Morgan "always hungry" D.'s Profile

Drank inside the Patio this weekend. It's a long, dark, narrow space - that's my kind of bar. It was packed to the brim when I was there. The credit card machine was down, so it was all cash (boo!). We got a round of GIANT Apple Jack shots (thanks, bartender). There wasn't a lot going on. They were still setting up the in the back for a DJ I think. The crowd seemed cool. But since nothing was really happening and we couldn't get a table of good spot to hang out, we moseyed over to Sugar Bar. Glad they have the link!

Not my style. I was excited about The Garage Bar, thinking it was literally a garage that was turned into a bar. I expected it to be a dark, smelly, slightly oily place. It was definitely a chain. The decor was strange with black light posters and random road signs. The draft beer came out of a filling station gas tap. A bit too cliche.

The garage bar was DEAD when I was there. Granted, it was like 8p.

We were meeting friends. I walked in trying to spot my buds first, but the bartender totally flagged me down and gave me the crazy eye for not ordering something right away. It was a bit abrasive. Our waitress was really nice though. It was her first night, but she did a good job. I got a nice serving of Bailey's on the rocks to start ($6). One of our friends got a chicken sandwich and fries. He said the fries were awful, kind of cold and soggy. BUT I was impressed that the the chicken sandwich was served with six kinds of sauce, delivered like a case of beer.

While we were there, two DJs kept going up the spiral staircase to the DJ booth, but nothing ever came of that. Also, a band was setting up and tuning (screechily) on stage. but nothing ever came of that either.

We had our fill of the place, and wanted to move on to the next. But before leaving, we did decide to do a round of shots from the dirty drink menu. I was a little annoyed that the shots didn't come with descriptions. We ordered kind of blindly. I won't say exactly what we got since the names are all explicitly sex induced. But we each picked our favorite numbers - 2, 3, 5, and 17. My 17 was a lemon flavored icy shot. I really loved it, but it didn't taste like it had much liquor. My friend's number 5 was just a cherry bomb. I'm not sure what number 3 was, but number 2 was definitely whiskey.

I think the best part of The Garage Bar was the skiball machine. Overall, I wasn't very impressed.

This weekend we threw a Scottish themed party complete with homemade kilts and a scotch tasting. We kicked off the festivities at Digger & Finch. I had never been before. I loved the interior. Everything is really dark, but there are lots of lighting accents including some beautiful stained glass fixtures. There was a ginormous television screen in the back - definitely the biggest I've ever seen. The bar is also large to match, shaped like a horseshoe with a embellished metal counter. The space is divided in several sections with seating in an upstairs loft also available, so I felt nice and cozy.

The menu was informative. It had the story of Digger & Finch and trivia questions like "Why do 18 holes constitute one round of golf?". I wasn't so sure this restaurant would suit Digger and Finch's personalities. Apparently these good 'ole boys were mischievous, a bit lowly, and in love with the pub atmosphere. This restaurant seemed too nice for their likings.

Anyway, I was happy with the food selection. We got the mussels, fried pickles and one sausage-wrapped egg to start. The mussels were EXCELLENT. The fried pickles were good too. I didn't try the egg, but it looked pretty - seriously.

For the main course, there were several vegetarian options including a nice pasta. They also had meatloaf, steak, bangers and mash, and the like. I had the fish and chips. It was a huge platter with three pieces of fish. I substituted fries for onion rings. The onion rings were very good. The fish was so-so. I liked the batter, and, for the most part, the fish itself was good. But every so often, I would encounter a dark section of fish that didn't taste so good, and another person at our table got an entire piece that was dark.

Our server was great. I think her name was Chrissy or Christy. She was friendly and attentive. She made several jokes during the meal. Very personable.

Nice draft selection including, of course, Guinness.

I'd certainly go there again.

A group of us saw Karate Coyote at Rumba a few weekends ago. None of us had ever been to the bar before. I was surprised by how narrow and tiny the space is. I felt a little squished. We grabbed a table right next to the stage and had a good view of the band. But, I don't know if it's where we were sitting or if this was the general consensus for the entire bar, the sound was terrible. Lohio and KC have such great music, but the words sounded garbled, the mics were too low, and the music just bounced off the walls in all the wrong directions. But I've also heard that some of these things are general problems with the band itself. The bands also started REALLY late.

The bathrooms were pretty icky. Just one stall for men and one for ladies with notes on both doors suggesting the Porta-John out on the patio. Everything was slightly wet in the bathroom, and it was pretty graffitied and gross, toilet paper all over the floor.

The crowd was strange. In the mix around our table were lots of girls who, I thought, were overdressed and lots of guys preying on them. Then there were a few people who were there to see the bands and seemed normal.

We still had fun though. The bar staff was friendly and quick, and they offered a good selection of taps and had great suggestions. At the end of the night, I went to close my tab and encountered a long wait. The barmaid came back with my credit card but said she couldn't find my tab in the computer system. She offered me my drinks for free, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep that night if I didn't properly settle my debt. As best as I could, I recounted the drinks I had purchased. She went back to punch in what I had told her and magically found my tab keyed in with a typo!

$5 cover charge the Friday I went.

Nida's new place is just down the street from where I work, and I had been dying to try it. I finally got my chance a few weeks ago when some friends made reservations. They had been before and were able to make suggestions for what to order. They talked highly of the Dragon's Eye Cocktail and the Seaweed Salad and ordered both. Unfortunately, the waitress thought they said "Seafood" Salad and brought them two huge dishes fill with all kinds of sea creatures. It was WAY too much to eat as an appetizer. They politely told her she was wrong, and she corrected the mistake. I hope the kitchen staff got to munch on the salads instead of having to throw them away.

I had the Pad Khing with breaded tofu. It came with all kinds of veggies and perfectly steamed rice. I asked for mild, but the dish was still a bit too spicy for my taste. Nonetheless, I scarfed as much of it as I could down (big portions) boxed the rest and finished it as a midnight snack (good re-heated too).

Conversely my other friend loves spicy and asked for his dish to be as hot as possible. Despite the visible color difference between his plate and the rest of ours, he said his wasn't spicy enough. I guess it's all in the taste buds.

The only real downfall was that we forgot to tell the waitress to split the check and we had a tough time sorting things out since the drinks were lumped into one single total.

Great atmosphere. Nicely decorated. The place was packed when we went, but we had plenty of elbow room and felt very comfortable. Good for small groups, I'd say no larger than six. I wish they delivered. Metered lot across the street.

The office staff decided to go out for lunch at Thurman's last week. I had never heard of the place, so, as is standard for me, I looked up the menu online. I experienced a slight tingle of fear as I noted one meat filled dish after another. I briefly considered ditching vegetarianism after reading through several of the tasty sounding concoctions and viewing corresponding Yelp photos. But, ultimately, I found a few veggie-friendly pizza options and two sans-chicken salads to choose from.

I set off with visions of blue cheese pizza dancing in my head. The wait was long - super long. We left the office at 11:30a and were seated around 1:00p. Granted, we were a 5 top. My blue cheese pizza wasn't on the menu, but I asked the waiter, and he said it was still available. We waited about another half hour before getting our food. The wait was so long that my boss actually had to leave before we even ate so that he could make it to a meeting.

But the food was really, really good. My pizza was crispy, the cheese was succulently sour (in a fermented sense), and the onions were carmelized and sweet. The basket of fries we shared was humongous. The fries were thick-cut, slightly blackened, and accompanied by salt, vinegar, and ketchup. Everyone else at the table got burgers. Thurman's mythically big, big burgers were big, but not as Paul Bunyan big as I had imagined.

I agree with whoever said the table fell silent when the food arrived. In fact, it was awkwardly silent. The jukebox had been blaring beforehand, but as soon as our food came out, the songs stopped, and no one was talking because we were all stuffing our faces. Everyone agreed the food was good - heart stopping good. Grease haters, beware.

I didn't mind the wait since I'll take any excuse to get out of the office for a while. But there was a pair of flies that incessantly buzzed around our table and repeatedly landed on our heads; that was annoying.

The decor reminds me of a beach dive bar. Everything is makeshift, lots of old wood, TONS of dollar bills taped all over every inch of space and hanging like tassels from the bar rafters. Even the ceiling is painted with old, cardboard Budweiser boxes.

The waitress said the dollar bill thing started when a guy who had been to another dough decked restaurant out of state came in and taped a buck to the wall. Everyone else followed suit, many writing messages or drawing pictures on the green papers. The original restaurant touted $35,000 in dollar bill decorations. I asked the bartender how much they thought was hanging around in Thurman's, she said she didn't know but invited me back to count it sometime. What I kept wondering was what keeps people from untaping the bills from the walls and stuffing them into their pockets?

I agree. It was nice to see actual faces, and it was surprising how awkward this WASN'T! I'm interested to hear who came out for Part II at 11p and how that went. Everyone from the early group rolled out at about 10:30p; it was too close to our bedtime.

Quite unofficial, though not bad for the first get-together. Hopefully next time we can give a bit more structure to our plan. And, hopefully next time more people show. I'm definitely digging Lisa's idea to meet-up again for Cocktails at the Conservatory.

Kudos to Surly for the $1 PBRs.

The first time I went to Golden Chopsticks, they had just opened. I was happily impressed with the interior design; the young and upbeat wait staff; and the mixture of all things Pepsi, Coke, and Gatorade living happily together on the drink display shelf.

The menu was a little hard to follow as it's shown digitally on a set of three flat screens (the fourth was playing Food Network), but there were some hard copy take-out menus on the counter. Still, I miss the order board traditionally hung over the cash registers.

On the first visit, there was only one other group in line with us. The food was served quickly. It was still scorching hot by the time we got it back to our apartment. Greg was very happy with his General Tso's. I was a little less impressed with my Vegetable Egg Foo Young. The gravy-like sauce that accompanied it was a little strange, and everything tasted like new cookware - you know, that metallic taste. I had to use a lot of salt to spruce things up.

We went for a second visit last night with some friends. This time, the place was packed. We were given numbers after placing our orders. 1173 and 1175. It would seem that they would make the food in the order that the customers ...well, ordered. But 1179-1181 were served before our 1173 was, and our 1175 had to wait until the cooks had cycled all the way through 1187 before receiving their food. It was a pretty screwy system.

My Home Style Tofu (fried with veggies) was pretty good. The brown sauce was uncommonly sweet, but I liked it. We also ordered Ma Poh Spicy Tofu (good, and actually a bit spicy) and General Tso's (not so spicy). The Spring Rolls were apparently delicious, and I would rank the Crab Rangoons the second best I've had in Columbus thus far (counting Molly Woo's as number one). The Fried Rice was delicious for fast food. The new cookware taste was gone this time.

My only real qualm was the extremely long wait time and the scraggly cashier who kept touching his mouth, face, and the cash register and then would turn to help bag and box orders.

It's not my favorite Chinese in the neighborhood, but it's okay.

We went to La Scala last night to celebrate my boyfriend's grandmother's 90th birthday. Ninety years is a HUGE deal, so I was pumped to be a part of the celebration. We were expecting a nice, family gathering. Greg's family is always a blast to be around, it's nothing like you're typical family get-together.

We booked a private room in the back of La Scala. Unfortunately, some highschool booked a Valentine's Day dance in the private room behind ours. All night, songs like Gold Digger, Get Buck, and Party Like a Rockstar literally shook the wall between our room and theirs. And every once in a while, we'd get a crazy flash from the disco lights. Let's be clear, Oma does not kiss girls, and she does not like Katy Perry. We asked the waitress if we could turn the music down several times with no luck. It was so sad, I have no idea what Oma or her three sisters said when they gave their toasts. And several times, drunken teenagers mistook our room for the bathroom and stumbled part way in before being ripped back into the hallway by their friends.

Our waitress was not very nice. She left us sitting with just drinks for about a half hour. When we asked if we could get some complimentary bread to hold us over, she sort of snapped back with 'I'll be bringing it in a moment.' She never once apologized for the slow service, but she did give a few excuses throughout the night. PS, the family drink is a Manhattan. These Manhattans were embarrassingly small and weak. They might as well have come in shot glasses.

The pace picked up after we ordered. It seemed like hardly any time passed before we got our entrees. Our waitress, luckily got a little help at this point in the meal. I couldn't believe that up until then, she had been expected to serve all twenty-five of us on her own. But the bad thing is that most of the servers smelled overwhelmingly liked cigarette smoke. Unappetizing.

I got the Shrimp and Scallop Parmagiana. The shrimp was unfreshly fishy. The scallops were small and tasteless. The food definitely looked better than it tasted - except for Loren's which was drizzled in bright orange sauce. I didn't hear anyone who really said they loved what they ordered. Only one of us in my section of the table got dessert. When asked how the cheesecake was, Edan nicely stated, 'It's a B...'

When we walked back out, through the main part of the restaurant, I thought the decor was nice. And there was a piano player that sounded pretty good playing a One Republic song.

But, overall, this was a unfortunately bad experience. It was seriously like something out of an SNL skit, and all night, we kept reminding ourselves out loud 'This is real life. This is really happening.' Bad, bad, bad.

Oh, Kickstart. you are truly my frenemy. Before you, I had kicked my coffee habit. Now, I'm back to my old tricks.

This coffee is so good. I'd say it's the best in the neighborhood. I've had half of the signature cappuccinos. My favorite is by far the Elvis, a mix of peanut butter and banana. The best part of this drink is that the staff will take a bottle of chocolate syrup and draw Elvis' face on top of your whipped cream. It looks a little wonky, but it's the thought that counts.

I also had the Banana Split, the Sticky Bun, Crackerjack, Chai, and White Pumpkin Mocha. The Banana Split was very similar to the Elvis. The Sticky Bun tasted just like Stickybun. The Crackerjack was really good, but not as close to the Crackerjack taste that I expected. The Chai was spot on. And the White Pumpkin Mocha was very interesting and creamy; I think it's my number two favorite.

After the Steelers won the Superbowl, Kickstart was giving out free coffee. I totally took advantage by going in. Coolest thing - I was served by DJ Moxy. She recommended the Hylander, which was EXCELLENT. It had hazlenut undertones that required no cream or sugar. They're always doing coffee giveaways, so keep an eye out.

Besides the flavors, I love that Kickstart's coffee is never scoldingly hot. It's always ready to drink right when you order it. I'd like to know just what their temperature setting is, because it's perfect.

The atmosphere is comfortable too. I love that blue couch in the back. The reading selection is fun - if you have not yet, you must flip through Lost, the book of missing pet posters. It's horribly sad and funny at the same time. My favorite Lost poster is the one that simply states "Turtle: Find him!"

The staff is the perfect coffeeshop staff. They are immmediately your friends. Ask them about 'Pizza Turn'.

Triple points for parking right outside the front door.