Pix of 2003

Ah, 2003 -- the last days of Musso and my life in Flower Mound.


Highlights: Ultimate tournaments in New Orleans, Nac and Austin, and trips to Vegas and Colorado.

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Top 5 of the 2000s: Drinks

Usually when I go out, I will imbibe on the usual commercially available libations the establishment has to offer. Very occasionally a restaurant or bar will offer up something that is not offered anywhere else or in such a fabulous manner that it must be enumerated in an end-of-the-decade top five list.

5. Mole Porter @ Church Brew Works (Pittsburgh) – Home of the perogie pizza, Church Brew Works also offers up some innovative brews. Their Mole Porter starts out like any porter but finishes with a pow-pow that has you asking for more.

4. House Beer @ U Fleků (Prague) – The only list U Fleků won't appear in, might be Top 10 TV shows. But there's no promise of that. It's a standard schwarzbier but there's lots of it for a cheap price.

3. Hand Grenade @ Tropical Isle (New Orleans) – This is one of the most dangerous beverages in the world. One will fuck you up and two, well no one can remember what two will do. But it has something to do with being between a street and another street and waking up with a bottle of lube under your bed.

2. Renovation Rye Ale @ The Alchemist (Waterbury VT) – As I've mentioned previously, before going to The Alchemist I was never enthusiastic about going to a brew-pub. And, on my first beer at The Alchemist, I was impressed, but not overwhelmed. Then I tried their Renovation Rye Ale. My socks instantly shot across the bar and through their plate glass window.

1. Bloody Mary @ Duke's Chowder House (Seattle) – "Gee, Steve, a simple Bloody Marry makes your list??? And not just on the list but #1??? Are you fucking high??" Take a look below -- prawns and asparagus!!!

Top 10 of the 2000s: Dishes

As it was noted earlier, I like to eat. And now that I've enumerated my favorite restaurants of the oughts, today I list the best dishes I had. I suggest you not read this until after you've eaten. Otherwise you may go crazy. I almost did just writing it.

10. Chilequiles @ Cuquita's (Dallas) – I dare anyone to present me a better dish after a night of drinking. Eggs, chorizo and cheese are all natures little brooms that sweep the bad stuff out of your liver. At least that's what I would tell myself. Combine with a queso flameado and you'll be good as new.

9. Coconut Cream Pie @ Capital Grille (Washington DC) – After having consumed some bread, an appetizer and an entire porterhouse with sides, I dug into this fabulous concoctions of coconut and cream and more coconut on a coconut macaroon crust. And, although I felt very much like Mr. Creosote, I would have gladly had another.

8. Gingerbread Pancake Ice Cream @ Amy's Ice Cream (Austin) – Amy's has the best ice cream in the all of the alpha quadrant. And, even though I'm not a big fan of chocolate, I usually get their Belgian Chocolate. But I was recently presented with their holiday special gingerbread pancake ice cream, and I was an immediate convert.

7. Cuban Sandwich @ Jimmy's (Dallas) – There are a lot of good sangwiches to be had at Jimmy's, but the Cuban is the best. It's not only the best sandwich at Jimmy's, it's the best Cuban anywhere. I've tried other Cuban hoping for just a glimpse of the greatest of Jimmy's. Nothing is even close.

6. Tarte Tatin @ La Teriasse (Paris) – After a long day of walking down the Champs-Élysées, feasting on cured meats in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and then more walking around said Eiffel Tower, Vanessa and I were overcome with a powerful hunger for dessert. We randomly found La Teriasse and ordered crêpes and a tarte tatin. Call me shallow, but that fine slice of apple pie is my main motivation for returning to Paris.

5. Duck Three Ways @ Cock & Bull (Dallas) – This was literally stumbled upon during Jason's bachelor party pub crawl. What were the three ways, you ask: duck confit, foie gras and Pâté de foie gras – each preparation better than the next. And, as a side note, their Red Bull Burger is the best in Dallas and maybe anywhere.

4. Pumpkin Ravioli @ Bruschetta's (Pittsburgh) – My first meal in Pittsburgh was easily my best. This is no slight to all of the places we went on our grub crawl, but these little pockets of happiness were amazing. The savory pumpkin filled each peppered pasta ravioli and topped with caramelized onions and pumpkin seeds. Excuse me, I'm going to need a moment.

3. Mussels @ Green Room (Dallas) – I think I've mentioned enough about these that further comment is unnecessary. But the Green Room can't get back fast enough.

2. Vanilla Bean Skewered Foie Gras @ The Mansion on Turtle Creek (Dallas) – If we weren't meant to force feed waterfowl in small cages until their livers almost explode, then why did God make them so tasty. A vanilla bean skewering a plump lightly seared goose liver pretty much describes it completely. Except that it was extra tasty since it was comped by The Mansion's Executive Sous Chef. Hmmm, maybe free should make it #1.

1. Kobe Steak @ York Street (Dallas) – Imagine the most intensely beefy piece of beef you could possibly imagine. Now have it dissolve in your mouth like gossamer cotton candy and leaving you with a powerful need for a cigarette. Now triple that and you come close to the Kobe Steak I had at York Street. Their menu is always changing , so there is maybe a 1% chance of it ever being on the menu on one of my very infrequent visits to York Street. I guess it will be like that passionate weekend with that girl down the shore that you never see again. Christ, I need to stop watching old 80s movies.

Honorable Mentions go out to Truluck's Carrot Cake, hamachi ceviche at Piranha and the Duck Confit at Toulouse.

Pix of 2002

Ah 2002, the year I lost a gall bladder and gained a fupa. OK, maybe that was already there.


Highlights: Ultimate tournaments in Tulsa, Memphis, Nac and Austin. A trip down the Jersey shore, The best Blarney Stone Anniversary party ever.

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40 Cloves and a Chicken

I don't usually take pictures of my culinary creations. But tonight's meal



looked so good out of the oven I had to grab my camera.



Intelligently paired with a Louis Jadot Pinot Noir (intelligent in that it was what I already had opened and I didn't want to waste it) dinner was a semi-masterpiece.

Top 5 of the 2000s: Pub/Grub Crawls

JT finally came up with a good idea. So I must copy it.

5. St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl Hash Mar 17 2005 – Of course this has to make the list since it started with a woman showing me her chocolate kisses for free pizza. It also ended up at the then cool Lakewood Tavern. It was also my first pub crawl through my new neighborhood.

4. Lakewood Pub Crawl Hash July 12, 2001 – Besides The Tipperary Inn, this was my first introduction to this magical neighborhood that had all these great bars. It started and ended at The Tipp.

3. Jason's Bachelor Party Pub Crawl Sep 30 2007 – I might be biased here since, as Best Man, I organized this crawl. We started at Matt's Rancho Martinez and ended at The Pour House. It turned into a semi-grub crawl at the Cock & Bull when we saw the special Duck Three Ways on the menu board. It was delicious. This crawl is also notable due to my waking up in someone's front yard not knowing what US State I was in as I had recently gotten home from Walkabout 2007.

2. Calgary Stampede Pub Crawl Jul 6 2002 – There must have been 20 school busses full of Canadian revelers on this crawl. Somehow we got on a bus that was hosting a bachelor party as well. We got diverted to a strip club where we handful of Americans sat in horror as we saw grown men throwing Loonies at a naked woman. That's what they do up there. They throw coins at naked women in hopes of making them stick. Shouldn't we invade now??

1. Thanksgiving Friday Ft. Worth to Dallas Charity Grub Crawl Nov 25 2005 -- This was one of the best ideas I ever had. At least I think this was my idea. We started at The Original in Ft. Worth and ended up eventually at The Old Monk. We also hit – Lucille's, Angelos, River Bottom Tavern, Piranha, a couple of other places in downtown Ft. Worth, and Mick's. We also went to Green Room on the following Sunday. All the money we spent on the crawl was matched and donated to the North Texas Food Bank.

Honorable Mention to JT's Holiday Pub Crawl 2007 just for getting kicked out of the Lakewood Landing and Matt's Birthday Grub Crawl 2006 for its invention of the Ass Pizza (fresh garlic, jalapenos, anchovies) at Louie's.

Pix of 2001

Ah, 2001 -- the year everything changed in one unconscionable moment. And then two weeks later everything was the same except now we have to take our shoes off at the airport.


Highlights: Ultimate tournaments in New Orleans, Nac and Austin, and a trip up and down the Hudson River (by car, not boat).

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Pix of 2000

We take a break from the Top 5/10 lists and look back at the magical year 2000.

Who can forget barricading yourself in your compound eating MREs until that Y2K thing was finally fixed?

My dedicated blog readers with notice almost instantly that there are a lot of people in these pictures. I guess this was before I realized that humanity was an abject failure and stopped taking pictures of it.

Highlights: Ultimate tournaments in San Francisco, New Orleans and two in Dallas, and a business trip to Toronto.

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Top 10 of the 2000s : Bars

I also like to drink. So today I enumerate my Top Ten favorite bars of the 2000s. As with restaurants, these will largely be bars I went to more than once.

10. The Libertine/Lakewood Landing/The Amsterdam Bar/The Cock & Bull/Gezzelig (Dallas) – It was tough to leave them off my list. So I made them all tied for 10. The Mediterranean Plate and Ardennes Salad at The Libertine are two of my favorite dishes at a bar. The Landing is a great neighborhood bar in a great neighborhood. The Amsterdam Bar is a little bit of Austin in the Fair Park area. The Cock & Bull has some of the best food of any bar in Dallas. And oh sweet Gezzelig—the first place I ever enjoyed a Maredsous 10.

9. Club Schmitz (Dallas) – I didn't list this with the cavalcade of Dallas bars since this isn't a hipster bar like the others. This is a genuine dive bar – right down to haggard waitress Flo. Although her name is not really Flo.

8. Coyotes (Calgary) – In the summer of 2002 Pokemon and I went to Calgary for Stampede. We never made it to the actual Stampede. But we did spend a lot of time here. Sadly it's closed now.

7. Opal Divine's Freehouse (Austin) – There was a time when I pretty much went there every time I went to Austin. Good food and their extensive patio is very dog friendly.

6. King's Hardware (Seattle) – Before there was The Barcadia there was King's Hardware. Of all the bars Meesh and I visited on my trip to Seattle, King's stood out. It's in Seattle, so you know they will have good beer. So the Langunitas IPA wasn't a huge surprise. But this was the first bar I ever went to that had Ski Ball. That alone would put King's on the list. But the clincher was, while sitting out on their patio, I heard this, thus making King's an all-time favorite.

5. The Barley House (Dallas) – The only bar I can say I hung out in in each year of the 2000s. It lost a little luster when they were kicked out of their Henderson digs and moved to the SMU area. It's still an almost weekly habit after Wednesday night ultimate.

4. U Fleků (Prague) -- What more do I need to say about this place other than I already wrote here. 500 years of awesomeness. You have to respect a place that two World Wars and Communist oppression couldn't shut down.

3. The Alchemist (Waterbury VT) – There's more to do in Waterbury VT than visit the Ben & Jerry's factory. As a Dallasite, when I hear brewpub I think Two Rows and Humperdinks – neither of which has a beer I would ever purchase outside their establishments. The Alchemist is not a Dallas brewpub. These beers are great all on their own. The food is pretty good here too. But don't even try to order your burger anything pinker than medium-well – the lone flaw in an otherwise perfect establishment.

2. The Old Monk (Dallas) – Except for the #1 entry, there is no bar I spent more time in the oughts. This is the first place I had a Maredsous, a Franziskaner and many other beers. Oh, and it has the best Fish & Chips anywhere. The Monk remains the lone hipster hangout remaining on the recently douchified Henderson Ave.

1. The Blarney Stone (Dallas) – As with the Green Room, the #1 entry on this list has not been around for several years. But for much of the early and mid 2000s, this was ground zero for any and all Ultimate related hijinks. The place was the bar of choice for post Wednesday Night Ultimate beers and for Thursday Night Liver Practice. And who can forget the great Anniversary Parties they would throw every November. OK, well I forget them. An open bar does not lead to vivid memories.

Top 10 of the 2000s : Restaurants

I like to eat.

So I was unable to pick just five Restaurants I enjoyed in the oughts. That would be as ridiculous as choosing my top five favorite things that are hard to choose just five of (sometimes the jokes are hard to come by).

So here are my ten favorite restaurants of the 2000s. Please note, that with only a couple of exceptions, these are places that I dined at on more than one occasion.

10. In-n-Out Burger (California) – What?!?! An overrated fast food place? This list has lost all credibility. Perhaps. But I guess I've bought into the hype. There really is something special here. And if I were honest I would not rate their burgers above those of Whataburger. But In-n-Out was a big part of both of my trips to the west coast. So suck it!

9. Mondo Sushi (San Francisco) – In the summer of 2000 I did something at Mondo Sushi that I had never done before in my life – try sushi. Since this was such a life altering event, it makes the list.

8. The Mansion on Turtle Creek (Dallas) – If I were wealthier, this place may have been higher up on the list. But I'm not rich and I only went there once in the oughts. It may have been one of the top three meals I had this decade, but it can't beat out places I went to multiple times.

7. Cuquita's (Dallas) – Cuquita's would have rated higher if this list had been organized after a long night on Henderson. Seriously, there was no food on this sweet clean Earth that was better at 2am than their queso flameado, chilaquiles and super nachos. A part of me died when it closed.

6. Truluck's (Dallas/Adisson) – I can't really explain why I love this place. Other places do steaks better. Other places do seafood better. But every time I go there I think "Why don't I come here more. I love this place". It's just plain the most comfortable fine dining restaurant around. And maybe it's the carrot cake; the best in the known universe.

5. Morton's (Dallas) – This is my go-to place for great steaks; easily the best porterhouse around. And if you go, you must get the potatoes lyonase and grilled asparagus. Morton's is also enormously relaxed whose staff is always friendly, and welcoming. I also dig on the old school Rat Pack music that plays at a comfortable level.

4. Toulouse (Dallas) – This is a relative newcomer to the list. While I had tried it once earlier in the decade, I have since gone four times this year alone. The item that drew me back was their Green Room Mussels; more on those later. But everything else there is absolutely terrific: duck confit, tarte tatin, plateau charcuterie. My appreciation for this place definitely increased after my trip to France.

3. York St. (Dallas) – Probably the best restaurant in Dallas and certainly the best restaurant I can walk to. York St. is tiny. There are maybe 10 tables. And the menu changes from day to day depending on what Chef Sharon Hage feels like making.

2. Piranha (Arlington/Ft. Worth) – Simply the best sushi in all the land. There was a time in the middle of the decade I would go several times a month and sometimes a couple a times a week. The hamachi ceviche and the For Get About It roll remain some of my favorite dishes ever.

1. Green Room (Dallas) – Of all my friends that left me in the 2000s, this one was one that hurt the most. It was here that I learned to love mussels. With ginger, spinach, shiitakes, jalapenos in a champagne/cream broth when served with some bread were a meal in itself. But this is the fucking Green Room. And that meant Dine Me/ Wine Me; a four course meal selected by the chef with each dish paired perfectly with a glass of wine. With four people at the table means you get to try four different appetizers, four different salads, four different main courses and four different desserts. Oh, and don't forget the wine. Plans have been announced to bring back Green Room in early 2010, so be prepared to see this one show up in my 2010s Top 10 list.

Top 5 of the 2000s : Sporting Events [Attended]

We are now in the last month of the last year of the 2000s. It's a time of reflection and nostalgia. Man, can you believe those whacky outfits we all wore back in 2004??? Those were good times.

So, as we begin to close the door on the last full decade on the Mayan calendar, it is the obligation of the self absorbed blogger (is that redundant?) to enumerate lists of the bests and worsts. Over the course of December, I will present a variety of lists for your enjoyment, amusement and, perhaps, tiny bits of jealousy and pity. These will often be Top 5 lists. But there may be a Top 10 list here or there.

I'll start out with a list that it is doubtful can be changed in any significant ways between now and Jan 2010. It is the top five sporting events I personally attended:

5. Dallas Stars @ Anaheim Ducks Nov 7, 2008 – This is the only non-playoff game in the list. In fact the Stars didn't even make the playoff this season. But they went into the Duck's barn and beat them 5-2 on Mark Parrish's hat trick. My one regret was that I had neglected to bring my Matvichuck sweater. Oh, and the $9 Blue Moons were happily consumed since they would later be a part of my expense report since I was in SoCal on bidness.

4. New Jersey Devils @ Dallas Stars Jun 5 2000 – Game 4 of the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals, this turned out to be the last time I would ever be in the recently demolished Reunion Arena. It slides under Game 3 since the Stars lost this one 3-1. One of only two championship games I've ever attended.

3. New Jersey Devils @ Dallas Stars Jun 3 2000 – Game 3 of the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals, this turned out to be the penultimate time I would ever be in the recently demolished Reunion Arena. It squeaks ahead of Game 4 because I got to use the word penultimate in the description. One of only two championship games I've ever attended.

2. San Jose Sharks @ Dallas Stars May 4 2008 – Game 6 of the 2008 NHL Western Conference Semi-finals didn't finish until six full periods had been played. It was at 9:03 into the 7^th period that Brendon Morrow slammed a Stephane Robidas pass behind the great Evgeni Nobokov to cause an eruption at the ACC at 1:30am. Both Nobokov and Turco were dazzling with some of the greatest saves I've ever witnessed.

1. Colorado Avalance @ Dallas Stars May 27 2000 – Game 7 of the 2000 NHL Western Conference Finals. There is nothing better than a game 7. And this one was something special. The Stars took a 3-0 lead going into the third period. Good times and high fives were being had all around Reunion. This one was in the bag. But the Avs quickly got it to within one goal at the 8:26 mark of the third. The tension in Reunion was palpable. And then, for a good 10 minutes, the play intensified with each team attacking and counter-attacking up and down the ice with no stoppages in play. Each second of play, Reunion grew louder and louder. Then, with Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy pulled for an extra attacker, the Avs get a puck behind Eddie Belfour that loudly clangs off the post and to the side. A few seconds later the horn sounds and the Stars go off to their second Stanley Cup Finals in a row.