The Three Hundred and Sixtieth...

Number Three Hundred and Sixty:

Tastebuds, Dinner, Braised Lame Shepherd's Pie

Have I mentioned how awesome living where I live is? The kid, now 18 and an adult, blows me off for dinner with me at Dots, and Lisa is off with her college group for a dinner meeting, leaving me solo for supper. A great place that I like to go alone is Tastebuds, so a brisk walk it is to the bar where I get to chat with Andrew a bit and enjoy some great Fall food in the Pie. I don't even really like lamb, but I think I appreciate it even more as I get older. Anyway it was great, and the chilly walk home, with a nice head full of beer (but not drunk), was just the thing for a crisp cool evening!

T-minus 5

The Two Hundred and Sixty Fifth...

Number Two Hundred and Sixty Five:

Snack, National Night Out, Root beer Float

Lisa and I rode our bikes to dinner at Tastebuds, sitting at the bar thinking that NNO would draw hoards of people to the restaurants on MacArthur and we would be lucky just to be able to eat. We got there pretty early, and it wasn't very crowded, but we still had a great time talking with the owner and enjoying our dinner. Afterward we popped out into the street and saw this going on; the free ice cream and floats, the Mayor's police entourage, the people milling about and chatting it up. Not that I am a big NNO fan, I mean yes, it's absolutely great and although the mascot is a little doofy it is a great way to bring people together in the community.

By the way, 265! 100 more to do!

The Two Hundred and Fifty First...

Number Two Hundred and Fifty One:

Tastebuds, Dinner, Bacon wrapped shrimp with Hanover tomatoes, cucumbers, lavender potato salad and blue cheese vinaigrette

The double dinner date wound up being wonderfully sporadic today. Our neighborhood friends Judd & Brian asked us over to show them how to set up an Evite, then suggested dinner afterward. We couldn't resist! After walking over to their house and helping Brian set things up, he has a book on Lewis Ginter being released in a week, we headed over to Tastebuds for some more fine food and conversation! And yes, I did have that awesome shrimp dish again and yes, it was delicious! A really great evening! I do look rather doofy in this picture, but then most every napstache is!

The Two Hundred and Thirty Eighth...

Number Two Hundred and Thirty Eight:

Tastebuds American Bistro, Dinner, Bacon wrapped shrimp with Hanover tomatoes, cucumbers, lavender potato salad and blue cheese vinaigrette

So I was sitting around the house, after not having band practice, and the baseball game being cancelled, wondering what to do for dinner. Then, the writer-guy in me decide that I wanted to go to a bar, sit and read the last of the submissions for Richmond Macabre before my meeting with Beth on Saturday, as well as Noah about possibly doing the cover.

My first thought as I biked was Dots, but that tends to get crowded and loud, perhaps too much for trying to read. Then my other choices were The Mill and Tastebuds. Now I like them both, but I really like the vibe at Tastebuds for this intention and sure enough, bar space was available. Had a great meal, recommended by Andrew, the owner, who swayed me away from the tasty enough Chicken Marsala for the shrimp, which was delicious! As I read and ate, Tim Kaine came in for dinner, I was SO TEMPTED to ask to do a Napstache with him, but I chickened out. I mean really, HOW would you even try to explain that to him? You can't, not without some kind of diagram and web access.

On the way home a weird creature crossed the street ahead of me, it was a raccoon!

The One Hundred and Ninety First...

Number One Hundred and Ninety One:

Tastebuds, Dinner, Pan Seared Medallions of Beef Tenderloin,

Truffled Parmesan Risotto,

Baby Yellow Tomato, Vidalia Onion & Asparagus Salad,

Brandied Peppercorn Butter Sauce

We made reservations for 6:30 tonight which wound up dinner at the bar because the tables were moving slowly. That turned out to be a pretty great thing, I think I have been enjoying eating at the bar lately. The place was hopping tonight and we saw a few people in the neighborhood; the Yoga studio owner and her husband who sat next to us for dinner, Lisa's high school friend she hadn't seen in a few years, and a few others. Familiar faces in our familiar neck of the woods. Nice! Food was great, as usual.

The One Hundred Seventieth...

Number One Hundred and Seventy:

Tastebuds American Bistro, Dinner, Sliced Sirloin with Blue Cheese Red Bliss Potato Cake, Haricot Vert & Smoked Tomato-Red Wine Sauce

Yes, this meal is worth mentioning in its entirety. I really like ALL the places to eat in Northside pretty much equally, but some days you just really LOVE places. Tonight was right on with Tastebuds. Such a great restaurant. Go, really, I recommend it.

I called around 5:30 to see if we could get a table at short notice, they recommend reservations on the weekends. Andrew, the owner, answered. This place is family run and the waitstaff is awesome and friendly. I asked if we could still land a table, he said it would be fine and that it wouldn't be too busy tonight because of the Nascar races going on. No one would want to venture Northside as a result. I told him I live Northside, so I wasn't afraid. He laughed and recognized my name. We have spoken many times before, usually me having a beer waiting at the bar for my pizza order, so we have gotten to know each other fairly well. He loves WRIR on Sundays, even contributed dinner for this coming Sunday for the Spring Fund Drive, so good on him! (BTW, this is the portion of the blog when you shuffle your ass to wrir.org and CONTRIBUTE to some independent free radio! Please help support radio that is independent, local and cares!)

Anyway, we arrive and have a terrific dinner, familiar setting and staff and food and just great tasting, perfect for a Friday evening. Plus, the place actually started filling up, despite the rednecks trying to thwart off local eating! Yay!

Tastebudstache!

The Thirty-Seventh...

Number Thirty-Seven:






Home, Tastebuds American Bistro, Takeout, Pizza










MMMmm! Great pizza in the Northside! Tastebuds is a subtle restaurant in the small business district of our neighborhood. Very humble storefront, it's a small place that grew from a catering joint a few doors down. Inside, it's chock full of great food; from pizza to a burger to a prix fixe menu (weekdays) to my go-to favorite when we are there; Sliced Sirloin with Blue Cheese Risotto, Haricot Vert & Smoked Tomato-Red Wine Sauce. It's an excellent family run place when you want to dress up a little more too.

L. was coming home from work and a frustrating store to store hunt for taper candles (no one hardly carries them anymore), so I ordered us up a pie for Jeopardy! Friday night parking in the small strip of a business district in the Northside can definitely be dodge-y. Alas I had no choice but to park in the Once Upon a Vine parking lot, where you better be a customer or get towed (so the sign says), so...buy a beer THEN pick up the pie a few doors down. Yeah, twist my arm to buy a beer! Ha!

It was a few moments after dinner when I noticed that L. had changed the magnet lettering we have on the back of one of our doors:

Festivus!

Ah, a nice Festivus greeting, for the rest of us! :-)

These little magnet letters bring great joy to the Fungalow (Fun + Bungalow) household. The phrase before this that had hung on since Memorial Day?

Le Clown Gumbo Awe