“Screw You! It’s MY Site!”

So Jesse comes into the office yesterday and he’s ranting about how when he’s browsing some links will open up a new window and he’s like “Who does this site think it is to tell ME when I want a new window.” I told him that on my weblog I generally use a ‘target=”_blank” in all of my links to create a new window when clicked. In a “How DARE you” tone he said again “Who are YOU to tell ME when I want a new window.” I said “Screw you! It’s MY site!” This brought about some laughter from the co-workers and a look of “hmm?” from Jesse, but it got me thinking. I’m getting a little tired of typing in the “_blank” bit on every link I put into this weblog so as of this posting I’m going to stop. If you want a link to open in a window hold your control key (or whatever) down when you click. Touche, Jesse.

The Brickstore Pub – Local Heroes Need Some Work

I’ve been aware of the Brickstore Pub in Decatur for quite some time. Dave Brumbach, my beer brewing mentor, was a neighbor of the owner and we went fairly regularly when they first opened. It has a great atmosphere, and a wonderful draught and scotch collection.

At my sister Lisa’s birthday party last night she was talking about their new Belgian bar upstairs and how David, one of the owners was basically the “Mayor of Decatur.” Joyce and I have been wanting to go there, and with news of the new situation upstairs we decided to go tonight.

It was less crowded than I’ve ever seen it. I’m guessing because of the new space upstairs. I really don’t remember ever going in there and seeing more than one or two spaces left at the bar. We headed straight upstairs to find a very comfy UK (Belgian?) pub feel. A look at the beer menu revealed ten or so Belgian ales on tap in addition to the normal draught selections. I would guess that there are nearly 100 Belgian ales available in the bottle as well. Call me crazy, but I suspect that this is the only place in the US where you can find such a shrine to Belgian ales. To make things better, the prices are extremely reasonable.

Alas, this is where the pleasantries end. The service was downright miserable. The waiter appeared immediately, left menus and then disappeared. Joyce went looking for him and he was just standing there by the computer terminal. Another person came and we gave our beer order and tried to give our food order, but she told us to wait. Shortly thereafter our waiter came and took our food order. We recieved our drink order and finished that maybe five minutes before our food arrived. After we got our food, our waiter was still nowhere to be found. Joyce asked the runner if they had any butter for her bread and he said they didn’t have butter. I asked for tabasco sauce. Five minutes later I went to find my own tabasco and the runner came back at the same I did time with the tabasco and some olive oil for the bread. Now I like olive oil, but what kitchen doesn’t have some butter? Kudos to the runner though because even though he had to deal with the obvious upstairs-downstairs disconnect, he was the only one tonight that seemed to give a shit. Anyway, by the time our waiter came to check on us, we were almost finished with our meals. We ordered another round, but it would have been nice to have drinks with our meals. We asked for a check and he didn’t bother to clear our plates.

It really pains me to see a pioneering local place with such promise be so shitty. I mean, they have a great beer selection, but the food is just so-so and the service tonight just plain sucked. If I want that I can walk down the street to Taco Mac. Even though it’s gone corporate, at least I can get a beer and find a place to park. The Brickstore will remain a place where I take out-of-towners that like good beer. It won’t be a place that I want to hang out at.

If you want to have some good European brews go to the Brickstore, but sit at the bar where you can at least get someone’s attention.

Dig!, Claire Kember and Greg Shaw (RIP)

Saw Dig! tonight. It prompted the following email to Claire:

So there’s this movie that’s coming to Atlanta, but for some reason it was on the Sundance Channel tonight. Joyce likes Dandy Warhols so we watched “Dig!” tonight. Lo and behold there’s Claire FUCKING Kember in a movie. No shit. I’m sure you knew. Anyway good movie. Insane Sid Barrett genius character versus fairly talented underground musician that can milk the career. Wow…that was funny.

Cheers,
Brent

Tonight after $4 per dozen oysters at Fontaine’s and German potato salad for dinner, we saw Dig! It’s in the theaters now so if you’re a music fan and you get a chance, definitely check it out. Anton is truly a troubled genius. As good as the Dandy Warhols may be, when they are forgotten, Brian Jonestown Massacre will be remembered. In addition to Claire, it also featured Greg Shaw, founder of BOMP! who died of heart failure (diabetic I suspect – he had a pancreas and kidney transplant) just a few days before John Peel.

Taka Rules!

Last night we went with our friends Carole and Andrew to Taka Sushi Cafe on Pharr road (Recent Review). It’s our second time in as many weeks and I must say they have the best sushi quality to price ratio in town! The service was friendly and entertaining. Many know that Taka specializes in Tuna and the restaurant definitely lives up to that billing. In addition to the sublime bluefin toro sashimi, I especially liked the negitoro hand roll ($6!) which has toro tuna minced with chives. Our appetizer, shrimp gyoza was amazing. I highly recommend Taka. Make sure to get a reservation on the weekends since the place is a bit small.

Afterward we decided to go to Philippe’s Bistro, a Belgian restaurant in the Garden Hills neighborhood for drinks. I had heard from my sister recently that Dave Severcool of the late great Gecko Lounge (now the lame Cavern) was working there. It was great to see Dave and hang out with our friends for a couple of cocktails. As a bonus another Gecko alum Marty showed up as well to go out with Dave after he was finished with work so that was cool.