Keyed Up

by Erik Olsen on

The one trip I ever took to the keys I made in a blood red Ford Mustang convertible. A couple of buddies and I
blew out of Miami and headed due South on the reckless whim that we’d be able to find a place to stay when we shoed up.
It wasn’t that  easy, and we ended up in a rather grungy hotel in a cheesy part of town in key West. Strike
that….cheesy part of town is too limiting. ALL of Key West is cheesy. But hey, cheesy can be OK. And Key West was
fine. It was warm, the beer was cold, and I ate my own weight in conch fritters.

Now all of this is a lead
up to the piece I read
this morning over at the Washington Post about the keys. Now the writer here is far more adventuresome than I was
those years ago. She does some diving, ruminates on the hundreds of tarpon hanging around a place called Robbie’s
Marina, and generally explores many of the lesser known keys…something I wanted to do, but simply had no time for.
She also checks out the dolphin shows and runs into a charming 70-pound loggerhead turtle named Bubblebutt. So she
covers an immense amount of round in just four days in the Keys, which kinda made my trip those years ago seem kinda
weak.

Bullish on Tea

by Erik Olsen on

I’m a coffee drinker. Tried and true. And no matter how much I
may have the habit to rail against the inefficiencies and uncaring tendencies of large corporations, I still gladly hand
over my two bucks a day to Starbucks. I’ve got friends, several of whom live in , who swear by tea. It has as much
caffeine as coffee, they say. Bollocks! I reply. It most certainly does not. But more than that, I don’t drink tea
because it just doesn’t have the rich flavor of coffee. Hey, that’s my preference.

But according to this
piece at the Globe, tea is making big strides even among coffee drinkers. people love it all sorts of ways: black,
green, white, and red…yes, there is red tea. It called rooibos and it comes from a South African plant. The teas also
have fancy names like Ceylon, Darjeeling, . That helps
people who spend ridiculous amounts on a cup to justify it to themselves. I know, I do the same thing with coffee. It’s
just burnt plant matter and water. What suckers we are. Anyway, even at Starbucks these days you can get tea, which is
fine. That just means there’s more coffee for me.

NYC: I Made it to McHale's

by Kelly Amabile on

This past Saturday night I took a bus
into Manhattan to visit some friends. They chose a restaurant close to Port Authority for me to meet them at, and soon
after arriving I learned that I was in a historic place — McHale’s on 46th and 8th is a dark bar and burger joint
that’s been around for 50 years. You have to love a place in midtown Manhattan where the beers are $3.50 and a $10
burger can easily feed three people! But, as NewYorkology reports, McHale’s wil close
this week as a development company prepares to turn the entire building into prime residential space. Jimmy McHale hopes
that his famous watering hole might be able to occupy the same ground-floor, corner space when construction is finished,
and is therefore keeping the wooden bar, original windows and other memorabilia in storage. But who knows when and if
that will happen, so if you can, get yourself to this popular Times Square location as fast as you can. I’ll be
thanking my pals for a long time that I made it there in time to say a proper goodbye.

EasyCruise is, um, Easy…and Orange

by Erik Olsen on

Again, let me state for the record that I’m not a luxury cruise kind of guy. It has always seemed to me
that when you head out on vacation, despite the subtexual meaning of that term (as in, NOT working), you should provide
yourself with some form of challenge when  you are out. Whether that is hiking, scuba, mountain biking, or just
general exploring, you have to challenge yourself a bit. That’s just my opinion, but I feel  pretty strongly about
it.

So now with that in mind, take a look at this
article and video over at Buget Travel online about the EasyCruise One trip through the Caribbean. Correspondent
David LaHuta takes you through the ship and shows off some of the places on board that make these cruise such a popular
travel concept. I confess it seems cool. Not only do you get to land on numerous islands throughout a part of the
Caribbean (i.e. Barbados, St. Vincent, Martinique, Bequia, Grenada, and St. Lucia), but there is a pretty
festive-looking nightlife on board. But get this…cabins aboard EasyCruise start at $16 a night. Yes, you read this
correctly.

La Huta does a fine job in both the article and the accompanying video (edited by someone we
know) conveying what the cruise is like, and I will confess he loosened, if just a smidge, my convictions that I would
never go on a cruise. I mean, at $16 a night…well, how can you cavalierly reject such an amazing deal….even if it
means sleeping in a closet-sized room.

Dining in the Dark

by Adrienne Wilson on

Eating with the lights
out is a new trend for Los Angeles and NYC and a new sensory approach to dining. I’d imagine the event to be somewhat
overwhelming for those who are afraid of the dark or finicky eaters. Picture being blind-folded in a room lit only by
the light shining from underneath the door. It smells like chicken, but you’re heart is pounding hoping to the great
heavens it’s not pork. The clinking and clatter from silverware against the plates of other diners in the dark is mixed
with soft chatter and light laughter. Is it chicken or is pork? A hand brushes against your cheek beckoning you to open
wide. After a few nervous seconds you open up to have the most ambrosial piece of braised rabbit with saffron placed on
your tongue. Although the scenario above is a mixture of my own imagination and real events I wonder if this could this
be the upscale version of ‘Fear Factor?’ Cool
Hunting has a piece on the artsy Dark Dining Projects founded by
Dana Salisbury in New York. The events take place on at the Camaje Bistro in West Village on Monday and Tuesday
starting January 16 to March 28. For lovers and singles there will be a special Valentine’s Day edition. L.A. based Opaque has had on-going weekly blackout meals since July of 2005. Apparently
Europeans thought this was cool a while back and have been doing dark dinners for sometime now.