Holiday Leftovers

Thanksgiving is a time for gathering with family and friends to celebrate all the things you're thankful for over a heaping feast of food and football.

Drinksgiving is the time you gather with fellow drunkards and drink like there's no tomorrow. We usually throw in a Deep Fried Food Feast for good measure. After several years of doing this we have become pretty good at frying a bunch of favorites without much hassle. The 2010 menu featured the usual suspects including a whole turkey, turkey breast, fresh cut fries, English style fish & chips, Southern style catfish, hush puppies, hand-dipped corn dogs and two kinds of onion rings. All of it was pretty damn awesome. We skipped the fried sweets this year but there were plenty of pies and cookies to make up for it, along with plenty of other sides thanks to hosts Atlas & MC, Tag and MB. Of course booze, beer and wine were plentiful as well. In fact I'm looking forward to a return trip to tackle the leftovers - wine and IPA, that is.

UT Homecoming may as well be a holiday - people come in from out of town, lots of food and drink, spending money, football, good times. Not all of our alumni friends were able to make the trip in this year but we did have representation from Texas and Colorado, so that was nice. Our group behaved very well this year, mainly staying downtown for dinner and drinks. A little bit of front loading at the urban bunker didn't hurt either. It's nice to avoid jail time whenever possible.

2010 Homecoming Day vs. Ole Miss

Mixed Bag - Random Shit

Well, well, whattya know? Somebody was able to cook a pizza and not burn the house down. And that somebody was ME! It wasn't too long ago that I came home after a night of boozing and decided to have a late night snack. They tried to warn me. Things didn't work out that evening but this time I managed to stay awake and remove the pie on time, cooked and seasoned to perfection. Suck it!!

Latitude 35 has been chugging along nicely since their grand opening. I've been several times for breakfast, lunch, dinner and just plain drinky-time. So far so good, though there have been a couple of hiccups you'd expect with a new establishment. Some have been unpreventable like when the AC units went out and it was a humid 85 degrees inside, or the 100 degree Sundown with Blues Traveller when an obese, unhealthy woman passed out on the patio right at the front door. Others small things like ambivalent service or poor sandwich construction will work themselves out over time. Behold the Cajun Shrimp Po'Boy (HL or MC's?):

and the Providence Brisket sandwich.

Both look and tasted delicious but damn were they a mess to eat. Another sandwich, the Waldorf Chicken (not pictured) wasn't so good IMO. Briefly: the chicken slab was at least 3" shorter than the baguette (chicken should be sliced) and the granny smith apples were too thick and bulky (I suggest a Julienne cut). But oh well, I ate the whole damn thing and sweet potato fries to boot.

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The 100 block of Gay Street is set to re-open with a ribbon cutting ceremony next Monday, July 19. It will be nice to see the new work they've done and much easier to drive or bike through that part of town. Just a week or two ago I was passing through and noticed a difficult step in front of Ollanty's Havana Nights:

Maybe if you got a running start you could make it in the front door. Hopefully they have repaired that by now. I've been there only a handful of times and can't say it is one of my favorite places but it always has friendly service and they have great happy hour prices so it is worth a try if you're looking for a change of pace downtown. Plus you can hide there and be certain that none of your friends will think to look for you there. (shit, not anymore).

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And finally here are some recent graffiti additions on the Wall St. side of 36 Market Square. Enjoy them while they last, according to the KNS Property Scope blog it appears the newly designed building will no longer have room for random shit painted everywhere.

The Mer-man? Mer-murder?

The Flying Vagina?

Lilo & Stitch reject?

Pic Dump

Time to clear out the never used pics from my cell phone. Most of these were taken at some point while on the way to drink, drinking or coming home from drinks.

I noticed the Hilton was having their garage painted one night last week. I assume it is supposed to match the hotel pilsner glass design.

It appears a tad too orange now but I think it will fade and blend in after a while. Looking good.

LVL mysteriously produces a bottle of Blanton's.

Fish.

A very fruity drink at FKA (aka the tiki bar). Vodka & ruby red.

Backroom bar, been spending time there lately.

1 wing. This single wing has a story behind it but in short it was a sample to see if it was the same delicious smoked wings from Manhattan's a couple of weeks ago and it wasn't. However it was also delicious so I ordered a dozen more. I think I was looking for dry or naked wings.

The missing side grits from L35 Southern Breakfast:

Wall Street classic updated