Quinn E.'s Profile

You know what kills my appetite? Pee pee smell. And when you walk in to the scary little shanty of stores where Falafel King lives, you may as well be putting your face into a urinal trough at a sporting event and taking a deep breath in. The building feels like something out of an After School Special. You might get pregnant there, or accidentally kill your brother with an oar because you went out in your rowboat while high on "dope."
But, you will definitely get a very nice falafel and hummus wrap on a lavash. The falafel is crisp and crunchy on the outside without being dry on the inside. That's a rare treat! The hummus balances the crunch out too, and is rich and creamy. You know the food is crazy good because I'd otherwise give this spot a 1 for sure. In a better castle, this King would probably be 5 stars. But atmosphere absolutely matters. The food stand itself is well-kept and clean, though, and it's enough of a walk back to my office that my nostrils are cleansed by the city air, so I do come back for the food. But if they lived somewhere less yucky, I'd be back a whole lot more often.

I should probably keep this place a secret, since it's one of the only spots near City Hall where a person can realistically imagine finding a seat at lunch time. But I'm a giver, so here it is.
It's not that it's the best soup and sandwiches in the city, but they're very good, and served by a genuinely friendly staff. I haven't gotten a salad here yet (don't judge me), but they are large and reasonably priced. The sandwiches are made on nice fresh bread and have enough toppings to keep me happy.
But I think the best thing here is the soup. They always have at least 3 to choose from, usually more like 6, and they're just plain delicious. I'm especially enamored with the lentil soup. It's almost a stew, it's so hearty and filling. Not at all oily either. And it's served really, really hot, so if you don't find a seat in the shop, you can bring it back to the depressing lunch room at the office and eat it there.

At the recommendation of fellow Yelper Susan R, I stayed at The Secret Garden Inn for a quick night during Women's Weekend. The price was right and they didn't have a minimum stay, so the choice was easy. And the location is amazing. Map it, you'll see. It's so close to everything, but set really far from the street so it's peaceful even with the central location.
I stayed in On Golden Pond, one of the rooms with a private bathroom. It was still pretty economical, and the room was very cute. I didn't use the little tv or really hang out in there a ton, but there was enough space that I didn't feel cramped, and the water pressure in the shower was good. I was glad that I didn't have to stand under one of those gentle rain showerheads for an hour trying to get the ocean out of my hair. There was no tub in the bathroom. Not an issue for me since I don't like putting my bare butt on strange surfaces. The bed was a double, not as big as I'm used to. But Provincetown is the place to be close in bed, right? The bed itself was comfortable enough for me, but it wasn't like I wanted to ask the host what sort of mattress it was so I could get one for home. It was just a bed.
On this visit I didn't spend much time on the porch, but I did when I visited Susan during her stay, and she's absolutely right that it's a delightful place to enjoy a beverage or five. There wasn't a house dog when I was there and I didn't eat breakfast. But, the staff members I encountered were lovely. The host was a bit too chatty for me, but maybe i'm not cut out for B&Bs. I feel like sometimes less is more, especially where talking to strangers is concerned. But everyone was friendly, and they were kind enough to allow me to leave my bag with them after check-out while I did some shopping in town before the ferry came. That was a bonus for me as well as the local economy, since I kind of bought a ton of stuff that I probably wouldn't have if I had to tote my luggage around. All told, this place is pretty great!

I am one of those people. I love Apple products. But I love them because they're generally reliable, easy to use, and improve my life. I'm not blindly devoted to them. And when they do break, the Apple Store makes it all better, fairly painlessly.

This particular store has always been very good to me. Sure, it gets mad crowded on the weekends. They all do. But you make an appointment at the Genius Bar, check in on the app (or with one of the plentiful staffers) and you're in. Once at the Genius Bar, chances are the person helping you will replicate whatever error you're experiencing and bend over backwards to fix it. I recently had a problem with my iPhone's phone mechanism, which I use like never, and the super-nice Genius not only swapped out my broken phone for a new one, but he also made sure my data was good to go on the new one. Since I had it backed up on iCloud, it was beyond easy. It just took a few minutes and he wanted to make sure nothing went wrong. I like that!

As for buying other things, I don't need any help other than to check out and that's always been fine. In fact, even on the busiest days I'm almost always asked if I need any help. Maybe I look confused all the time, I don't know. But I'm kind of jealous of the people who say they can't find anyone to help them here because I really enjoy being left alone, nice as it is to be asked.

I don't mind this Best Buy and here's why.

1. The store is huge and there's plenty of free parking.
2. I research my prospective purchases online using vetted expert information, not the word of some pompous 30 year old dude who works here.
3. I order the things I want online and pick them up at the service desk. The line there is rarely more than a few people deep.
4. I don't blame other people for my lack of knowledge. If someone talks you into buying a useless warranty, you can blame yourself for not looking into your options independently.
5. I don't need anyone to be fake nice to me. Sure, it would be better if they could hide their disinterest in working. But I don't care, at least they're not texting while on the clock.
6. I don't like being approached by salespeople.

I do hate that you have to stop at the exit for some dude to look at your receipt and glance in your bag. It's clearly not an appropriate loss prevention method, and only serves to inconvenience the customer. And the employees are pretty inappropriately uncommunicative as others have mentioned. But it's not like you're abused by the employees. You just have to fend for yourself.

I've never been to a single Best Buy that wasn't crowded with lazy boys "working" in every department. Work in this instance translates to leaning against the wall talking to their cerulean-clad buddy and waiting for a hot girl to wander in to the department so they can talk down to her. But honestly, I don't want their help anyway. And I'm shocked that some of you do. If it's just to unlock something so you can go buy it, sure, I get that. But why wouldn't you just order it online and pick it up? You really think trying out your potential purchase for five minutes at the store will give you insight on how the item will work for you in real life? That's ridiculous. Research your purchases using credible information sources, let the experts compare for you and make an informed decision for yourself.

Holy crap, that Old Ipswich Tavern Style Rum was outstanding. The guys distilling/serving it up were a wealth of information and cool as hell. Other stuff was good too, I liked how "intimate" the event was, and the staff of the Channel Cafe were super fun.

But jesus christ, that rum!

I need a nap.

Sure, it's Whole Foods and it's so awful. I mean, they only give like a few percent of their earnings to the local community every so often and more than 5% of profits to the national and global community every year. And provide a salad bar for the K-8 down the street. And employ a whole bunch of our neighbors and give them benefits and stuff. How heartless.

Seriously though, my neighborhood Whole Foods is pretty great. I'm always shocked at how un-harrowing the parking lot is. My points of comparison are the TJs in Brookline and the WFs in Cambridge. They all have obnoxiously small lots full of obnoxiously terrible drivers. Does organic food impair the frontal lobe? I think it might because those people have some serious difficulty with executive function. You get some of that here, but for a lot of this size, it could be worse. The store isn't very big either, it's kind of comparable to the one over by Inman Square. But you're not going here for your big shopping trips, are you? This is the shop you come to when you want to make an impressive meal for someone with fresh, wild-caught salmon. Or to get fancy cheese for a party. They also have a ridiculous selection of yogurt. But don't come here for your weekly groce. They may carry most things that you need, but it's too small and crowded to spend more than 15-20 minutes in.

The workers are super nice, they carry food that is fresh and even though you have to pay more for the products they carry, you get Fair Trade, organic type stuff, not gross GMO crap. I'm definitely glad they moved in to my neighborhood.

I admit, I doubted the idea that chicken salad would be a lunch worthy of all this hype and more importantly my lunch money. But it so was. Good chicken chunks, mayo and some salt and pepper. Sounds pretty stupid right? But put that stuff on a warm, freshly baked, crusty but soft sub roll with a little provolone, some hots and maybe a piece of lettuce or something and you have yourself a damn fine sandwich.I haven't managed to stray from the chicken salad yet, since it's so freaking delicious that I just can't let go of it. But I can see a nice Italian on that bread being pretty darn good.

I mean, yes, it's just a sandwich. But it's big, beautiful and worth the trouble of ordering in that chaotic shout-line. It's not really that scary. Just listen up and be ready to yell out your order to the person who calls, "Next." They do raise their prices relatively frequently it seems, since my small chicken salad is $6 and they were $5 in 2009. But it's still a deal. Beats the pants off those corporate sandwich manufacturing places for sure!

Does anyone have Bonnie Tyler's email address? Because I want to let her know that she doesn't have to hold out any longer, this gyro has everything she needs.

He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight

Well, the pita is wrapped in some sturdy foil and parchment, so it won't fall all over you. And I ate mine pretty fast since it was obscenely delicious. Fresh, absolutely. They made it in front of me. And the aforementioned pita is the strong, sensitive type. Soft and melty, but thick enough to handle the giant pile of shaved pork stuffed into it. I wouldn't say it's larger than life, but it's a huge sandwich that will definitely fill you up. Til the morning light, maybe.The tzatziki was excellent too. not runny at all, and a perfect compliment to the gyro. It was like the white knight upon the gyro's fiery steed.

Obviously, this superman of a gyro swept me off my feet.

I know, virtually everyone has given this place a terrible review. But they had a great car advertised online that my girlfriend was interested in, so I held my breath and went in. But, much like a stinky bathroom, I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible once the interactions started. First, the dealer greeted us with a disinterested glance, and made no effort to listen to what my girlfriend was saying. She wanted to test drive the car she saw online, but was also open to other models they had on the lot in her price range with a manual transmission. So rather than look up their inventory on his computer he walked us around the lot, peering into windows and saying, "This one's a manual." What the hell? I'm sure they have a computerized inventory system, why waste our time by being so inefficient?
That method obviously brought us 0 cars of interest. But my gf was especially interested in the Fit (in addition to the other car she saw online), which the dealer proceeded to trash talk ad nauseum. As a former owner of a Fit, I know what it rides like and I know the technology and it's certainly not perfect. But he was so pompous about his opinions, I just zipped it. Anyway, he hates Fits and *didn't let us test drive one!* We asked repeatedly and he said, "If you're not going to buy one today, I don't want to put the miles on it." The miles of going around the block on the VFW? Really? But he generously allowed us to sit in one in the showroom. How useful.
He definitely convinced us not to buy a damn thing from him at that point. The test drive on the car she was initially interested in was fine, but come on. And then a few days later the salesman called to say they dropped the price on the car she was interested in. They dropped it to the exact same price it was when we looked at it. I guess it could've been worse, but it wasn't good. If they have the exact car you want at the price you want to pay, I wouldn't say don't go. But if you're shopping around, don't do it here. Because they won't let you.