Brandon "Don't You Wish Your Boyfriend Was SWASS Like Me?" S.'s Profile

As Erica pointed out, Einmaleins doesn't carry the kitchen products that it used to carry. They no longer are a retail store and instead focus on web development, media and all sorts of other things of the like. So this whole listing for Einmaleins is totally out of date and is not going to be helpful for you on your visit to Olympia.

You can add me to the chorus singing that Bearded Lady is the best.  Everything is delicious even if it is gluten free, vegan or both.  

The cupcakes are always wonderful, the desserts they create are innovative and delicious and the build your own sundae bar is the best ice cream option in all of Olympia.  

Not to mention that they are perhaps the nicest people in all of downtown and their little dining area is super cute.

I attended my first game in the new Cheney Stadium on Sunday afternoon and after nearly a week of thinking about it I'm finally ready to weigh in with my opinion on the upgrades to the ballpark that I grew up watching baseball and have always loved.  

First of all, I think it's important to say that some kind of an upgrade was absolutely necessary.  Cheney Stadium was and still is a beautiful place to see a ballgame but it seriously lagged behind in the corporate amenities and general money making ability for the team and without these improvements the Tacoma Rainiers my have ceased to exist. It was near the bottom when it came to Triple-A ballparks and the team needed to either renovate Cheney or move to a brand new ballpark to keep up with the rest of baseball.  

The choice was made to pour $30 million dollars into Cheney, so they ripped the old roof off and built a new luxury suite/press box structure, added a bunch of concession stands, team clubhouses, team store and more while keeping the existing seating bowl and the party deck monstrosity down the third base line.  They also ripped out the bleachers and replaced it with a grass berm.  So the good is that Cheney Stadium stayed where it is.  It still has the great seating bowl that is one of the closest and best places to see a game in baseball.  It still has wonderful views of Mt. Rainier from places. It still has the basic feel of the old ballpark.

But did these upgrades actually go far enough?  That's what I keep wondering. I wasn't blown away by anything that I saw. Yes there are more concession stands and bathrooms. The team shop is bigger and generally the ballpark is more pleasing to the eye than before. But the concession stands are now way more expensive, the bathrooms are just bathrooms, the team shop is also quite pricey and I can't help but think that it looks like they just backed a suburban office complex onto the front of the stadium.

I fear that the upgrades won't be enough to get people out to more games in the long run and that this "new" stadium will end up being an outdated Triple-A ballpark in 10 years if it isn't already outdated now and we will be right back where we started. I keep thinking about places like Buffalo or Indianapolis or Rochester or even Syracuse and Cheney just isn't on the same level as those ballparks despite the beautiful views and the improvements. I don't see enough of an upgrade to Cheney to think that people will think that much differently of it and make it the destination that the Rainiers would like it to be. It's still just old Cheney Stadium, but slightly fancier.  

And I feel like the average fan has really lost with these improvements.  They see the aesthetic improvements and use the extra bathrooms and that's all well and good.  But now there isn't a cheap seat in the ballpark - $25 for box seats, $13 for reserved seats and $7 for general admission seating on the grass berm (which is a really poorly done grassy area to watch the game from. Looks like only the top half of the berm can actually see the game and you bring your own blanket) and the accompanying family/kids area is a joke when compared to other ballparks (the best being Everett just up the road 60 miles).

And there is no roof, just a little one over the suites and a few rows on each side but the protection of the old roof is nowhere to be found. One of the best things about Cheney was that roof. You were always assured that you would stay dry no matter what crap the Pacific Northwest threw at you. Now it's gone and where I once would take the family to Cheney even if the weather was poor, I won't even consider it now.  

The biggest and most important improvement to me is that there is now a ticket window and entrance on the north side of the stadium. We always like to park in either that lot or for free on the road before the lot and now don't have to walk around the entire ballpark.

I loved Cheney Stadium and I was really happy that it essentially survived.  But after seeing the upgrades I can't help but think that these $30 million dollars would have been better saved and spent a few more years down the road on a brand new, fancy ballpark somewhere in downtown.  Now the old charming Cheney is gone replaced by a suburban office complex that already seems outdated. Was it really worth it?

Pay the lady her waffle cones, Gus!  

That is a pretty rocking awning, after all.

Look, this is your grandpa's restaurant. If you are expecting a hip, fancy eatery, then you will be very disappointed. Falls Terrace is not meant to be a competitor or contemporary to Swing or Dockside or even necessarily to Anthony's. It really has a focus on a specific older crowd that didn't grow up eating micro-greens or carne asada or slathering Sriracha on everything. This food is for your grandma that grew up in Nebraska that still makes a mean green bean casserole.

We came for lunch a few weeks back and got food that was edible and fine - wife had a very good steak that was served on a mound of lettuce and red onions that wasn't as advertised and I had a piece of rubbery halibut with sad little shrimp smothered in cream sauce - but everything was so old fashioned in it's flavors, presentation and sources that it made me think about just how far food in Olympia has come.

I grew up here and Falls Terrace has always had this kind of food and years ago the quality of the food was up there with anything else in town. But over the years we've seen new types of food pop up in town, spice started being applied liberally, fresher ingredients are more available and generally the quality of food preparation is better.

For me, the young elitist that I am, this has been an awesome development. For older palates though, I can understand that they might feel a little alienated and you have to give credit to Falls Terrace for knowing their clientele and sticking with food and a decor that isn't hip or trendy. There has to be restaurants like The Falls. It might seem like a waste of a beautiful setting to me, but for lots of people in this area The Falls is the ultimate.

What I'm trying to say is this: Falls Terrace isn't for the majority of Yelpers. For you Yelp, there are many better, more satisfying option. But if you want to really treat your 80 year-old grandma, you can't go wrong.

(Yes, yes....this is as uppity of a review as I have ever written, I know)

Five Guys Burgers and Fries franchises are multiplying like bunnies and  suddenly there's one in Longview (though I think it's been open since April).  

I don't know if it lives up to the great hype that I've heard about Five Guys, but it certainly is delicious. Big, tasty burgers that come with your choice of a lot of different toppings including jalepenos, green peppers and grilled mushrooms.  Fries are fresh cut (there's even a sign that tells you what somewhat local farm the potatoes that day came from) and come in a huge serving size.  For the little kiddos you can get a grilled cheese that is just cheese on a bun then pressed - which doesn't sound great, but it sure was some cheesy goodness.

It really is a good burger, I can understand the love, and I'm sure there is some local, long time burger place that can't be happy to see Five Guys come to town (Nipps?).

I can't speak to how The Soccer Center is to play soccer in, I've never played there, but I did take in a Tacoma Stars game over the weekend and had some thoughts on The Soccer Center as a spectator sports venue.  

The Soccer Center is an old building and has been through a lot of changes over the years and nothing has ever been done to make the place look pretty.  It's a very utilitarian structure. Things seem to have been added willy nilly with a very limited budget so it looks pretty ugly and mishmashed.  It's dark, it's dank and a little scary. Don't expect luxury or even to be comfortable if you attend a game here. This is not a professional sports arena, they just happen to have a team play there that fills it up from time to time.  

Almost all the seating is above the glass enclosed field and since it is so dark and dank, there is this weird feeling of Thunderdome - especially when there was a bad call and the crowd started booing.  On one side of the arena is the general/family admission - a collection of rickety metal bleachers. On the other side is a bar that overlooks the field and a beer garden where you can snag a spot on one of the rails. On the far end of the arena is a small indoor field where tons of kids were running around having a ball, and up the stairs from there is another bar.

Despite being old and ugly and not the greatest place to physically watch a game from, I like The Soccer Center as a venue anyway. There were a lot of 20-30 somethings there drinking and enjoying the game, there were a ton of kids both watching the game and running around having fun, and the Thunderdome feeling of the places makes The Soccer Center a pretty intimidating presence for a road team.  

The Stars didn't do much to play up this, I'd like to see more music and sound effects and generally gimmicks to get the crowd engaged, but I still enjoyed the game and will definitely be back.  

Go Stars!

I studied for my final exam at Batdorf and Bronson but then they closed so I needed to find somewhere else to go to actually take the test (online classes are awesome!) and for whatever reason, Fish Tale came to mind. I knew that they had free wifi but I wasn't sure how the seating and plug-in situation would be as it relates to actually doing some work.  So I wandered into a deserted section and set up camp. The waitress came by and told me the section was closed (the sign was there, but turned around and I didn't notice) but she was nice enough to let me stay there. I ordered a beer and settled in for my test.  

Fish Tale worked great, just quiet enough to work but a little bit of ambient noise and music that is the kind of thing that I need to help me focus, I hate silence.  With a little pale ale as a relaxant, I ended up getting a 58 out of 60 - I don't think I would've done that well if I'd have taken it in a classroom (again, online classes rule!).  

When I was done, I moved out of the closed section and had a pulled pork sandwich, soup and another beer as a reward and it was delicious as always. Like a lot of people have said, Fish Tale has an interesting pub menu and I've never been disappointed with my meal - I've never been blown away either, but you can't really go wrong.  Their beers are all good, but again, not mind-blowing.  

And as a place to take a final or to study, it is surprisingly solid.  Just don't come at a peak time because I've heard Fish Tale at full volume before and it can get loud. Show owner comment »

When I worked for a coffee company in California, we often bought coffees from other companies to taste and compare. I bought some Batdorf and Bronson coffee on a trip home one time and brought it back to taste and we all agreed that their coffee, across the board, was better than the others that we had tried and even better than our own coffee. We started brewing it regularly instead of our own.

So I was happy to find that when I needed to do some serious studying for a final that the Batdorf and Bronson Coffeehouse would be the perfect place AND I could get a good cup of coffee. There are a lot of coffee places in Olympia that one can either get a good cup of coffee or can be a good place to study but there are only one or two that you can do both.

Even when busy Batdorf and Bronson doesn't get too loud, they have good tables with comfortable chairs, free wifi and plug-ins near the tables.  There were quite a few other people also studying so I didn't feel out of place, like I have felt sometimes at other coffee places.

Like people have mentioned, the ordering and stations are a bit confusing and having to go so far with a key card to get in the bathroom is kind of a pain, especially when you have a laptop sitting in a front window only being kept an eye on by two uninterested teenage girls.

But overall, good coffee, good place to study, good place to meet friends....good grief.

We went to a movie at the Capital Mall the other night and since we were running a little late but still needed dinner and didn't want fast food, we decided to give Racha Thai a chance.

Time wise, it worked out, we had about 40 minutes to eat so I walked over and bought tickets while we waited for food and also did some shopping at the Seattle Team Shop next door. They were able to feed us and get us out of there with just a few minutes to spare.  We had to flag someone down for our check otherwise we may still be sitting there, but we did make the movie without any problem.

Food wise, though, I think I'd rather be late for a movie than eat there again.  It wasn't disgusting or anything, we ate everything we ordered and thought it was fine, it just wasn't anything I'd go back for. I had the least flavorful massaman curry I think I've ever had. The potatoes were really large and a little undercooked and there were maybe two pieces of pineapple in the whole dish.  Again, it wasn't awful but it was extremely boring. Also it was a much smaller serving than you normally get at a Thai restaurant for the same price.  It was plated nicely, though. Perhaps they should put less effort in looking good and more into the taste.

The service was perhaps the worst part. There was one waitress/host and a bartender who was helping out in the dining room.  There were 12 tables of people eating including one group of 15 or so. Understandably, that one waitress was pretty stressed out, terse and not attentive.  We never had our drinks refilled and we eventually had to flag down the bartender to get our bill. I'm not mad at either of them, they seemed to be doing as well as they could and perhaps management couldn't have foreseen that many people in there on a Tuesday evening. But still, one waitress in a mall restaurant in the middle of December? Come on.

I doubt I'll go back, Thai Garden is only a few steps further away across the street in the Target complex (and it will soon be next to a Ross Dress For Less!?) so if I need Thai food before a movie, I'll give it a chance next time.