Quick Shots!

The Tin Roof is making progress. I snapped these photos using my cell phone during lunch.

Just the other day there was a banner with their name but I guess they took it down during construction/demolition. From what I saw it looks like they’re gutting that mofo. On the front you can see the new “shingle” panels – no word on the actual roof yet.

I think I read somewhere that their target opening date is in September and hope they make it in time for game days. We’re long overdue for a good UT victory spot on the strip following football games, but of course we haven’t had a whole lot of victories to celebrate the past few years either.

Big Surprise Tour at World’s Fair Park is happening Friday, 8/14. Gates open at 5:30 show begins at 7:00, cost is $35. Headliners are Old Crow Medicine Show with 3-4 supporting acts so it should be a full night of music. I’m not sure what the concert name means but it couldn’t be more appropriate because I didn’t hear about this until last week. However the security guard who stopped me at the gate where this picture was taken could actually be protecting the big surprise that concert goers will witness tomorrow night. Now I’m dying to know.

And I almost forgot, the Tin Roof staff needs to be prepared to face off against the homeless ranks for one of the most coveted drinking nooks off the strip. It’s not another bar. The stairwell from their lower parking lot to the upper lots has lots of history in this regard – many bars and restaurants have come and gone on the strip, yet the bums remain.

Vino would be keen-o

Lately, I've had a bit of a thing for drinking wine on a budget. Not that I'm that much of a tight ass, but there is a certain movement during this recession to find and imbibe some cheap wine.

When I was a dumbass college fucktard (rather than the overgrown childlike fucktard I am now) I went through a wine-snob phase neatly wedged between my first tequila phase and the so-called salad years known among the group as "pharmaceutical daze". We've talked before about the archaic wine laws that have handicapped appreciation of finer vintages locally...and in my college years we would eagerly buy bottles of anything flashy or shiny when on the road. It wasn't cheap.

Of course now I've had it all wrong...I should have enjoyed less costly wine in school and develop a taste for superior shit now that I can afford it. Feh.

Anyhoo, I've been swilling two red wines in particular. The first is the cheesy icon of Macaroni Grill, their red table wine...whored up as a Chianti.

The crayon is a nice touch...as is the venerated tumbler that the joint would give you. The entire experience reeked of novice drink. I can find this 1.5 of berry goodness at my local package store for less than nine American dollars(tax included). It's light and goes down in a hurry, provided you don't let Mackey butcher the cheap plastic 'cork' with a wine tool. Some cursory research has revealed that this wine is actually produced by the Navelle Vineyards, and that a boxed version under the name Almaden is available.

The second inexpensive wine I've been hooked on is the Hungarian product, Bull's Blood.

Bull's Blood will run you about 11-12 bucks for a standard 750ml bottle. Not exactly the volume I'm looking for(compared to the Chianti anyway) but it is a noticeably superior product. Every bottle of Bull's Blood I've ever consumed looks beat to hell, as if it was still being smuggled out of the Eastern Bloc circa 1968. Sure, that's complete bullshit but it gives a certain cachet to an otherwise pedestrian wine. Typically, you can find Bull's Blood coming in a couple or three dollars cheaper than a comparable red wine.

One bonus about both these brands is that I don't have that much of a hangover the next morning...while many wines have those hated sulfites, I'm happy to say that I can guzzle these without consequence. Even Mackey doesn't seem to notice, and he spends many a day recovering from a wine induced boozing, depicted thus:

My apologies to Bach for the telling illustration but you get the point.

So if you are looking for some cheap grape flavored drank, you could do worse than these two fuckers. Now, hand me more wine...I shall require it to finish.

To sum up

Oh we drank Pac-Man

Weekend camping is painful

Oilers run fake punt

Finally After 4 Years…

Something has begun to stir the wasteland that O’Charley’s once occupied on the Strip. A couple of weeks ago I noticed the semi-permanent realty sign had been replaced by that of a construction company with a 615 area code. A friend told me that she had heard a Nashville based company was opening a new restaurant location but I forgot the name. Since that time there has been ongoing progress as they remove debris, old equipment and I’m sure a bunch of dusty, useless furnishings left to rot when O’Chuck’s split town.

I phoned my friend to get the name and after minimal searching online I found their website and it appears this rumor is about to become reality. Tin Roof (they have a Knoxville tab that says they are under construction) is set to open their newest location right smack in the middle of Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville by September – an early timeline but hopefully they can get the job done. I’ve been wishing something good would move in that location for years and for the sake of my liver I hope they don’t disappoint.

From the information on their website it looks like we’re in for another casual, live music venue that will appeal to college students and young professionals. Their menu has all the staple bar foods even though they claim not to do the usual “bar food”. I think they mean to say they do it fresh and better, we’ll see. Some of the items look good and I’m interested in trying a deep-fried hot dog just because I haven’t heard of that one before and I need to expand my culinary horizons. The “Del Sol” and “Sunny” quesadillas sound good but everything else looks pretty standard. I will give them a chance, for sure. There wasn’t a bar/drink menu but if you look at the pictures on their site there is plenty of evidence showing they know how to serve up the booze and good times. I’m fired up and look forward to their success!

Alcohol > H1N1

You gotta hand it to those Russians, they won’t let a little flu virus stop them from anything.

Russian soccer fans have been told to drink whiskey on their trip to Wales for next month's World Cup qualifier to ward off the H1N1 swine flu virus, the head of the country's supporter association (VOB) said Monday.

"We urge our fans to drink a lot of Welsh whiskey as a form of disinfection," VOB head Alexander Shprygin told Reuters. "That should cure all symptoms of the disease." (Full story here)

That’s the kind of awesome advice I like to hear. I wonder if we’ll hear anything like that as UT football season approaches. Not that it matters, that is my year-round health plan anyway.

Stone IPA

This has become my favorite bottled IPA.


Thanks to recent visits to The Hill I’ve been turned on to a belligerent cousin in the Arrogant Bastard family of brews. This IPA delivers in abundance but is balanced; aroma, flavor and alcohol are very evenly represented. The senses are rewarded from start to finish and Hop Heads won’t be disappointed. Drinking this beer is like being smacked in the face with a hops shovel. Don’t worry it doesn’t hurt, there’s a built-in pain reliever to go along with it – 6.9% alcohol.

And then this:

Damn what a pour. Shit went south shortly afterward.