Have you ever gone on an adventure only to find that it wasn't so adventurous? Now, have you ever gone out and done something more routine that turned into an adventure?
The later was our situation. We went out on a bit less routine date night than usual. We decided to drive to the city and get a cupcake. Apparently, cupcakes are all the rage right now. We decided on a little place called
Babycakes. It turns out it is two doors down from Peet's Coffee and Tea, so we grabbed a coffee also. These cupcakes are pretty good and we are excited to try the Nutella one. We are both suckers for Nutella.
We had some time to kill before dinner, so I went to my favorite LFS. That is Local Fish Store, for the laymen. This fish store is called O Street Aquarium. I bought a MagFloat for my tank. I was dreaming of having a larger tank, and the kinds of new fish that I could add, etc. My wife didn't pull me back to reality too much. In fact, I found the tank I really want to have on craigslist. Tell Kate to let me buy
this.
So after that, it was off to
Jazzyblues Cafe. We had a $25 gift certificate, but as it turns out, we didn't use it. This is where the story really starts to get interesting. We sit down, order a beer (Fat Tire), look over the menu. We learning it isn't so much of a Cafe as it is a BBQ pit. No matter, we decided on our meal. The waitress came over to take our order and said, "So let me tell you what we don't have." She went on to say, "TriTip, RibTips, Chicken, Hotlinks, and Ribs."
Of course, there wasn't much left on the menu. "So what do you have?" we both asked. Red Snapper and a burger was the answer. So much for choice, right? They didn't have anything else on the menu but your typical BBQ sides, such as baked beans, fries, and potato salad.
It turns out they had a decent reason for the food not being ready, the cook had a death in the family, but we didn't much feel like eating those two options. We scooted off from Jazzyblues trying to determine where to go, now less $25 in gift certificates and still in need of a good meal. Kate was tipsy from the single beer she had. We thought maybe we would go to one of our favorite places, called
Serritella's. We highly recommend.
However, both of us were super hungry by this point, so we decided to go to
Brew It Up. It was closer to where we were. This place was much better than Jazzyblues because it had a nice atmosphere and we could have an appetizer at the bar while we waited. I also had a beer (Brown Ale), you can't go to a brewery and not have a couple beers.
We devoured a stack of panko-crusted onion rings, before being seated. I had gotten a taste for meat, after being at the meat heavy menu of Jazzyblues cafe. Kate decided upon pizza, I got ribs.
The ribs were sweet, but fantastic. I loved my entree. Kate was being nice when she said the chicken pizza she had was mediocre. It was bad, dry chicken, zero flavor, etc. Normally, we don't send things back, but we wanted the restaurant to know that this particular menu item was subpar. After all we like Brew It Up, they should know they have a crappy menu item. The waiter asked us if we wanted to have it removed. We told him, only if he wanted too, we don't want to force you to do it (we weren't looking for a free bite or two of pizza).
We decided to share the cheesecake for dessert, because Kate hardly had any pizza and I can't pass up cheesecake. We joked about the Berry Coulis. "Coulis not a monkey?" Just watch the Friends episode "The one where Joey doesn't share food" and you will understand.
This cheesecake arrives at our table, unimpressive. Wait let me back up a step. I am a huge Cheesecake Fan and Critic. I can tell you how good or bad the cheesecake is at various chains and local food places from San Francisco to Abilene. My favorite all around, Claim Jumper. Best Crust, Tahoe Joe's. Best filling, Claim Jumper. Mash the two together and you will have the perfect cheesecake. Oh, btw, compare apples to apples. Cheesecake Factory's original cheesecake is mediocre at best. I would be interested in trying the cheesecake in the Friends episode, "The one with all the cheesecakes." I've seen way too much Friends for any guy, but at least I haven't seen that much Sex and the City.
Okay, so this sliver of cheesecake shows up at our table. The thing is like 1/100 the size of the piece you get at Claim Jumper. We dive into the cheesecake less the "red crap" (Again watch the friend episode). I didn't even swallow this first bite of this crappy cheesecake. I poured the red crap on the cheesecake and signaled the waiter. This thing was about as dry as death valley sand. Oh, that reminds me, every needs to try
Death Valley Chipotle Kettle Chips. GREAT CHIPS! They even have a Facebook application for these things. I plan to add it, they are that good.
So back to this crappy cheesecake. Bone dry and tastes like I was putting my tongue on the back of a dirty freezer. Kate thought is was terrible too. I would easily say a SaraLee frozen cheesecake would own this cheesecake one-on-one. I am pretty sure Pedigree dog food might as well.
Anyways, we still like Brew It Up, we just think the kitchen was having a rough night. We left Brew It Up, only having paid for my third beer (Vanilla Stout) and the ribs. I tipped the waiter based on the full bill and we headed home to "finish" the date.
A normal Saturday date night, turned adventure, turned product pushing blog. I hope you all enjoyed.
