Cocktail Confessions

A buddy of mine just sent this to me.  It’s a link for a huge BBQ festival held at the Sports Park in Fountain Valley, CA come August 18th thru the 21st this year.  I haven’t checked it out myself, but I’m surely interested.

You can buy tickets early and there will be 6 award winning BBQ teams present.

From the webpage:

Welcome to the official website of The Orange County BBQ Bonanza to be held August 18-21, 2011, at the Fountain Valley Sports Park in Fountain Valley, California. You won’t want to miss this event!

The West’s Best BBQ All-in-One Outdoor Family Festival!

Thursday, August 18th — 5 PM – 10 PM
Friday, August 19th — 11 AM – 11 PM
Saturday, August 20th — 11 AM – 11 PM
Sunday, August 21st — 11 AM – 9 PM

FREE Souvenir E-Picture!

The Orange County BBQ Bonanza is the largest four day BBQ Extravaganza featuring the WORLD’S BEST BBQ Ribs, Pulled Pork, Tri-tip, Sausages, Chicken and more. The competition is fierce and the flavors rich as National Award Winning Rib Cookers of America and local grillers produce the best that their secret recipes have to offer.

Come Have a Toe-tappin, BBQ-eatin’ Good Time!

We combine local and nationally known bands, the BEST BBQ IN TOWN, giant food court (chinese, mexican, local eateries and american foods — something for everyone), children’s area (including carnival rides, bounces, magicians, and storytellers) and stage, dance floor, arts and crafts, cantinas (serving water, beer, wine, liquor drinks — “The Screaming Cowboy” and Margaritas), to create the largest BBQ Extravaganza, right here in Southern California.

Jon bottling beer

In my post published April 14, Brew Bakers (Part I) , I was able to share with you the experience of my friends and I actually brewing our respective beers.  It was a few weeks later that we made a reservation (April 2nd) to go back and now bottle our beer.

Unfortunately, due to unforseen personal reasons, Brian couldn’t make it that day but our mutual friend Jon would be able to step in for him and pick up the slack.

Brew Bakers happened to be much busier this particular day as they were hosting a children’s ‘root beer’ making birthday party along with pizza’s and a lot of anxious kids.  I can’t blame them for their excitement.  How many kids get to brag that they made their very own soda pop and then bottle it at a brewery and have artisan pizza to boot?  I know I would have enjoyed this as a kid myself.

There also seemed to be a large number of tasting patrons this day as well.  That is, not really making any beer, but just came in to sample various bottled creations up at the bar.  Something I’d also do more often if I lived a bit closer myself.

We had an intial start time of 2pm, but because of some paperwork snafus, the birthday party, and overall general bee hive of activity that day, we really didn’t get to start before 2:30 and some change.  So what did we do as we patiently waited?  Have some more samples of course!

Finally when a bottling station opened up, Sam was up first.  Seeing that he only had a 1/2 order to begin with and already a 1/2 hour behind schedule, we all chipped in to label his bottles. 

The bottling process itself is a bit mechancial and repetitive.  You place two (2) 22oz bottles in an upright stainless steel case with a plexi-glass front.  Once the front slides down, using a pnuematic control you begin to fill your bottles first with CO2 for a count of 5-Mississippi.  Then you flip the switch in the other direction to begin pumping your brew from your plastic fermenation keg into the actual bottle, about half way up the neck.  Once filled, we remove the bottles and then using a hand cranked capping device, we place the virgin zinc bottle caps on top and crimp in place.  Voila!  Rinse and repeat until all your bottles are done.

When the second bottling station opened, I began to ‘birth’ my 72 bottles, two at a time.  I didn’t have my labels with me this day as I opted to make mine at home with the artistic help of my friend Joe.  Once Sam was done with his 1/2 order, Jon was able to start on Brian’s beer.  I’m sure Sam volunteered to go first because this allowed him to get another ‘mac & cheese’ sandwich like we had before, (although it wasn’t as big as last months offering to his chagrin).

Towards the end of Jon’s and my bottling endeavors, we started to come up just a tad bit short in a full 72 bottles each.  I barely managed to squeak by….my last two bottles only filled about 2/3rds of the way up.  However, Brian’s lot came up short a whole 6 bottles.  The nice thing about Brew Bakers is that they guarantee a complete experience, and seeing that we paid for a full batch, they made good on their promise and allowed Jon to hit the fridge and pick any 6 bottles he wanted to complete the order.  So in a way Brian may be the luckiest of the bunch…he ended up with 66 of his own bottled brew and 6 various other home made beers that he could sample on his own.

We also learned that they have discounted brewing services on Thursday’s, so next time around I’ll be sure to book an appointment for a Thursday afternoon….allowing me to leave work early for a day and make some brew at a fration of the price.

Now as far as labeling goes, I had my friend Joe Tingle use his Photshop skills and come up with a label under my direction and our joint creativity.  He came up with the words “He-brew” one evening as we joked around and an image of Charelton Heston as Moses from the classic movie ‘The Ten Commandments’ came to my mind…hands outstretched before the Red Sea.  In each hand a 40oz beer.  I sketched out the design and left it up to Joe to come up with a prototype mock up.  His first pass at the label showed a lot of promise and I knew we were on the right track.  With a few additional suggestions from me, some changes to color, font size, and effects, the label was born.  When Joe emailed me the final .JPG file, I was ecstatic to go to our local office supply store and buy the appropriate Avery labels for my color ink-jet printer.  After an initial few test prints of diffrent qualities and sizing, we finally had our finished labels:

In the coming weeks, we plan on hosting a joint BBQ at my house where we’ll sample each others beers along with various sausages, hot wings, and other goodies.

Seems like this entry has been at least a month, if not more in the making.

At the beginning of this year, I outlined a ‘bucket-list’ of things I wanted to accomplish this year, and I started out with a bang the first two months.  I have lost close to 25lbs already, made at least 10lbs of two sausage varietals from scratch, built the basic framework for a 3.5′ x 6.5′ N-scale benchwork in my spare bedroom, and even attempted to get my friends together to rent a 31ft RV to go camping (that failed miserably, but not because I didn’t try).

Another item on my list this year was to brew a fresh batch of beer.  Well, I finally made the appointment back for March 12th of this year up at Brewbakersof Huntington Beach.  If you’ll recall, I mentioned that back in the spring of 2005 I made a large batch of ‘Frankie Beer’ (sure, it’s not the most creative of a names….it was named after my Mini-Schnauzer) and it was a hit with my neighbors, friends, and family for the 4th of July weekend back then.

Well here I am, almost six years later and I managed to get my good friends Brian and Sam to join me this time around for the experience.  We had a great time together; we tasted some phenomenal beers whilst brewing our own, had some delicious beer bread to take home from the used mash of our efforts, had a gut-busting grilled-macaroni & cheese sandwich, and of course just had a great time hanging out for the afternoon.

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It’s a tad bit more expensive than I remembered, but isn’t everything 6 years later?  Then again, Brewbakers has everything self-contained, meaning no large mess or epic scale clean up at my house at the end of the day, and all the tasting of fabulous brewed beer our fabulous hosts could pour down our gullets.  I swear, I think we were starting on a decent buzz even before we picked up our first bowl of grain!

Sam made a Chocolate Stout, Brian – a whisky inspired ale, and yours truly attempted a Honey Amber Ale.  By far, Sam’s recipe and efforts were the most complex….he had at least 6 pounds of various grains, chocolate, hops and more for his creation whereas mine was probably the simplest (although I added a tad bit more honey and cut back slightly on the hops to alter the flavor towards the sweeter side of things).  Brian and I each made an equivalent of close to a keg’s worth (72 x 22oz bottles), whereas Sam made 1/2 a batch (36 x 22oz).

It’s a really fun and educational process to boot, (so kids, tell your mom you wanna make beer..it’ll advance your knowledge in the history and science!).  Once you pick out a recipe that sounds good to you…many mimic the taste of many popular craft beers, or you can bring your own in as well, you’re given a kettle station, stainless steel bowls, measuring devices and scales and off you go.

Once you pick your toasted grains and measure them all out, you’ll need to mill them to help break them apart and remove some of the chaff.  Then into the kettle of boiling water where you’ll steep it every so often for the next 1/2 hour or so.  Towards the end of the rolling boil time limit, that’s where you’ll add you liquid ingredients such as honey, adjunct, molasses, etc. and give it a thorough stirring with large paddles.  Next, we hit the fridge unit and dig out our fresh hops to add and let sit a bit longer.

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Soon enough our respective brews are pumped out of their brass kettles into a plastic lined barrel where we then add our last, yet most vital ingredient: live active yeast cultures.  Once our yeast is added in to start the fermentation process, our plastic barrels are sealed up and stored away in a temperature controlled room where they’ll sit for 3-4 weeks before we come back to bottle.

From start to finish the process takes just around two hours.  Brewbakers has this down to an efficient science as they need to clean up the kettles, counters, etc., and get ready for the next round of scheduled appointments.  That being said, we were there closer to 3.5 hours, spending the first 30 minutes or so sampling various beers already on draft.  And while we were brewing and steeping our grains, we had one of the best grilled sandwiches ever.  The gooey mac-n-cheese on grilled beer bread was just divine.  All three of us had it and walked away more than satisfied.  If you’re still hungry, Brewbakers also makes their very own soft pretzels and rolled out pizza.

One of the best things about Brewbakers is its atmosphere.  Everyone is there for a good time, usually creating beers for birthday parties, anniversaries, special events, etc.  They also let kids come in and make root beer, and next door, if you like wine, there is a separate establishment that will guide you through making your own wine.  The staff at Brewbakers are fun, energetic, and friendly.  But still the best part to me is perusing the homemade labels.  See, since this is your beer, you also get to flex your creative muscles and design your own labels.  For a slightly extra charge Brewbakers will print out a few sheet for you, provided you send them a digital .jpg file, but I’m no stranger to this.  I have a color ink-jet at home, and just need to buy the appropriate Avery labels and make my own. 

Anyway, the walls are littered with examples and past pride and a real treat to look at.  Some are tame, some a bit more risque, most are funny or a clever play on words.  Some look like they were done in 10 minutes while others look like real pieces of art, but they all have a certain amount of charm in their own right and you cannot get bored discovering all these little slices of peoples lives captured in these micro-events of a 3″ x 4″ label.

Next…returning in 3 weeks for bottling!!

So it’s that time of year again, the time of year where companies try and pretend to get into the seasonal spirit and motivate employees by attempting to throw a ‘holiday’ party to help boost morale.  Note I said *holiday* because in a nation founded under the principles of a single creator, the political correct police and ACLU have infiltrated all facets of our lives and God forbid (pun intended) we offend someone.

It actually started with the ‘no tree’ policy this year.  When I started at my current place of employment just over three years ago, I recall that the department I worked in allowed its employees to decorate their cubicles with lights, and cards, and in the main lobby was a large Christmas tree.  Our division had a potluck and our boss took our particular department out for lunch.  Amongst ourselves a few people traded gifts if they wanted to and everything seemed ‘okay’, although somewhat downplayed a tad.

Two years ago we were told no longer could we decorate cubicles with lights.  It was now considered a possible saftey issue that could result in a fire or someone tripping.  We were also told too many decorations, Christmas or otherwise, was not in the ‘spirit’ of making our offices look neat, organized, and professional.  The tree was still in the lobby, but now the optional holiday lunch was in the cafeteria, although we had to do it in shifts and there was no longer any adult beverages. 

Last year the ‘departmental’ lunch was not in the budget, and we had a mandatory all company party in the warehouse.  They rented one dilapidated pool table, 8 ping-pong tables (each in various states of disrepair), and a few blackjack tables.  You could tell this was asian thing…it was all about ping-pong, gambling and bad karoke.  And who the hell thought one pool table was going to be enough for over 500 employees?  And yes, I want to hear broken-english Japanese metro-sexuals singing Christmas carols.

This year, there is no tree.  I guess I wasn’t the only person who noticed, but the poor receptionist wasn’t given any information to quell our various inquiries.  It’s all speculation as to why there is no tree.  Perhaps its a budget thing?  Well, that wouldn’t surprise me as it seems anything that costs more than $5 these days needs a myriad of signatures and approvals both up and down the chain anymore.  We also just terminated 21 employees the week after Thanksgiving, so maybe it was one of those poor folks that did the ordering and decoration of this years said missing tree?  Maybe no one felt festive enough to put up a tree with the black cloud of despair so thick in the air?

Nothing says "Happy Holiday's" like a car dealership.

But here’s the kicker…..we have a MANDATORY party offsite at a…car museum…of all places?  WTF?  Seriously….WTF? 

And get this, the company is asking us to come in early that day so we don’t lose a lot of productivity time AND they want us to carpool together to get there and back.  Yes, not only is the party looking to be mandatory (an automatic buzzkill in my opinion to make it required), but we now have to adjust our schedules to make sure we get to work by 7am in the morning AND they won’t rent any shuttles or buses, so we have to carpool oursleves?  Why in the heck do I want to drive the opposite direction of where I live to attend a party at a car showroom I don’t care about and make arrangements to get there and back in the middle of rush hour traffic??

Okay, so you’re probably thinking, “Hey, why don’t you be thankful you get a party to begin with, jerk?”  Yeah, I get that.  Yeah, I’m happy I have a job, that I wasn’t one of those 21 people who was let go just a mere 4 weeks prior to Christmas, I totally get that.  It’s the fact that this ‘morale boosting’ project is at a location no one wants to go to, cares about, and the discussion everyone is having is “Do we have to go?” , “Can we leave early?”.  I get that part of it.  Again, why do I want to drive further away from my house and get stuck driving back in rush hour traffic playing either playing taxi driver myself, or being dependent on someone else? 

Look how much fun we aren't having.

And why Euromasters showroom?  At the end of the day, it’s a CAR DEALERSHIP.  My ‘holiday’ party is at a fricken CAR DEALERSHIP.  Go ahead, repeat that out loud.  Now say that again.  Our holiday party is at a honest to goodness car dealership.   I don’t care if it is 37,000 square feet.  Can I drive the cars? No.  Can I sit in them? No.  Can I touch them? No.  Am I getting a new car that day?  No.  So what the heck are we going to do there?  Look at them and marvel from afar while we eat Subway sandwiches and drink luke-warm soda (no alcohol folks) from either a can or generic styrofoam cup with 500 other employees?  On top of all this blur of excitement, our V.P. sent out an email today asking that we wear ‘holiday sweaters’.  Oh joy.  How original.  How 1950′s and clever we are.  He wants us to wear our sweaters because “it’s cute“.  Yeah, and it is also supposed to be 80 degrees in So. Cal. that day, so no, I’m not wearing a fricken sweater.  Really?  This is our motivational holiday party?

I think I’ll be calling in sick that day.

Mark your calenders, and for good reason too.

We all know what September 11th means and stands for.  There’s no denying it’s a pivotal and defining moment in our nations history no matter what ethnic or religious background. 

While there are indeed multiple ways to show your respect, mourn, and remember your own way there is also an annual event held at Hidden Valley Park in Irvine, CA.  It’s near Wild Rivers and the old Verizon Amphitheatre where the 405 and 5 FWY’s meet.

The Orange Country Brew Ha Ha is an event to help show appreciation to our firefighters for both serving and protecting us.  It’s a beer festival where a portion of all proceeds collected will be donated to benefit The Fallen Firefighters Foundation, a non-profit organization that is leading the effort to honor America’s fallen firefighters.

There is scheduled to be over 50 of both San Diego’s and Orange County’s finest breweries.  This should include a selection of over 100 (yes one hundred) crafted beers for your tasting and enjoyment.  Hours are from 12pm to 3pm, Saturday, September 11.  I believe parking is free and the park is very nice, large, and secluded from civilization.

General admission is $35 in advance ($40 at the door, cash-only), so go ahead and buy online.  VIP is $45 and includes 2 extra tastes, VIP parking, 1 hour early entry, and a free beer appreciation seminar (?).  There’s also a $60 Gold VIP deal too, but you can go to the website to check that out and what you get.

No one under 21.  They will have designated drivers available for a $10 fee.

Some extras you can look forward to:

• Over 100 craft beers
• Commemorative festival glass
• Ten 4oz tastes (you can buy more tastes)
• Beer tasting seminars
• Free parking, soda, and water
• More, but too boring for me to list..

Well, anyone up for another foodie review?  Good.  This past weekend I had the pleasure of getting out of the house with my buddy Jon, and we decided to head just slightly out of our geographical comfort zone and head up to the city of Orange.  There’s a lot of interesting restaurants of all ethnic varieties scattered throughout Orange and some really interesting digs in Old Town Orange.

Well, I had a hankering for some BBQ this summer evening, so I suggested to Jon that we open the sunroof up on my Ford Edge, crank up the tunes, drive up HWY 241 and head into Orange the back way and mosey into old Johnny Rebs’.  I’ve been to Johnny Reb’s a handful of times now and it is an interesting place to say the least, and I’d suggest it to anyone who wants a little something different in the barbeque experience.

There are 4 Johnny Rebs’ locations in CA and you can visit their main page and click on the ‘locations’ link to see them all in case you ever make it out to the Golden State.  Personally, I think the one located in Orange is the nicest looking of the bunch.  It has a very unique street facade, that while looking slightly out of place in a somewhat modern city, brings a down south charm to the neighborhood.  It often reminds me of a themed ride you may find at Knott’s Berry Farm or some other Californian ghost town like Bodie.

Red Trolley Ale served here.

Rebs’ was established in 1984 and tries to bring in the influences of Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina to the forefront in it’s aesthetic style, food choice, and hospitality.  According to their own website, it was Zagat rated as the Best BBQ Restaurants in Southern California (2004), although its not clear which location.  To be blunt and honest though, a lot of BBQ joint have sprung up in the last few years and I daresay I think I’ve had some better BBQ in 2010 such as Bad to the Bone in San Juan Capistrano, CA amongst a few others as well.

Speaking of hospitality though, Johnny Rebs’ does excel.  Everyone there is extremely nice and helpful and I find the staff generally chatty and pleasant, often coming around the table more than a few times to check on your meal, your satisfaction, or if you need anything else.

Johnny Reb's, Orange

The place itself is a site to behold, both inside and out.  As I mentioned earlier, it has a really nice ‘rustic’ vibe, both inside and out, and the setting and decor itself transports your mind back in time.  I think older folks and kids alike will enjoy the ‘log-cabin’ feeling on the inside, the swamp inspired waiting area outside, and of course the covered patio room located on one side of the building.  It was packed this particular night with a waiting list outside.  They also cater to parties as well and we witnessed the ritual “pig-kissing” and dancing for some old coot’s birthday that the whole place gets involved in as well.

There’s a small bar located centrally within the restaurant, which allows standing or seating for a good 6-8 people and they serve various beers on tap, some common and some uncommon ones as well.  This day, Jon and I both had a large schooner of Red Trolley Ale and it just seemed perfect for the setting.  While the beers are nice and cold and the staff friendly, I was discouraged to hear that the lemonade was actually from concentrate.  WTF?  Concentrated lemonade at a BBQ joint?  That just seems sacrilege and wrong and not an area a fine BBQ joint should be cutting corners on.

There’s tons of peanuts on the floor as well.  It’s one of those places you can get your own roasted peanuts, shell ‘em, and then toss them on the floor.  It’s fun and adds to the charm as well.  But the one bone I have to pick here is that the peanuts aren’t always fresh.  Sorry, but I’ve seen them toss new peanuts on top of the older ones in the barrels there, meaning the older ones never get rotated enough and thus just get older.  Not just this time, but other times my party has commented that we’ve always gotten more than a few stale peanuts, and there just really isn’t an excuse for that either.

For openers, Rebs’ has a really nice lineup of down south appetizers.  I’m not going to list them all here, but you can’t go wrong with their cornmeal dipped fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, sweet potato french fries, fried okra, or my personal favorite: fried dill pickles.  Yup, everyone looks at me sideways at least twice when I order them, but I think I have converted quite a few.  These dill pickles are sliced like a quarter, then breaded in cornmeal, deep fried, and served with a side of ranch dressing.  Yum!  Oh, and I may as well mention here they make their own biscuits and cornbread as well.

Between us, we split an order of the fried dill pickles and an order of sausage.  The pickles were as ever good as I recall, and ths sausage was moist and peppery.  Although when I think BBQ sausage, I think we were expecting more of a traditional hand made sausage, and this was more like a kielbasa link served with BBQ sauce.

Okay, so now onto the main fare: Like most BBQ joints you won’t be surprised to find both beef and pork ribs, fried or BBQ chicken, tri-tip and brisket in various forms, and catfish.  They also have pork chops & gravy, Cajun sausage, and blackened prime rib or sirloin steak.  Now since we are going to a BBQ joint, we are going for the ribs.  But give the menu a good looking over, there are plenty of bbq inspired sandwiches, a few salads and fish dishes as well.  Prices are average to slightly below average from what you’d expect in a BBQ joint.  Expect a dinner meal for two with drinks and appetizers to run about $65, and of course it’d be less for the smaller dishes or lunch.  They also serve a pretty exciting country breakfast as well.

I had a 1/2 rack of St. Louis ribs along with a side of mac-n-cheese, Cajun rice, and biscuit.  Jon had a 2 meat sampler of sausage and ribs along with mashed potatoes, biscuit, and something else I can’t recall right now, maybe baked beans.  The one thing you need to know about the sides is that you can request a second helping of any of your ordered sides, at no additional cost when your server comes back on by to check on you.  For me, I had a second helping of mac-n-cheese, although it wasn’t the best mac I’ve ever had.  Many places make gourmet mac with a combination of 2-3 cheeses, or a creamier texture by adding Velveeta.  Personally, Rebs’ came up a bit short in my book as their mac-n-cheese only uses one type, cheddar, and it was a little one-note and dry.  Same for my Cajun rice….it was a bit dry and bland and not what I was expecting or hoped for.  I did enjoy my ribs however, eating every last one and was happy with the amount of meat and taste I got for St’ Louis style (I usually get baby back pork).

Jon didn’t finish his whole meal, opting to take a portion home, but he seemed to enjoy it none-the-less.

At this point we were pretty full from our meal, opting not to have any desert, but here’s the quick rundown on the sweets: drop biscuit peach or chocolate cobbler, southern pecan pie, key lime pie, fried Mississippi mud pie, apple pie and vanilla ice cream.  I did note one special addition I hadn’t seen on the menu: a banana and nilla wafer pudding parfait I imagine was served in a mason jar that I would have liked to have tried but skipped out on it.

This place was tougher than I thought it was going to be to score.  There are some pretty definitive pro’s, yet a few things that after thinking about it a bit more make me want to hold back.  Overall: 3.

Ambiance: 4 – The nostalgic decor, peanuts in the floor, rustic look, and picnic style seating make for a fun and cozy atmosphere for most.  Bathroom could use a little extra love.

Hospitality: 4 – Very friendly and attentive staff who seem to be cheerful and chatty with the customers.  Something you’d expect from the South.

Food: 3 – Decent prices.  Great appetizers and desserts really open and close the show nice.  Main fare was ‘okay’, missing a bit of that smokey element one looks for in BBQ.  Some of the sides were one note and sub standard in some cases, but at least you can get an extra helping if need be.

Freshness: 2.5 – Rice was dry, mac-n-cheese a bit dry, lemonade from concentrate (?), stale peanuts, and ribs missing that ‘it’ factor kinda bummed me out.

Value: 3 – Extensive menu, extra sides, prices are good for the portion size you get

Ahhhh….two of my favorite things are coming together this October 3rd at the Fiesta Gardens just outside Austin, Texas.  The marriage of good ole smokey Texas style BBQ and the sounds of fidgeting pocket protectors of all us techno weenies who are proponets of Google technologies, namely the Android OS.  Unfortunately, and to my utter dismay I will not be attending.

I didn’t want to doctor up their own advertisment too much, so here’s the cut and paste promotion from the dudes over at Android and Me:

This October marks the two year release of the G1, the first Android device many of us came to know and love. Soon, it will also mark one of the largest, wildest, most beef-fueled, community-organized gatherings of Android fans ever attempted. The Big TX Android BBQ will be thrown on October 3rd, at the Fiesta Gardens in Austin, Tx. The event is being hosted by the likes of Android Swag, Android Guys, @thedroidguy, @bigkeivan, and of course, Android and Me. 

For a measly $25 (until Aug 15) you get all-you-can-eat BBQ, a totally rad free tee (designed by our own Angie Strickland), all the Android fellowship you can handle, and maybe some special guests. Aaron from Android Swag has been wheeling and dealing trying to land solid entertainment and guests for the BBQ but so far has been keeping his surprises close to his chest. 

To make it as easy as possible to attend, Aaron even lined up a discount code for those flying Continental. Using the code ZJE9896123 will get you a cool 10% off flights and we are still working on lining up some hotel (or even some camping) discounts for people who want to spend a few days here in Austin.

For more attendance info, go ahead and check out the offical site here.

If any of you do attend, I’d love to see some pics.  Feel free to send them to me here: cocktails1@hotmail.com and I’ll post them and give you credit as well (.jpg format please).

Oh, and by the way, there is official rumor that the long awaited Adobe Flash 10.1 will be available sometime today (Aug. 24th) for Android based smart phones.  You may have to do a search over at the Android Market Place for “Flash 10.1″, but it seems our wait is just about over.  But don’t yell at me if it is delayed a day or two,…they’ve done it before, but this time looks like it is legit.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately for Five Guys Burgers and Fries establishments. With President Obama proclaiming this one of his favorite burger chains, their positive reviews in the esteemed Zagat guide (since 2001), and it’s 2010 trumping of previous champion In ‘N Out Burger in California (Los Angeles) as the best and freshest burger in the state, it was time I checked this out myself.

As luck would have it, my friend Brian mentioned that he and his business partner were going to try it out today for lunch and there was an open invitation for anyone in the area. Thankfully Google Maps pins the Orange location as only 6.9 miles from my job, so I agreed to meet them there at 11:30am.

Wow! The line was huge. It was out the door and down the sidewalk at least 60 people deep and then some. It took us almost 25 minutes just to get to the ordering counter, and the line never let up the whole time we were there. Another friend of mine chimed in that the line is like that starting at around 7:30pm every night!

Well, once we placed our order, it only took about 5 minutes for us to hear our number called out. We also lucked out in that we procured an inside table as the current outside temperature was in the 90’s, and the outdoor tables were metal to boot with no real shade!

Like In ‘N Out burgers, I think the key to 5 Guys success is pretty self-evident….keep the menu simple. It’s one of those cases where ‘less is more’, and when you keep the menu limited to only a few choice items, this allows for a greater concentration of quality on your product.

They serve burgers, hot-dogs, and a few select sandwiches (such as grilled cheese or veggie) and fries. The burgers are $4.99 and by default are two-patties. If you want a smaller burger, order the ‘junior’ for a buck less, and you get 1 patty. You can also add cheese and bacon.

All the condiments are free. They include the traditional ketchup, mustard, lettuce, pickles, mayo, relish, and grilled onions. Premium additions include jalapeños, mushrooms, green peppers (not Ortega), hot sauce, bbq sauce, and A-1 sauce. All of these are free, and according to their website this allows for 250K unique combinations. I’ll take their word for it.

Regular & Cajun Fries

Fries are just as simple: Large or regular sized, plain or Cajun. These are fresh cut fries cooked in peanut oil and guaranteed no trans-fat. We opted for the Cajun style fries and we all agreed the spice was perfect. It may not have been the crispest fry out there, but for sure they use something akin to a sea salt, and when lightly dusted with the combined garlic, paprika, and other spices, it makes for a pretty damn good fry.

Five Guys doesn’t use any freezers. All their meat is fresh and stored in coolers prior to cooking. They cook them one way: well-done, and no one seems to complain. All the other ingredients are just as fresh.

My burger with green peppers

I myself ordered a cheeseburger with the following: grilled onions, ketchup, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and green peppers. It was wrapped in foil upon arrival and gorgeous. The green peppers were crisp and bright, bun was fresh, the onions grilled to caramelized perfection, however, my cheese wasn’t as melted as those of my peers. In the end, though, it was great and I can now understand all the hype surrounding this joint.

Inside, the place has stark white walls with red accents, very similar to In N Out as a matter of fact. I noticed the place was pretty clean, actually surprising clean for the amount of foot traffic inside. While we were there I noted employee’s just dedicated to cleaning tables and doors, sweeping floors, and taking care of the trash. Despite the cleanliness, it is pretty plain and non-descript and seems somewhat loud and chaotic inside. It doesn’t help that the line weaves right next to the tables in which you eat as well.

Despite the ridiculous line at the time we went, I give my experience at Five Guys a solid 4 out of 5 (breakdown):

Ambiance: 2.5

Food: 4

Freshness: 5

Value: 4

This past weekend Monica and I were able to join our friends for a Flamenco dance and dinner show at the historic El Cid theatre located on the sunset strip near downtown Los Angeles.

The initial incentive was that our friend Brian was able to score some heavily discounted tickets for the show via an offering from groupon.com.  Personally, I have yet to use groupon myself, but I understand that have killer deals daily for various group activities at all kinds of different locals.  I need to check it soon for some additional outings.

In attendance would be Brian and his fiancé, Shea, their friends Chris and his wife, Michelle, my old college buddy Sam and his wife, Alicia, and finally my wife, Monica, and myself. 

We all decided to meet at the El Cid just prior to 7pm, so we took 3 sets of vehicles.  Our own drive wasn’t so bad until we transitioned from the 5 fwy to the 101 north.  The last 15 miles or so seemed to drag on as our average speed was about 15-20mph.  But that is pretty much Los Angeles traffic at any time these days, and we finally pulled up to valet parking at 6:50pm.

I wasn’t exactly sure what I was expecting to think the El Cid to look like.  The building itself was built around 1900 by D.W. Griffith and was used to screen the now famous movie, “Birth of a Nation” back in 1915.  In 1950 the building was converted into a mini theater and was know to be a local hangout for stars at the time.

In 1961, the building was converted once again, this time as the ‘El Cid’ restaurant, and made to look like a replica of a 16^th century Spanish tavern.  There have been a few ‘minor’ cosmetic changes over the years I imagine, but for the most part the building itself looks somewhat dated.  That’s not necessarily bad, mind you; it has an intimate and somewhat charming setting and retains a certain Spanish aesthetic one might recognize from a 1970’s Spanish villa.

The walls are a faded white adobe stucco with dated cracks here and there accented with faded red brick and large wood beams.  As you make your way through the sidewalk main entrance you immediately wind down a steep concrete and brick path surrounded by greenery and flowers with irregular steps, (ladies be careful with high heels) until you arrive at a lower patio veranda. 

The patio area has both a few booths lining the outside walls and free standing tables located in the center.  There are free standing space heaters strewn about and a small outside bar that serves various domestic and imported (mainly Mexican) beers and of course cocktails.

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Monica and I located our party in a booth at the far end of the patio and enjoyed a couple of cocktails with everyone.  We also posed for a few pictures prior to be seated inside and enjoyed the last remnants of the western setting sun in the open air.  Prices for drinks were a tad hefty.  My Jack on the rocks was $9, and Monica’s Crown on the rock was $10, and these weren’t huge glasses.  Perhaps just a shot, maybe slightly more, poured over ice into a lowball glass.  The girls said the mojito’s were pretty good and Shea was enjoying some fruity looking martini.

At approximately 7:00pm we were asked to line up to be seated at our dinner table.  After a brief wait outside we were led inside down a short and low ceiling hallway to the main dinner floor.  Luckily we scored a nice table right up front next to the raised stage.

Looking about the room, everyone is seated at long tables and surrounded by typical Spanish decorations including the obligatory velvet bull-fighting poster and faux balcony windows lined in ornate rod iron fixtures.  It was a tad dim in the room with stage lighting fixtures overhead.  With everyone seated inside, (I’d guestimate about 75 people or more are here for the show) it was a bit cozy, but the aesthetics lent an air of authenticity.  Restrooms are located in the back and are small.  Despite it’s charm the restaurant does feel a bit dated and could use a fresh coat of paint, a little dusting here and there, and a few minor repairs.

Our tickets included a three course meal (soup, salad, & main dish).  The soup was delicious and reminded me of a Spanish interpretation of Miso soup.  It was a thicker, creamy broth with a light mixture of fresh vegetables.  I really enjoyed it as it had a rich, yet light flavor.  It had the texture of a bisque and a very unique flavor.  Following the soup, the second course consisted of a garden side salad with raspberry vinaigrette.  All in all, it was a typical salad, nothing special but at least it was fresh. 

Since we all considered this evening a treat and we all arrived on an empty stomach, of course we opted to purchase some additional appetizers, or ‘tapas’, as they are known in Spanish.

The Tapas were very good.  In addition to standard chips and a hearty and spicy salsa our table also ordered the following: fried calamari rings (served with lemon wedges), crab stuffed mushroom caps (with a lobster cream sauce), fresh ceviche, and fried manchego cheese (served with pesto sauce).  I can tell you everything was good, but the stand out item was the manchego cheese, well, more so the fresh pesto sauce.  That pesto was da bomb!  Everyone really enjoyed that, but we all agreed that all of our selections were good.  On average, the tapas range between $8 – $11, except the chips and salsa ($4), although I’ve been to other Spanish restaurants where the tapas were a bit more unique and felt more original than the offerings here at El Cid.

The actual main dish was next and as stand alone items they range from $15 to $20, unless you get the paella, (made for two) and has a price $35.  The one thing I didn’t understand is that if you chose to have a single serving of the Paella, they charge an additional $10!!  That seems pretty extreme since paella is just a rice dish to begin with, so why the need to charge $10 more for half a portion makes no sense to me.

Flamenco Exceprt: Part I

To be continued…..

Okay, I know it’s been over a week since my previous post of part one, but I’m here now to wrap this puppy up.  So where was I?  I was just talking about the lack of adult beverages, and limited food items, but we had a little something to eat anyways and then went about for more exploring.

Just to the right of the main stage there was an area roped and sectioned off for a small classic car show.  Now how classic cars and Huck Finn tie into each other, I’ll never know, but the closest theory I have is that most people who enjoy Americana and Country music, probably also like NASCAR, and if that’s your bag, I suppose some classic cars can draw attention and bring some additional people out anyway.

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There weren’t too many cars, maybe a total of 15 or so, give or take a couple, but these guys were mighty proud.  I’ll admit I’m missing the ‘car-gene’ many guys seems to have.  I fully admit I don’t know the first thing about carburetors or horse power, but I can appreciate the hard work involved in restoring and showing off your handiwork.  I can also imagine the feeling one can have and the adventures one can enjoy sitting behind the wheel and touring our great land.  These cars just beg to be taken out for a drive in the country, stopping at a malt shop for a classic burger and fries, putting the top down and listening to classic tunes.  Anyway, in the long run it was a nice and quick addition to the jubilee.

There were also some various games taking place at various times and locals within the park as well.  We witnessed some grease pole climbing (ugh, what a mess), horseshoe tossing, axe throwing, egg tossing, and cow chip throwing contests.  There were plenty of other diversions for all ages to participate in staggered throughout the day, but we didn’t participate in any ourselves.

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We did stop at a smaller venue (not the main stage) to sit and listen to a 45 minute concert performed by a quartet group hailing from Arizona named the ‘Hey Boyz’.  They were very entertaining, blending traditional bluegrass and humorous stories and jokes throughout their set.  You could buy CD’s from them as well and they would be performing a few different times throughout the jubilee.  Both Brian and I recorded their concert with our Playsport’s, and Brian even made an audio recording using his Zoom player.  He said it came out pretty good and I look forward to listening to it sometime later.  Maybe I’ll even get a portion of it and upload it as an audio file here on my website.

One of the funniest things we witnessed was this really cheesy 2-man show circus.  It was really low rent, and dated by any standard, but that was part of its charm.  The two guys running it did everything from being the MC’s, changing characters, doing stunts, juggling, performing magic tricks, and selling cheezy coloring books of another circus altogether.  The only animals they had was a very fat and lazy cat who just seemed to care less about what was going on around it, and a few doves used in the magic tricks.  The funniest part to me was that their sound system was basically a tape deck, circa 1980, with way over-warn royalty free crappy circus music that sounded like they were recorded during the sixties.  It was so bad, it was good, and you have to give these two guys a lot of credit for their energy and attitudes.  You can tell they were really there just to entertain the kids and definitely thought their ‘circus’ was much more stupendous than it really was.

After our 20 minute little show, we took a few pictures and opted to call it a day, well at a day at the jubilee.  I wouldn’t have minded spending more time there and hearing a few more acts, but I was with three other people all jonesing for a beer at this point and figured they had seen all that they had wanted to see anyway and were hinting about leaving.

I’m not one for camping much anymore.  Not that I hate camping at all; I did plenty of it as a boy when I was running with the Boy Scouts.  Today, however, I enjoy a clean, comfortable bed, a nice hot shower, and a clean toilet to rest my rosy cheeks on in the morning.  With that in mind, if I were to go camping again, I would for sure try to and stay at Mojave Narrows.  It really is a large and well kept campground with plenty of amenities.

On trek back to Orange County, we decided to stop just on the outskirts of Norco for a beer at some chain Mexican restaurant.  Well, one beer turned into two, which turned into three, and before long we were best friends with the bartender, Ernie.  So much so in fact that he was doling out a few free drinks our way and we had a splendid late afternoon.

Finally after that little diversion, think we were now on our way home, my wife was able to finagle us all into going bowling.  We bowled three games at Norco Lanes, and even befriended some young high school kids the next lane over.  We were all pretty tuned up at this point, especially Brian.  We collected some glow in the dark bracelets from our new found friends and they even offered us some pizza.

Once bowling was done, we made our trip back home with Brian sleeping soundly in the back of my car.