Rosie’s Italian Grille – Toledo, OH

Rosie’s Italian Grille located just south of Dorr Street on McCord Road has been one of my more favorite Italian places for the last few years. The setting was always intimate, with great food; an excellent person to take a date who wants Olive Garden.

My recent visit though was somewhat of a disappointment though. Firstly, the atmosphere. As it being late fall, the patio is enclosed, with a helluva overabundance of space heaters out there. It was so incredibly hot, I was forced to take my pants off. Secondly, one of the great things Rosie’s did was fresh bread with an infused olive oil. It was placed on your table with the water. Well they don’t do it anyways. Fuck.

Let’s talk food. Not being rather hungry, I took this opportunity to try a pizza. Nothing is more Italian than pizza Margherita. Fully expecting a delicious medium crust, with fresh tomato sauce, slices of mozzarella, and fresh basil, here’s what I got:

You may notice the irregular shape of the pie. That’s good! If you’ve ever tried to hand roll any dough into a circle, you’d know that it’s impossible. Absolutely impossible. I’ve seen some good attempts, but this shows me that it’s hand tossed.

The cheese. While the cheese was fresh mozzarella, I was expecting a more traditional sliced cheese rather than the shredded stuff I got. Speaking of the za being slightly non-traditional, I was also expecting full basil leaves. Instead I get a chiffonade.

As far as the crust itself. While it was good, it was limp and extremely thin. I would have rather had a little more thickness, OR some crispiness. All in all, it’s good, but not great.

As far as the rest of the dinner. The crab cakes were decent, although the horseradish mustard sauce was excellent.

The salad was limp and over dressed, and the risotto was simply mushy rice; it had no creaminess.

All in all, I was quite disappointed and it will take a really good next visit to get me turned back around on this. More to the point, they had a really nice, elegant website, which they’ve recently turned into this mid-90s esque bullshit Flash driven web vomit.

Poor taste…for shame.

C-

Chucks – Toledo, OH

Chucks Bar, located on Monroe just east of Secor is a place that I have many memories with. The place used to be dive; really dive. We used to frequent the place, addicted to the signature shot of a particular bartender there: More than a Mouthful. The shot was all booze, and so many different types that at least 4 needed to be ordered (no problem). I’ve offered my share of vomit to that establishments sewer.

The menu was simply sandwiches and lots of fried foods. While the fare was standard and greasy, it was expected, and enjoyed. Some two (three, four maybe) years ago Chucks underwent a huge renovation. The bathroom went from a two seater with no doors to a place that I expected a servant shower me in expensive fragrances. The slab of wood that they called a bar was replaced by a fancy schmancy “real” bar. The managers: gone. The Chucks that was essentially our “first” dive bar was gone as we knew it.

We stopped going. The crowd got bigger…and weirder. But I digress. I happened to stumble there for lunch today, and was…pleasantly surprised. While I’m told that the menu does feature some rather mundane food, my burger was done nicely.

Chucks Burger/Fries

The burger was a 1/2 lb patty that had the characteristic smell and texture of a flame grilled piece of meat. It was seasoned nicely, and the sandwich came with onion, tomato and Bibb lettuce (Bibb, really? ooo la la). The fries weren’t as good. They were handcut and cooked perfectly, fluffy in the middle and crispy on the outside. However, the heavy-handing of their seasoning salt really kinda ruined them.

Either way, the total including tip for this lunch was just over $7, but expect to pay a dollar or two more for any other sandwich. The portion was just right for lunch. Lunch was pretty speedy and the place had a decent lunch crowd.

All in all, it’s a good place for lunch. The lights behind the bar are pretty annoying, but those are annoying even when there drinking. Definitely stop in and see what you think.

Inky’s Italian Foods – Toledo, OH

Inkys Italian, located on North Detroit Avenue have been in business for more than 50 years. This is a place that I had heard about on numerous occasions, but have never made the trip over to it.

So, when some coworkers wanted to go for lunch, I jumped on it. I was told the pizza was unbelievable. The secret: an optional meat sauce.

The place was small, had a very local vibe and feel. Most booths and tables were full, a sure sign that you’re in the right place. The wait staff was sluggish, but eventually I ordered a large pepp and mushroom.

I had very mixed feelings about the pizza. First off, let’s talk about the meat sauce. It was delicious. I’m a little concerned that more people aren’t taking the opportunity to place more meat in their pizzas.

The bad: the crust. The crust has a Chicago deep-dish style texture to it. By that I mean it almost has a flaky pastry feel to it. While that type holds up well to 3 inches of sauce and deep toppings, for a normal style pizza such as this, I was kind of disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, the pizza was good. The toppings were good, the cheese was great. The meat sauce was outstanding, but the foundation of the pie, the crust, left me wanting a more traditional type.

Either way, this place is definitely worth the drive, even if it to is a somewhat rough part of town. From what I hear, the lunches are fantastic, as is the standard Italian fare. Come early or plan late though. Our lunch took almost an entire hour and we didn’t have to wait for a table, which you might.

Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue

Alice in Chains
Black Gives Way to Blue

Overall: C+

Alice in Chains. What can I say? Their Unplugged album perpetually stays on my DVR, just in case I want to watch, and I consider it one of the best albums of all time. Let’s just say that I’m a bit of an AiC homer.

Having said that, I regretfully say that their first studio release in almost 15 years is disappointing. The first thing that gets mentioned is, “Is that guy just not as good as Layne?”

Let me just say that William DuVall is a GREAT vocalist, and nothing is lost between him and Layne. Remember that Jerry Cantrell is still there, and he contributed a LOT to vocals before anyways.

OK, so the album. The album starts off very strong. The opening track, All Things Known, has this delicious dissonant sound that really just almost gives you the creeps, but in a very good Alice in Chains kind of way. That slips right into their first single, Check my Brain, which has a hook that might let it be big on the radio.

The middle of the album has a few slow songs, but nothing that can really compare to previous work. Unfortunately that’s the last decent moment. The end of the album really just drags on. Each song on its own right is decent, but each song lacks any kind of individuality. No chorus really pops out and grabs you.

So, while it’s great that Alice in Chains is back making music and touring, I just really wish their first album in a decade and a half had a little more creativity to it.

Restaurant Review – Tango’s Cantina

Tango’s Cantina in Toledo Ohio is located down on the Docks near restaurant superstars Navy Bistro and The Real Seafood Co. Tango’s Cantina is the Cousino’s relatively new entrance into the crowded mexican scene here in town.

Having said that, if you’re going to do mexican in this town, the same town that has seen mexican Presidente Fox, then you better bring it.

On a beautiful day, a co-worker wanted to head down to the docks and enjoy the day for lunch. Having both never been there, decided it would be a decent idea. The first thing we noticed is that while the restaurant was only sparsely occupied, the patio was completely full a few minutes after noon. We asked the hostess to be seated outside. Even though seats opened shortly after we sat, we were never moved.

There is one problem that I typically have: high-priced “gourmet” mexican food. Mexico is a poor country and the food is meant to be great fresh food with vibrant flavors. The ingredients, which typically include rice and beans are some of the cheapest things you can buy at the store. Having said that, expensive mexican typically makes me angry.

Either way, I decided on the chicken enchiladas ($8.95), something which would have cost $5 during lunch at El Camino. Now, there are three things that are CRUCIAL for a great mexican restaurant. Great salsa, great rice, and great beans. Those are the staples at any mexican dinner, and are absolute musts for a decent restaurant.

The salsa, while it has decent texture has WAY too much cumin, and not enough cilantro. Let’s take a look at the meal.

I have a serious problem with shredded-out-of-bag Colby-fucking-Jack cheese on beans. What part of Colby says mexican? The idea: throw a big ass clump of cheese on beans that would be otherwise unenjoyable. You will NEVER see this at an authentic mexican dinner.

The rice: bullshit I would expect any white-trash assclown to pull out of a rice-a-day box.

Holy shit it’s so no hard to make these things. Take pinto beans, cook them, blend them, season them, cut them with some stock or something. Rice: brown it, sautee some veggies, add water, some tomatos and reduce heat and cover. Done. Great shit.

The enchilada was huge and covered with cheese. Wait a second, why is there lettuce inside? Why would you put lettuce inside of an echilada? Either way, the enhilada was “decent” but forgetable.

Why do I go any place other than El Camino? I walk out with a $12 LUNCH bill, andcompletely unfulfilled. Tangos is a largely overpriced, quite mediocre mexican-american restaurant. I would give it a

C-

Twilight (2008) – Movie Synopsis

Here is the movie summed up in 5 seconds. I’ll save you the time.

DC – Night 2

After a disasterous first night, I needed to venture out into the (which) city to try something local. Torn between traditional seafood and sushi, I settled on sushi and started Googling to find the best around. I had it narrowed down between three places. One of them, was under renovation, and wouldn’t be complete until later this month. The other two…were in the same building, on top of each other.

Well that made things easier. Downstairs, Makoto, is supposedly the best in town. It’s quite expensive, but who’s keeping track of things when on per diem. Upstairs, Kotobuki, a quant place with less selection, but all the freshness, and all the quality.

Sidenote: If you’re around the DC area and want to grab dinner, and are thinking about going at 6, wait an hour. The traffic at 6 was about 10x thicker than at 7.

Anyways, so I drove past the CIA and over some canal. I found a place to park and walked up. Unfortunately Makoto was full, so I ventured upstairs.

Now don’t get me wrong, Kotobuki isn’t supposed to be worse, it’s just that the downstairs place is more eccentric, more innovation. This is fine since my idea of perfect sushi is just a slice of toro slapped on my hand.

I had originally wanted omakase, but they didn’t do it there. I settled on the Sushi Deluxe dinner. Along came the standard Miso Soup, accompanying my sushi. The dinner consisted of a few reverse (Califorina style) rolls, 2 BBQ rolls, 2 each of salmon, Mackerel (Flounder maybe), tuna, and 1 whitefish.

I had high expectations going into this dinner, since my favorite sushi place in Toledo is also called Kotobuki (means celebration, no relation). The Miso soup was surprisingly bland, with anemic looking tofu, seaweed, and green onion. Luckily my meal wasn’t to be cooked at all, so the entree came exceedingly fast.

The Calfornia-style rolls were marginal at best. For some reason the Nori was extremely tough. The BBQ pieces, while not at all traditional, were very good. I was pleasantly surprised at them. The traditional nigiri was good, but not great. In fact, it’s not even Kotobuki Toledo good.

The sushi tonight was good, but for some reason I’m still expecting more. I’m a stone’s throw away from the ocean, so why is it that hard to get good food, let alone seafood. Tomorrow I venture (maybe even further) into the city to try and find the best seafood I can get my hands on.

I want some crab and oysters and fish and stuff.

DC Dinner – Night 1

So the first night here I decided just to stay in the hotel. I was kind of tired, I’ll be venturing out tomorrow. Anyways, I headed down to the bar here at the Sheraton Inn at Tyson’s Corner and enjoyed a couple of Gin and Tonics and ate dinner. I started off the the Tomato Bisque

The soup was absolutely fantastic. While served with overly stale rolls, the bisque was creamy and full of flavor. It was probably the best tomato soup I’ve ever had. Then I went with a simple burger and fries.

The fries were perfectly cooked, seasoned well, and quite delicious. Unfortunately, the fries and soup were the high point of the meal. The burger as delivered with lettuce and tomato, and a toated bun. While my order was mid-well, the burger came out quite done, and quite charred. Chedder cheese was sloppily melted atop. Unfortunately there is this fascination with enormous burgers. I’m not sure where it started, but at some point a 1/4 lb. burger just wasn’t enough. We pushed the envelope to 1/3 lb and even 1/2 lb burgers. Seriously? Do we realy need burgers this big?

While this burger was at least 1/3 lb, the meat to vegatables/bread ratio is just too high. Regardless of the size of the sandwich, the main pitfall was the cooking. The burger was charred entirely too much, even to the point that I couldn’t finish it.

Come on man….it’s a burger. It’s not hard to cook a burger. I give my $50 (fucking hotels) a C-.

There will be some bomb ass shit tomorrow, I guarantee it.

Movie Review – Righteous Kill [2008]

 Righteous Kill

Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino

Runtime: 110 minutes

OVERALL: C

The first thing this movie does it remind you of The Boondock Saints. You have a good guy, killing bad guys. As you would expect, Pacino and De Niro deliver fantastic performances. John Leguizamo and Donnie Walberg also play excellent supporting roles.

At the start of the movie, we hear Robert De Niro narrating a confession, and much of this continues throughout the movie. For the first 100 minutes of this movie, we see a steady spiraling decline of De Niro’s character into madness and rage. The interaction, or passiveness in his actions of Pacino balances the movie well, as the other two detectives (Leguizamo and Walberg) close in on the serial bad-guy killer.

However, the last 10 minutes of the movie completely ruin the journey. John Avnet (who produced  such ejaculate filled movies such as Homeward Bound, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Steal This Movie, Inspector Gadget, etc) and penman Russell Geriwitz (of Inside Man) decide to throw in a retarded plot twist at the end. Knowing of Inside Man’s clusterfuck ending, it should have been no surprise that great performances by two of our most respected actors would be completely blown by the trend to mindfuck the viewer at the end.

You see, there’s this trend right now that if you can’t guess the ending of a movie, it’s good. You’ll go into work and say, “Dude, you so won’t guess the ending, you have to go see it.” Unfortunately, these are too often thrown in last minute, destroying the first 7/8 of the movie. This is the case here.

[SPOILER ALERTS]

The whole movie is telling you that De Niro is the killer. It makes sense, and for the most part, Pacino is a supporting actor, little is devulged about him. Then right at the end, bam, we learn that all of those 1st person shots were from his point of view.

The movie wasted a brilliant 100 minutes of acting for 5 minutes of shock value and water-cooler talk.

The Omni – Toledo, OH

THE OWNERS A FUCKING ASSHOLE, DON’T GO THERE AND SUPPORT THAT MOTHERFUCKER!!!

So I went to see a show there a week ago. I went to seen the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (tickets for the woman, don’t hate). It was a decent show, but this is about the venue. The Omni, formerly Gatorz, formerly a bowling alley is incredibly similar to the previous layout. The bar is still in the center of the floor, but much of the rear is walled off and is now a new “chill-area”.

Anyways, the problem is the owner. The owner is a fucking young (late-20’s, early 30’s) douchebag. So the show starts, and I’m chilling behind the bar enjoy a Gin and Tonic. I like this particular vantage point and I’ve seen a few shows from this spot. There’s no one in front of me, except for a bartender getting me another drink. It’s perfect.
So the headliner comes on, and the owner gets on the bar and stands there…and stands there…and stands there.

Then, he asks a “bouncer” to get up with him. He’s right fucking in front of us. I ask a bartender why the fuck he’s up there. She says that he’s “looking for someone.” WTF mate? Why isn’t he standing at the front on the corner of the stage or something? So, we ask the bartender to deliver a message to him. We didn’t even ask him to get down, all we said was:

Instead of standing in one spot, can you at least move around a little?

The bartender comes back and he says:

Uh…you don’t want me to repeat what he said…

So the fucking dickhead stands there for the rest of the show. I mean, if I owned a business, I would treat my customers decently. He’s lost my fucking business. Hopefully you will take heed and let this fuckface go under.