Restaurant Week Summer 2009

It’s back! Every year, Bostonians celebrate the art of fine dining in four special weeks [2 weeks in March and 2 in August].  Restaurant Week is when us consumers get a break from the big guy upstairs.  Hundreds of restuarants [including those haughty totty 5 star gems] participate in a Restaurant Week special.  At a prefixed price of $15.09 for 2-course lunches for, $20.09 for 3-course lunches and dinners for $33.09, you can go all out and try those places you always wanted to.  This is a great initiative that allows Boston to show off its trendiest establishments and most talented chefs.

This month’s Restaurant Week is August 9-14 and 16-21.  The majority of these restaurants use OpenTable [which you should already be using already].  I would definitely recommend places such as Top of the Hub or Radius. These high end places usually book up pretty fast too.  If there is an absolute-must-proposing-to-your-girlfriend-time you can even try calling the restaurants as they sometimes keep a table or two open aside from online reservations.  American Express credit card holders get the sweet perk of making reservations earlier than others.

What I do not like about Restaurant Week is where some places will try to take advantage of you by adding extra fees. Remember, many of these places pull in way more than $40 per person on a regular basis.  They will try to offer shitty base meals and include more tastier and lavish options with add ons.  To avoid this, make sure you check out their restaurant week menus.  You will probably already be doing this anyways as you won’t be able to eat at 200 restaurants in 12 days. At this website there is a guide of all the menus.  It is an unofficial guide, so it may not be entirely trustworthy.  Another option would be to go to the particular restaurant website to search for menu postings. 

Don’t be afraid to spend your life savings in these two weeks. Just look at it as spending what would actually be your total career life earnings on sale.

Bon Appetit!

BC Dining

Got another poll for you guys….

Fire Icccccce Baby

Few may know the glory that is of Fire and Ice. This fine establishment is an improvisional grill that is unfortunately less common to find than the average Bostonian would think.  Here in Beantown, there are two of these amazing buffets (one by the Commons and one in Harvard Square). There are only seven of them (in the whole world!).

The idea of Fire and Ice is close to that of a hibachi grill experience where the chefs entertain you as they cook your food in front of you.  The concept actually dates back hundreds of years ago to the Mongols that mastered the lands of Asia.  Soldiers were said to flip their shields upside down and use them as giant woks over a fire.   Mongolian barbeques are quite popular nowadays in many chinese buffets. Starving customers get to choose different ingredients to place in their dish and bring it over to the grill to be cooked.  The Boston establishments feature salad bars, choices of various pastas, fish, seafood, meats, and much more. 

Any seafood lover will definitely enjoy the jumbo shrimp and fresh calamari to be grilled (all you can eat, there’s no better deal). One can even order up spagetti and meatballs, cheesesteaks, or massive cheeseburgers.  With unlimited trips, you better come starving (cause you won’t eat for days after).

Depending on how nice the waitress is, you should get chips and salsa to kick it off.  There is also complimentary rice and tortillas to help make your ingenious creations.

The atmosphere of this improv restaurant is pretty much like a happening college pre-game grill out.  All the grill masters must either be drunk or high as they are incredibly happy and friendly to everyone (for real, everyone).  Whether they are shouting at people about arguing something stupid or breaking out into song to Vanilla Ice or Backstreet Boys, they never cease to entertain.  The restaurant handles groups very well and will section off areas of tables for your group if you call earlier in the day.  They serve typical drinks including sangria and massive margaritas.

One of my favorite parts of Fire and Ice is its amazing deal.  Full price dinners range from 16 to 20 dollars.  I’m almost positive anyone that visits, will eat more than 20 dollars worth of food (atleast what they charge at other restaurants where you order chef-determined meals [pfff,who orders entrees of a menu anymore). Btw, you can order select entrees, appetizers, and desserts of a menu…  Anyways you can always get whatever you want.  The genius of it is… you can easily throw away any plate you messed up.  This is perfect because my girlfriend just absolutely hates fish. I know it astounded me, too (especially since she is from Cape Cod).  Anyways we rarely get to enjoy places like Legal Seafoods or Turner Fisheries or Atlantic Seafood Company.

Lastly, to emphasize how cheap this place is (I know I sound like a stupid salesman, but this place really is an awesome deal), there are special discounts.  Sign up for the meals and deals email list and they will periodically send free coupons for fondues and such.  If you are a college student, enjoy 10 dollar mondays with you ID (Hint: even if you are a graduated college student, bring your ID, they are pretty dumb at checking IDs [or even borrow a friends as a fake]).  Basically, get off your ass and make your way down to Fire and Ice every single Monday if you don’t already plan to go to Brighton Beer Garden (see previous post below)!!!

G-Force

Looks to be a hilarious movie.  Not many more big blockbusters left this summer.  This is one I hope to see.  Its definitely appropriate for the whole family and its a cartoon. Its about James Bond-esque guinea pigs.  That is all you need to know. Check it out…

Brighton, Land of Sports Bars

So just a couple weeks ago, my friends and I decided to try some new bars.  Apart from the Boston College campuses is downtown Brighton along Washington St.  It’s a bit of a trek away from the usual Cleveland Circle bars, but there is still much down there.  Little do people realize, St Elizabeth’s Medical Center is down there along with many of the takeout and delivery places that BC students feast on.  A relatively new bar that always catches our eye was the Brighton Beer Garden that opened just about a year ago.  Being that not many students venture down that way, not many of us had hear much.  Nevertheless, there was always a relatively large size crowd packing every time we drove by.

We definitely did not regret our decisions.  From the moment we arrived to the moment we left, we were blown away.  With a gazillion HD TVs and a couple large projector screens, every single sporting event was on display.  Nicely finished bar and floors along with that new bar smell (yea, it still has it), makes you feel like you’re in some more expensive bar like the Top of the Hub (without the Top part).  Still, its better than that hole-in-the-wall, BC tradition, Mary Anns.  The beer list is pretty extensive and fun to try (but perhaps a bit expensive).  The crowd is always pretty hip and young from college students to young business men (and women) in their late 20s, early 30s.  You might notice, some of the other bars in Brighton (and even BC favorites like Cityside), have those creepy old men hanging around.  Anyways the food is awesome.  I haven’t really scoped out the happy hour times, but there are plenty of specials that can’t be beat. Monday, Tuesday 9-11 pm $3.99 wing buffet; Tuesday $2.50 burger and miller high life and enter a free Red Sox ticket raffle, and other cool deals such as buy an entree, get one free when the Celtics or Bruins win! This place is definitely legit.

Obviously I’ve either convinced you right now or you think I’m making up bullshit.  Just check out their website.  Or just swing by.  Either way, there is a Dunkin Donuts near by.  Theres no way to lose.

The End of Fun

I am very sad to learn, as most of you probably are that sales tax in Massachusettswill be raised to 6.25% on August 1st, 2009.  Not only will this put a hit our wallets, but on our over all well being. Everyone knows that free things are hard to come by. That’s why free things always feel the best, taste the best, work the best, etc.  We put the same analogous feeling towards cheap things. Well, now everything is going to be a little less fun.  Now MA is also putting a bigger damper on our lives as purchases for alcohol will now be included in the sales tax. So now, your ordinary handle or case of beer is going to cost a couple extra bucks on top of the recycling deposits the state already has in place.  If you are anything like the normal Boston College student, I suggest you stock up come the end of July.

Bananas!?!

I thought this was so cool, I ran into it the other day.  Though I have yet to try it, I think it is ingenious. I’ve always hated those pesky underripe bananas that were like pieces of rubber. Hopefully if this works, I can say goodbye to the days where I get banana guts stuck underneath my fingernails or the taste of banana skin in my mouth.

UPDATE: So I have replaced the link as I have found the youtube video of the same person.  Also, I have tried this and it works.  Though I probably would only do this if the banana is very under ripe to refrain from appearing to be a freak to everyone that walks by…

New Era in Boston

So, I’m always trying to think of new dates for myself and my girlfriend of 10 months. I feel like of pretty much exhausted nearly everything in this humble city of ours. However, something that never becomes old is a concert. This is always a pleasant break from the dinner and movie scene. We listen to many different artists over many genres and so every concert we go to has a different atmosphere. Obviously, music is a pretty expensive market and finding quality artists at quality venues even more so. I usually limit myself to just one concert a month beyond the “favorite, break-the-bank, best artists”. That’s not the case anymore (well at least hopefully).

TD Banknorth Bankiwas just merged/taken over/bought some other banks (like Commerce Bank, one I used in Philadelphia) and its new name will just be TD Bank. Thus, the giant sports arena in downtown Boston (home to the Celtics, Bruins, and other athletics/concerts) will be remodeling and renamed to TD Garden. To kick it off, they will be doing a generous sweepstakes much like Charlie and Chocolate Factory. Chocolate bars and golden tickets will be given to anyone that shows up Thursday at noon.

This includes some pretty “sweet” prizes including tours of the facility and some select ticket packages.  If you like sports and concerts, its a free lottery to a dream come true.  If you don’t know much about Boston culture, the Bruins and the Celtics are really fucking good.  Also, all the biggest artists from Britney Spears to Barnum&Bailey to the Killers play here.  Unfortunately, most of us work or take classes during the day.  If not, I urge you and all fo your friends to try for a shot to these expensive dream dates.

Finishing up…

See tabs left, right, and up
Basically, eating and watching movies are my two favorite things in the world. If I could eat and not have my stomach fill up or watch movies and not have my eyes hurt, I would be in heaven. As I am sure most of you would too. In the tabs, I have added links to some of the restaurants I have eaten at lately as well as movie theaters. You will also find the focus of my blog, tying these two great past times together.

Poll 1 Summer ’09!

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Perhaps one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, Revenge of the Fallen, the sequel to Transformers, hit the summer with a bang.  The mega-blockbuster began shattering records since its opening on June 25th in Boston.  The majority of Beantown theaters offered midnight showings on Wednesday night massive throngs of crowds. Unfortunately, Michael Bay’s film fell short of expectations.  What was interesting to me was to read the many reviews surrounding this monumental artwork.  Just a little while ago, I read this article that ridiculed the movie to the furthest extent that it state it was the “worst-reviewed movie ever to make the $400 million club”. Though containing numerous fallacies (almost laughable), the movie obviously did provide some decent entertainment.

The Transformer movies takes its namesake and idea from the children’s cartoon and television series from the 1990s. The premise of this sequel is that the kid, Shia Lebaouf, owns a car that happens to be an alien transforming autonomous robot.  Many of these robots land on earth in search of an energy source (and eventually revealed, an energy cultivating machine). A war amongst robots develops as a few vow allegiance to the protection of humanity and earth.  As the director of action flicks Bad Boys, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor, Michael Bay did not disappoint in the massive explosions and graphics.  Its pretty easy to say that everyone watching was impressed.

Most of us that are not completely swept away from the amazing imaging can’t help put notice so many plot holes and unanswered questions.  After a destructive battle in the previous movie, it is extremely confusing why the world has no idea about the transformers that camouflage into various machines and vehicles.  The Secretary of Defense, Jon Voight, even went on international television in the first movie explaining the robots.  Coupled with some bad acting, extreme size changes of objects (tools, machines, people, everything), horrible accents (and perhaps racist in the German doctor robot and the ‘ghetto’ twin robots), geography problems (when going to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., the backdoor happens to go to the middle of nowhere, and in Egypt to Jordan), and how the fighting strengths of either side kept varying (why didn’t the original all powerful Primes just destroy the Fallen, how did the humans even compete against futuristic robots) made a very choppy plotline.  Also, the final climatic scene was… well… anticlimatic.  The fighting scene between the two powerful robots Megatron and Optimis Prime lasted mere seconds compared to every other battle.

Some things that were a pleasant surprise was the comedy. Not in how bad the  plot was, but the savvy one-liners that frequently scattered throughout.  As always, Michael Bay cleverly used the sex appeal of Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, and Tyrese Gibson to attract many moviegoers. Bottom line, Bay was successful in attracting the millions of fans to the theaters. It made money. It had a ton to talk about. It was a great date movie.

Linkin Park New Divide (Transformers 2 Theme)

Below is the link to the article.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/transformers39-worstreviewed-400-million-hit-ap

Getting there…

Look forward to my first article post. This is not one. I am just testing. I added some links and categories to the right.

First Post! Holla!

So this is my first test post. I made a couple pages. They are still being completed. Tho, you can see some bare bones. Its not really the finished product.