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Category: BBQ
Atlanta – The Romances in Repertory
02/05/2014 – 02/09/2014 Miles MPG Average Speed 1291 45.7 48 Driving listening:
02/05/2014 – 02/09/2014
Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Evergreen Marriott Conference Resort (4-stars) $66.06
($54 bid)$ 178.08 ($159 pretax)
$112.02 63% Crazy Ron’s BBQ Old Hickory House BBQ Taming of the Shrew Romeo & Juliet Much Ado About Nothing Waterside Restaurant Wednesday
I arrived in Atlanta Wednesday and had just enough time before the Zoo closed to snap a picture of the pandas and send it to the girl-child in order to
torment her
UrbanSpoon, which still thinks I live in Atlanta, sent me to Crazy Ron’s for dinner. This is a typical, roadside BBQ stand, and I thought it would be good when I saw that the smoker was almost as big as the shack.
There I got a to-go box of chopped beef, with baked beans and
macaroni and cheese. The mac-and-cheese didn’t travel well in the cold (40-some degrees), but was still okay. The rest fared better, and I found the beef to be tasty and well-trimmed, with a good portion of bark. It was covered in a good sauce; what first appeared to be too much sauce, but there was enough beef under it to make a good mix. The beans were okay – I’m guessing they started life in a can, but were doctored enough to taste good.
Thursday
Thursday morning I had to start the day by finding a tire shop. The change in temperature from 80-degree Orlando to 40-degree Atlanta set off my tire sensors and I had to have nitrogen added. After that, I set off to find breakfast and Urbanspoon sent me to Rise –n- Dine. I’ve eaten there before, but, well … Urbanspoon said.
No sooner had I parked at Rise –n- Dine, I saw that I had a text from a friend in Atlanta that she was free for lunch. Since it was close enough to lunchtime to skip breakfast, I responded and left the restaurant, expecting to hear where to meet soon – but I heard nothing further, so I figured something had come up. By now I was getting hungry, so I decided on lunch at Dave Poe’s BBQ and headed in that direction.
No sooner had I parked at Dave Poe’s (a truly disturbing trend being established here), my friend texted again and I was off in a different direction. So, a bit cranky-hungry, I finally got some food at a Chinese place – no review, because lunch with me is odd enough without me taking notes and pictures of my food. I spared her that bit.
After lunch, I went back to the hotel where they had the firepits around the pool lit, and I spent the afternoon reading while curled up in the cold next to a warm fire.
The reason for the trip was that Shakespeare Tavern was doing three Romances in repertory. Thursday night was Taming of the Shrew.
Shrew was a solid production with a consistently good cast. Laura Cole, as Kate, shone like the sun … or moon, one.
Friday
Friday morning, I lazed about reading for a bit and had a banana in my room (this will be important later). Around 10:00, I decided to walk to the main Stone Mountain park for a thoroughly unhealthy lunch at the snack stands, so I set out for the Cherokee Trail and enjoyed a hike along the lake.
Now, from the resort to the Stone Mountain park is a 3.5 mile hike. It’s a pleasant hike, mostly level and easy-going. And, arriving around 11:30 after starting my day with a banana, I was quite looking forward to some greasy, high-calorie amusement food.
Oh …
A Friday in February is, apparently, not prime season for Stone Mountain … who knew?
And … I walked here. I am now 3+ miles, an hour and a half, and almost 500 more burned calories away from the nearest food. The banana is a distant memory, burned to cinders by my metabolism well before I ever crossed the lake that’s two miles away now. I hung around for a bit, thinking they might open at noon, but no joy. There was someone in the popcorn stand. I could hear them talking. I could hear the popcorn popping. I could smell the popcorn. But no sign of opening, so nothing for it but to schlep back down the trail.
All the way back to the hotel, I consoled myself with thoughts of a room-service hamburger. No, a cheeseburger. No, a bacon cheeseburger, with french fries. I am, after all, a thousand calories to the good with just this hike and they’ll deliver charbroiled goodness right to my room while I rest my weary feet.
Back in the room, I eagerly dialed room service and ask to place an order … only to be told that there is no lunchtime room service. Damn you, off-season resort staffing! Damn you!
Now please keep in mind that it is almost 2:00. I have been up for seven hours, I have walked six miles, burned almost 1000 calories, and I have eaten … a banana. If hunger is the best sauce, then I am about to eat the best food I’ve ever tasted.
This was the worst buffet I have ever been too.
After perusing a measly assortment of dishes, I settled on some anemic chicken-in-sauce and a salad, this being all that was remotely appealing. The peach cobbler was adequate, presuming you don’t mind canned peaches. The small cakes, however, were stale – to the point that they could not be cut with a knife.
Nasty, bad, and $20.
Friday’s performance at the Tavern was Romeo and Juliet – and I was finally able to get food, a Cornish pasty with homemade ketchup, and a rose-water panna cotta with raspberry sauce.
Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorite plays, probably because it was the first Shakespeare I ever saw. The Zeffirelli version, which firmly established my love for Shakespeare – as well as a crush on Olivia Hussey in specific and brunettes in the literal.
As with most good productions of this play, Mercutio stole the show … at least until he died. I did take some issue with Nick Arapoglou’s performance as Romeo. My preference, and it is a preference, is for Shakespeare to be performed without emphasis on the rhyme and meter. Yes, it’s poetry, but it is, first and foremost, a play – it is characters speaking. So when an actor puts too much emphasis on a rhymed word in the middle of a sentence, as this Romeo did, it throws me out of hearing what’s being said and into focusing on how it’s said.
For me, the lines should be spoken by the punctuation and let the poetry flow more organically.
Annie Hester, as Juliet, played the role well, capturing the petulance of a rather spoiled 13-year old in the first act and the grief of a young woman in the second.
Saturday
The beans were very good – thick and heavy with molasses. And the stew is now top of the list for best Brunswick stew I’ve tried on these trips – rich and spicy, with crisp corn and tasty shreds of meat. I finished all of that stew and would have gladly eaten more.
Unfortunately, the meat on the plate didn’t measure up to the sides. It was cold, with some nasty bits still in it, and no bark at all. I’d hesitate to suggest anyone might do such a thing, but it seemed almost as if it had just been boiled and never saw the inside of a smoker. If I could have have taken the beef from Crazy Ron’s and had it with the Old Hickory House sauce and sides, it would make a near perfect meal, but this wasn’t. I did not finish all of the beef.
After lunch, I headed back to the zoo for a bit.
And then on to Shakespeare Tavern again for Much Ado About Nothing, the last of the three and the best.
This was the second time I’ve seen Ado at the Tavern and it is a joy. Andrew Houchins and Erin Consadine, as Benedict and Beatrice, both give wonderful performances and have perfect onstage chemistry for the roles. Drew Reeves gives a performance as Dogberry that rivals Michael Keaton’s in the Branagh production.
All in all, and despite starving a couple mornings, a great weekend. I do wish the Tavern would do more plays in rep, as three is far more fun than one. But I’ll be going back for one at a time – the Scottish Play in April, Comedy of Errors in May, and Antony and Cleopatra in June.
Atlanta–Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Christopher Titus
6/6/2013 – 6/9/2013 Miles MPG Average Speed 1100 46 54 Driving listening:
6/6/2013 – 6/9/2013
Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Marriott Atlanta Airport (4-star) $58.61
($48 bid)$94.08
($84 pretax)$35.47 38% The bidding for this trip put me in the Marriott across the street from the Westin I’d stayed at last time. They’re both nice hotels at the right price, but I haven’t been thrilled with the area – it’s pretty empty of anything but a few hotels and warehouses. So next trip I’ll likely spend a bit more for downtown or the areas north of Atlanta.
The point of staying so far out is to avoid the parking charges, but both of these hotels have the same parking rates as downtown hotels. Downtown, if I’m willing to walk a couple blocks, I can put my car at the Emory hospital parking lot across from Shakespeare Tavern for a third of the hotels’ parking rate.
This trip was a little different, because I was in town mostly to see three shows, so I did little during the days – other than one visit to the High Museum, I just relaxed at the hotel, reading and using the gym.
Dining
On the way to Atlanta (and again on the way home), I stopped for lunch at Smok’n Pig BBQ in Valdosta, GA. I’ve seen their billboards on previous trips, but never stopped before – now it’ll probably become my lunch on every trip in or out of Florida on I-75. I was a little worried when I first stopped, because the décor is reminiscent of the Sonny’s BBQ chain, with a large, shiny dining room in a huge building with a salad bar. They do have two locations, Valdosta and Macon, but there’s nothing “chain” about the food.
On both stops I got the sliced pork sandwich combo ($8). The pork was tender and lean, generously piled on a soft bun. I tried three different sauces: sweet, sweet & spicy, and original. Of the three, I thought the original was best, with even the sweet & spicy being a bit too sweet for me.
For sides, I got baked beans, Brunswick stew, and, on the return trip, sweet potato casserole. The beans were pretty basic, but the sweet potato casserole was very good and the stew was excellent. The Brunsick stew itself is enough to get a return visit from me.
On Friday and Saturday, I ate at a pair of restaurants because I’d read somewhere that the owners had originally been partners in one place, then each opened their own. BBQ being a competitive sport, I decided to try both and compare them.
Both places are storefronts in stripmalls – about the same size, with reviews, plaques, and porcine-topped trophies proudly displayed. It’s clear that both owners take their BBQ seriously
At Dave Poe’s, I got brisket ($9), with baked beans, mac & cheese, and Texas toast. At Sam’s, I got brisket, with baked beans, sweet tater tots, and Texas toast, but I also added a corn muffin. Dave Poe’s brisket was perfectly cooked. It was sliced unevenly, some thicker than others, but that was almost irrelevant, as the slices were fork-tender and shredded easily. The sauce was thin, sweet and spicy, with a strong black-pepper flavor. Sam’s served two distinct briskets on my plate. On the right was a lean flat – the left was more marbled. Unfortunately, both were served barely warm, so the marbled slices were quite chewy. The sauce was Advantage: Dave Poe’s The Texas toast lacked any butter, so it was pretty dry and only lightly browned. Sam’s Texas toast was well-buttered and nicely browned. Advantage: Sam’s Poe’s baked beans were thick and sweet, with a slight kick of heat at the finish. Sam’s beans were very thick and sweet, redolent with molasses. Good, but by the end of the meal I was putting only two or three beans on my fork, because it was just too much sweet and molasses. Advantage: Dave Poe’s The mac & cheese. Oh, Our Dear Lord of Dairy, the Dave Poe’s mac & cheese … Not elbow noodles, but huge tubes of pasta that oozed sauce. A sauce that had both a creamy texture that clung to the pasta, and a bit of stringy, chewy cheese that had incredible flavor. The pieces of dark brown mac & cheese crust were perfect.
Sam’s sweet tater tots were interesting, different, and tasty. Made out of sweet potatoes with a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar. It was some time into the meal, though, before I could appreciate their full flavor, because they were the hottest thing on the plate when it arrived. Clearly they’d plated the brisket, then the beans, and last the fried tots, which is the opposite of what they should have done to ensure everything arrived hot.
Advantage: Dave Poe’s So, on points, it’s Dave Poe’s, but the real test is what’s left on the plate at the end of the meal.
At Sam’s, I left most of the fattier slices of brisket and about half the beans and tater tots – not because I was full (there’s always room for BBQ), but because I just didn’t want any more of the items. I liked Sam’s, I’d return there, but it wasn’t enough to make me keep taking just one more bite.
At Dave Poe’s, I left a corner of the dry Texas toast and a plate wiped clean. If there’d been a scrap more brisket, a drop of sauce, a single bean, or the slightest schmear of mac & cheese sauce … I’d have happily sopped it up with that dry toast.
Entertainment
Thursday and Friday nights I was at Shakespeare Tavern for performances of Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
For those unfamiliar with R&G, it follows Rosencrantz and Guildenstern through their roles in Hamlet, but since they’re rather minor characters they spend much of their time “off-stage” (though they don’t know it’s a play) wondering about what it all means and why they seem to be always waiting for something to happen.
Described as an absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy … it’s just weird.
But seeing the two in repertory, with the same cast playing the same characters in both Hamlet and R&G was fun. The actors had the opportunity to perform their characters seriously in Hamlet and then with some comedy in R&G – seeing these on consecutive nights really heightened that effect.
The entire cast was wonderful, as always, but there were some standouts:
Nicholas Faircloth and Paul Hester as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (whichever is which) were great in both productions, but especially in R&GaD. These are marathon-roles, since the play, at almost three hours, follows their two characters almost exclusively.
Jonathan Horne as Hamlet. A great performance, subtly different in both productions. I can’t wait to see him next month in Fortinbras, when he gets to play Hamlet as a ghost.
Kelly Criss as Ophelia. Her part in R&G is small, but worth mentioning because it’s not every day an actress gets to walk up stairs and across the stage in a diving mask, snorkel, and swim fins (at Ophelia’s drowning). In Hamlet, she shined, drawing the audience in when Ophelia is crazy.
Next month they’re doing Fortinbras, the “sequel” to Hamlet, when all the dead characters get to come back as ghosts and pester the Norwegian Prince who came to rule Denmark by showing up.
Saturday was Christopher Titus at the Punchline. The show was hilarious and all new material. If you’re not familiar with his shows, check YouTube for excerpts – he’s a brilliant comedian.
Fort Myers
5/17/13 – 5/18/13 Miles MPG Average Speed 458 44 49 Driving listening:
5/17/13 – 5/18/13 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Crowne Plaza Fort Myers (3.5 star) $68.81
($58 bid)$104.16
($93 base rate)$35.35 34% Friday
I drove down early Friday and was on the Sanibel causeway by noon to do some kayaking (details on my kayaking blog).
After kayaking I was very hungry. Runkeeper said I burned 1100 calories on that paddle, but Runkeeper can’t take into account the wind and currents. I’m thinking the mile and a half from the point to the causeway into strong winds and out-going tide counts as 3x. So I felt entirely justified in having a big dinner.
Lee Roy Selmon’s is a southwest Florida chain, and I prefer to avoid chains when traveling, but it had a big advantage when it came up in the Urbanspoon app’s random selector: It was really, really close to my hotel. After 8-miles of paddling and the discovery
that my sunscreen was defective, I was not in the mood to drive far. I wanted pretty good food, close by, and a lot of it. The second advantage was that it was Happy Hour.
The server brought me some BBQ rolls to start. These are warm, tasty, yeast rolls covered in butter, garlic, and BBQ sauce.
These were really good and I followed them with soft pretzels and cheese sauce with bacon ($3 for Happy Hour).
Good pretzels covered in coarse, crunchy salt. The cheese sauce was a little thin, but good. And for the entrée, I had their pulled pork with sides of baked beans and maple-bacon creamed corn.
The beans were really good, sweet with a hint of molasses, but they also had green peppers, which I’m not fond of. The creamed corn was good, but a little too sweet – which is an unusual thing for me to say. It’s normally served with the fried chicken and waffles, so that may be why – I think the maple syrup is overused, making it too sweet and thin, but it could go well with the fried chicken and waffles.
The pork itself was excellent and the sauce was a good compliment – sweet and sticky, without being overpowering. It was well-trimmed, with very little fat.
For dessert, I got the bread pudding with praline sauce and ice cream to-go and ate it back at the hotel.
So after an eight-hour paddle that afternoon, I was discovering that 1) I was out of shape and starting to hurt, and, B) my sunscreen had expired and I was the proud owner of a nasty, if oddly shaped, sunburn. So I stopped by the front desk sundry shop to get some pain killers … only to find that they were out of stock until Monday. Well, not entirely out of stock.
The three girls working the front desk assured me it would be effective and have no ill-effects.
A quick trip to Tampa
5/6/2013-5/7/2013 Miles MPG Average Speed 233 47.8 43 Driving listening:
This was a business trip just for one night, but it adds to the stats, so here it is. On the way to the hotel I stopped at the Seminole Hard Rock to make a donation to the tribe. I have a lot of ancestral guilt about how the Native Americans were treated — despite, I think, most of my ancestors not arriving here until the 20th century – so I consider the money I left there to be a charitable contribution.
Yeah … you know, I wonder if I can write it off on taxes …
5/6/2013-5/7/2013 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Wyndham Westshore (3.5 star) $76.29
($61 bid)$151.37
($135.15 base rate)$75.08 50% The hotel itself was a little dated, but had some nice touches. Like dueling M&M dispensers at the front desk (plain on one end and peanut on the other) and a rack of hardcover bestsellers for loan to guests.
Free candy and books goes a long way.
Unfortunately the room was subpar. The bed was memory foam and I think it was remembering a 400-pound previous guest. Deep divots on either side had me trying to sleep in the middle and waking up periodically.
There was also a serious lack of hot water. Took a long time for the shower to heat up and then only at its highest setting – which continued to heat throughout the shower, so had to be continuously adjusted . Frustrating, but only for one night.
I only had time for one real meal this trip and made it at Jimbo’s Pit BBQ. I got the combo platter with sliced beef and pork ($10) and a sweet tea (very good).
The pork was a little fatty for my taste, but the beef was lean and tasty. The bottom of my beef pile had been cut from the end of the meat, so it was a little dry, but I like that. The hush puppies were a little undercooked and doughy in the middle. But the beans were delicious – homemade and thick. I like baked beans, but in moderation — I’m not normally one to eat them by the heaping forkful, but these were fantastic.
Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.–Sir Walter Raleigh
4/4/2013 – 4/7/2013 Miles MPG Average Speed Raleigh-Durham, NC 1416 44 56 
Driving listening:
4/4/2013 – 4/7/2013
Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Radisson Hotel Research Triangle Park (3.5 star) $51.96 (inc. tax & fees)
Bid: $41 + $10 bonus cash$108.11 (inc. tax) $56.15 52%
Thursday
It was raining at 4:00 AM when I rolled out of bed. Raining at 5:00 AM when I got in the car for the drive to Raleigh. And raining nine hours and six hundred miles later when I pulled into the hotel. A nasty, drizzly rain that came with a temperature drop to the low forties in North Carolina.
Yes, a disgustingly early start, but I had a ticket to the hockey game at 7:00 that night and didn’t want to be late.
I checked into the hotel and settled into the room for a brief rest before the game. I don’t usually say much about the hotels unless there’s a problem, so consider this foreshadowing.
The hotel’s older and used to be The Governor’s Inn, hence the suite next to my room.
I actually doubt that he stayed there, considering the rather nice house he has about twenty minutes away.
In the room I found the typical flyers and handouts waiting for me, along with a rather stern pamphlet warning me not to steal the towels and giving the price of virtually everything in the room should it turn up missing after checkout. Now, a lot of hotels have such a price list, but they typically phrase it as “if you wish to purchase”, not “housekeeping counts everything”.
So right from the start this left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s the hotel equivalent of showing your receipt on the way out of some retailers: “Thank you for shopping with us. Please prove you’re not a thieving bastard. Have a nice day!”
Anyway, I used the Urbanspoon app to find a random BBQ place and headed for Backyard Barbeque Pit. It was close and had really good reviews on Urbanspoon.
Now … here’s where I have to admit some culpability for my experience at the
restaurant: I was in North Carolina. I knew I was in North Carolina. I am not a stranger to BBQ in North Carolina. And … I ordered brisket in North Carolina.
I know, I know. North Carolina BBQ is about the pig, only about the pig, and all about the pig. But I ordered brisket.
So on a future trip, I feel that I owe Backyard Barbeque Pit a second visit, but for this visit I had the brisket. It came covered in gravy, which greatly confused me. Brisket shouldn’t come with gravy … brisket with gravy is … pot roast?
But, brisket or pot roast, it still wasn’t very good. Fatty and some pieces so veined with fat that hadn’t cooked out that it was chewy. The gravy, or sauce, was good neither as gravy nor sauce, but did manage to cover the meat and preclude me from getting any of the other sauces to stick. So not good.
The sweet potatoes were very good, though, and clearly homemade. I’m not sure if the beans were entirely homemade, but they didn’t taste of a can and were good as well. The hushpuppies, which were more what I’d call corn fritters, not as grainy and sweeter than what I’d call a hushpuppy, were very good.
It was still raining when I finished dinner and headed for the game at PNC Arena.
Carolina was playing Tampa and I am not a Tampa fan, so I was hoping to see the Lightning get trounced. Unfortunately, other than a first period goal disallowed for the Hurricane player kicking it (which I didn’t see a kick), it was all Tampa Bay.
It was raining when I left the game.
Friday
No rain or clouds in the morning, just a beautiful spring day.
After sleeping in a bit I headed for the North Carolina Museum of Art for the afternoon. Quite a few of the exhibits don’t allow photographs, so none of those.
The museum’s made up of two buildings. One (West) for their permanent collection and the other (East) for special exhibits. Most of the museum is free admission, but there’s a charge for some special exhibits – I sprang the $10 for the two that were currently there and started in the East Building.
The upstairs was mostly contemporary art, mostly an exhibit of pieces by two artists, a photographer and a painter. They each did normal, household still-lifes, but were exhibited alternating: a photograph and a painting next to each other.
What would have made this exhibit really interesting would be if they’d each done the same scenes and been displayed together. A photograph and a painting of the same thing would have been intriguing. But that wasn’t the case. Mostly I preferred the painter’s work.
There was an interesting video exhibit. I don’t normally care for video as art, but this was intriguing. It was five actors reacting emotionally – different emotions for each one – and it was sixty seconds of video slowed down to fifteen minutes. Bill Viola, Quintet of Remembrance. Most interesting if you see it from the beginning, not coming in halfway through.
From the beginning, the actors aren’t very expressive, so there’s a sense of discovery as they begin reacting and you realize that they’re each doing something very different. Pretty cool, all in all.
Last upstairs was a gallery of high school work. Framed and displayed with as much care as everything else. The assignment had been to create artwork based on a word or phrase, and some of the pieces were very well done – others were clearly high school, but some I would have been happy to see there on their own merits.
Quite unlike the first of the special exhibits, 0 to 60: The experience of time through contemporary art.
This is one I paid for. Schmuck.
So first is a piece where someone took several clocks, cut them into pieces and glued them back together. Meh, but not painful.
Next were two clocks, side-by-side, but showing different times. Okay, I said to myself, there could be something here, but I’m not sure what it is.
So I read the card and found that the clocks had been installed set to the same time, but went out of synch as the batteries wound down. It’s entitled Perfect Lovers. Ooookaaaayy … could have been something there … but … I shouldn’t have to read the damn thing to understand what the artist is getting at.
Now, next, was a board.
Wait, wait … it’s an unfinished 1”x4”, just like you get from Home Depot and, wait for it … the artist has cut out one of the knots and attached it to a clockwork motor so that the knot rotates like clock hands.
We’ll pause while you catch your breath from that one.
Next: Clock motor with a rotten banana peel attached.
No comment.
There was a hundred foot roll of paper with a line made out of hair down the middle.
An air compressor attached to about thirty feet of hose that inflated and deflated a paper bag attached to the end of the hose.
An artist who saved all of his receipts for a year and then duplicated them on to a roll of paper, by hand, with colored pencils. This was interesting … especially the checks he duplicated complete with MICR routing and account numbers … and signatures.
An exhibit that consisted of a letter from the artist stating that he intended to do a performance art piece consisting of punching a time clock in his studio every day and taking a picture of himself. And a letter from someone stating that he would sign the artists timecards to ensure there was no “cheating”. Along with the timecards and a timelapse video of the artist standing next to the time clock for a year.
Punching a time clock every day for a year is not art. It’s called a job. Get one.
My favorite, though, was the pile of candy. Big pile of cellophane wrapped candy in the corner. The “art” is interactive, in that the viewer decides whether or not to take a piece and staff refreshes the pile from the 175-pounds supplied by the artist.
Apparently there’s “art” at the cash register of every diner in America.
From there I went to the other special exhibit, Object of Devotion, which was a collection of 13th-14th century British alabaster. All religious works, so not thrilling to me, but I guaran-damn-tee that nothing in the other exhibit will be touring museums 800 years from now … so there.
Then over to the other building for the museum’s permanent collection, which spans virtually everything from African folk art to Egyptian to Classical Roman statutes (sans penii, thanks to time and chisel-wielding Popes) – all the way through 19th century painters. Something for everyone, really.
But mostly I was there to see the Rodins – one of the largest collections of Rodins in the country.
The Rodins took up the rest of the time I had for the museum. I left there and headed for the Duke University campus, stopping for dinner at another random BBQ place on the way.
Bullock’s does not take credit cards, but there’s an ATM in their lobby. The lobby walls are decorated with celebrity photos, all of whom seemed to have been happy with the food. The menu is huge – much larger than I’d
expected, including such BBQ classics as quesadillas. That made me a little hesitant, but the place was packed at 2:00 in the afternoon, so I stayed to give it a shot.
Bullock’s does not appear to engage in any pretense that BBQ means anything but pig. Specifically pulled pork. The menu doesn’t even say pulled pork, it just says “BBQ”. BBQ with other things, maybe, like BBQ with catfish, BBQ with Brunswick Stew … but, ultimately, the BBQ part all means the same thing.
There is “sliced BBQ”, if you don’t want pulled, and “ribs”, but it’s clear that the focus is on the pulled pork. I got the BBQ with Brunswick Stew, which came with coleslaw and hushpuppies.
There were no sauces on the table, so I asked if they had any when my food was served. Apparently Bullock’s believes that their BBQ is perfectly sauced as-served, and I got a “look” for my heresy. The server was still smiling and pleasant, but there was still a look … sort of like the look a Borgia Pope might give Martin Luther at a dinner party.
She did bring me a small bowl of a sweet, vinegar-based sauce, though.
The hushpuppies were very good and the Brunswick Stew was excellent, but the BBQ was possibly the best I’ve had since I started these trips. As-is it was flavorful and spicy, tender without being fatty. The sweet sauce was good, vinegar-based as well, and added a nice contrast, so I alternated between the two.
I asked for a desert recommendation and wound up with the “lemon icebox”. Homemade and delicious, it was a good end to the meal.
From dinner I headed onto the Duke University campus, a beautiful place, for a lacrosse game.
Lacrosse is much higher scoring than hockey and, as near as I can tell, the goalie is just there to take up space. Shots seemed to either miss the net entirely or score. Duke won handily, 17-6, and I froze my ass off on the aluminum stadium bench. 40-degrees in April.
Saturday
I started the morning on a sour note, because I discovered that the hotel had charged my credit card over $200. This was a prepaid, Priceline room, so there should have been only a $50 authorization for incidentals, if that. Instead there was a $150 authorization and one for $52.16.
I spoke to the front desk about it and apparently the hotel has a policy of charging $50 per day instead of the $50 per stay that most properties authorize. They couldn’t explain the $52.16 and said they have no record of it.
I then spoke to the manager, because even though this isn’t a charge, it’s quite a large authorization. I really didn’t like the justifications he tried to make. First, that some people smoke in the room … well, fine, but I can smoke in a room on one night just as well as three, so why a per night authorization?
Then he made a comment about prepaid guests and not having any recourse against them. Again, I can clean out everything in a room in one night just as easily as three. And it was another example, like the “don’t steal the towels”-note, of being asked to prove I’m not a thief. Not the experience I want from a hotel.
Around noon I arrived in downtown Raleigh. I’d scheduled a walking, tasting tour with Taste Carolina for the afternoon. While I was waiting for the tour meeting time, there was a Lebanese festival going on, so I watched some performances.
And some halawat el-jibim … I think. It was a sweet-cheese and semolina topped with pistachio.
Served cold, it was sweet, nutty, cheesy and chewy.
Also a sweet Arabian coffee – both very good, and I would have tried some other things from the food booths, but it was time to head for the Raleigh City Museum and meet the tasting tour.
The tour was several miles walking, with a little bit of history mixed in with stops at five different restaurants.
The first stop was Centro, a Mexican restaurant downtown. Like several other places on the tour, this is not a place I would have chosen for myself and, also like the other places, it’s someplace I’d now like to return to for a full dinner. 
Our tasting here was Chilaquiles Verdes … I have no idea what that is. It was a creamy sauce that started sweet and then became a little spicy, finishing with the rich taste of the beef. This dish was tied for my favorite of the tour and I heartily recommend it.
We also got an interesting drink – “hamicha”, I think it was called – a sweet, flowery tea made from hibiscus. I recommend that as well.
Gravy is an Italian place that served us the best gnocchi I’ve ever had. The individual pieces were larger than I expected and perfectly cooked. So often gnocchi can be gummy, but these little tidbits melted under the least pressure and
melded with the sauce beautifully.
The sauce was cream, garlic, spring onions, and spring artichokes, with a hint of parmesan on top. It was sweet and creamy, but the parmesan brought just the right amount of saltiness to each bite. Tied with Centro for my favorite dish of the tasting.
Gravy paired this with a really nice white wine from Italy that I don’t remember the name of.
PieBird sells pies. I like pie. The make both sweet and savory pies, but the tasting was all sweet.
I sat down and looked at the slice in front of me to find lemon icebox … which I’d
I’d just had a pretty good one at Bullock’s. But one of the other tourers suggested we cut each slice into bites and all try each kind, which went over well.
So we each wound up getting a bite or two of: lemon icebox, peanut butter cream, honey (local honey), something that was all nuts, and one that was made completely from sugar. All of them were good, but I think the sugar and honey ones were the best.
Tyler’s Tap Room is a lot about beer. I don’t care for beer at all … it seems like a waste of good grain. Things were on their way to becoming a perfectly good whiskey but went horribly awry … The tasting was in their bottle store, which sells
the regional brews they feature.
I tried the beers they had for us to sample, including one that they infused with other flavors. They take a featured beer and then enhance some of the flavors already present by running it through an infuser system – this week they featured one that they infused with chili, basil, lemongrass, lime, and ginger. We tasted both the before and after versions and I could understand what they were doing. The before-version definitely had the flavors they mentioned and the after-version was much bolder.
I still don’t like beer.
The food tasting was pretzel nachos and pork sliders, both of which were good renditions of typical American pub fare. My pork could have been pulled a little more, as there were a couple large chunks, but it was very tasty. The pretzels were fresh, hot, and tender, and the nacho cheese had just the right amount of heat.
The last stop on the tasting tour was Kimbap, a Korean restaurant almost across the street from Tyler’s. I liked Kimbap immediately, just because of their beverages – any place that goes out of their way to advertise soda with cane sugar instead of
corn syrup gets points from me right up front.
Our tasting here was some sesame greens (which I ate before the photo) and a shrimp fresh roll.
The greens were really good, with just the right amount of oil, which is why I ate them before taking the photo. The roll had a bit too much lettuce for me, but after I took a bit out it was quite good. The sauce wasn’t too spicy and added a lot of flavor.
Also on the tour, we saw the Governor’s Mansion. Nice place.
And a pair of racing Trolley Pubs.
As near as I can understand this, your group pays to rent the trolley, brings its own booze, and then has to pedal around town … drunks are weird.
After the tour, the operators provided rickshaws back to the starting point, with a rather interesting restaurant ad on the back.
From downtown I was back on my way to the PNC Arena for the second hockey game, this one against the Rangers. I got there a little after 5:00, almost two hours before the game, the parking lot was half full and the grassy areas were covered with awnings and grills.
For the Tampa game, the arena had been a sea of red and black, Carolina’s colors, but the crowd pulled out the blue for the Rangers.
There were so many Rangers fans that they managed several “Let’s go Rangers!” chants during the game – they were drowned out by “Let’s go ‘Canes!” after the first few verses, but they didn’t give up. The Rangers’ goals, and there were many of them, got as much applause as Carolina’s one goal did.
After the game I hurried back to my room to catch a few hours sleep before heading home at 5:00 AM, but the manager of the hotel had left a gift for me in the room.
