Night in the Mission with Mission Chinese Food

Being born in mid-January on the same day as the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. has certainly provided some advantages. While I still wish our birthday, and our nation's holiday, was in the middle of April to serve as a buffer between President's Day and Memorial Day; it nevertheless provides an opportune time to take a well-deserved long-weekend after the commotion of Christmas and New Years. So for this year, after finding a $150/night special at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, I decided to stay local a book a room in the city for the weekend.

Arriving Saturday evening, my first stop after getting settled into my delightful corner room, was to head up to San Francisco's notable Mission district for an extremely late (8:45 PM) reservation at Danny Bowien's Mission Chinese Food. But first I had some time to kill, and luckily for me, the Patriots were playing the Texans. Thus, en route to dinner I found a BBQ restaurant and whiskey bar about a block away from the restaurant called Southpaw BBQ. 

Dinner at Bao Bei

The Stanley Park Seawall
2016 Vancouver, BC

Waking up on the final day of my Vancouver adventure, I was treated with my first sample of Pacific Northwest rain. In fact, it rained pretty much all morning and into the afternoon. This left me only two hours to take a stroll through Stanley Park, return back to the crib to wash up, and then head to my final dinner in Vancouver at Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie.

Bao Bei's neon sign
Photo Credit: Museum of Vancouver

Dinner at Blue Water Cafe

The day trip to Victoria, even with the aid of a point-to-point sea plane, was a lot to tackle in under 12 hours. By the time I arrived back at my room, I only had a few moments to wash up and head to dinner at the Blue Water Cafe.

The Blue Water Cafe - located in Vancouver's Yaletown neighborhood - has a reputation as one of Vancouver's greats for fresh seafood. This made its choice for my trip a no-brainer, as I was looking for restaurants that leveraged the local abundance in their cooking. Upon arriving, I was greeted by a vibrant restaurant with a lively outdoor cafe-like seating area. Entering the establishment, I was somewhat surprised to find a rather large open dining area with show kitchen, impressive aquarium-accented bar, and complete sushi and raw bar.

Final dinner in NYC at Restaurant Daniel

The final full day in NYC turned out to be a busy one, as the Madre and I criss-crossed midtown Manhattan from A to B to C, back to A, then to B, until finally heading back to A. Highlights include enjoying the wonderful Gustav Klimt exhibit at the Neue Galerie, doing a little shopping in Midtown, back to Restaurant Daniel in the upper east side for dinner, and capping it off with a wonderful night at the theater.

Unobtrusive, yet elegant entry to Restaurant Daniel

NYC Black Friday dinner at ESCA

Day two of the Bart Family New York City trip had its highs and lows. It started out on a high note, visiting Ground Zero, the New York Stock Exchange, and Federal Hall. I was particularly impressed with the reflecting pools - the largest man-made waterfalls in North America - as the water seemingly cascaded down into oblivion. Such is the hope that we can rise from our abyss of despair and move forward towards a brighter tomorrow.

The low came when we made it to B&H, looking to purchase a used camera, only to find the place closed at 1:30 PM. At least I can take solace knowing I didn't drop hundreds of dollars on a camera and the requisite accessories. This trip to NYC is already over budget slightly, so every pinched penny counts.

And with that - a day wandering from midtown to downtown and back - the Madre and I find ourselves at an up and coming gem specializing in Italian seafood: ESCA. Born from the likes of Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, and James Beard award-winning chef Dave Pasternack; the New York Times' Frank Bruni coined Dave “an honest-to-God fisherman, in love with the ocean, and ESCA is his ongoing ode to it.” As one who loves both seafood and Italian cuisine, this place immediately garnered my attention.

Crudo stampler #1
2016 ESCA. New York City, NY

NYC Thanksgiving 2016 at Dovetail

Greetings from crowded yet refined New York City. This year, the Madre and I decided to change things up and celebrate our Thanksgiving in the Big Apple. The inspiration for this decision came as I watched the 2016 Tony Awards. Here were all these amazing shows performing, and as one who lives on the west coast of this great country, I realized that I may not see any of them while their principal casts were on stage. A few days later, I booked my flight to NYC and bought tickets to The Waitress. Gutsy considering I had yet to tell the Madre of my plan. It all worked out, however, and as I sit here at the Hotel Intercontinental Time Square writing this post... so far so good.

To be blunt: today was a complete lounge waste of a day. I arrived into EWR at 9:45 AM after 5 hours of red eye bliss. By the time I got to the hotel to meet up with the Madre, our room wasn't ready, so we sat in the hotel lobby for a few hours before grabbing a dim sum lunch. A universal truth: Chinese  restaurants are always open on American holidays. We posted up at a coffee shop for another hour until our room was ready, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from the travel and watching football.

This really wasn't a problem because - having lived in Connecticut for a few years in the past - there are no true touristy things that I need to do. My entire goal for this trip was to eat at some amazing restaurants, see some amazing Broadway, check out a Gustav Klimt exhibit at the Neue Galerie, and possibly see some friends from my Stamford days. To kick off the trip's dining program, our first dinner was at the upper west side restaurant called Dovetail.

Football Bucket List Update - Fall 2016

Just a brief update on my football bucket list as the 2016 football season comes to a close. MSU is hot toilet, so no bowl game in store for me this year. That leaves three games, and venues, to tick off the list below.