Christine "live free or die" M.'s Profile
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Shipping is "wicked pissah" fast, items are all of excellent quality. You can also enjoy frequent updates on Twitter and Facebook, complete with contests and occasional FREE STUFF giveaways. There is also a Chowdaheadz blog, which talks about Boston sports news and stuff, and a series of videos featuring everybody's favorite clam, Charlie Chowdahead himself.
Lots to love here for the Boston sports fan. Highly recommended!
We sat at the bar, and it took forever for someone to come over and take drink orders. Once we finally got our beers, and as I was looking at the menu, I remembered what I hate the most about this place. No appetizers. I was not hungry for a huge meal, but my husband was. They stop serving their "small bites in the lounge" menu at 5PM on Saturdays, all they had was the regular menu of dishes that are way too huge for my liking. Would it really kill them to offer smaller portions of some of their dishes? I wish I had just ordered salad and a cup of soup and been done with it.
So I went for the crab cakes with the baked stuffed potato. This came with a rather large salad, which was the best part of the meal. I did not care for the crab cakes at all, only ate about half of one (three on the plate). The crab cakes were huge, but that was because they seemed to be mostly breading. Baked stuffed potato was only so-so.
My husband ordered the hanger steak with garlic, medium rare. It was cooked fine and tasted good, he said, but it was tough. Why? Because the cook sliced it ALONG THE GRAIN. It is supposed to be sliced AGAINST THE GRAIN, it really does matter when it comes to the chewability of a steak. And anyone whose job it is to prepare food in a place that calls itself a STEAK house should KNOW this. Even my husband knows this, he probably picked it up from all of those cooking shows I watch.
When a place that calls itself the STEAK LOFT has cooks who do not even know how to slice a steak properly, ti's time to write it off and not go there again. He probably could have gotten a better steak at a chain place.
Never again.
This guy used to be good, and we always tipped him at least 20%. He only got 10% this time, and I don't think we'll be back.
1 Previous Review:
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3/17/2010
For the longest time, I was hesitant to try this place. A lot of that probably had to do with the fact that the previous occupant of this location, an Italian restaurant called Bambino's, was a horrible dump. We went there ONCE, and that was enough. Awful food, tacky decor, and trashy clientele. But hey, it's Malden, what can we expect?
Then I saw on Facebook that John Brewer's was offering this special where you could get a burger and a sampler of four 5 ounce craft beers for just ten bucks. WHAT? Craft beer in Malden? Usually we have to go elsewhere to find a decent beer selection, we don't go for places that offer nothing more than brews from The Big Three Piss Trough.
So, what the hell, we checked it out. And we were impressed. This is nothing like Bambino's was, it looked like the new owners gutted the place and completely remodeled it, and for the better. This is a great place to watch sports, with many large TVs, as well as individual TVs in the booths in the bar area.
The beer selection was interesting...they had me at Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA on tap. And the burgers were excellent. Most chain places will no longer cook a burger medium rare, but this place will.
We enjoyed our first visit, and will definitely be back. Nice to see a place in Malden that caters to someone other than the Bud/Bud Lite drinking crowd. Well done, John Brewer's!
I had signed up for Wyndham Rewards, to try to earn some points toward free stays. About a month or so ago, I started getting DAILY telemarketing calls from them, trying to sell some timeshare or something. They refused to stop, they told me that they were legally allowed to call because I had stayed at one of their properties and signed up for Wyndham Rewards.
When it got to the point where the calls were coming twice daily, I sent certified letters with return receipt to Wyndham Corporate and Customer Care. I basically ordered them to stop calling me, and that this was also a notification that I was no longer a customer of theirs, that I'd sleep in my car before I's stay at another of their properties again. Therefore, if they called me again, they'd be breaking the "Do Not Call" law, and I'd report them for it.
I did a little research online and found that people who had never signed up for the Rewards program, and had only stayed at a Wyndham property ONCE were also getting these endless calls.
I refuse to do business with people who use such harassing sales practices.
1 Previous Review:
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11/9/2009 First to Review
We're members of Old Sturbridge Village, and as such, we're always looking for decent but cheap places to stay in town. When OSV closed down their own lodgings, we found the Heritage Motel, but that closed down a couple of years ago. We tried the Motel 6 across the street from OSV...well, read my review of that place here, and you'll see why we don't stay there any longer!
So we decided to give the Super 8 in Sturbridge a whirl. So far, we've stayed there twice. The only problems with our first stay was that the free WiFi didn't work, and neither did the in-room coffee maker. But the room we had was far away from the office, where the WiFi antenna is located. Still, they could have done better. I really wish places would quit telling people that they have free WiFi in all rooms, when it doesn't always work!
As for the coffee, it was annoying to have an in-room coffee maker that didn't work, but if I felt like walking to the office, I could have gotten free coffee there.
On our second stay, we were put in a room right next to the office, and the WiFi worked. Didn't try to use the coffee maker this time around, so I can't tell you anything about that. This last stay was at the end of October 2009, when we went to OSV to a *Brunch with Norm Abram* event.
This is a decent place, though. Front desk staff is friendly and efficient. Rooms are pleasant and clean, no poop stains on the sheets, like I saw at the Groton, CT Super 8 (I reviewed that place here on Yelp, too, read it and gack, like I did). Rooms have fridges, microwaves, and coffee makers.
Another thing that is nice about this place is its very close proximity to the Sturbridge Piccadilly Pub. This is a nice bar/restaurant, with cheap but good food, decent beers on tap, and we can just leave the car in the motel parking lot and walk over there. It's nice when we get in late on a Friday night, and don't want to drive all over looking for food.
If you're looking for a decent, affordable place to stay when you come to Sturbridge to visit the Village, or go to the Brimfield antique shows, this is a great place to consider!
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Passport - NH's Craft Beer & Culinary World Tour…
Categories:
Local Flavor,
Breweries
Participating restaurants in the area provided a dish for people to sample, and each was paired with a fine craft beer, most of which were local to New England (the one exception was the Boulder brewery from Colorado, but that was good, too.
Unlike the Phantom Gourmet Food Festival that was held this year in Boston on the same day, this one was very well organized. The food & beer pairing stations were spread out all over the museum grounds, and the lines were not long at all. The passport stamping idea was fun, every time you tried a different beer, they stamp the little "passport" they handed out on the way in with the name of the beer. A very good way to remember what you had, so you can seek it out later.
Also unlike the Phantom event, the beer was included in the ticket price. Portions of food and beer were smaller, tasting sizes, but there was no rule against going back for more.
They also had some live entertainment that wasn't ear-splittingly loud. Plenty of places to sit, and no nasty port-a-potties, real restrooms on the museum grounds. Some of the brewers were available to talk about the various parings. It was everything a well-organized food event should be.
2010 ticket prices were $45 for general admission, $85 for an hour long VIP session which preceded the regular session. This included some food and beer that was not available at the regular session...appetizers from Mombo restaurant on the museum grounds, and a selection of vintage Smuttynose brews. We ponied up for the VIP thing, and it was worth it. We also felt good knowing that the money goes to benefit both Strawbery Banke and New Hampshire Public TV.
Mystic, CT 06355
(860) 572-5303
Latitude 41 Restaurant & Tavern
Category:
American (New)
I took my husband here for his birthday dinner as part of a weekend trip to Mystic. It was busy, but we were seated right away. But then, we sat and waited for nearly 30 minutes, no server came over. This looked to us to be a bad sign of what to expect for the evening (very slow service), so we decided to leave.
For the money they charge for the menu items here, we expected better. Very disappointing.
I learned that in order to get a decent, affordable room in Mystic, you either have to go sometime when it's the off-season, or wicked cold. We braved it and went last weekend, when it was both.
We stayed for two nights. And we were very pleased. We got a king bed room, nonsmoking, just as I'd requested. The room was nice and clean, everything worked, we were happy. The only thing is that this place has no in-room refrigerators; at least ours didn't, but we knew that going in, so we brought our portable mini-fridge to keep our beer in. No problem.
Even more important, housekeeping respected the DO NOT DISTURB sign. There are places where we will no longer stay, because they came beating on the door wicked early, despite the display of the sign. In fact, at the Hampton, I asked that housekeeping not come in at all until after we checked out. We don't make a huge mess, we can use towels more than once before washing them, and we certainly don't need to have the sheets changed or the bed made every day. We don't need that at home, after all! Well, at home I would make the bed more often, but it's too much trouble to remove the five lazy cats that take it over once we get up...LOL!
We came to this place primarily to visit the Mystic Seaport Museum, and to get away from some loud jackhammering that was taking place outside out house. We wanted some peace and quiet, and we got it.
The hotel is easy to find, conveniently located just off I-95 in Mystic. Unlike the evil Super 8 in Groton, they had a roadside sign that was actually lit, so we didn't have to drive past it 100 times in the dark before finding the place. The location is good, not far from the Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic Aquarium, and many good restaurants, including the world famous Mystic Pizza.
The hotel offers free wireless internet access in the room and in the common areas, and it worked just fine. I always hate it when places advertise free wireless, but it doesn't work throughout the entire facility.
There is free breakfast, which I didn't sample, because I'm just not into breakfast. Mike tried it, and said it was so-so, but edible. But since it was free, I'm not complaining. If Mike ended up getting food poisoning from it, now that would be another story.
We were also pleased to see that they parking lot was properly plowed and sanded after the recent snowstorm, so we didn't have to slip and fall and break our necks going from the car to the hotel. This was a major problem with another place I reviewed here on Yelp, the Motel 6 in Sturbridge, MA. That's another place for the NEVER AGAIN files!
The Hampton Inn is a part of the Hilton Family of hotels, although the lower end version, it was still nice. I chose it because I am a Hilton HHonors member, and it would earn me points to stay there. We're planning another visit to Mystic for Mike's birthday in May, and we will be staying at this hotel again!
We've never had any of their food but the pizza, but it's excellent. They only make 10" pies, so keep that in mind when ordering.
I have programmed their number into my cell phone, the only cab company in Portland that I will ever use!
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"in heaven, there is no beer, that's why we drink it here..."
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Manchester, NH
Yelping SinceFebruary 2007
My HometownManchester, NH
The only kink in the system we saw that night was that it took them a while to get us signed up for the Mug Club. Yep, I have always wanted to join a brew pub's Mug Club, and this is the first place where it would be worth the annual fee, as it's close enough to visit often. But once they got us hooked up with our mugs, everything went well.
I had the lobster spaghetti, which was excellent, and my husband had the baked haddock, also excellent. There are ten different Sea Dog beers on tap; my current favorite is the winter seasonal, but I also like the IPA, the blueberry and raspberry wheat ales. I did see as guy in there drinking a Budweiser out of as bottle, so they do have that if you really want it (although it is not on the menu). But why would you want it, when the Sea Dog beers are so wonderful?
I don't think they actually brew any beer on the premises, I think they truck the kegs down from Maine, which explains why they ran out of some types of beer. I think that once they get into the groove of things, they'll have a better idea as to how much they will sell and plan accordingly.
We have been back about half a dozen times since, with no problems. We've tried the meatloaf sammich, the clam chowder, the pork chops, the penne a la Sea Dog, the grilled chicken ziti, and the fish & chips. All were wonderful. I kind of wish we could sit at the bar more often, as we did on the first night, but the bar is always packed when we come in. But table service is good, the servers are attentive enough to not let your beer sit empty for long. I like that they have a few TVs in the dining area, that'll be good for when baseball season starts and when we can't get seats at the bar to watch the Sox.
This is our new regular hangout now. We usually eat out once or twice a week, and this is where you will find us!