Two Nostrils, One Aggie

Another proud moment from a faithful Ag.

Two Guys One Cup

A Christmas Tradition

Merry Fucking Christmas

I don't know how normal people with large nuclear families do it. I spent a couple of hours yesterday and today doing my final Christmas shopping and I've had an impacted assfull of Christmas. Most of my gifts were purchased online. So, I'm a smartee in that way. But the biggest beat down over the past couple of days was going to the grocery store.

I'm having a couple of friends who have no where else to go over for Christmas dinner. Recently I saw a nice free range turkey breast (I guess the rest of the body is in a coup) at Central Market a few days ago. I almost bought it, but didn't want to have a raw unfrozen turkey in my fridge for more than a day. So I went back to CM yesterday and they were out of those breasts. I went back today and there was no improvement on the turkey breast front. I then went over to the new giant Whole Foods on Preston and Forest. Good Christ is that place nice. It is huge and it doesn't stink of raw fish and patchouli like the one on Greenville. Luckily they had my prized turkey breast. I can't wait for the new Whole Foods in Lakewood to finally get build. Too bad it's looking like early 2009.

One final comment about the holidays. You know it's bad enough to be behind some moron chatting away on their cellphone on the roads. It's 10 times worse at the grocery store. These people are moving slowly in a packed stored full of frantic people that mostly know where they need to go. No so these douchenozzles. They're just slowly moving down an aisle or, even better, just standing in the middle of an aisle while others have to maneuver around them. So, to you Cellphone Talking Grocery Shopping Persons, I give you a hearty Merry Fucking Christmas.

Wally's Pale Ale

I'm not going to lie to you. I was pretty apprehensive about tasting my first attempt at home brewing. Over the years several people have brought their home brew out to Winter League and they have all been dreadful at best. But I had to nut up and find out just how much of a punishment my designated beer pong beer would be.




The first step of tasting any beer is to open the bottle. Unless it's not in a bottle. Luckily my beer was bottled and I was able to accomplish the first step. Upon opening, the beer smelled good. So that was reassuring.


Step 2: Pour the beer. There was very little head and only mild carbonation. I guess I should make a joke about liking a lot of head. But really, this is serious work here and I will not stoop to such juvenile levels of comedy.


Step 3: Taste. Oh my sweet clean baby Jebus -- this is actually good. And I don't mean passable, but actually good. Now I won't say it's great. But it is good enough that I have had at least one bottle each of the past two nights.

Step 4: Share. Even Kat thinks it's good.

Drinking Lakewood: Lakewood Tavern

Shortly after I moved into the Wallagio, almost 4 years ago, the Lakewood Tavern shut down. I had only been in it once -- at the end of a St. Pat's day pub crawl. I remember liking it. But, admittedly, it was at the end of the crawl. So I was in no state to judge it properly.

So when Trent notified me that he thought it had reopened, I wanted to check it out quickly.

The place hasn't changed much. The tables and chairs are quite a bit higher toned. And the animal heads have been replaced with a giant projection TV. They are definitely going for an older, higher income crowd. A couple of nice couches are also available for sitting.

In stark contrast to the Capital Grill which was packed on a Tuesday one month after opening, the Tavern had only a couple of patrons.

Food wise, the place is ok. My pulled pork sandwich was good while I was told by the Jester that the hamburger was nothing special. Beer wise, well here's where I have a problem. They have two beers on tap -- Newcastle and Boulevard Hefe. That's an odd twosome in my mind -- a second tier import and a Hefe that has only been introduced to this area.

It's a nice place that probably still in shakedown. But please get some more taps.

Seriously, someone needs to open a bar somewhere with a nice variety of American Microbrews.

Hold that thought.....

C but I'll check back in a few..

6326 La Vista Dr Dallas, TX 75214

Renamed Rides at Six Flags

With the announcement today that Six Flags over Texas hopes to sell beer next year, I propose these names for some of the rides (past and present).

• The Big Bender
• The Bed Spinnaker
• Long Island Ice Tea Cups
• The Runaway Mind Eraser
• Irish Bumper Car Bombs
• Cyrus Cosmo's Rotoricutini
• Labatt's Riverboat Ride

There Really Is Nothing Better Than Christmas in Dallas

Except, maybe, this video:

For the Blogger Who Has Everything

This would be a nice Christmas gift for your favorite blogger.

Eating Dallas: Sangria

When the lovely Lidia suggested we go to a topless bar the other night I was fully on board. Unfortunately my hearing isn't as good as it once was and we instead ended up at Sangria -- a tapas bar.

We started out with something from each of their columns. Cold tapas -- tuna tartar with crushed hazelnuts, anchovy, olive dressing and crunchy pears. Sound good? It was very tasty. From the sea -- scallops with creamy potato puree. They were scallops, so they were good, but not great. From the land -- grilled kobe beef. Again, good, but not the flavor orgasm (that's probably not the best choice of words) that I was expecting from my previous Kobe experience at York St. From the garden -- tortilla espanola. This was much better than I had gotten at Cafe Madrid. And the accompanying aoli was fantastic. From their specials menu -- clams with stuff. Well, it's not on their online menu so I forget what was in them. But they were good.

We were still hungry and could not decide between the duck confit and the shrimp and crabmeat croquettes. So we got both. The confit was great. I declared it the best (following the tuna tartar) of all the dishes we had. The croquettes were just ok.

Add on top of all of this a generous pitcher of sangria, and this was a very pleasant evening.

B+
4524 Cole Avenue Dallas, Texas 75205

Diving Dallas: The Dallasite

I've been trying to figure out what to say about The Dallasite Club. On the one hand it is an old school bar serving average American beer and average American greasy bar food. But the place was way too bright and too loud. But this is just not someplace I would want to go in my twilight years (watch it!!) to drown away my last few memories Alzheimers has left me with.

On the plus side, at least on the night I went, it had quite a few attractive women (probably nurses from nearby Baylor). So, if you're into that sort of thing, you might like it. But, seriously, there should be no attractive women in a dive bar. I don't make the rules.


C

3239 Ross Ave. Dallas, Texas 75204