The Three Hundred and Twenty Eighth...

Number Three Hundred and Twenty Eight:

Dots Back Inn, Dinner, Nachos

So, on behalf (hopefully) of WRIR I met with the Northside Merchants Association on the possibility of the radio station maybe participating (booth, DJing) during their Christmas on MacArthur event. It would be a perfect fit, since a LOT of WRIR people live Northside. My dream idea would be that fellow Breakfast Blend DJ Anna G. and I would spin awesome holiday tunes during the event. Later met Lisa for dinner at Dots!

The Three Hundred and Fourteenth...

Number Three Hundred and Fourteen:

Dots Back Inn, Dinner, Nachos

After Hope's appointment, we settled on Dots. Turned out great; not too crowded, cool staff (as usual) and fast! The 1.50 Natch Lights were kind of depressing, but you gotta keep a tight budget on some things!

The Two Hundred and Seventy Second...

Number Two Hundred and Seventy Two:

Home, Dinner, Nachos

Grilled some frozen hamburgers, crumbled the meat, then broiled some cheese on chips, Lisa's homemade salsa from our tomatoes and damn! A nice and different meal! Do you ever get in a meal rut when you feel like you just make the same thing all the time? Now I do LIKE the stuff I make all the time, but adding a little variety is always a welcome change of pace. And hell, the kid even liked it, like really liked it, not act like she liked it liked it. I think.

The Two Hundred and Sixty Seventh...

Number Two Hundred and Sixty Seven:

Chicken Fiesta, Lunch, Nachos

I can't stop listening to Black Moth Super Rainbow's Dandelion Gum CD; such a great summer album. All song lyrics, while dark at times, deal with sunshine and sunlight and flowers, etc. --all vocodered up and with a nice tempo. Electric deliciousness. Rad, they even have a reissue with more tunes! YES!

The Two Hundred and Ninth...

Number Two Hundred and Nine:

The Tavern, Dinner, Nachos

After an appointment, we managed to snag the last booth at The Tavern and were actually served fairly quickly. Tried the nachos for the first time there, loaded, and good. Lisa helped too, she said they had a Not Betty's vibe. Remember any good RVA nachos of places of your past? I can think of two; Buddy's (yeah, I know Frat bar, but only went for the nachos) and the Texas Wisconsin Border had some kick ass thing too.

The One Hundred and Twenty Fifth...

Number One Hundred and Twenty Five:

El Nopal, Lunch, Nachos

So Emily happened to be in the east end neighborhood and Gina and Justin like to to dig on some El Nopal, so we hit it. Group 'stache was frequently mentioned but Justin was dubious. We still managed to talk him into his second group 'stache by the way for this blog, Gina has like 3 or 4, I think, even if unpublished here, and well, this was Emily's first. A good group 'stache! Interesting thing about this place today; for lunch they had a drink special called the Margareta Hulk; 64 ounces of green margaretaville for 19.95! What a bargain! IF you didn't have any plans for the next few hours, it was the perfect getaway. Unless Hulk got mad and tore shit up, then you would probably wind up in the drink tank at county. Just sayin...

The picture on the wall was a great desert scene, but we all thought it was missing a monster of some sort; a chupacabra, a UFO, or both, or...HULK!!!

The Ninety-Ninth...

Number Ninety-Nine:








Chicken Fiesta, Lunch, Chicken Nachos




On the road again, yes, me and G! Chicken Nachos, maybe the best in town. Good place, but maybe starting to turn for the "Oh. Nah." We arrived fairly early for lunch and I went to wash my hands. Mens bathroom was locked. I went and ordered then came back; still locked. It was locked for a while. We all know what that kind of means... Anyway, my food came and we started eating and then the dude in the bathroom finally came out, he worked there. He went back through the "Employees Only" door and came out to the food prep and register area, giving co-workers the fist bump high five. Like to say, "I just dropped a deuce...high five!" I know this subject is a little, "Oh. Nah." but you know it goes through your mind when you're eating out and you witness a situation like that. You hope the conspicuous sign was adhered to in the restroom about EMPLOYEES MUST WASH HANDS. Crossing fingers that you don't get "that guy" to make your meal, relieved that you already had your food by the time he came out.
I know I know, the guy who actually made my food could have been picking his nose WITH the plastic gloves, but I just didn't see that. Selective grossing out, I suppose.

I digress. This is number 99! I thought I wouldn't be giddy about the upcoming triple didjit, but I kind of am! YAY! This Napstache is from the same table I did the previous Fiesta 'stache!

The Fifty-Fourth...

Number Fifty-Four:






Chicken Fiesta, Lunch, Chicken Nachos






So having an eleven year old Bookmobile, it tends to need to be in the shop more often than say, a NEW ONE. That being said, this had nothing to do with the reason why we didn't have it on the road today. We put it in the shop for general maintenance over the holidays. Of course so did every school bus driver in the county, so we had to wait just like the rest of them. Well, G. & I managed to drop off some of the day care books and even make a few stops for our seniors using the county car. We also swung by the garage to see how the Bookmobile was doing, and picked up some books that were on the shelves we needed. Yup, sure enough the BK was housed in a bay with various attachments on it getting its check-up, so they weren't feeding us a line of bull when they told us it wasn't ready yet. We got to go to Chicken Fiesta on the way back for lunch. In front of us in line were a couple in matching hospital or dental scrubs, being all huggy huggy kissy lovey dovey vomit and they let us go in front of them. Oh gee, thanks, ya'll could probably use a prophylactic and hotel room rather than a taco, how about you get a room. Ah, work romance! Anyway, good freaking nachos!

The Thirty-Fourth...

Number Thirty-Four:



Kitchen 64, Lunch, Greek Nachos

So the Teen Services Committee were meeting for another work Holiday Lunch, at Kitchen 64. Now this place has some serious divisions among Richmonders; crowded, loud, crappy wait staff OR come hungry, delicious, great atmosphere! I went for the first time today, loaded with opinion from Yelp and Urban Spoon.

Crowd-wise it is probably not for me; pricey sunglasses perched on thinning pates like some scrawny bird of freedom past it's prime in the nest. Trendy people looking well dressed, but worn out.

Reaching our large table, I recognized immediately a woman long associated with restaurants in town... Katrina Giavos. Ahhh, so this is part of the whole Sidewalk Cafe, Stella's, Three Monkeys, Kuba Kuba set. Gotcha. She recognized me, from past parties I suppose and I felt more at ease at her working in the trenches and giving me a welcoming smile. The menu was extensive and I had read that the sweet potato fries were the stuff that full bellies were made of, but looking at the first page, I had my mind made up immediately. Greek Nachos, as made famous at Sidewalk Cafe, and YES, they are like they are there! One word, well, okay two: cheese, leftovers.

So would I go back? At the heart of it, it is just neighborhood bar wedged between interstates and intersections and the parking probably is always a pain. The food is not fancy, very neighborhood bar-food food. If I lived within walking distance probably, but I don't so, rarely.

This pic is friend A. and I both giving the stank eye, so...

Stank Eyestache!