bullpen and a 10-foot wide area which featured two 'lounge' seats, to which I figure two lucky fans got upgraded.

(Pic should follow, eventually.)

Result: Yankees 9 Rays 5, in a battle of two clubs I hate.

I was ready to really hate Tropicana Field. It is a domed stadium, which from seeing it on TV, looks dark and murky, with overhanging technical rings that often cause havoc with balls in play. And what I found was... a domed stadium, that is dark and murky, with a cream covered ceiling due to which I could not track fly balls (mind you, to be fair, it is a bit if an issue for me during day games in an outside stadium) with three technical rings that fly balls need to actively avoid in order to successfully complete their flight. So what we have lies clearly in the Big Owe aesthetic, minus the collapsing beams. And that's not a compliment (as big a place that the Big Owe has in my heart as the former home of the Expos and my first ballpark...)

But...

But...

Man, does the Rays organisation ever go out of its way to enrich fan experience. I do not think I have seen so many staff in any ballpark, seemingly all quick with a smile and a greeting. The concourse, which one would expect to look and feel like a concrete bunker, does not, in great part because the walls have been covered with red brick wallpaper. the concessions offer variety: several Poppa John's (I tried them for the first time: not great but better than one would expect; certainly better than what I had at Turner Field in Atlanta or at the culinary disaster that is the Skydome), an Outback concession, a BBQ joint and some Italian-themed counters.

The Rays also have several unique fan activities:

- they have a touch aquarium (it is exactly what it sounds like: you can touch the fishies), which seems very popular with the kiddies. The line-up was a bit too long for me.

- for Friday night games, they have a DJ who spins tunes before and after the game, as well as during breaks, I think.

- and, most amazingly, for I have never seen this before, they have, after Friday night games, the 'Centerfield Shuffle'. Once the game is over, after a short wait to prepare the field, fans are invited to exit the stadium via centrefield. With the afore-mentioned DJ, well, DJing, fans have 20 minutes to hang out in the outfield, dance if they want to (some were), and basically get the kick of being on an MLB playing surface. Yes, I walked on the Trop's carpet; yes, it was cool. (And BTW, the warning track is also artificial turf, brown instead of green; I cannot figure out how that gives a warning to OFers that they are approaching the fence when chasing a fly ball...) Major, major kudos to the Rays organisation for that one.

I do have to take away a lot of points for one major, major short-coming: the seats have no cup holders. That is a mortal stadium sin.

In a pure sense, the Trop will certainly not be the best stadium I will visit on this trip. However, it has been, and probably will be, the most surprising. Someone in the Rays' organisation clearly gets it; unfortunately, even given the on-field success the Rays have had and the superior ballpark experience, they still draw very small crowds.

Random observations:

- Former MLBer Oscar Gamble was signing autographs prior to the game. Of course, he was being featured as 'former Yankee Oscar Gamble'...

- They do not play 'God Bless America' before the seventh inning stretch. By my count, it has been played in three of the six stadiums on this (New Yankee Stadium; Nationals Park and, I think but may be wrong, Turner Field).

- Yankee fans are annoying. Very, very annoying.

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Days 21-22 (May 23-24): Petrograd, Florida

Granted, I only spent 36 hours there and stuck to the down town core, but I liked St-Pete. I do suspect it may be a large suburb as I did a bit of walking downtown on the 24th and did not run into a lot of people.

The highlight of my visit was, of course, a bar. (Were you expecting anything else?). I managed to stumble across The Ale and the Witch (oh, let's say 2nd Avenue at 2nd Street) within about 20 minutes of walking around downtown (with no assistance from TGABT this time...). They have 32 taps of American craft beer, which they rotate extensively; as soon as a keg is empty, it is replaced by another beer. Over the two nights I wa there, there must have been at least a 25 per cent turnover. Evidently, they go through 65 to 70 kegs per week, so they re-draw their draft board roughly twice in a week. (They deal with eight distributors, which is, I am guessing, probably significant in them getting so many flavours.)

While I was there, they had a number of local brews on tap, from St-Pete's Brewery and Cigar City Brewery from Tampa. I had two of Cigar City's IPAs: the Homefront, the production of which involves chips from Louisville Slugger maple bats, which was subtly hoppy and the Jai Alai, which I preferred, as it is hoppier, but not overwhelmingly so (and better on tap than in cans).

The bar also feature live music, nightly it seems, on a patio they seem to share with other restaurants.

The staff is more than efficient and dedicated and can provide advice on their various draft offerings (which is an art, with the part of the clientèle who is looking for PBR or Miller Lite).

What else? Oh yeah, the keep stats on their draft board of how many kegs they have served year-by-year since they opened (1331 for this year, as of Friday night) and of the number of live shows they have hosted. How can you not totally geek out to that?

While the bar is still young and does not have the history and lived-in-ness as most of my favourites, The Ale and the Witch is definitely joining my Top Seven Bar list (forthcoming).

Random observations:

- Yes, it was named after the Russian city.

- I visited the Dali Museum, which is housed in a funky, category-5-hurricane-proof building. Yes, there is a large collection of Dali works in St-Pete, which covers most of the stages of his career; let's just go with it.

- On the train ride from Miami to Tampa, near Winter Haven, I saw orange groves! And huge orange groves: orange trees as far as my eye could see. So, I have seen orange groves and retirees; I think the Florida leg of my trip went well.

- The Miami-Tampa train ride is basically a Grapefruit League express: West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Lakeland, Winter Haven and possibly others I missed.

- For those of you who do not get the title, well, your knowledge of early XX th century Russian history is sorely lacking.

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Days 18-20 (May 20-22): Miami Beach, Florida

Well, I really was not sure what to expect. Between the novels of Hiaassen and Dorsey, I thought I would be scammed, swindled, kidnapped and/or murdered. None of that happened, that I know of anyway, although I still have a couple days to go in Florida.

Bottom line: I was pleasantly surprised, almost shocked. I really liked Miami Beach. Not only is it gorgeous, both the beach and the architecture (the Art Deco section of South Beach), but there appears to be a thriving cultural life and restaurant scene. This went far beyond the clubby scene I expected and dreaded to find in South Beach.

I basically spent two days ambling around, walking the beach, checking out the, uhm... sights, as well as South and Central Miami Beach. (Pictures to follow.) A highlight was a guided walking tour of the Art Deco Historical District, offered by the Miami Beach Design Conservation League. The 90-minute walking tour showed examples of the various types of architecture that was favoured in South Beach from the 1920's to current day, including, of course, the Art Deco style of the early 30's to late 40's, along with providing an overview of the history of the area. Serge Storms would have appreciated. It turns out the guide was a recently retired US government bureaucrat who had moved to Miami Beach post-retirement. I spent a bit of time chatting with him post-tour about retirement benefits (turns out they are relatively comparable), because that is evidently what I now do.

Other than the walking, I was impressed with the restaurant scene, well, at least with those that I hit. My favourite find was Pubbelly's, on 20th Street, on the west side of South Beach, away from the touristy areas. Eater.com described it as an 'Asian-influenced gastropub'; I am not entirely sure I would call it a gastropub. Clearly, the place looks like it could have been a pub in a previous incarnation (lay-out, red-brick walls), but with its small plate menu and large, communal-type tables, and lack of taps (only one, although there was a decent bottled beer menu) it does not fit my definition of a gastropub. In any event, now that I have tangentially again asserted my geekiness, it does not really matter, because the food is great. As mentioned, it is a small plate menu (I had three items, plus desert) and there is definitely an Asian tinge to the menu: dumplings, soy, tofu, wasabi and the like. Plus, pork, as might have been guessed by the restaurant's name, is a staple on the menu.

I ordered the pork belly and corn dumplings, but Pubbelly's dumplings are not dumplings in the traditional sense. These chunks of pork were covered on one side with some sort of batter, with the corn served on top, along with slices of parmigiano cheese and a soy/black truffle drizzling. The combination was exquisite. I followed that with some salt and pepper squid (very nicely salt and peppery, which did not need the accompanying dipping sauce), then with pork cheeks served with fava beans, ricotta gnudi, crispy ham, green peas and wasabi butter. I had an amazing homestyle bread pudding for desert. A great meal at a restaurant that few tourists probably visit.

At the other end of the scale, tourist clientèle-wise, I also ate at Joe's Stone Crab, which is evidently a local institution, being in business since 1903 (I am going from memory here and could be wrong). Joe's is a multi-roomed, large, semi-formal restaurant, with very attentive, career wait staff. My brain mis-fired as I did not order the restaurant's speciality (stone crab, what else, served cold, with a mustard dipping sauce). I had instead the Florida clam bake (steamed clams, oysters, lobster pincers, shrimp, spicy sausage and corn, served with a coconut milk based sauce), which was quite nice.

And yes, I did find, thanks to 'The Great American Ale Trail' (TGAAT from now on...), a craft beer bar, the Abraxas Lounge, on Meridian Avenue, not far from Ocean Drive. According to the barmaid, they have the best selection of craft beer in South Florida. I have no reason to doubt her. They had a good number of taps featuring American craft beers, including some Floridian brewers, and two bottled beer lists: their regular one, and a featured one that listed well over 100 rare bottles (i.e., single or seasonal brews and the like). Notably, I had a Jai Alai IPA and an Tocobaga American Red from Cigar City Breweries, from Tampa. Both were superior brews, the Red being very smooth, with some hints of hoppyness and the Jai Alai, providing a subtle hoppy taste. The joint, which seems to cater predominantly to locals, was loud (even though there were only roughly 20 or so people there), as game One of the Heat-Pacers series was on and finished crazily.

Random observations:

- It is evidently the rainy season in South Florida. There was a beautiful, violent thunderstorm on Monday night, with some of the thickest rain I have ever seen. The storm drains do not seem equipped to deal with such a downpour; streets were flooded. (The same happened Wednesday morning, after much less rain, which really makes me wonder about Miami's drainage system.)

- The public transit system seems pretty good, which surprised me a bit, given past experiences in the Southern States. Mind you, to come back from the baseball game Monday night, I took a (free) trolley, a train, a (free) metromover (separate train system that, well, moves people in two downtown loops) and finally a bus, which was a bit elaborate, but I may not have taken the most efficient way back to South Beach. Oh, and the base fare is $2. (You hear that OC Transpo?)

- Yes, of course, I went to the World Museum of Erotic Art, which is more a collection than a museum. If they bothered getting it properly curated, they might actually have something decent here that could tell a story, other than just a tourist attraction.

- I should have expected it, but I think I heard more Spanish spoken than English.

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Where Was I: Marlins Park, Miami, Florida (May 20, 2013)

Stadium Count:
For the trip: 5
Active MLB: 17
Overall MLB: 25

Seat: Section 136: Row 3; seat 21, in an upper RF bleacher section that overhangs the lower section.

Result: Marlins 5 Phillies 1.

Jeffrey Loria and David Samson are arseholes.

They took ownership of the Expos and promptly went cap in hand to the provincial and municipal governments looking for predominantly public financing of a new ballpark in Montréal. When that did not happen, they scrapped the ball park plans, essentially surrendered the franchise to MLB control, and were given a sweetheart deal to take over the Marlins franchise.

What did they do? They went cap in hand to the state and local governments to get a publicly funded facility built in Miami. It was the only way they could ensure enough revenue streams to field a winning team, ya know, otherwise, they would move the team.

This time the blackmail worked and Loria and his sycophantic son-in-law Samson got their white elephant, I mean, publicly financed stadium.

All the while, the Marlins were receiving proceeds from the MLB's revenue-sharing scheme ... and not spending them to better their team.

I am not even going to get into the great free agent frenzy of off-season 2011-12, followed by the great free agent signee giveaway of off-season 2012-13. Or that the 2013 marlins team is replacement-level at best (Nick Green?).

So Jeffrey Loria and David Samson are arseholes. Check that, they are fucken arseholes.

So what is a former Expo fan who is on a quest to see all 30 MLB stadiums to do?

He buys the cheapest ticket available ($10), does not spend anything on concessions and does not write a peep about Marlins Park itself. No publicity, good or bad, for The House That Loria Stole.

Also, he derives a fair amount of satisfaction that the crowd on Monday, 13,300 or so, was the lowest ever for Marlins Park.

Take that Loria.


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Where Was I: Turner Field, Atlanta, Georgia (May 18 & 19, 2013)

I was not planning to, but went to two games at Turner Field.

Stadium Count:

- For the trip: 4

- Active MLB: 16

- Overall MLB: 24

Seats:

- Saturday, May 18: Section 137; Row 24; Seat 8, roughly 15 rows up in the RF bleachers, closer to CF than to the RF foul pole.

- Sunday, May 19:

- Section 211; Row 8, Seat 7, in the second level, behind first base, first row or so under an overhang, which was really appreciated given it rained for most of the game.

Results:

- Saturday, May 18: Braves 3 Dodgers 1. Evan Gettis hit a 2-run PH home run and Andrelton Simmons added a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth to give the Braves the lead. Craig Kimbrell closed it in the ninth.

- Sunday, May 19: Braves 5 Dodgers 2. Guess what?  The Braves scored four in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead. Craig Kimbrell closed it in the ninth.

There is a limit to how much one can write about most modern baseball stadiums. There just is not that much, architecturally-speaking that separates Turner Field from Nationals' Park in DC, Citi Field Park in NYC (other than the Jackie Robinson rotunda) or Target Field in Minneapolis, other than some choices in building materials that seem to be more decorative than anything else. (Those aesthetic choices include, at Target Field, the Minnesota-quarried stone that covers some areas of the stadium, including part of the infield wall, that supposedly looks like granite but appears more like the builders ran out of materials and covered the unfinished areas with sheets of plywood.) If the Turner Field designers made some of those aesthetic choices, I failed to notice them.

That is certainly not to say that Turner Field is not a very pleasant place to watch a ballgame; however, the physical ballpark is very similar to a lot of modern ballparks:

- almost obviously, wide seats, angled towards the infield, with no obstructions.

- wide concourses, which open up to the field of play so that fans do not miss out on the action when they head to the concessions mid-game.

- some sort of outfield terrace, with a Family Zone and unique concession stands not found elsewhere in the ballpark. For Turner Field, this is behind centre field, although the concessions are less than awe-inspiring: a wood oven pizza place (the pizza did not taste any different there than it did at another, 'in-park' concession, but costed $1.50 more or so, although the slice was a bit bigger); a BBQ joint, with a limited menu (grilled chicken and turkey sandwiches; pulled pork).

- concessions that go beyond 'typical' stadium fare (i.e., hot dog, burgers, bad pizza). I will say that, despite beer prices that were a bit lower than previous ballparks, the concessions were underwhelming at Turner Field.  The one notable exception is that there is a Rathbun’s Steaks counter which serves steak sandwiches; at $15, I skipped.  Kevin Rathbun is a well-known chef in Atlanta, where he has a number of restaurants. Also, Chick Fill-a does have a few counters where it hawks its homophobic chicken sandwiches.

However, overall, Turner Field felt a bit boring physically, with nothing making it stick out to differentiate itself from other stadiums. Now given that it opened in 1997, it may well be that Turner Field (along with 3 or 4 other stadiums that opened around that time) was the modernist riff on Camden Yards that was subsequently built on by other franchises.

That being said, attending both games was a lot of fun, due to the very enthusiastic, knowledgeable crowd.  It may almost be a tired cliché by now for fans of other teams, but the Tomahawk Chop is awfully cool and electric when you are in the stadium.

Random observations:

- One of the concession stands featured a $15 ‘Yamicky yamwich’, in honour of Chipper Jones.

- Turner Field is fairly well accessible from downtown, with a shuttle bus to the stadium running from one of the light rail stations.

- On Sunday, there were two rain delays and it rained consistently from the seventh inning onwards; the 25-man grounds crew certainly earned their pay. They showed an out-of-town game (Philadelphia-Cincinnati) on the video board during the first delay.

- There are pictures of past Braves teams, year-by-year through 100-level concourse

- There is quite the production to mark the entrance of closer Craig Kimbrell entrance: ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ blares while the video board shows Kimbrell’s name in flaming letters, which is a bit strange for a closer who is expected to put out fires, but it seems to be sponsored by Gas South.

- It was ‘Faith Day’ at the Stadium on Sunday, with a free post-game concert by Casting Crowns, a Christian rock band. I skipped, because, you know, Hasa Diga Eebowai.

Some Belated Credit

I have been trying to work this into a blog post and have not managed so far. I have been consulting, and greatly helped by, 'The Great American Ale Trail', lent to me by my good friend Charlie, in finding various 'beer bars' I have visited so far.

Authored by Christian DeBenedetti And published in 2011, 'The Great American Ale Trail' provides a state-by-state guide to local craft- beer-friendly bars, occasionally craft breweries and, even more occasionally, particular local beers to seek out.

Now, it is not a perfect guide, as the author clearly has some favourite cities, and even some favourite neighbourhoods in certain cities. (There are no notable craft beer bars in NYC's Upper West Side, really?) However, he does provide some damn useful advice. For example, of the bars I have mentioned so far, Rattle 'n Hum and the Ginger Man in NYC and The Distillery in Savannah were some of his suggestions. Max Lagers in Atlanta was not.

Just in case you were wondering how I kept stumbling into these great bars... Or stumbling out of those bars...


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Days 16-17 (May 18 & 19): Atlanta, Georgia

I was in Atlanta for less than 48 hours, checking in to the downtown Hilton at 3 PM Saturday and checking out before 9 AM Monday. For various reasons, including the fact that there does not seem to be much in downtown proper, I did not accomplish much, other than attending two baseball games. (Turner Field review to follow.)

I did, however, manage to visit a brew pub (twice at that), Max Lager's, on, oh let's say Peachtree Avenue. They brew roughly eight different flavours and carry a large selection of bottled craft beers. I tried three of their selections, starting (of course) with their IPA, the 'Hopsplosion!!!'. It was nicely hoppy and citrussy, a very good IPA. I also had their Session 3 rye pale ale, which had a lingering, but not overwhelming sweetness to the finish and their King Max Imperial pilsner, a solid, 'journeyman' beer. All in all. Three excellent brews. I had their dinner special, a roast chicken with bacon-fried collard greens and mac 'n cheese. No complaints about my meal, with the collard greens being noteworthy; the best I have had so far.

The high beer point of the evening was the Ode to Mercy Brown from Wild Heaven Brewery from Atlanta (bottle, not draft), a strong brown beer that was probably halfway between a porter and a brown ale. It was one of the most interesting, multifaceted beers I have had. It started off with strong hints of coffee and then evolved into something a bit more subtle as it aired out. This is definitely a beer to seek out.

One random Atlanta comment:

- Passing through Macon on the way to Atlanta on the Greyhound bus, we crossed the Otis Redding Bridge, which is cool.


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Days 14 & 15 (May 16-17): Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is a great, history-infused, very beautiful city. Well, at least 'historic Savannah' is, as I did not venture much past the beaten path, in part because I wanted to relax a bit, after a stretch of three cities in four nights and it turns out Savannah is a great place to relax.

The historic downtown is roughly a square mile or so, with a perpendicular lay-out that makes it easy to explore. There are 22 public squares at the intersection of the major streets, some larger than others, with a major park and a historic cemetery thrown in to boot.  It is very easy to walk around, checking out the tree-overhung street and beautiful historic homes.  Some examples:

Corner of Habersham and York Streets, Savannah

Hamilton-Turner Inn, Savannah

The historic downtown is roughly 25 feet above sea (well, river) level. The lobby of my hotel (the River Street Inn), which faced Bay Street, was actually on the fourth floor. Taking the elevator down to the first floor brought you to the river level, and the imaginatively-named River Street. River Street is cobble-stoned and features shops and often-times two levels of restaurants, which seem mostly aimed at tourists.

Between Bay Street and River Street, I at first wondered if Savannah was a bit of a resort town, mostly aimed at maximizing tourism dollars. After exploring a bit, if only the downtown part, I changed my view, as there does seem to be a thriving commercial and entertainment industry that does not seemed to be aimed at tourists.

Random observations and comments:

• The semi-improvisational nature of the trip (i.e., not a heck of a lot of planning) may be catching up:  after missing out on the Fort Sumter visit in Charleston, I missed out on the walking tour which interested me (to be fair to myself, the guy was advertising a 5 PM tour, which he turned that into a private tour). Also, the place I wanted to check out for dinner on Friday (Mrs. Wilkes' Diner) is only open for lunch on weekdays. So instead of the walking tour, I sat at a brewpub (the Moon River Brewing Company) and had beer. Oh well.

• I visited two bars of note, first, the afore-mentioned Moon River Brewing Company on Bay Street, a brew pub, which has six or seven of its own selections on tap, plus a number of American craft brewers in their 'beer gardens', essentially a large patio.  On Thursday night, I watched the OT between the Bruins and Rangers with the barmaid who, hailing from Connecticut, is a huge B's fan. So that was nice. As far as their beer goes, I did not sample them all, but their IPA and stout offerings were above average.

• The second notable bar, The Distillery, has 21 taps, featuring American crafts brews, with the odd German or Belgian import thrown in. The food I had there was very good; I had some pork riblets with a mustard BBQ sauce which were nicely tangy. 

• The State of Georgia was founded in 1733 by a man named Oglethorpe. The name permeates the city: there is an Oglethorpe Square, an Oglethorpe Avenue and a number of Oglethorpe-named companies. Every time I saw the name I could not help but chuckle and think of Oogie...

• I got back to my hotel room at 2 AM on Friday night. The local PBS station was showing the Met's current production of Rigoletto (set in Las Vegas in the 50's). I was expecting, almost hoping for, a call from the front desk to please turn down the opera.

Days 12 & 13 (May 14-15); Charleston, SC

The plan was to spend 24 hours in charleston, on the way from Washington DC to Savannah. The train from DC arrived 2+ hours late in Charleston and it turns out the Amtrak Station is actually in North Charleston, a 20 minute or so cab rode from downtown. So, 24 hours turned into 21 and the evening out I was hoping for on the 14th turned into a late dinner and local beers at a neighbouring hotel, because (thanks again, Hotwire), the 'downtown' hotel was not quite downtown.

Highlights of May 15:

- From my brief experience walking about, Charleston is a gorgeous city, with a lot of old, large, Southern-style houses (wooden clapping, sprawling balconies). There is a lot of history here, which surprised me a bit; I had not realised how old the European settlement was (early 1700's, if not late 1600's).

- I did not quite time the tour to Fort Sumter well enough, so I ended up taking a water taxi ride to Patriots' Point for military porn; i.e., a visit of the Yorktown, a decommissioned aircraft carrier which served in WWII, a WWII-era destroyer and submarine. Not quite up my alley, but was amazed at how big the Yorktown was on the one hand and how cramped the sub is.

- I had my first weather swing. For the previous 11 days, both in NYC and DC, the temperature was mostly in the high 60's/ low 70's. The high for Wednesday in Charleston was 88, and it was sunny. With the breeze blowing un from the sea, I could get used to it. (And I have mentioned this before: I miss Fahrenheit.)

- I had a great breakfast at Hominy (another eater.com recommendation), a Southern-style café somewhat outside if downtown proper. I had the 'smothered' breakfast special: a biscuit sliced open and grilled, covered with two poached eggs, country ham and mushroom gravy and served with home fries. Another contender for best meal of the trip (which reminds me I have to start to make a formal ranking).

- There was a drink menu with breakfast?!? There was a drink menu with breakfast.

- I tried a number of local beers, all of which were nice, none of which were noteworthy or awful. Still, there were more local craft breweries than I expected.

- Highway 17 crosses Charleston. Man, that highway gets around.

- What am I reading on the trip: I finished 'October Tales', a collection of some of Ray Bradbury's early short stories, including the classic 'Homecoming'. I am not reading as much as I thought I would be, because the blogging is taking up a chunk of my spare time.

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Where Was I: Verizon Center, Washington, DC (May 13, 2013)

Game Seven of the Rangers-Capitals Eastern Conference Quarter-final Series.

Prior to the game, I had a couple of pints and a burger at Penn Quarter Sports Tavern, on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Tavern is roughly 3 blocks from The Capitol and 2 blocks from the arena. Downtown arenas are cool.

Precisely because Verizon Center is built on several downtown blocks, it is difficult to get a good view and a complete sense of the building. Then again, outside architecture is certainly not as important for an NHL rink as for a ballpark.

I was sitting at the end of the rink, in Section 426, Row C, Seat 7. This was extremely convenient as it was right next to an exit to the concourse. To compare, I was probably at the same height that I was on Saturday night at Uniondale, but nowhere near the roof of the facility this time. There were roughly 15 rows of seats behind me and I had to look up to see the banners.

Pretty much the entire crowd at Verizon was wearing red, except for some pocketfuls of very loud Ranger fans (including at the back of my section). The crowd was fired up, but nowhere near as loud as in Uniondale on Saturday night. Once the Rangers went up 5-0 early about 8 minutes into the third period, the arena emptied out, which I always find a bit shocking.

During the national anthem, Caps fans blare out the 'red' in the line 'By the rockets' red glare' and the second 'Oh' (the line escapes me right now), I am guessing to honour Ovechkin.

Ransom comments:

- This was my eighth active NHL venue (15th overall) and my fifth in the past two months or so.

- Along with Mike Gartner, Rod Langway and Dale Hunter, Yvon Labre (!), an original Capital, has had his number retired.

- It is amazing how often Ovechkin ends up on the ice when he is not the one originating the contact. Very mysterious, given how strong a player he is...

- Halfway through the third period, they played 'The Hockey Song' by Stompin' Tom.

- Ticketmaster does not like Canadian customers. When I tried getting an islander ticket mid-last week, because my billing address is in Canada, the only shipping option was delivery by mail (which makes no sense). For the Caps game, only US residents were allowed to buy tickets. In both instances, I eneded up using the ticket exchange service that Ticketmaster 'offers', which is essentially ticket resales. While it was more than twice the face value, I did get my caps ticket for less than a 'new' ticket would have cost me.

- Other than the two sporting events, Washington was fairly uneventful. I did visit the National Air and Space Museum on The Mall. It was fun to see the Apollo material.

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Where Was I: Nationals Park, Washington, DC (May 12th, 2013)

Stadium Count:
- Trip: 3rd.
- Active MLB: 15.
- Overall MLB: 23.

Seat: Section 112 Row N Seat 5, on the third base side, about 40 per cent of the way up the LF foul line.

Score: Cubs eke out single runs in the tops of the 8th and 9th innings to defeat the Nationals 2-1.

For about a block or so next to the alleyway leading up to the park, there is basically a street party, at 'Half-Street', with beer counters, food, games and live music, both before and after the game.

The main entrance to the Park leads to a terrace behind centre field; by memory, the only other ballpark to which I have been that has the same lay-out is Target Field in Minneapolis. Statues of Walter Johnson, Frank Howard and Josh Gibson, who spent the bulk of his career with the Homestead Greys, grace the front entrance.

Left of the CF terrace and one level above, there is a restaurant area in right field, which features Blue Smoke BBQ, a fancy fry place, a shake place and a taqueria. Ben's Chili Bowl, a DC institution, has a concession in the Level 100 concourse. I had their half-smoke, 'all-up', which evidently means onions, cheese and chili.

To recognise baseball history in DC, as well as the past of the franchise, there is a sort of a ring of honour above the 200 level, which lists Hall of Famers who played for the Washington Senators, the Homestead Greys and the Expos (Carter and Dawson). Yeah, Expos! It is the only acknowledgement I saw of the Nats' years as the Expos.

The crowd was large (38,000+), vocal... and very, very white. I only saw two Black fans, a mother and her young daughter (I am assuming). The fan of the game was also Black, but that is about it, as far as I could tell. I wonder if this is a MLB-wide issue, a DC issue, or a MLB one that is exacerbated in DC. I will pay a bit more attention to the crowd make-up from now on.

Random comments:

- The more stadiums I hit, the more I am thinking of how I would rank them and on what basis. Some of the key elements I am thinking of might include overall 'feel' of the ballpark (yup, kind of undefined), concessions, accessibility by public transit, neighbourhood, history or acknowledgement of history and whether it is domed. Suggestions welcome.

- Teddy won the Presidents' race!

- They have cheerleaders, the NatPack, who try to get the crowd cheering and chanting. That is a minor league move, which is just bad form at a MLB baseball game.

- After the 3rd inning, the crowd does a 'cap wave', in that everybody waves their Nationals' caps in the air.

- The Nats' Gio Gonzalez was perfect through five innings.

- Given it was Mother's Day, the Nats showed a very sweet video montage of scenes from movies and television featuring mothers.

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Where Was I, in Pictures: Nationals Park, May 12th, 2013

A couple pics from Sunday's Cubs-Nationals game at Nationals Park, in Washington DC.  Blog post will follow once the wi-fi cooperates with the Blackberry...

1.- View from my seat:

2.- Respect for former Expo greats:

3.- Josh Gibson statue, from the main entrance:

Where Was I: Lincoln Centre, NYC

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Where Was I: Nasau County Memorial Coliseum

The view from the very last row...

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Days 8 & 9 (May 10-11th): New York City

Friday, May 11th:

- Coney Island

On Friday, I trekked down to Coney Island, roughly an hour train ride from Grand Central. I spent the afternoon walking the beach and the boardwalk. Random notes:

- There is a fair bit of post-Sandy recovery work going on; there were at least two fair-sized crews working on different parts of the beach.

- The public notices are in English, Spanish and Russian (cyrillic), given the large Russian immigrant population in Brighton Beach.

- I, of course, ate at Nathan's; they do make a good hot dog.

- Luna Park was not open, so I could not ride the Cyclone.

Saturday, May 11th:

1.- Gotterdammerung (the final instalment in The Ring Cycle)

Random observations:

- Props! Up until today, there had only been two props used on stage, both in Die Walkyrie (sp?); one of those, a throne for the goddess Fricka, was out of necessity, as the singer had limited mobility (she was using a cane when she came out for her bows after the performance). The other prop was a sort of gigantic eye, where images were swirling as Erda was telling Wotan about what the future had in store for the gods. Today's performance had a more classic staging, in that many props were used (e.g., chairs, table, a mechanical horse, a raft) rather than just relying on the amazing back drop. I think this more concrete approach to the production served to show that the Age of men is beginning, following the Age of the gods, sprites, giants and other mythical creatures.

- There were choruses in this opera, for the first time in the Cycle. I suspect that this is again to show that the Age of men has begun, with multitudes replacing the few gods.

- They brought out the technical crew, which numbered at least 150, to take a bow after the opera; the crowd gave them a well-deserved, enthusiastic welcome. In a way, the mechanical set was the star of The Cycle.

- I am amazed that people do not seem to dress up anymore for these kind of events. I would say that at least 40 per cent of the crowd was dressed casually, some very.

- Opera geek moment: during the second intermission, I attended the opera quiz, always the most fun part of the Met's live opera broadcasts.

2.- Nasau County Memorial Coliseum

Once Gotterdammerung was over around 5 PM, I hurried over to Penn Station to hop on a train to Uniondale on Long Island to, of course, complete an opera/hockey double-header by attending Game Six if the Penguins-Islanders Conference Quarter-Final series.

Nasau County Memorial Coliseum is now the second oldest building in the NHL; it shows. Walking in through the main gate, you feel like you're walking into a junior arena; it is cramped. The concourses are ridiculously narrow; fans were elbow-to-elbow, and that was 5 or 10 minutes before the opening face-off, with most of the fans in their seats. I left my seat with about a minute left in the second period, hoping to avoid line-ups, but I still managed to spend the entire intermission in line either for the washroom or for the concessions. I can see why they are intending to move into a modern facility.

The building is the loudest arena I have ever been in. The long-suffering Islander fans began chanting 'Let's go Islanders' about 10 minutes prior to the face-off and kept at it for a good 5 minutes into the first period. The place was electric. And loud, did I mention loud? The crowd broke into chants of 'MVP, MVP' every time John Tavares did anything worthwhile, or even when his picture was shown on the scoreboard; the cheering and chanting were deafening when he scored the Isles' first goal a few minutes into the first period. They also chanted 'Princess Crosby' when Sydney Crosby was on the ice; that is so much more imaginative than simply booing him. (Note to Sens fans: you really need to pick that one up.) The fans in the concourse were even loud: I missed an Isles goal at the beginning of the third period, but the fans in the concourse erupted in cheers when Grabner scored; it was louder than some Sens games I have attended.

My seat was in the very last row of the arena, behind one of the nets; I could touch the ceiling that overhangs around the arena. Also, I was eye level with the Isles' four Stanley Cup banners (from 30 years ago... Yup, that's a dig, Mark.). No matter, the view was great.

Unfortunately, the Isles lost 4-3 in overtime thus losing the series 4-2 to the Pens. I am not sure the building would have survived the eruption from the crowd had they scored an OT winner.

Random observations:

- I had a pretty good personal sized pizza from one of the concessions; it just shows that you can sell decent food at a sports venue. Canadian sports franchises should maybe read the memo.

- The train ride to Hempstead Station was about an hour, followed by a 5 or 10 minute cab ride to the Coliseum. It takes me roughly as long to travel to a Sens game in Kanata from downtown Ottawa by public transit. Obviously, the train was much more comfortable. Also, they run all night, which enables Long Islanders to hit the city on a Saturday night. Damned civilised, if you ask me.

- When the third period ended I started doing the math as to what time I needed to leave the rink and grab the train back to the city, given I had a 6:45 train to catch in the morning. I had visions of someone re-enacting Pat Lafontaine's 2 AM goal...


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Where Was I: Citi Field, Queens Borough, New York City, May 10th, 2013

Stadium count:

- This trip: 2nd.

- Active MLB: 14.

- Overall MLB: 22.

Seat: Section 110, Row 4, Seat 11. This is the 10th row or so, on the first base side, beside the photographers' pit, I would say about 40 feet or so up the foul line.

Result: Pirates 7, Mets 3.

First, I had the interesting trek getting to the stadium, as I had spent the afternoon at Coney Island.  It took me 90 minutes or so and three trains (F, G from first to last stop and 7) to get from the south end of Brooklyn to Willets Point in Queens.  NYC is big.

I have not been able to put my finger on why, but watching a game here felt a lot more laid back than it did at New Yankee Stadium. Maybe it was the cheaper ticket: I paid roughly $30 less for a substantially better seat.

The crowd was sparse (in fact, I do not remember them announcing admission, which usually means a pretty bad crowd...),  yet vocal, especially expressing its discontent with Shaun Marcum, who frankly stank out the joint.

While New Yankee Stadium has its Great Hall, Citi Field has the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at its main entrance. (You think maybe both teams were keeping an eye on each other's new ballpark projects...) It is exactly what it sounds like: a rotunda, spanning the height of the stadium, highlighting the career of Jackie Robinson, a former Dodger. Fine, he played in Brooklyn and broke the MLB colour barrier far, far later than it should have been broken, but still, what is the link to the Mets?

The concourses are very wide, but that should be expected in a modern stadium. Concession stands generally all feature the same standard ball park items (e.g., hot dogs [Nathan's Famous, of course], Brooklyn burgers, pretzels, etc) however, there is a fairly substantial food court in the right field concourse that provides some much diverse, and higher-end, fare: gourmet pizza, steak sandwiches, fish, etc.

There are some really nice touches:

- During the Mets' one and only rally in the 9th, a video was shown on the big screen of famous NY Met fans (e.g., Don Cheadle, Will Smith, Kevin James, John Cena) exhorting the crowd to cheer on the Mets.

- There are supersized replicas of Topps baseball cards of former Mets throughout the stadium.

- They showed a 'This Day in Mets' History' feature on the video board several times during the game. Now a lot of those items were day-to-day baseball peccadillos (i.e., 'In 1977, such and such hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th to give the Mets a win'), but it is a nice link to the team's 50+-year history. It was also nice to see that not everything that is flashed on the video board needs to have a corporate sponsor...

Of note, they did not play 'God Bless America' during 7th inning stretch.

There are a number of plaques on the walkway/sidewalk around the stadium highlighting key moments in Met history.  I made a particular point of stepping on the 1986 World Series Game 6 Met comeback one. I would have done worst, but there were people meandering about.

Day Seven (May 9th): New York City

1.- Roberta's Pizza

Over the past several months, I had come across at least a couple  mentions of Roberta's in the New York Times.  One had to do with one of their waitresses deciding last january to work one of her shifts in the buff. I am resigned to the fact that none of you will believe me when I say that this is not the reason I went there for lunch. The other article was about the restaurant itself and how, despite (or maybe in great part because of) it was hidden away in a warehouse district in Brooklyn, with no street front façade and only a small sign over a steel door, it was one of NYC's trendiest restaurant, with two-hour lineups and celebrity guests such as Bill and Hillary Rodham-Clinton.  To avoid said line-ups, I headed there for 11 AM, for pizza for breakfast.

The article was absolutely right:  if I had not known where and for what to look, I would not have known that the building was a restaurant.  It is larger than I expected, with several long communal tables and a terrace in an interior courtyard is shares with a local food-related radion station. The place clearly looks like it is a transformed warehouse, but in a good way: it has a comfortable, welcoming feel to it. I, of course, sat at the small bar (8 seats or so) at the back.  There are two kitchens: one featuring a wood-fired oven cooks the 8 or so types of pizza on the menu, the other prepares the other dishes, at which I did not really look.

I had the 'Bee Sting' pizza: tomatoes, mozzarella, sopressata and chili  with a sprinkling of honey on top.  Prepared on thin crust, it had the perfect balance of ingredients, not overloading one to the detriment of another.  The sauce/chili combination was tangy, with the sprinkling of honey acting as a nice counter-balance to the tanginess.  I would never have thought that honey should go on a pizza, but it worked.

In addition to a decent, affordably priced wine selection, they have five local beers on tap; I had the Bronx Black IPA (clearly local), which was remarkably smooth for a black IPA and the Peekskill Eastern Standard IPA, brewed somewhere north of NYC.

While there did not appear to be a queue to get in, the place did fill up whilst I was there; I would say it was fairly full from roughly noon to 1:30ish when I left.

Comped drink count: four.  I had a shot of amaro (Mario al Monte amaro) with the bartender; it is some sort of Italian version of Jagermeister.

2.- Iron Man Three

The weather was crappy, so I went to see Iron Man Three in Times Square.  It was not at all what I expected, in that Iron Man/Tony Stark is almost a supporting character in his own super-hero movie.  The movie did feature one of the better twists I have seen in a while.

3.- The Book of Mormon

A brilliant deconstruction of religion, what it aims at and what it represents, with, as is the case with Parker and Stone, brilliant use of profanity. I have one sore point is that the musical, especially in the first half, seems to in particular mock one specific an overweight, socially-uncomfortable, science-fiction-loving character.  That, to me, seems facile humour.  That the character becomes central to the second half and conclusion of the story somewhat makes up for that, however.

And, yes, I did buy a 'Hasa diga Eebowai!' t-shirt.

4.- The Ginger Man

Planning to return to Rattle 'n Hum, I ended up instead at The Ginger Man on East 36th, another great beer bar in the shadow of the Empire State Building. There are at least 72 taps, including three cask pours on the night I was there, a mix of mostly American craft and European brewers as well as  a Dieu du Ciel stout.  

(I noticed Dieu du Ciel, in bottles, at least at two other spots, Rattle 'n Hum and Gramercy Tavern I think. Nice to see them getting penetration in NYC.) The establishment  itself is large and gorgeous with solid wood fixtures and panelling.  I tried a number of IPAs, mostly from New York State (the Barrier Bitter Sweet sticks out; while it was not as hoppy as what I usually like, it did have an interesting sweet undertone), a Nitro ESB (not entirely sure what that is) and a Fuller's Bengal Lancer, a Fuller's product I had never seen before.

Yes, I  closed the joint.  And, yes, afterwards, I ended up across the street drinking with bar staff.

Comped drink count: five.  Bartender served me and a couple of others Bullitt Manhattans that had been prepared by error.

Day Six (May 8th): New York City

Highlights, of a much quieter day than yesterday:

1.- Guggenheim

I visited the Guggenheim, which was, frankly, underwhelming. The building is obviously gorgeous and walking up the circular main gallery is an interesting way to see an exhibit. However, there were way too many visitors; the place was crowded and loud, not the best environment to try to appreciate art.

The main exhibition was on 'Gutai', a Japanese art movement/collective from the early 50's to 1970 that sought to re-define art, in the post-WWII era. There was a range of types of works, with the central element or theory behind the collective being moving beyond what is understood as being art. These works included representations of how public places could be transformed into living art, large room-size projects and more traditional-looking art pieces that utilised non-traditional techniques (e.g., painting with one's feet or by using a remote-control model car). Most of the collective/movement's work falls into art deconstructionism, which is probably right interesting and thrilling for artists and art scholars.

There were a couple of side galleries that were open. One dealt with South East Asian contemporary works, none of which struck me as memorable. The other exhibited works from the gallery's permanent collection, mostly French Impressionists (Pissaro and Gauguin amongst others) and a number of Picasso's. Two of the side galleries were closed for the preparation of an exhibit on sur-realism between the World Wars, which was to open in a few days. I think I would have gotten much more out of that than the Japanese deconstructionists.

2.- Siegfried (The third instalment of the Ring Cycle, for those wondering...)

Yet another comment about the set: to simulate the environment of the cave, where Act I is set, a grey rocky scene was projected on the slabs, complete with snakes and bugs moving about on what was meant to be the cave wall. I have no idea how they did it, but it looked three-dimensional.

3.- Comped drink count: 3. The Irish bartender at Peter Dillon's, the Irish pub next to the hotel, bought me a shot of Jamieson's when I stopped in for a couple pints on the way home.

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Day Five (May 7th): New York City

Highlights of what turned out to be a pretty full day:

1.- I have now officially completely lost track of which day of the week it is.

2.- Dim Sum

Before leaving, a friend recommended eater.com (thanks, Phranque!). I have not taken the time to get very familiar with the site but it appears to be a crowd-sourced restaurant review site. In any event, they have a top 38 restaurant list for New York City, based upon reader input, which they seem to update fairly often. One of the restaurants listed was Nom Wah Tea Parlor, on a side street in Chinatown, mostly on the supposed strength of their dim sum. Now, given that the last time I was in NYC, I walked around the continent's biggest (according to our tour guide at the Tenement Museum, anyway) Chinatown, without finding dim sum, I figured I should give it a try.

Thank the gods I did.

This turned out to be at least in the top three dim sum I have ever had, if not the best ever.

Everything I ordered was very tasty, but in a different (and really good) way than I expected. It is like they set the bar for what those particular dishes should taste like, and all other iterations have lost a little bit of the definition of the original. I ordered:

- The 'original egg rolls', reluctantly, because, well, egg rolls. I was so surprised. This is not your dumb ass deep fried egg roll with plum sauce. For one thing, (and please sit down... Are you sitting? Good...), there was egg in the egg roll!!!! This was a mixture of chicken and vegetables wrapped in egg and breaded with something akin to a thin layer of Chinese bread dough and deep fried, but it was still fairly light and the crust was airy. I now have to believe that this is the original egg roll type, because of, in great part, well, you know... eggs!

- The chef's special pan fried dumplings, which combined pork and chicken. Really good, and not too greasy.

- Soup pork dumplings. This is evidently a Shanghai speciality, which I had never come across. Essentially, there is soup in the dumplings and you have to bite it in a manner that does not splurt soup all over yourself. It is quite interesting.

- BBQ pork bun (aka, sasu-pau), which was really fluffy and light. The dough tasted a it differently than other sasu-pau's I have had before; it actually had a taste to it.

3.- MacBeth

Allen Cumming stars in this one-man (plus a couple of extras) production of MacBeth. The conceit is that Cumming plays a patient to a psychiatric ward, recently admitted following a violent crime, who is exhibiting multiple personalities; i.e., the characters from MacBeth.

Right off the bat, I should say that this was not the best one-man MacBeth that I have seen, because that, of course, would be MacHomer. Allan Cumming is mostly alone on stage for the better part of two hours, with some brief inter-actions with two other actors, who play a doctor and a nurse. It is a tour de force, an impressive display of acting stamina. That being said, he sometimes does not do much to differentiate the characters; even knowing the source material, it is difficult at times to determine if it is MacBeth or his Lady who are speaking. The same goes for some of the ancillary characters.

After a while, however, I got caught up in the conceit itself: just who was this character in the psych ward; what had happened to him to get him in this state; was he a victim or a victimiser; why was he haunted? While hinted at, those questions are never answered.

4.- Artisanal

I had dinner at Artisanal, on the corner of Park Street and 32nd (or thereabouts). Artisanal is basically a restaurant built around a cheese list, which is basically its raison d'être. They feature some 80 or so cheeses, available à la carte, or in one of about a dozen cheese flights, which can be paired with wine. As for the menu, it is the French brasserie type.

I had a tuna carpaccio appetizer and the duck bourguignon (which I had never seen as a meal) as a main course. I finished the meal with a selection of three cheeses, a Spanish cow and sheep combo, a French blue chèvre and a Comté from France, a semi-hard cow's milk cheese. Of course, I did not get the names.

5.- Rattle 'n Hum

I finished the evening at Rattle 'n Hum, a bar on East 33rd, near Fifth. By my count, they have 39 taps, a mix of Belgians, Dutchies and American craft beers, including nine from NY State (and one from Joisey!)

The comped drink count is now at two, as the bartender bought me a pint.

I also NYC-geeked out as I walked from the bar, which lies in the shadow of the Empire State Building to my hotel, a block away from the Chrysler Building. Woo hoo!

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Day Four (May 6th): New York City

Highlights of the day:

- Gramercy Tavern

I was getting stirrings, hints and portents first at Boulud Sud and at Blue Ribbon Sushi, but it is now official: I am completely reacquainted with my inner foody, with a vengeance at that. It is a long-forgotten feeling, stifled by those long, gustatively distraught years in Ottawa: I want to go eat damn good food and drink damn good wine. Welcome back, old friend, and any hint of a budget be damned...

It is with that resurrected approach that I sought out Gramercy Tavern, on East 20th, for lunner. (Coined by Pam, in 'Archer', 'lunner' is the perfect word for that 4 PM meal that is required when one has a 5-hour opera to attend at 6:30.) Gramercy Tavern has been around for at least 15 years, and is generally and consistently regarded as one of the better restaurants in NYC. It is a beautiful establishment, with a dark wood bar and wall fixtures.

I sat at the bar, and ordered two appetizers: merguez sausage with beets and a fish croquette with green salad and oyster sauce, I think on a bed marinated carrots. While the merguez and beets (I ate beets, probably good karma) were nice (the spiciness of the sausage was counter-balanced with the, well, beetiness of the beets), the fish croquette was amazing. It was perfectly cooked: crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, with nary a hint of oil/fat. It was perfectly matched with what the marinated (I think) carrots it was sitting on. (They tasted somewhat like the carrots sitting in fish sauce that one gets at a Vietnamese restaurant.). All of this was washed down with a lovely German Riesling (Zilliken).

Yup, this is the life.

- Die Walkurie (Part II of The Ring Cycle)

I am going to revise my estimate of the size of the set. Each of the 24 slabs which consist the back set measure 2 feet wide by 30 feet high (rather than 40 which I had previously guessed).

The technical brilliance of the production continues to amaze me. Two examples from tonight's performance:

- Other than the two centre slabs, the other 20 were hanging down at a reverse 20-degree angle, each somewhat offset from its neighbours. A representation of wooden planks, with grain and knots, were projected on the slabs, each one unique. The two middle slabs remained vertical and a stone-grey image was projected on them. The overall effect was to depict the ceiling and chimney of the cabin in which the First is set.

- At the beginning of the Third Act, the valkyries ride in, each one 'riding' one of the slabs, on their shorter side (which were now at a 30 degree angle to the floor). Each of the slabs were randomly bucking up. A stylised picture of a horse's head was projected on the eight 'ridden' slabs, with the riders holding reins attached to the muzzle of the hose/front of the slab.

Random observations:

- No matter that intellectually, I knew that the opera was five hours long (including two intermissions), it is still surprising and somewhat tiring to have sit through it. That being said, I was far from bored and could have kept going.

- Ladies and gentlemen: Deborah Voigt! Ms. Voigt, one of the foremost current-day Wagnerian singers plays Brunnhilde. Great crowd reaction when she came out, and after each Act.

- I had not really realised (or stopped to think about it), that the Ring Cycle (so far anyway) mostly consists of scenes between two or three characters. There are very few choruses, or scenes with large casts, other than the Valkyries in Act III tonight, and some of the scenes in Das Rheingold that involve several gods and giants. Otherwise, it is basically these long (sometimes close to an hour), sung conversations between two or three characters, which involves tremendous stamina from the performers.

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Day Three (May 5th: New York City

Non-baseball related highlights:

- I had late breakfast/early lunch at the venerable Katz's Deli, on East Houston Street. I had their signature sandwich: a pastrami on rye, with a side of pickles. The pastrami was not what I expected; I figured I would essentially be getting a smoked meat sandwich. This was a lot dryer (and less salty), but far less 'fatty' and thus lighter.

The walls at Katz's are covered with pictures of celebrities that have visited/eaten there. I was a bit disappointed in that the biggest celebrity name on the wall next to me was 'only' Milla Jovovich. Once I got up to leave, I saw that immediately behind where I was sitting was a huge (2x3) pic of none other than Chris Noth and Jerry Orbach at the Deli. That brought a smile to my face. I am also taking it as another good omen for the trip that Logan and Briscoe were watching over me...

- Blue Ribbon Sushi

I had been to Blue Ribbon Sushi in the West Village (Sullivan Street) on one of my many late '90's trips to NYC with the ex, because she had found a website that had ranked the restaurant as one of the best sushi spots in the city. I had completely forgotten about this until recently when Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon McCarthy's wife Amanda tweeted about eating amazing sushi at thee Blue Ribbon in NYC. So I had to go back.

From their website, it is not entirely clear whether it is the same owners and/or chefs as the original Blue Ribbon, but they seem to be following the same approach to serving high end sushi. I ordered the omikase (i.e., chef's choice). The first course was a plate of sashimi, which included a tofu-marinated tuna, king salmon, two other fish and mackerel. The three or four pieces of mackerel were carved out of the entire fish, which was craftilly displayed on the plate.

The sashimi was followed by a plate of sushi, which included a very nice spicy lobster roll, some salmon, something akin to whitefish, sea urchin (which I have now come to tolerate) and a few others. There was one more course to come. Remember the mackerel? Its remains were deep fried served with a nice, sesame (I think) dipping sauce. Evidently, I was supposed to eat the whole thing. It did kind of grew on me as I was working my way through it, but, although I did pick at it, I could not bring myself to consume the head (or the tail for that matter), which I think disappointed the waiter.

It was definitely one of my more interesting sushi experiences.

- The Bitter End

After dinner, I ambled towards The Bitter End, on Bleecker Street, which proclaims itself NYC's oldest rock club. Having opened in 1961, the club has hosted artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Woody Allen and Lady Gaga, when they were up-and-comers. It is a small venue (roughly 150 capacity), and looks a bit lived-in (if you have been paying attention, you will know that is my kind of venue...) Of note, the acoustics are great for a club of that size.

I caught the last half of a set by a young female slide guitarist from Israel (how often have you seen those particular words strung together?), 'Kalo', according to the website. She is an accomplished guitar player and was doing a great job of channelling the Delta sound, after evidently having spent the last few months in Mississippi.

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Where Was I: New Yankee Stadium (Sunday, May 5th)

Stadium count:

- 1st for the trip. 
- Active MLB: 13. 
- Overall MLB: 21. 

Seat: Section 214B Row 17 Seat 1

Result: Oakland A's 5 New York Yankees 4. 

Sitting in the stands, I really could not escape the feeling that this is more of a replica of Yankee Stadium, with some improvements (and more luxury boxes), rather than a brand new stadium. Absent is the 'back-to-the-past' aspect of Camden Yards, the modern feel of Miller Park in Milwaukee or Citizen's Ballpark in Philadelphia or even the combination modern/nostalgic mix of Comerica Park in Detroit. New Yankee Stadium is basically Old Yankee Stadium revisited: the same general outside look, the same white canopy circling the top of the Stadium, the same dimensions to the outfield, the same seating layout, including the overhang in right field, probably the same fans looking to create a Yankee home run by stealing the ball from the present day version of Tony Tarrasco's glove.  It really makes one wonder why they had to build a new one... Oh yes, of course, I remember now: a naked cash grab (re: the aforementioned luxury boxes, and a chance no doubt to move the yardsticks on the price structure). 

If I wanted to be particularly mean, I would say that New Yankee Stadium is a Las Vegas-style reconstruction of a landmark stadium, but I will not go quite that far, as there are a number of positives to the park:

- From the main entrance, fans enter into a grand hall, which (I think) spans the height of the stadium and curves around the southern end. The hall has an almost Greek or Roman feel to it with high arches letting in the light. The arches feature large banners of former Yankee greats and provides a nice transition between outdoors and the Stadium proper.  Seeing it from the 200 level provides a true appreciation of its scale. It is a unique feature of the New Yankee Stadium which I cannot recall seeing in another ballpark. 

- The concourses (at least at the 100 and 200 level) are extremely wide. It was nowhere near to a sell-out on Sunday (maybe 75 per cent of capacity), but I imagine that even if when place is full, heading to the concessions during the game should not cause fans to miss much more than half an inning.

- There is the now de rigueur walk-around terrace in the outfield, which provides great views of the field. Evidently, one can also visit Monument Row, but either they do not allow it on game day or I arrived too late. 

Random observations:

- They still make a damn good hot dog, maybe not quite as good as in the old  Yankee Stadium, but still one of the best I have ever had. It may be a combination of the kosher franks and the brown French's mustard they serve it with. 

- I was sitting on the first base side, in the 200 level, which is the South side. We were in the shade and were quite cold, due to the wind, even though it was a nice, sunny mid-60's spring day. 

- There is an electronic scoreboard/display which spans the front of the 300 level. During mid-inning breaks, flashed through its entirety around the stadium whatever ads were shown on the main scoreboard, or the logos of the sponsor of whatever particular contest or activity was featured. This meant that between half-innings, there was no linescore (or even linescore summary) to be found anywhere in the stadium. That, to me, is a major failure for a ballpark. 

- I had to explain to the gentleman behind me that even though Travis Hafner did in fact have 13 walks, he did not have an on-base percentage of .986 and that,  rather, that was his OPS (on-base + slugging). I would say score one for sabermetrics, but I do not think much of OPS, as it is a complete construct of a stat that does not really represent anything. 

- Kevin Youkilis did not play, which was a bit of a blessing as I did not want to see him in a Yankee uniform, or hear Yankee fans chant 'Yoouukkk'; face it, Yankee fans, it is not your chant. 

- Best tid bit they showed on the score board: Jed Lowrie was the only player on the A's active roster to ever have previously faced Andy Pettite (Sunday's starter for the Yankees). It shows how inexperienced the A's line-up is.