roderick A.'s Profile

I better make this quick, because I'm sure that the "sheep" that are loyal to this cart are going to have a hitman after me.

I was chauffeuring my mom and friends last night to the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City last night, so I knew I was going to be in the area for chicken and rice.

I get on line right before 9pm and, I swear, there were about 40 people in front of me. But the thing is, I was served and out of there within 15 minutes, which is still great.

The food, however, left alot to be desired. Yes, it tasted good with the copious amounts of white sauce doused on the chicken and rice. But without the sauce, it tasted really, really bland.

I have a cart near my office that serves chicken and rice, for the same price. Yes, they don't give the same amount of food as 53rd and 6th, but at least there is some sort of taste to their food. I hardly put any sauce on it.

Oh, and I sampled just a little bit of the hot sauce. Just a little, tiny eeny bit. As soon as I tasted it, smoke started coming out of my ears, my hat flew off because the steam of the heat was overwhelming. to say the sauce was hot is an understatement. It was as hot as Angelina Jolie in "Hackers" - that hot.

So there you go. I will be back, no doubt. But if the line is too long, I'll just mosey on over to Carnegie or something.

Diners: the very bane of my existence.

I'm from Jersey and I can tell you which diner is where, how the food rates, which waiter/waitress to go to, etc.

We were on our way for drinky drinks in Woodside but I was rather hungry. Remembering that I saw a diner on my various outings in Woodside, I was deliberately looking for it. And lo and behold was the glorious Pete's Grill.

Walking in on a Friday night, while the ALCS was going on, I was kind of surprised that the place was near empty. There were more employees eating than there were customers. But no matter, there could've been tumbleweeds weaving in and out of the tables, I was still gonna eat.

I ordered the perfect diner dinner: pancakes with sausage. My longtime companion* got an order of french fries and a root beer float. To our utter surprise, the french fries turned out to be the magnificent waffle fries. To me, the make or break for any diner is the type of fries they serve. And when it turns out to be waffle fries, that to me is a sign of a great diner. And they were perfectly crunchy with just enough spice to have as a dinner onto itself.

My pancakes, which I forget to say were the chocolate chip pancakes, were ginormous and had a lot of chocolate chips in it. Dare I say that there were too many chocolate chips in it? The only thing missing was a dab of whipped cream on top. But luckily for me, they did not do that because, I hate to admit this, I have now become lactose intolerant due to chemo. So the whipped cream, in addition to the surplus of chocolate chips and my tall glass of milk, probably would've laid me out right on the diner floor.

The pancakes were delicious, fresh and piping hot. Any pancake that really doesn't need syrup is a sign of a good pancake. But I am a sugar fiend so I doused that puppy with lots and lots of maple syrup. And the butter I patted on the cakes made it even better.

The sausages were nice and long and again were piping hot. And when you dip that bad boy in syrup, hoo boy!

So next time I'm in Woodside, which is probably in 12 hours, I may or may not come back here. Oh hell, I know i'll be back here, why did I even say that?

Oh, and I hear that they deliver 24 hours a day? Thank god I don't live in Woodside!

* longtime companion = beard

I walked in.  First thought: holy frac, this place is small!

I'm used to the ginormous Best Buys, like the one on 23rd Street or by Houston. But this new one, in Jersey City, was much smaller. Maybe it has to do with the economy, who knows.

Wandering around, I was still encountered with the non-customer service. Namely, nobody asked me if I needed any help. And I was in the place for about 30 minutes. To schizophrenic loners such as myself, this is actually a good thing.

I guess because it's so new they are still working out the kinks and still getting new inventory, because a lot of the shelves were still empty. The price tags weren't on a lot of the items. But again, it's only been open three days so I will give it some slack.

I will say that it will be much better coming here, 10 minutes from my place, than shlepping out to Secaucus or Manhattan if I am in dire need of blank DVD's.

So we had to drop off something to our aunt somewhere in Tumbleweed, NJ and naturally we got lost. I swear, ask me directions in NYC I can give you the exact number of traffic lights you have to pass, the amount of yards you have to walk, whatever. But ask me about New Jersey, my home state, and I am at a loss.

While driving in circles upon circles, we passed a Friendly's Restaurant. I made a mental note of it, because we still had to find my aunt's place. After we finally found it, we made a beeline back to Friendly's.

My little niece had the bacon cheeseburger kids meal. Yes she loves bacon cheeseburgers, and I couldn't be more proud. She's going to be a good little Yelper someday.

**sniff**

I myself ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with cheddar cheese and bacon. Did I mention that the fries you get are the awesome waffle fries? Take a look at the picture and tell me that doesn't look mouth-watering delicious? And I should mention that the prices of every meal in the joint didn't go above $8.00. Now that's a bargain!

The thing I loved about this Friendly's is that it's sort of like a small hometown restaurant. There are about 15 tables in the whole restaurant, and only 2-3 waiters/waitresses. It's really got that homey feeling, which makes people feel comfortable. As a matter of fact, the manager went around to each table, greeting everybody and asking how everything was. And I could hear him having long conversations with the regular diners.

And of course we had to take home a few cartons of Friendly's ice cream. You can buy them pre-packaged, or you can have it packed fresh from their ice cream maker. You know we had to get it fresh!

I doubt i'll be back, because it's a long way from home but if I ever do find myself back here, you best believe I'll be here.

I had time to kill before catching The Colbert Report and I was hungry like a mofo. So wandering aimlessly around this neighborhood, I was pleasantly surprised to find B-Bap. I lit up, seeing I could finally have bibimbap without having to go down to 32nd Street or to my home joint Sura on 8th Street.

Walking in, I really liked the decor. Small tables in the front which can fit four people. The chairs, however, were made of bamboo and looked like thick stumps of bamboo. They weren't the most comfortable seats but I could see what the owners were going for, in terms of decor.

I ordered the "classic b-bap", which consisted of white rice, beef, mushrooms, bean sprouts, zucchini and other things. I have to admit that I was rather disappointed. Maybe the fact that my food was ready as soon as I ordered had something to do with it, I don't know. I figured this was sort of a "fast food" Korean joint, because it was made so quickly. The rice itself was fresh, yes, but the other ingredients, like the vegetables and such, were just taken out of a container and put in. Maybe I'm just used to having it in a piping hot stone bowl, because this came in a regular plastic container.

But I will definitely try to come back again and try the other types of bibimbap, like the spicy chicken bibimbap and the beef bibimbap.

You're Doughnut Plant? Hi, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Roderick and I have been coming here for about a week now. I figure I better introduce myself, because in about nine months I will be giving you my first-born. Yes, even though my child will be a masculine child, I feel sacrificing the continuation of the A. family name in exchange for half a dozen tres leche donuts is worth it.

Do I care that for about 3 dozen donuts from Dunkin' Donuts, i can only get six tres leche donuts? Of course not. According to my trusted adviser Gordon Gekko, what's worth doing is worth doing for money. And Doughnut Plant can have my money, no problem. So I will gladly pay 12 George Washingtons for six tres leche donuts.

I cannot forget the chocolate blackout donuts: chocolate donut  with a little cream in the middle, topped with chocolate crumbs. If I ate any more of these, I think I'd be replacing Heavy D as the "overweight lover in the house."

And for the autumn, they added a pumpkin spice donut. I swear, if you dunk it in a hot cup of coffee, you may start walking funny because of the instant orgasm it will give you.  

All I know is that you will not have a bigger smile on your face as you're walking out of Doughnut Plant.

Pop that collar, son! We're at Level Orange on the Douchebag-o-Meter.

I came here last night for a birthday party. And boy oh boy, if I wasn't in a hurry to waddle out of there, I would've nailed this particular asswipe of a fratboy that bumped into me onto the poster of Joey Ramone that hangs over the bar. I wanna be sedated indeed! Seriously, how many times does one need to tap someone on their shoulder and say "excuse me" to get by them? Once? Twice? Well I drew the line at five times and shoved him out of the way. And then he has the nerve to call me on it? I think not, Niedermeyer.

Now to talk about R Bar itself. Whoever said that this place has an identity problem is 100% on the money. There are pictures hanging of Debbie Harry, iggy pop, The Ramones, the Sex Pistols and the Clash. seeing those pictures, one would assume this to be a rock and roll bar, right? To quote one John Bender, "not even close, bud."

The DJ was playing music that was anything but rock. And here's a tip to the DJ since he didn't know how to be an actual DJ: dude, spread the music out. Let the song play, don't start mixing it with the next song after 30 seconds. If you see the crowd is loving the song, let it play! Oh, and when you mix the songs it would help if you knew how to transition them. They have to mix at the same beats, not a slower song mixing into a faster song.

And yes, this is one of those places with the mandatory coat check. The crack staff wouldn't even allow me to enter the back room, where my friends were, unless I checked my coat. And another tip for the people who work there: if you know everyone is checking coats, it would help to have more than one person doing the task. Don't get me wrong: my man did a really good job and was placing the coats onto the hangers very gently and in a very neat fashion. But give him a little help, huh?

I swear to G-d, there is SO MUCH potential in this place. But they are attracting the entirely wrong crowd i.e. B&T'ers, frat boys and sorority girls, etc. There are more than enough clubs out there, especially in this area, where people can dance and have a good time. Carve your own niche out. This can be a great hardcore rock club that could bring back memories of CBGB and, dare I mention it, The Ritz?

Then again, they're making money hand over fist so why on earth would they listen to, oh I don't know, their own customers?

I love how parents, supposed role models, willingly take their kids out of school, drag them downtown by 5am, making them stand in the cold for 7 hours, just to get a glimpse of A-Rod's jacket since people who got there even earlier are blocking their view.

congrats Yankee fans, hope the wait was worth it.

Review written by Madonna Louise Ciccone:

Come on girls! You believe in Yelp? 'Cuz I got something to say about it and it goes something like this...

After attending tonight's Elite Event I felt high flying, adored - so young, an instant queen! Ashamed I did it all at 26, but more on that later.

I got out of my car, so essentially I made it through the wilderness. Somehow I made it through. Walking in, I felt like a virgin - touched for the very first time.

I saw Jane at the bottom of the staircase. And let me just say to Jane: you're so fine and you're mine. You make me strong, yeah you make me bold.

And then I saw peter, and let me just say this to peter: you've got style! That's what all the girls say. Satin sheets and luxury - so fine! I'm not saying I'm gonna dress you up in my love, but I'm sure somebody will.

Upon entering, there were lots of open tables and two separate sections for foodie goodness. I had the chicken wings, and man were they spicy, but delicious. I had to tell the person serving them to me, "Don't put me out, 'cuz I'm on fire. And I can't quench my desire. Don't you know that I'm burning up for your chicken wings. You're not convinced that I've had enough."

But to everybody's surprise, I also bought half a dozen Tres Leche doughnuts from Doughnut Plant. The original plan was to buy a spicy pumpkin for Danny and a tres leche for Lisa. Alas, only Lisa got her donut because everybody and their mother (hi Bridget)  bum rushed me.  I had to get rid of them fast, because everybody kept coming to me. I only had 4 minutes to save the world - tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

Then the music started playing, and I was astounded: The Pointer Sisters, Sade, Bee Gees, even "I've Had The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing! I told everybody to get into the groove. Take it from me, music can be such a revelation, dancing around you feel the sweet sensation!

Best of all, I think I saw my next potential Yelp Crush. I'm not going to reveal her name because, you know the old adage, "loose lips sink loose ships." But if I were to talk to her I'd essentially tell her, "Listen, I'm crazy for you. Touch me once and you'll know it's true. I never wanted anyone like this, it's all brand new. You'll feel it in my kiss."

So three cheers to peter, jane, miriam and chantelle, who i saw for the first time in months. I guess she got out of witness protection or something. But I told them when I was leaving, "Take a bow, the night is over. This masquerade is getting older. Lights are low, the curtains down. There's no one here."

And with that, I'm off to La Isla Bonita, because that's where I long to be.

PS If you want to see me and Adam play another round of drunken ping-pong, the rematch will be shown very soon on ESPN 8 - The Ocho!

as i was noshing on lemon cookies, i found out that they have fried chicken in Montauk at Fried Chicken of Montauk.