Susi R.'s Profile

I was trying to escape the Domain after an errand as quickly as possible, when I spied Hatbox.  Wait, what?  I thought to myself.  I actually did a double-take.  Many a time have I stopped in the 6th St location and lusted after their lovely hats.  Surely it's not the same, is it?  Yes indeed, a new location for the northies!

The staff here is just as friendly and helpful as the original location, even joking around with us while we browsed.  We probably spent close to an hour in here trying things on.  I also discovered that they have a hat reshaping service.  For $12 they'll fix up any of your hats that have gotten a bit abused, like, say, in a recent move.  (Yeah, I'll be taking advantage of this service soon.)  Oh yes, I will be expanding my hat collection quite a bit in the future...

Yo dawg I heard you like meat so I put a pig in your cow so you could oink while you moo

The guy who brought out our food fully expected to put the James Brown meatsplosion down in front of my male lunch date, and was charmingly confused when I insisted it was mine.  Yeah, I know, I'm a CLASSY LADY.

DAT BRISKET

I went here totally cold, without having read any reviews.  The guys at the counter were super friendly, and seemed to like talking about the food a lot...I asked about the chopped pork and got a veritable litany about its origins.  

We ordered a chopped pork sandwich, fatty brisket, coleslaw, and potato salad.  The pork was not to my taste, unfortunately.  I found it to have lots of dry and gristly bits.  I'm from Georgia, so I'm constantly on the lookout for good pulled pork (or something close), but I'll have to give this one a pass in the future.  The brisket, however, was something else.  It was perfectly moist and fatty.  I even enjoyed eating it without sauce, which is weird for me as I'm a condiments girl.  The coleslaw and potato salad were unimpressive.  I'll have to try the mac and cheese next time.

I can't quite figure out the sauce deal here.  There is no sauce out on the tables or by the soda fountain, but I did see some people with little cups of sauce.  I guess you have to ask when you order your food?  Strange, since the counter guy was so talkative otherwise but didn't ask if we wanted any sauce.

What the hell?  I'd only been here once before for an Elite party, and at the time I was enamored.  The Holy Mountain was playing inside, the pizza was hot and thin, and the back bar was a mess of slightly crazy people and weird shit.  Then I somehow promptly forgot about it and never came back, until about a month ago.  

Some friends wanted to meet up for a drink before Terror Tuesday and suggested the Jackalope because they have half-price pizza on Tuesdays.  Sure, why not, I had a vague recollection of liking this place.  I joined my friends and their pulled-pork pizza.  Uh...wait, what?  You put what on your what now?  No seriously, just try it, I know it sounds weird, but it's delicious!  Yes, sir, you are correct, it is GODDAMN DELICIOUS.  It's a pizza with pork, BBQ sauce, and coleslaw on it.  It goes FUCKING PERFECTLY with my Jager bomb, vodka tonic, Troma movie, drunk-ass tourists, and pissed-off regulars, thankyouverymuch.  

I took my partner here for another pre-Terror Tuesday drink or five the next week.  He's generally very squirrelly about trying out new places and begged me to take him along for the next run, even though he's TERRIFIED of the bathroom here.  So hooray for making new traditions...Jackalope and Terror Tuesday, togetha 4EVA.

(Speaking of bathrooms, have any of my lady friends been to the ladies room here?  Because I am really scared to go, considering what the men's room is supposed to look like.  I don't want to die or get scurvy or something.  Thanks.)

I have gotten completely out of the habit of drinking beer lately.  For whatever reason it's been all cocktails and wine all the time, with my previous beer geekery going stale.  So I was pleasantly surprised when I tried one of the beers here and was enjoying it immensely.  I had the High Esteem, which was a nice light beer for my beer reintroduction.  My fish and chips plate was damn good as well...the fish was a little different (I'm thinking it was tilapia or something instead of the standard cod), and I'm pretty sure I'm going to run away and marry their fries.  We'll have the most delicious babies!

I have recently discovered a great love for makeup and nail polish, which is a bit of an expensive hobby.  Luckily Ulta can have some pretty good deals, especially if you grab one of their coupon flyers.  

I first came here on a mission to find some Sally Hansen Halloween nail strips.  None of the drugstores or groceries I had visited had them, and dammit I wanted, nay, NEEDED Halloween-themed nails.  While this location did have some their selection was limited.  Friends who live south have told me that the location there tends to have a better selection overall than this one.  (It's possible that this location is picked-over more often because of it's close proximity to a Whole Foods.)  

I've since been back numerous times to feed my ever-growing addiction.  I like that they carry higher-end brands right next to bargain brands without any judging, and that it's easy to find things.

I am SO late with this review, but I had to go on record because I loved this event so, so, SO much.

Well, this place was totally unexpected!  I walked here from 29th Street Ballroom with some friends and was surprised to find a cute little pub in a strip mall.  There are several long tables near the bar for larger groups, which is a nice change from most bars with their tiny tables.  Our group sat on the couches in the back and like a giant dork I marveled at their lovely wallpaper.

I've gotten totally out of the habit of ordering beer lately, so I stuck with the cocktail list.  The cocktails are simple enough that the ingredients are familiar, but still have a bit of interest in them.  My only gripe was that the recipes don't seem to be set in stone: I came a second time a few days later, and my Port of Havana was very different from the previous time.  I attribute that to their newness, though, and expect it to be more stable after they've been open longer.  The only thing I've gotten from the menu was the cheese plate, so I look forward to trying some of the other food out.

We recently purchased our first house (yay!) and wanted to get the textured ceilings redone before move-in, plus a little painting to personalize it.  I called a few places asking about painting and discovered that Austin Popcorn Removal is a sister company to Tex Painting.  Well, that's easy, I can get everything done at the same time!

I called on a Thursday, was able to get an appointment for an estimate Friday, and scheduled them to come the following Monday to start.  I was really excited to get the work done as quickly as possible, so big bonus for being able to schedule so quickly.  Just a few hours after I scheduled the work I got a call from the foreman asking if Monday was the earliest they could start.  Uh, no?  You guys work on weekends?  Yep, they do.  Awesome!  Come on by tomorrow and get started!

My partner and I stopped by several times that weekend to check on the progress and were continually impressed with how fast the work was going.  All of the ceiling texture was scraped off by the end of the first day, the ceiling was patched and sanded by the end of the second, and new texture and paint finished by the end of the third.  (On top of that they were also doing some wall painting and drywall work, check my Text Painting review for info.)  They even offered to repaint the entire kitchen for free, because some ceiling paint got on the walls and we had no matching paint for touch-ups!  I was consistently impressed with their fast work and attention to detail.

What do you do when you want to get your first tattoo?  If you're anything like me, you obsess over artist portfolios online for weeks before choosing someone, THEN check their Yelp reviews.  I was glad that the reviews matched up to the quality of the work I saw, so I went ahead and made an appointment with Justin for a consultation.  

I was a little hesitant when I pulled up and saw the strip mall location, but my fears were put to rest as soon as I stepped inside.  Clean, bright, and inviting are not generally things I think of when I think about body modification studio.  I arrived half an hour early for my appointment, and Pineapple graciously kept me company.  He gave me some advice about my industrial piercing (which I had gotten at another studio!).  He answered all of my questions with tons of information and transparency.  I hadn't even gotten any work done yet and had already decided that I wanted to come back and get a piercing from Pineapple!

Justin was very helpful during my consultation.  I've heard so many horror stories of tattoo artists being snobby, but Justin is totally the opposite.  He was able to translate my vague requests ("I want it to not look like a first tattoo!", "we're getting matching tattoos but want them to be more complimentary than matching") into two wonderful designs.  

When I went for the actual work he was matter-of-fact about the pain and always let me know exactly what was happening.  I'm also especially pleased with the healing method he suggested.  I am absolutely in love with the colors and his design.

I will definitely be coming back here, I just need to decide what I want to get done next!