Showing posts with label bookstores. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bookstores. Show all posts

Monday, June 6, 2011

My East Coast Tour: First Stop, Boston

I just had the joy of taking 12 days to travel down the East Coast, Boston to NYC to Washington, D.C. When people asked why I was going, I answered, "Because I can." I wanted to visit my friends and bookstores and cupcake shops and food trucks in these cities. So I did and here's what I found.

Pomodoro: [website]
Upon arriving in Boston, my friend Kristin and I (sans her husband Eric who was studying) had dinner before hitting the "Leave It To Bieber" at the Improv Asylum. I chose a pasta dish with Tuscan white beans, arugula, tomatoes, etc. It was delicious and worth the price.

In A Pickle: [website]
I needed a lunch spot on Friday and Eric recommended this local place in Waltham. I made Kristin jealous by going there; she hadn't been there yet (which has since been remedied). Being on a grilled cheese kick lately, I got the Wasabi Grilled Cheese without the bacon. I took it across the street to the common. It was like having a picnic in Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls, anyone?).

Peace o' Pie: [website]
Kristin had a Groupon for this vegan pizza place but she forgot to use it. It's a good thing that we loved the pizza; she and Eric can go back and have more pizza. We had two pizzas and I think one of them was the White Pizza. (Harveys, do you remember which we had?) Either way, they were delicious!

The Friendly Toast: [website]
This might have been my highlight of this Boston trip. Because the toast is amazing. Seriously, best toast I've ever had. I ordered the Egg-In-A-Hole, eggs in toast. I couldn't eat all the toast, though I really, really wanted to. I would have even wrapped it up and taken it with me. Why didn't I?

This restaurant is fun and kitchsy. And there's a wait on weekends. And the toast is too friendly.

Harvard MIT Coop: [website]
The first bookstore in my bookstore tour. I found my nieces' next book in the Good Night series, Good Night Boston.

Meadhall: [website]
Saint Of Circumstance IPA, enough said. One-of-a-kind brew, never to be duplicated.

Harvard Coop: [website]
Off to Harvard Square we went and to bookstore #2, Harvard Coop. No books purchased but I did find Press Here, a book I purchased later on my trip for my soon-to-be 5-year-old niece.

Pinkberry: [website]
Kristin's inaugural visit, which was hard to comprehend. I had the Original with kiwi and strawberries because sometimes it's hard to pass up what I know. (Though now they have the Salted Caramel flavor, and I might need to try that ASAP.)

Raven Used Book: [website]
One last bookstore for the day, in Cambridge also. It was small but had a good selection. And it was nice to hear the shopkeeper (is that word too dated?) talking books with the folks who came in.

Brookline Booksmith: [website]
We continued the bookstore down in Coolidge Corner. Loved this shop too with good bargain books in the basement. We spent a good deal of time poking around here.

Finale: [website]
Before dinner we stopped for dessert. Mmmmmm. Finale has a good selection of delicious looking pastries. I had the coconut cream tart. It was good but I think Kristin extra chocolatey goodness won the dessert war.

Green Dragon Tavern: [website]
For dinner we trekked downtown to the Green Dragon Tavern. On its sign out front, The Green Dragon says that it's the Headquarters of the Revolution. We ended up doing some Google searches via the smartphones (iPhone & Android) to get more information. We discovered this wasn't the original location of The Green Dragon were the headquarters were located; that pub was demolished. But we could still imagine the revolutionaries meeting in the basement of this tavern that's off the main street.

I had the Martha Washington Burger, substituted with a veggie burger. It was delicious.

Eric, Kristin and I continued our tradition of taking a window seat to watch the people go by. And to play our game of stare-people-down-and-see-if-they-look-back. Always fun. We believe that our presence in the window seat, eating delicious looking food and having a good time laughing, drew the crowd in because when we got there, it was quite empty. But when we left there was quite a crowd.

Also, there was a wooden Minuteman out front. And it was quite funny to watch the people walk by and take pictures of the tavern and take pictures of themselves with the Minuteman. I did too!

Thinking Cup: [website]
A new favorite! This coffee shop is across the street from Boston Common. Good coffee and good atmosphere. My cafe au lait was delicious.

This concluded the Boston portion of my East Coast tour. Monday morning I jumped the train to New York City. Thank you, Amtrak, for a quick (4-hour) and easy ride to Penn Station.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Adventures in Portland

Since I was heading to the West Coast for my final campus course at Fuller anyway, I thought I would swing through Portland the week before to visit my friend Shelby who moved there from Nashville last summer. What a delightful week we shared together in between my work and homework and her home remodeling....

Places we went....mostly centered around food and/or drink:

ROOTS ORGANIC BREWING COMPANY: www.rootsorganicbrewing.com

Shelby, Russ and I shared a pitcher of beer and chips & salsa after I arrived in town.

WILD ABANDON: www.wildabandonrestaurant.com

I had the most dreamy meal here: Tofu Heaven. It was heavenly. A moment that I loved being vegetarian.

GENIES CAFE: www.geniescafepdx.com

By the time we ventured out for food on Monday, I was so hungry I could have eaten my fist. Fortunately, I didn't have to. The Florentine omelette at Genies Cafe was delicious. And the potatoes on the side were the best potatoes that I've had in some time.

HIPPO HARDWARE: www.hippohardware.com

Shelby and Russ are in the middle of remodeling their home. We made a couple trips to the local and slightly eccentric Hippo Hardware. Shelby and I sorted through drawers of silver drawer pulls to find the best 16. They also talked to the "lighting" lady about possible light fixtures for the house. We returned the next day to get two more matching drawer pulls....just can't get enough.

Shelby said that Hippo Hardware was featured in Jackass the Movie. How she knows that is a story for another day....

VIA DELIZIA: www.viadelizia.com

Anyone who knows Shelby knows that she loves ice cream, and even that might be an understatement. I think she would marry it if she could.

Well, she and Russ took me to Via Delizia for gelato. And it lived up to their hype. This was our afternoon treat and I had a scoop of Coffee Cake gelato and Turkish Coffee gelato. I was wishing I could have a repeat for breakfast the next day because that might have been one of the best ways to enjoy the morning treat of coffee cake and coffee. Delicious!

LAUREL HURST THEATER AND PUB: www.laurelhursttheater.com

From gelato we ventured to Laurel Hurst Theater for "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" for $3. The beauty of Laurel Hurst is that it's a theater and a pub. So, we got a pitcher of Lucky Lab Porter to enjoy with our movie. The movie was brilliant (Love Wes Anderson!) and the drinks were delicious as well.

Shelby connected some dots for me. The Lucky Lab Porter that we had is from the Lucky Labrador Brewing Company, which has a porch (with heaters for the cold days) for beer lovers to bring their dogs. Cool.

BAMBOO SUSHI: www.bamboosushipdx.com

After the movie, we went to Bamboo Sushi for dinner. This place was absolutely fantastic! I had the Green Machine veggie sushi roll. Russ has the 180 veggie sushi roll and Shelby had spicy scallop roll. It was all amazing - some of the best sushi I've ever had, and vegetarian!

Not only does Bamboo do the sushi right, but it is a certified, sustainable sushi restaurant - and it is the first one in the world. You really need to read more about it on the website here.

BRODER: broderpdx.com

WARNING: They close at 3 p.m. We tried to go the day before at 3:15. No good. But we ended up at Genies and that was a win!

Back to Broder. It was like being at a classy IKEA.

What a treat for brunch. I actually had a latte. I'm normally just a black coffee drinker but I felt something special happening here so I went with the latte. And it was good.

The food was beautifully plated. And it was delicious. The potato pancake was less than crisp than other potato pancakes I've had - but it was perfect. And the egg scramble was HOT, right out of the oven. To top it off, the walnut toast was delicious with the Danish berry jelly.

Broder is a must visit.

BOON'S TREASURY: www.mcmenamins.com

On Wednesday we drove down to Salem to meet Russ' mom for dinner. We went to Boon's Treasury which is part of the McMenamins family of pubs. I finally got my craving for tater tots satisfied. And can I recommend you try their tater tots cajunized? Goodness, delicious.

VOODOO DOUGHNUT: voodoodoughnut.com

Russ left for a job in Denver in Thursday so Shelby and I were left to our devious devices. Which included a visit to the famous Voodoo Doughnut. Now typically on the pass on the doughnut in favor of cookies, brownies, cake, ice cream, candy bar, just about any other sweet.

I had the Vegan Portland Cream. Shelby had the regular Portland Cream. It was a pretty dang delicious doughnut.

POWELLS BOOKSTORE: www.powells.com

And then to Powells! Prowling for a couple hours through books sounds grand to me.






WHISKEY SODA LOUNGE: www.whiskeysodalounge.com

We didn't mean to visit Whiskey Soda Lounge. We started across the street at its mother restaurant Pok Pok, a Thai restaurant. But part of their service is, when you are waiting for a table (our wait was 30 minutes), they send you across the street to Whiskey Soda Lounge for drinks and/appetizers.

You check in with the host at Whiskey Soda and they let you know when your table is ready at Pok Pok. Genius! We tried the papaya fritters and I enjoyed a minty drink called Southside.

POK POK: www.pokpokpdx.com

Once the host let us know that our table was ready across the street, we settled up at Whiskey Soda and walked across the street to Pok Pok. Shelby heard that this place had been featured on the Travel Channel. They had a nice selection of Thai food but I dare say these are not the standard Thai dishes you'll find in most Thai places.

I tried the Yam Samun Phrai (made vegetarian), which is a special Northern Thai herbal salad with ginger, carrot, parsnip, betel leaf, basil, lime leaf, sawtooth, fried shallots, cashews, peanuts, sesame seeds, and Thai chilies in a coconut milk dressing. Delicious! Light and just the right amount of food.

***Insights on my final three days forthcoming....