Daily Ramblings

Last night SC and I tried a few new places in the South End. We went to the Franklin Cafe. It is a cute, small, neighborhood restaurant. They have about eight or nine tables and a bar. SC and I shared some grilled mussels, tuna tartare and the steak frites. The grilled mussels were amazing and now bear the title of "best mussels in Boston" in my book. They salt them, grill them and serve them with some melted butter for dipping. So very delicious.

Then afterwards, we decided to have some after dinner drinks at the Beehive, the new music bar in the South End. We got there around 8 PM and found a nice spot at the upstairs bar. The bartender was really friendly and we enjoyed draft beer in some hearty beehive shaped mugs. When we left the place around 10 PM, there was a line out the door, which seems typical when a new spot opens in Boston. The Beehive was cool, but I'm not so sure it warrants a line out the door.

Here's the updated summer restaurant checklist (I guess I'm adding and striking at the same time):

Beehive
Coda
Franklin Cafe
KO Prime
Lower Depths
Oishii
Toro
Union
Wagamama

I like it when you get to extend your birthday celebration over a few days.

Yesterday I got a whole bunch of my friends together for some festivities over at Pho Republique. We had some tables at the back of the bar reserved which was perfect for folks to have something to eat and drink. I even behaved myself this time and refrained from banging on the gong on the way out. After we were done at Pho, we headed down the street to the Red Fez for some more drinks.

Check out some photos from our little outing.

SC has class tomorrow night, so this evening, SC and I went out for my birthday dinner at Oishii. The food was amazing, especially the white salmon sashimi appetizer and the real Kobe beef. Mmmm... everything we ordered was excellent and the chef even came by to check on us. Oishii definitely lived up to the hype. (And by the way, I tried PF Chang's for the first time yesterday and it met my expectations for being rather mediocre. If you don't already know this about me, I am very adamant about eating authentic Chinese cuisine.)

Oh yeah - so here's the updated summer restaurant checklist:

Coda
Franklin Cafe
KO Prime
Oishii
Toro
Union
Wagamama
Lower Depths

Three down, five more to go.

SC and I tried the Lower Depths Tap Room today, the new, more upscale offshoot of Bukowski's Tavern over in Kenmore Square. The food menu was great and had lots of stuff I want to come back and try next time. SC and I both had hot dogs with cheese and guacamole and shared a basket of fries - YUM! And like Bukowski's, they have a large beer menu.

My only complaint was that the later it got in the evening, the more fratty the clientel became. Plus, I was enjoying dining alfresco until some guys sitting near us started exhaling second hand smoke in my direction. Yucka.

SC and I have been going out to eat at the same old places and we're starting to get in a rut. So, in an effort to keep our palates fresh, I've made a list of new restaurants I want us to try before the end of the summer.

Here is the list:

Coda - a more upscale joint in the former spot of the divey Tim's Tavern
Franklin Cafe - SC's got a gift certifcate
Oishii - supposedly the best sushi ever
Toro - Chef Ken Oringer's new tapas place
Union Bar and Grille - just haven't gotten ourselves over here
Wagamama - the popular UK noodle shop has crossed the Atlantic

Last night we kicked off our mission and crossed one restaurant off the list - Coda.

We had a great dinner here with FL. The food was delicious, the service was great, and the ambiance was good. And to top it off, the bill was quite reasonable - $96 for all three of us (we each had two courses and a drink), including tip.

My Caeser salad and 10oz bleu cheese burger were great. I had some of SC's mussels and mac and cheese and they were also quite good. I'd definitely go back.

Guess we can strike one off the list now!

Coda
Franklin Cafe
Oishii
Toro
Union
Wagamama

Based on PW's recommendation, I downloaded Adium, a free open source chat application for my Mac. I am so very happy with it that I just want to tell the world about it. Now that I've been using it for the past few hours, I can't figure out how I went all this time without it.

What Adium does that iChat doesn't do for me includes tabbed conversations, customizable preferences up the wazoo, and a nice notification system. And of course I love the colors and interface. Plus, how can you resist such a cute green duck logo?

Anyhow, if you are a mac user, I recommend you give Adium a whirl. Download it at http://www.adiumx.com/.

Thank you Governor Deval Patrick, House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, and Senate President Therese Murray. Thank you Massachusetts legislators for protecting our rights (I now finally have some faith in our government). Thank you to all our friends and family who donated money to Mass Equality and who contacted their representatives and asked them to vote again the gay marriage ban.

I am sooooooo happy that gay marriage will still be legal in this fine state and that SC and I don't have to rush our wedding planning. Hurrah!

Last weekend was Boston Pride and this year was a pretty fun one for us. We got up early on Saturday and headed over to TM and JC's house. They live over in the South End so they had a bunch of us over for some pre-parade brunch. TM had this whole spread of breakfast goodies from Flour - muffins, sticky buns, breads, and other goodies. And of course there were the bloody marys and mimosas.

Twelve o'clock rolled around and we slowly headed down to Tremont Street to watch the parade. We missed the first 15 minutes though so we didn't get to see the biker chicks or Deval Patrick at the lead. SM and her friends from out of town were just up the block having brunch, so they came over to meet us when they finished up.

With the parade over and some time to kill before the block party, we all headed back to TM's pad for some more mimosas outside on his deck. Good times. Before we knew it, it was time for SC and I to head over to the Alley for the women's block party.

The block party was fun. We spent a good amount of time dancing at Gypsy Bar. We ate gravy fries at Sweetwater. We watched people ride the mechanical bull at the Liquor Store (SC convinced me to go ride the bull, but of course when I went over to sign up, the guy said they were closing up... On another note, does anyone know how I can involve bull riding at my birthday party?). The great thing about the block party is that you get to hang out in bars/clubs that you normally would never go out to because they are typically very fratty joints.

With the block party ending in ten minutes, we decided to head out and grab some dinner. SC and I wolfed down sandwiches at the Parrish Cafe and then went home and crashed.

Happy Pride!

is from Microsoft! I'm not usually impressed by MS products, but this upcoming one seems amazing. Check out this video demo of MS Surface from Popular Mechanics.