Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Crackberry

So my new job required that I get a Blackberry. Obviously I was scared because I can't handle new things without being afraid. Also I kept hearing how once you have one, you become obsessed. I knew I would be different. No way do I want to spend my spare time checking work email.

Now that I have one I'm happy to say everyone else is right. I am on this thing constantly.
The truth is that the implications of the Blackberry are huge and here's why: I can get to blogs from this thing. Do you know how awesome that is?? In fact I am currently attempting to blog from it. If this works, it will be the greatest thing ever. If not, I will get an email from Aunt Nancy that says, "Update your GD blog."

By the way it is taking me like 7 hours to write this. I don't exactly have the typing thing down yet. Listen the keys are really small.

So last night Steph made a few of us go to this restaurant in a not so great part of town called Hot Sauce Williams. She has been begging to go there forever. According to its web site it specializes in soul food. And oh my God was it good. Literally my soul felt better after eating there.

Since it was a Monday, we just went home afterwards. And by that I mean we went to a bar. Meg had to go home and work so we said we'd have one round and go home. Two rounds later we left. And went to a wine bar next door.

We sat down and Drew said, "So we thinking 3 bottles?" We all had a hearty laugh. Three bottles later, we finally decided to call it a night as Meg said, "Whatever it's only Monday. I have all week to finish my work." We are really good friends who care deeply about Meg's career.

Best quotes of the night:
"My mom is taller than me and has smaller feet, and she falls over all the time!" - Meg

Diane, while we are staring in horror at Drew's uber-dorky Rick Moranis impression from "Ghostbusters": "Just look at this pretty ring. Focus on the ring."

Steph, commenting on the AMAZING banana pudding at Hot Sauce Williams which was covered in meringue: "It's so good. I like how they bronze the whipped cream around the side."

Poor Steph almost knows less about cooking than I do. Almost. It's okay, Steph-we will just go eat at Hot Sauce Williams.

Seriously everyone should start off their week this way.

18 comments:

Skeezix said...

Holy SHIT! I am coming to Cleveland this weekend specifically to eat at Hot Sauce Williams. Awesome, I'm glad to know it is good.

Well, I'm hoping to eat there if they are open for lunch on Saturday.

Unknown said...

OMG! I was watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations in Cleveland last night, and they went to Hot Sauce Williams. After seeing this show, I need to go to Cleveland and eat there. I'm glad it's really as good as he said it is.

Anonymous said...

Since urban princess mentioned it.....No Reservations is one of the only shows I watch anymore and I have to say that as someone who once lived in Cleveland, that was the WORST episode of it I have ever seen and a piss poor representation of the city as a whole. Why didn't he have his "good friend" Michael Symon show him around instead of two mentally ill vagrants. No offense to Harvey Pekar, he's a fascinating gent who made an important contribution to comic books, but he's not the best ambassador for food finds in Cleveland.

-Lo

PS. HSW is quite good, but I can't believe Steph suggested a CHAIN restaurant.

Sarah said...

Skeezix, holy shit that's insane! Get the banana pudding. Seriously.

SLCUPS, come to Cleveland! I'll take you there!

Sarah said...

Lo, I haven't watched it yet' but 4teph said the same thing.

Sarah said...

Gdamn Blackberry! I can't type!

Anonymous said...

That's funny. Steph and I have never discussed it , so our opinions are completely independent of one another. My BF (who also loves the show and interesting food finds....he fancies himself a younger, less grizzled Anthony Bourdain)kept saying "oh my God, Cleveland looks like the ugliest, most depressing city on earth." I was embarrassed.

Fizzgig said...

wine bar? where is this wine bar? I've been spending a lot of time in Cleveland with the new boy...i want to impress him with my big city knowledge.

Johnny Virgil said...

"oh my God, Cleveland looks like the ugliest, most depressing city on earth."

Looks like?

Anonymous said...

My favorite thing...my little sister, from Big Bros/Big sis came over tonight for dinner. I was telling her about the amazing banana pudding at HSW. When I finished my story she looked at me puzzled. She asked if I went to the pink building on the east side. I said I did, why? She explained her cousin and aunt work there and she didn't know white people were allowed to go there. Umm...

She also said, I'm going to ask my aunt if she remembers you, they don't get many white people so I bet she does. Umm...Also...equally awesome...and how happy am I that I did not high five the staff on the way out like I had planned.

Lo, I didn't know HSW was a chain? I'm confused and upset. I don't do chains...what does this mean? I only wanted to go there b/c it was pink, the delicious food was just a lagniappe.

Mon, you want to go to The Market Wine bar in Ohio City next to Great Lakes Brewing Co...cutest little place you've ever seen.

Skeezix said...

In my book it's not a real chain, there are three Cleveland locations all owned by the same family who started the original store (the one you guys went to).

It certainly isn't a Chili's or Smokey Bones type place.

Sassy Blondie said...

I have a Blackberry Pearl...it is the devil in a small machine.

I'm supposed to go to Cleveland in the spring for some kind of conference. Looks like I have somewhere to have lunch that was given high praise...

russ said...

I went to HSW for the first time a number of years ago. We went to the pink one on Carnegie -- and tried to use the drive thru. It had a hand-lettered sign (and IIRC, it had misspelling/incorrect grammar) that said the speaker was broken and to pull around.

It was good stuff. The food is a bit better than Whitmores, but I do like Whitmore's sauce better. I will forever look down on the fact that all Cleveland BBQ places give you a slice of white bread with your order. Eww. And there's no way to replace old Mama's Boy and their Fun-in-a-box.

O, and yes, Cleveland has a hard, gritty center. If one fancies themselves as a mini-Bourdain they should like the reality it represents (some of his excellent writing demonstrates).

Anonymous said...

Russ! I love the white bread calling card but I don't recall that coming anywhere but from Whitmore's. But I only lived in C-land for 2 years. I remember Mama's Boy in East Cleveland and there also used to be a place called Angie's, I think, which was true soul food...not bbq. Bourdain blew the Cleveland show in so many ways. It will take the tourism board years to undo that damage and the fact that Cleveland may have a hard, gritty center has nothing to do with it. Doesn't help that they showed up in February and spent a good 15 minutes showing idiots (sorry, if I offend anyone)surfing in below freezing raw sewage. Have you seen the program? I think Anthony was trying to prove the age-old adage....what's the best part of Clevelnad to live in? New York. Personally, I thought his piece for Spin was self-aggrandizing and dull once you wade through all of the name-dropping. But, I'm still a fan.

russ said...

(Re: Spin piece) Really? I think the writing is amazing and Bourdain will always have a strong vibe of "look how cool I am", but I think he's willing to take himself less seriously on occasion.

As for the Cleveland No Rez episode, I think there are a couple ways to look at it. It was clearly not pure boosterism, but I don't think Bourdain's show is ever about that. He most wants to show what residents do in a town, and/or what makes a town unique. The way I see it there are three possible Clevelands to portray (which is not to say that this is all there is):

Yuppie Cleveland --
This would be all the cool hip places to eat and hang in Cleveland -- everything downtown and in Tremont and Ohio City. This is the stuff the younger set trumpets when defending the city. It's a roll call of stuff that's pretty nice, and would make you as happy as most other cities of decent size. We saw this in Lola and Ruhlman's house in an inner ring suburb.
Suburban Cleveland -- This is where 80% of the adults you know as Clevelanders live, and if they don't spend all their free time in the bland 'burbs, it's because they don't have kids. Yet. And Bourdain had the nerve to show what we might otherwise be scared to when he visited Skyline Chili and the Rock Hall.
Poor Cleveland -- People who ride buses to work and don't get paid enough to move to a suburb. Shown in the Hot Sauce Williams visit and all the trekking through the flats. Not glamorous, but it's what the city was, and in some measure what it is.


I think AB did a good job showing more than you can find on Chowhound, and I think if you look around you might see that showing these unique things actually attracted people in a way that hiding them would not. Read the comments on Ruhlman's blog and you'll see what I mean.

O, and as for the cruddy weather, well, that was a tough break. They should have mentioned they shot here when they did because of some unrest in Indonesia. Snow and slush is better than gunfire, right?

Anonymous said...

Re: Re: Spin Piece

He's a good food critic/writer, but just because you do alot of drugs and spend time with the Ramone family, doesn't make you Lester Bangs. I say this, because I think this peice (along with many rants heard on No Res) are overtly imitative of him. I won't begrudge him that though, deep down, we all want to be more like Bangs. Eggers and Lethem do a much better job of genre-bending which is what he seems to be trying to do here. Kitchen exploits and the NYC punk rock movement (??) Just my opinion.

I won't even attempt to dance with you on the restaurant choices because I just don't know the city's offerings well enough. I agree that the show shouldn't focus solely on all that the warehouse district/Ohio City/Tremont has to offer the upper middle class, but Skyline? A franchised restaurant from Cincy with locations all over the country (I live in Florida now and have one within a mile of here). That makes no sense. Why not a polish boy from Whitmore's? There were better choices that could have been made at every price point. Perhaps the hurry-up scheduling of the show had something to do with the apparent lack of research.

russ said...

I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed in Skyline as well, but I must admit that I've been and know lots of people who enjoy a visit.

I just saw the New Jersey episode of No Reservations, and it makes Cleveland look like a Bahamanian resort, so I think any quibbles should be chalked up to the NoRez aesthetic.

Anonymous said...

I'll check out that episode, Russ. I had dinner at Skyline right after we discussed it.

-Lo