Restaurant Review
gregladen | February 23, 2011A few months ago, for reasons that I do not recall and could probably never explain, Amanda and I stopped at one of those crappy little Chinese Restaurants stuck between a dry cleaner and a dollar store in some out of the way run down strip mall in Andover.1 We were very hungry; I remember that. We ordered the usual: Egg foo yung for Amanda (I personally don't know why anyone would eat that) and Kung Pao chicken and something noodly for me.
We were expecting to be satiated by the food, but to be made somewhat ill from the low quality ingredients and poor cooking one usually finds in a…
gregladen | July 27, 2010If the restaurant was being forced closed by the city making dumb tax-related decisions and the public works department acting almost vindictively against a certain neighborhood, as was the case when JP's closed, I'd be pissed. If it was a restaurant that was really trying to do well but failed because of the economy or because people did not appreciate it, I'd be unhappy. If it was a restaurant that served as the only anchor in a neighborhood at an uncertain tipping point, I'd be concerned. But none of those things are true.
This is the restaurant where a small handful of friendships formed…
gregladen | April 22, 2009This is a sister post to: The Black Forest Inn: Anarchists 2, Scientists 1
Lizzie had said in her email, "Let's meet at the Black Forest Inn. I think you told me you'd never been there. It's a place you might like."
How nice of Lizzie to suggest a new place for me to enjoy. Of course, I had been there many times, most recently for the Science Blogs Millionth Comment Party--so it had been a while. But there was a time when I lived around the corner and came here much more often. So when I met up with Lizzie that night, and we were sitting at the bar in the Black Forest eating our hearty…
gregladen | December 10, 2008 ... about the distribution of food at dinner tonight. Well, not totally. SIL and FIL did not exchange food. But everything else was wrong. But no matter, really.
Warning: If you go to Manny's, you should know that they moved. Manny's is now in the Forshay building. Otherwise it's the same old Manny's. Bring lots of money. Expect to bring home bags of meat.
Manny's motto is "Life is good at the top of the food chain." And that is meant in more ways than one. Manny's is where the teams eat. You know, the teams. Like the Vikings. It is an expense-account place too. It is where…
gregladen | December 10, 2008A good friend of mine, whom I shall call L.R., got a job ... a pretty nice job, with benefits and a salary and everything, in the "helping" industry, which she's good at and which she likes. So I took her out for a congratulatory dinner (and just because we had not seen each other in weeks). It took me some effort to get her to tell me where she really wanted to eat. L.R. is a sweetly, quietly self contained person (but made of steel inside, so don't mess with her) so it was totally out of character for her to tell me where we should go so I could buy us both dinner. But I made her talk…