Places we ate while down in the city ...

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Located across the street from the Hotel Belleclaire (for which it does room service), this is quick, good breakfast at its finest. It's open 24 hours -- we only ate breakfast there (twice). The service is brisk but very fast and very efficient. The food (I had scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast) and coffee and fresh-squeeze OJ were excellent. The lunch and dinner menus looked similarly comforting.

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A rather chi-chi eatery (with inside and outside seating) on the Upper West Side, a few blocks west of the Natural History Museum, Isabella's food is exquisite (I had a nummy ducky ragout, and we both had amazing desserts). A very enjoyable meal -- that we definitely paid for, as the menu's on the pricy side. 

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It's a steakhouse. It's a steakhouse that's been in the Theater District since 1926 (when it was a speakeasy). And though the menu's changed (according to the 1939 sample on the wall), it's a place that's clearly (and justifiably) comfortable with what it serves (lots of seafood appetizers, some good salads, lots of steaks, and several kinds of potatoes). The staff has been there, apparently, forever. We had a T-bone for two, which our waiter carved for us. Exquisite. Excellent wine list, too. It won't win any awards for elegant decor (the dining room is boxy and cramped), but that's not why you go to some place like this. You go for slabs of meat and potatoes. And they serve it up well.

(We went to the 45th Street restaurant; there's also one on West 37th, and up in Rye.)

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For whatever reason, we never grabbed any pizza while in town. I'm not a huge NY-style pizza guy, but I was happy there was a good non-Domino's pizza place at LaGuardia for a our supper. Good (and large) pizza by the clice, good strombolis, good garlic knots, fun staff. A nice way to wrap up the trip -- if only I could remember its name!

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... but Internet connectivity has been ... dicey.

1. Wedding was appropriately and not-unexpectedly faboo. Best Man speech went, I am told, fine. Lovely bride, handsome groom, cute Kaylee, pretty church, nice country club, yummy food, good champagne, fantastic band, all's right with the world.  Pictures and text to follow at some future moment.

2. Down in NYC now at the Belleclaire Hotel, uptown west. 

3. Went to see Avenue Q this afternoon, which was both great fun in its own right and even more fun based on What Happened Next.

4. My Blackberry has locked up beyond my ability to fix it, which is intensely frustrating on multiple levels, not least of which is that I can't post pictures on-the-fly to the blog, making it seem like I've dropped off the face of the Earth. Ugh. And, also, Rrg.

5. Lovely dinner with Margie tonight, both in terms of good food (at Isabella's), and in terms of excellent company (Margie).

More as I get the chance, the inclination, and the connectivity.

Filed under :: Blogging :: Food & Drink - Restaurants :: Media :: Travel
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1. The Mysterious Case of Ohio's Voting Machines | Threat Level from Wired.com - e-voting "irregularities" may be a lot easier than normal voting, but they tend to be (so far) more obvious than "old school" voter fraud. Speaking of which (and I'm sure you'll find this shocking): Whistleblower: Voting Machine Company Lied to Election Officials About Reliability of Machines | Threat Level from Wired.com.
2. Five Things We've Learned From D&D from 1UP.com - The influence of D&D on Video Games.
3. Obama on ‘Renewing the American Economy’ - New York Times - Inspirational and erudite? Yeesh. I can't imagine either Clinton or McCain talking about economic renewal and regulatory reform by putting it into an historical context.
4. YouTube - Under the Tusken Sun - Star Wars fun in the sun!
5. Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico | The Underwire from Wired.com - Anti ... emo ... riots?
6. Earth Hour US - Earth Hour 2008 - Turn off your lights for an hour on Saturday night at 8 p.m. Doesn't say anything about turning off the computer or TV ...
7. Restaurant Names - Amusing restaurant names, that is. Or, rather, an academic paper about amusing restaurant names.
8. Speed Racer trailers and video clips on Yahoo! Movies - Go, Speed Racer, Go!

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Food & Drink - Restaurants :: Gaming :: Hi-Tech :: Media - Music :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri
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Overall
Food		Service
Ambience		Prices

Los Arcos was "established in 1978" -- in Westminster, up to the north of Denver. But we just got one down south of Park Meadows, in the burgeoning Lone Tree Restaurant Row along Yosemite. We saw it go in (as we drive past it on karate nights) and noticed it was drawing a solid crowd, even on week nights, so we swung by tonight around 5 or so.

Food: I had the shredded beef chimi; Margie the tacos al carbon; Kitten a kid's taco plate. All the food was fresh and tasty, if a bit on the bland side. I was offered (once Kitten told the waiter I enjoyed Mexican food) a spicier sauce, and next time I'll take them up on it.  But good ingredients and decent preparation. My chimi was a bit more "smothered" in the green chili than I was expecting, but it had (for those who like it) large tomato slices along with it. Margie's tacos had substantial slices of avocado as well. I also had the "premium" margarita (with Patron tequila), which tasted pretty good, if not quite as tart as I prefer it.

Service: Our waiter was attentive and quick. He pointed out options, made suggestions, suggestive-sold various bits -- but was always clear where there was a price add-on (e.g., on flour tortillas vs corn tortillas on the tacos). We also had the store manager -- son of the owner -- swing by and see how we were doing. Definitely trying to build a business in a very competitive area, and doing well at it.

Ambience: Very standard (if new) Mexican restaurant. Tile floors, wooden chairs, paintings of traditional themes + Aztec motifs + the owner of the restaurant and his wife. Oh, and an incongruous (even Kitten pointed it out) big screen TV on one wall. Nothing objectionable, and definitely a large, family-style dining room, but nothing to take pictures of, either.

Prices: The prices were quite reasonable. My top-of-the-line margarita was $7.50. The adult entrees were $8 or so. We got out of there, the three of us, for $36. I do note that (as we were told) the flour tortillas on the tacos were an extra 50 cents, and a second basket of chips and salsa would have set us back $1.85.

Overall: Good food, fresh tasting, reasonable prices, and solid, attentive service. Hard to go wrong there. Plus, it's apparently a popular feeding hole for the local police, which I find is usually a good suggestion for value, service, and flavor. 

I actually prefer, slightly, the within-eyeshot Brewery Bar III, but Margie and Katherine disagree, and it's not a difference big enough to quarrel over. We'll definitely be back.

Los Arcos Mexican Restaurant - 9045 Forsstrom Dr, Lone Tree, CO 80124 - 303-858-8860 

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Random pieces and bits on my way toward shutting down ...

1. A trio of us went into Amsterdam today -- a bit later than expected, as I got waylayed by a Big Boss into a project review meeting that ran an hour-plus. It was a rainy day pretty much all day -- not serious rain, but a serious drizzle. We took the Canal Bus canal boats -- that let us get a tour of the canals and get on and off at their stops at will for the day. We didn't take as much advantage of that as I would have liked, but it was still handy.
2. The Rijksmuseum is another of the fabulous 19th Century buildings in Amsterdam, with a huge collection of fabulous mostly-Dutch art. It's currently undergoing a multi-year rennovation, so "only" a side gallery is open, which "only" has about 400 of their top pieces ("The Masterpieces" collection, rightly named). It still took us a couple of hours to work through, and it was really spiffy. Very highly recommended for art and history fans. Lots of Rembrandts but also works by Vermeer, Hols, and Steen. It is (for those who "get it") the anti-"Tate Modern" -- lots of vibrant, realistic, enjoyable masterpieces.
3. The Van Gogh Museum ... not so much. It has the largest Van Gogh collection in the world, which now means I have officially seen as much Van Gogh as I ever need to. On the other hand, they have a faboo John Everett Millais exhibition going on (Ophelia sinking beneath the water; the Princes in the Tower, that Millais). A much more enjoyable area than the titular Van Gogh stuff. Ironically, in the lower gallery of the museum, which includes works by artists who inspired Van Gogh, my attention was drawn to a really spiffy painting that looked Pre-Raphaelite in subject, but far too sketchy/rough for one of that school; it turned out, though, to be a lovely unfinished Alma-Tadema, who's one of our favorite Pre-Raphaelites (there were two others of his pieces, portraits, in the collection).
4. Weather was drizzly all day, which both made it a bit annoying to take photos and, worse, meant the big glass windows of the canal bus were nearly impossible to see through about water level.
5. The Dutch countryside reminds me, not surprisingly, a lot of the English countryside -- save it's much flatter, has waterways, and is uniformly neatly manicured. Many swans and geese (the big fat Dutch kind, not Canadian) about. Also, in the city, a fair amount of graffiti.
6. Amsterdam's canals -- there are 60+ miles of them in the city, with 1250 bridges, I'm told (500 from the 17th Century) -- are full of houseboats -- 2500-odd of them. Some of these are the low-slung houseboats of the Parisian style. Others are, literally, boats that people are living on. Some are, basically, mobile homes on large concrete piers. It's kind of crazy, but fun.
7. A lot of Amsterdam was built in the 17th Century. The harbor used to be open to the sea, but eventually got locked off, so the water in the canals is "fresh" (well, not salt). The canals themselves have locks, too, and nightly they are closed and pumped to move the water through them (since there are no tides or other natural currents). The canals themselves were used to transport goods in from the harbors to the warehouses. The buildings are all row houses (or housing from former warehouse space), all of them very quaint looking, most with very narrow floor plans -- property taxation was done based on length of street frontage. As a result, most houses have very narrow, very steep staircases that you can't move furniture into. As a result of that, most houses have a hoisting beam at the very top so things can be hoisted to the upper floors (which always have doors or large windows). The locals say that's one reason why the facades of the buildings tend to be cantilevered outwards a bit, but given that they also tend to be a bit crooked -- and that most of the city is built on wooden piers pounded into the ground in the 17th Century -- I think subsidance is also a culprit.
8. We went to a great Italian bistro, the Ristorante Savini, not too far south of the Centraal railway station. Best food I had all trip, though I didn't object to most of the meals, and I'm always a sucker for osso buco. Also the best service we've had on the trip. Pleasant meal, though I ended up in a conversation with two older English couples at the adjoining table, who started off by interrupting us to ask if I was (from my accent) California. That turned into a free-ranging discussion of George W. Bush, McCain, Clinton, US immigration policy (both countries), the war in Iraq, national health care, etc. (Interestingly, while we were on the train back to Leiden, some Russian (?) young ladies coming from the airport asked me, "Do you speak English?" in order to find out if they were on a train that went to Rotterdam, which they were).
9. Two UK slang terms I picked up here: pukka (from Indian, for A-1 Okay), and plonker (stupid git). The terms came up in discussions of some UK TV shows, in particular Only Fools and Horses. Alas, nobody was impressed by my knowledge of Torchwood and Doctor Who, though they were pleased to find out we get Graham Norton in the US. Sadly, they'd never heard of Coupling.

Phew.

Off to the airport tomorrow early in the morning (hopefully before the impending big storm). Need to do some shopping, since all I've managed to find is a couple of small things for Katherine and some museum collection books (ahem). Didn't even think to shop for something for Margie at De Wallen last night ...

Anyhow, time for a last pint with the gang, head up to pack, and hit the hay. Or something like that. Chat with folks in-time-zone soon ...

Filed under :: Food & Drink - Restaurants :: Media - Art :: Media - TV :: Travel :: Writing and Language
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Both of these places are in the city center area of Leiden.

India Way is a tandoori restaurant right across a courtyard from the Olive Garden I mentioned the other night. Boss, Direct, and I went there Thursday night and did a family style of Lamb Tikka and similar goodies, with yummy rice and nan. 

Tonight a big group of us went to Surakarta, an Indonesian restaurant. Indonesian food is big in the Netherlands, as it's a former colony. Southeast Asian in nature, not surprisingly, it's spicy, savory, sort of like Thai with fewer nuts. Extremely tasty, if somewhat lackadaisical service.

I've been trying to walk a bit each night, and tonight I led some of us walking back from the restaurant (about 20-30 minutes strolling.

Both last night and tonight I tried a glass of Genever, or Dutch Gin. The Netherlands -- indeed Leiden -- is the home of gin (which became popular and low-quality in England when excise taxes were laid by William & Mary that taxed liquor based on volume, not proof). Dutch Gin is spicier, in keeping with its origin as medicine -- flavored spirit with various herbal infusions. Bombay Sapphire? Fah! This stuff is herbal, dagnabbit, with enough infused bits that the glass is oily when drained.

Surprisingly good. I'll have to check out the Duty Free on the way back through Schiaphol..

Filed under :: Food & Drink :: Food & Drink - Restaurants :: Travel
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Not much meeting news to tell. Tuesday night we went to the Olive Garden -- a small restaurant group here in the Netherlands unrelated to the chain back home. Very nice dinner. Last night was an "official" dinner, and we all (about two-dozen plus of us) clambered onto a charter bus and went to the Koetjes en Kailfjes (in Noordwijk), Excellent meal, and very patient service.

Took walks with two groups when we got back to the hotel, which made up a bit for the utter lack of exercise the day before.  I also was virtuous and did half an hour on the treadmill this a.m.

Meetings are going well, though the IT folks are dropping like flies. One of my directs can only be here this week, not next, due to a new baby at home. One of his directs has to pop out for a couple of days to deal with a funeral. My boss flies home tomorrow. And the one Finance-related IT we got had to fly back to the UK this morning because his kid was in hospital. Next thing you know, they'll be expecting me to make decisions.

Weather has been cool but clear. Not that we've spent much time outside.

The facilities here at the hotel are quite nice, without being posh. My room is comfortable (aside from a rock-hard bed) and relatively spacious. TV is a mixed bag, but there are BBC1 and BB2, and lots of undubbed American TV with subtitles on the other channels (I watched a late-season Alias last night, which was sort of odd since that's what I'd set my alarm to on my Blackberry).

Not sure what the unofficial touring plans are for Saturday afternoon or Sunday day. I definitely want to get over to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum, but I don't have a lot of explicit tourism targets beyond that (though, speaking of explicit, it sounds like there will be the inevitable Red Light District Rubbernecking Tour taking place at some point). We'll see.

Still feeling jetlagged -- the mornings are the worse (since they are the middle of the night back there -- my PC's clock shows it just past midnight at home), but I've found I can stand in the back of the room and stay awake (on my feet) that way.  If I just sit in my chair, I keep threatening to nod off.

Unless, of course, some of us find other ways to keep ourselves amused. Amidst all the e-mail I was dealing with on the fly during the meeting, I ended up in a lively exchange with two other people in the room, making various side comments to what was going on (and who was going on and on); it made me think of telepaths sitting in the room snarking with each other with nobody else the wiser. Naughty, but amusing.

Still haven't managed to score any Genever (Dutch gin), but the wine's been decent and the bar serves good beer.

And, for the moment, that's about that.

Filed under :: Food & Drink - Restaurants :: Job Jollies :: Travel
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