Rachel "Rock Rock" A.'s Profile

Poor Aspasia. After visiting Tia's Boutique and Kanibal Home, I realized I was looking at the same merchandise. I had seen the same BB Dakota peacoat in all three stores. I was tired of it. Ladies, if you are shopping in Jersey City, I recommend starting at Aspasia's first and then heading to Kanibal and then finishing off at Tia's. Geographically it makes sense and space wise it is the happy medium.

Aspasia's Boutique is quite spacious. It's airy and not too crowded with merchandise. There were two sales racks with extremely reasonable prices and which were also high in style. They also had a regular rack with newer items. Just as Kanibal carried predominately Gentle Fawn, Aspasia's specialized in 525 America. It was more conservative and classic. Don't get me wrong. Aspasia's Boutique is definitely trendy, just not trendy in the sense of cheap Forever 21. Thank God.

The sales girl was very sweet and friendly. She also left me alone while I shopped. The music was good and Aspasia's Boutique carries the whole Kai collection of beauty products. Kai always smells yummy. I was the only shopper at Aspasia's which was a little sad. Aspasia's Boutique is pretty good. I just think there is more action going on down the street.

Tia's Place is definitely one boutique that doesn't look like it's suffering from the economy. The women were shopping and they were women with money. It was a far cry from the ghetto atmosphere of Jersey City that is forever imprinted in my memory. I can say that. My family has lived here for over 32 years. I've seen it change and Tia's Place is a boutique you're more likely to see in cities like San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia. It's a sprawling two story and every item feels special. And there is a lot in this store. A lot of quality stuff.

I was really impressed with the variety of the goods. There was a mix and match of known and unknown brands. Items along the lines of BCBG and Trina Turk were definitely more pricey but there were a lot of independent labels as well. Of course the no name brands were much more affordable. In fact I was really surprised to see many fall coats so stylish and affordable ($75). Plus they were lined. Dresses were also going for as cheap as $39. There is also a sale section on the second floor but the items there were the last of each size.

There was nothing unattractive at Tia's Place. They even have underwear, a section of double sided tape, shoes, candles and votives, and mirrors for sale. You can buy everything at Tia's Place from what you need to what's hanging on the walls.

While Kanibal Home is a smidgen the size of Tia's Place, it gets five stars because it is inviting and low key. Tia's Place is a bit more pretentious and just as Lucy W says, the sales people do follow you and are over eager to "help". I appreciate a bit more breathing room while I shop. Nevertheless, I think Tia's Place is a great addition to the neighborhood. It's ritzy.

I thought Kanibal Home would be all about decorative home goods and furniture. I was wrong. It turned out to be a small clothing boutique sprinkled with pillows and plates and their clothing selection is fabulous!

Much of the clothing collection is items from Gentle Fawn. The fashion at Kanibal Home has a funky downtown beat to it while the home decor is a bit contemporary and jewelry is on the antique side. The shop is eclectic, dark, and gothic. There is a small fitting room in the corner and baby stuff as well. Overall, the shop feels like a studio apartment. I wish it were my apartment. In fact, Kanibal Home is definitely my style. What a cool little shop!

I've been a fan of Kenneth Cole for the last decade or so. I think his clothes are smart, classy, and functional. I also love his play on words marketing campaign. What I am about to say is by no means an insult but a compliment. Kenneth Cole is the poor woman's answer to Cole Haan's Nike Technology.

Shopping at this Rock Center location is hit or miss. Everything is either full price or on sale drastically. I prefer the latter and if you shop during end of season sales you will find that shopping on 5th Avenue is actually cheaper than shopping at the mall or major department stores.

At Kenneth Cole's most recent 50 - 80% off sale, I scored two florescent tops (yes be daring) and a pair of pumps. The shoes were marked down to $140 with an additional 80% off. I could spend $30 for a pair of shoes I didn't need. When the sales lady rang me up the shoes came up to $99. I blinked and almost panicked. I couldn't spend $99 on these shoes. Especially when I didn't need them. I was almost embarrassed to let the lady know I did not want them anymore. Luckily when the bill was totaled, all three items cost $30. That was cheaper than I had anticipated. In relief I smiled and walked out with my purchase. It feels real nice to walk down 5th Avenue with shopping bags in hand.

Lesson to be learned: there are some really great deals you can find at Kenneth Cole. Its a one stop shop sans underwear and I prefer it over Banana.

P.S. - As for their shoes, they are really trying to make it comfortable for wearing and walking long distance. I have a pair of flats that have their "Silver Technology". Silver Technology provides extra cushioning and an injected gel that molds to your foot. It sounds fancier than it really is. I'd equate it to adding your own gel soles or Dr. Scholl's products to your shoes. My newest pair of Kenneth Cole's are from the Gentle Souls line. Gentle Souls are organic and lined with flaxseed pillows and deerskin. Let's hope it makes walking a breeze. I'm sure the shoes are no Easy Spirit or Aerosoles but damn they look good. I'll be sure to report my finding.

The Cupcake Queen told me Butter Lane was the best. She was wrong! The Cupcake Queen is officially dethrowned.

I had such high expectations for Butter Lane. I went on a jaunt through the East Village with Stacey C on a cupcake tour. We were going to the "best". Stacey C even had it down on her list. She had done extensive research on Yelp.

Butter Lane was definitely sunny. It was yellow all over and super cute complete with a rocking chair and patio furniture. I almost felt like I should have drank a sweet tea with my cupcake. When we got there we were confused as heck. What do we order? I think in the daytime there are endless frosting flavors, mix and match extravaganzas and taste testing galore. Since it was near closing time, all we were offered were the end of the night cupcakes. I was fine with that. Sometimes too many choices can make your head spin.

We settled on a chocolate cupcake with mint frosting and a banana cupcake with peanut butter frosting. I really liked the chocolate cupcake. It was soft and very chocolatey. The frosting offered a hint of mint only but it was good. The banana cupcake was strong but very dry and almost rock like. The peanut butter frosting had crusted and it did not taste like peanut butter at all to me. Cupcake fail.

I'd go to Butter Lane for the ambiance but not to get the best cupcake. Magnolia's taste better and that's not saying much.

Upon entering I thought, "What is that awful smell?' It smelled like cleaning products or alcohol. Lula's Sweet Apothecary in the East Village has that same smell and I could really do without it.

This Red Mango is small and very clean (maybe a side effect of the putrid scent). There are rarely any customers present and service is slow.

Currently Red Mango is offering their new seasonal flavor of pumpkin with free graham topping. Thank god they got rid of Tangomonium because it was nasty. The yogurt is only 180 calories for a small serving and the topping is 40. As for flavor, the yogurt had just a hint of pumpkin. I really liked it. Combined with the graham it was like eating pumpkin pie. Hello Fall.

There is nothing special about this Red Mango. It's pretty standard as far as Red Mango's go. If only they could aerate the store or spray some nice air freshener.

This review is for the corporate headquarters/customer service line.

If you ever need to place an order for shoes over the phone with Red Wing, please interrupt the customer service representative at the beginning of the conversation and let them know how you want the shoes shipped (overnight, 2-day, ground, etc.). The customer service reps are so quick to follow the same script of questions (Where would you like this shipped? What shoe do you want? How many?) that when you do finally get to tell them you want the delivery service other than ground, they get very grumpy and tell you they have to start the whole order process over again as if it were your fault.

It is not just one shoddy rep who does this. All of them do. They are also extremely demanding in their questions and if you stray from their script they get very annoyed. This has happened to me multiple times. What a waste of time.

I'd recommend some additional training to these reps. They need to make question number 4 question number 1 if that determines how to proceed.

Customer service is limited. It's fine for extremely basic orders but don't try to get fancy with them. They don't get it.

Third time's a charm.

The first time was great. I drove into the City, double parked the car while my friend bought some treats to go, and I split my gifted S'mores cupcake four ways. That fourth of a cupcake was pretty darn good. A little sticky, but definitely good.

Second time was an act of generosity. I donated my S'mores cupcake to my out of town guests so that they each could have one for breakfast.

Third time was double the fun. I got kind of jealous that my friends got to have their cupcakes for breakfast so I went to Chikalicious Dessert Club for my own treats to go. Armed with a green tea and chocolate macaron and a S'mores and a Triple Chocolate cupcake I made my way home in anticipation.

The whole S'mores cupcake was just as good as I remembered it the first time. It's the marshmallow topping that's really good. It's lightly torched and is just like campfire marshmallows. It even tastes a little burnt. The filled chocolate portion of the cupcake is very rich but of high quality chocolate. Never say no to ganache.  

Everyone says the S'mores cupcake is the best but I liked the Triple Chocolate even better. The frosting was mousse like. The cake was moist and it was topped with a single chocolate crispy. Even though it was all chocolate it was surprisingly light. F*ck7ng good.

As for the macarons, not bad. They're like big macaron sandwiches. Light, chewy and crumbly. They're not as dainty as they look!

After four, I want more.

Maybe the fifth visit will justify five stars?

My first mistake was thinking I was taking my friend to Yuca Bar when in fact the restaurant I chose was Yerba Buena. The second mistake I made was recommending two appetizers that were really disappointing. The third and worst mistake I made was completely ignoring the "NO means NO" rule. It's not a laughing matter. If you get unwanted attention say NO from the beginning. I wasn't harmed in any way, just annoyed and I think it ruined my dinner at Yerba Buena. A simple no thank you would probably have sufficed.

Yerba Buena turned out to be a really nice restaurant. It's smaller, more intimate and classier than the casual Yuca Bar down the street. The restaurant is all about dim lighting. They are definitely trying to set   a mood for something. Whether it's dinner by candlelight or get cozy with your neighbor I think they have their bases covered. Yerba Buena is one of those restaurants where they have to pull the table out just so you can squeeze on by.

We started off our dinner with two drinks (the classic Pisco Sour and Audrey Saunder's special Pisco Punch). Both were delicious and worth the hefty price. During this time the waiter had come over to tell us that the gentleman over there would be taking care of our drinks. Sweet! We then ordered the Empanadas and Chicharron de Calamar for appetizers. The beautiful plates arrived just as our mystery man made himself visible.

Oy! It was not the gentleman from the bar. It was in fact the guy sitting next to us. We smiled at our misfortune and thanked him for the drinks. He then proceeded with poor flirtation skills and the backup of his overbearing boss. The boss' fiance laughed at the two's desperate attempts to get this recent college graduate a date.

This was the moment where we should have said no. Thank you but no thank you. The attention got stale real quick just as our appetizers got cold. Biting into the empanadas, they were nothing special. You can get better empanadas from any grocery or bakery on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. The Chicharron de Calamar was calamari encrusted with blue corn meal paired with sweet plantains, tomatoes and tamarind vinaigrette. I found the calamari so salty that even the sweet plantains did not balance out the flavor. However, during this time, I could not determine which was more distracting- the table next to us or the unsuccessful appetizers.

Our suitor fed us one worse line after another. The funniest of them all was him telling us he was into commitment. The most lame tactic he used was asking us where we graduated from. That's not really a turn on when you graduated college over 10 years ago. Yes we look young but we're not cougar women into recent college graduates. The most offensive thing he said was that my friend should move to NY and give up everything she had going for her in CA. Note to New Yorkers: New York is not the center of the universe. The boy then told me that since I lived in New Jersey that was practically New York. He also bragged that he made pretty good money and that he worked for Citibank. Who the f*ck cares? Oh God, he wouldn't stop and his boss kept barging in.  

Finally when our entree came, the two left us alone and we were able to eat in peace. We had to whisper at times so that they wouldn't eavesdrop on our conversation and interrupt. The main course was the saving grace of Yerba Buena. The Costilla was amazing. It was so soft almost like they had been slow cooking the short ribs for hours. It had so much flavor and was plenty for two people. They had used pomegranate to flavor the beef and it was served with potatoes. We took the leftovers to go. There was that much.

When we asked for the check the waiter said we couldn't leave without having a glass of champagne. He also said we needed it to prepare for the wine tasting. Wine tasting? How did he know? Creepy. The guys next to us must have paid the waiter to encourage us to meet them at their party afterwards. There was no way in hell we were going to meet up with those guys or talk to them ever again. I told my friend that if when we left there was a car waiting for us I was going to be really freaked out. We enjoyed the chilled bubbly, paid our bill and got up to leave. As we were leaving one of the other waiters ran after us to give us the business card of the guy we had clearly left on the table because we did not want. I found this really off putting and do not think a restaurant should have encouraged such behavior as to help ruin the experience of their customers.

The drinks and entree were good at Yerba Buena but I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone nor would I return. The place made me feel uncomfortable and it was an experience I wish my out of town guest could have done without.

I left Red Lobster with one question. Why was my broccoli raw? Everyone else's broccoli was either cooked soft, blanched or lush green. Mine looked and tasted as if it were pulled right from the produce section at the grocery store. Sounds good right? Except that it didn't even look like it had been washed. One taste and I doubt it had been. Blegh. Their raw broccoli tasted like little trees picked from the forrest (dead leaves, bark and dirt included).

I gave up my space at MEGU for a night of all you can eat shrimp. Yes I did. You see going to Red Lobster for me was monumental. I had never been before in my life and I was ecstatic. No 5 star sushi, open bar or lunchbox could compare to this experience (but now that I have the lunchbox the lunchbox far beats Red Lobster by a landslide). In the past, my only experience with Red Lobster had been eating my friend's leftover cheese biscuit. God their cheese biscuits are so good.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that cheese biscuits were unlimited. I thought I was only going to get one. Excellent. Too bad I can't say the same about the AYCE shrimp dinner. Yes it was AYCE but Red Lobster made it difficult to do so. First they load you up with a mediocre salad (ice berg ew) and then they only give you two types of shrimp with a side. I got the scampi and teriyaki (Hank C special) with the broccoli. The shrimp scampi was kind of like the frozen shrimp scampi from Costco (yum). The teriyaki shrimp was downright bad and a disgrace to Japanese culture. How could you tell me it was good Hank? The shrimp came with rice pilaf (thumbs up) and that cut the saltiness of the food. The broccoli was a mistake. I should have went with the fries which rivaled McDonald's french fries.

The biggest disappointment about the AYCE shrimp dinner was that you could only get one shrimp refill at a time and each shrimp refill took about 20 minutes to show up. Our awesome waitress said the kitchen could not handle so much shrimp at one time. I could have gotten through all the choices but by shrimp #4 I felt greasy and there was nothing to help cut the grease. Plus you only get refills of shrimp (in most cases the shrimp is either fried or drenched in butter) and not sides. So once you are done with your first plate that's it. It's just baby saucers of shrimp from then on. While the cheesy biscuits were divine, they were quite heavy and didn't really help when you've had it up to here with fried shrimp.

We had so much food at Red Lobster and the place was a lot of fun. The Red Lobster in CA looks like a Sizzler but the Red Lobster in Times Square is pretty fancy. They even have fancy attitudes. I think you have to slip the hostess a 20 or something just to get a table.

Now I know and now you can find me at Ruby Tuesday across the street instead.