Conner's Blog

If you happen to follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me complaining about The Heavy Table’s review of The Lyndale Tap House on Monday.  I took issue with the half-star rating it received, mainly because I went there on Sunday and thought the food was pretty good.

It turns out I overreacted and after reading James Norton’s reply to Emily’s post about the review, and speaking to Aaron Landry last night at Give & Take, I realized I jumped to conclusions.  In fact, if you happen to take the time to actually visit The Heavy Table and look in the About section, they explain their rating system.

So a half-star isn’t awful, it just needs a lot of work, and honestly, I have to agree with them.  So in essence, what I’m saying is I should usually be ignored on Monday mornings.

In an attempt to keep my blog from growing mold and slowly disappearing I thought I should put something up here.  The last week has been fun, but I just didn’t have the ambition to write about anything. I thought I would put a quick listing of what I’ve been up to.

First, I went to my first night of Tech Karaoke last week.  I had been planning on going to this on several previous occasions, but instead of making it I kept either forgetting or having something come up.  I had a really good time, met some new people and even sang “Fat Bottomed Girls”.  I’ll definitely be making it to more of these.  I rode my bike to The Otter that night and it was kind of scary riding home.  Lightening was flashing over the city, but once I realized it was nowhere near me all I could think of is how much I wished I would have had my camera and tripod with.

I also tried out a couple food places recommended to me.  The first place I tried was the Cheeky Monkey Deli in St. Paul.  Art was the first person who told me about it, and I’ll be honest, I’m listening to Art from now on.  Not only is the place very unique, but the food was unreal.  I had the roast beef sandwich and for what you pay you get some damn tasty food.  I definitely recommend you check it out.  The second place I tried was Dave’s popcorn.  I had a craving for a chocolate shake earlier in the week and this was recommended by Angie as a great place to get a shake.  I stopped by Friday and was not disappointed.  It might not have been the best shake I’ve ever had but it was in the top ten.

Finally Saturday was incredible.  I started out the day biking to the Stone Arch Festive. I wandered around, ate a few unhealthy things and really enjoyed the art on display.  I’ve decided I should really work on my photography, maybe even take some classes, because I would love to compete with some of the artists on display there.  I also took in a show by the The Alrights, who are slowly becoming a favorite of mine.

The Crowd at Rock the Garden

Saturday evening was the kicker though.  I had purchased Rock the Garden tickets the day they went on sale and couldn’t have been more excited to go.  We ended up missing Solid Gold, which I was okay with as I had seen them live previously.  But we got there in time to see the other three bands.  Yeahsayer was a disappointment for me.  Though I enjoy their music, their live show was kind of boring.  They just didn’t really have any sort of presence in my opinion and their music isn’t overpowering in itself.  Calexico on the other hand blew me away.  Of the four bands that were playing they were actually the one I was least looking forward to seeing, but they proved me wrong.  Between the trumpets, the upbeat tempo,and the perfect music for a sizzling hot day I couldn’t have had more fun.  I’m definitely a bigger fan of Calexico due to seeing them live.

The capper to the evening was of course The Decemberists.  I had been looking forward to seeing them for quite some time.  I can understand how some people aren’t fans of them, but I can’t help but enjoy them.  I wasn’t sure about the fact they were playing The Hazards of Love from beginning to end, but it really worked.  I think I’ll enjoy listening to the album more now.  The end of their shows was awesome to, they played a couple songs from earlier CDs and then capped the evening off with a cover of Crazy on You.  It was really a perfect ending to the night and I thought they actually did a better job that Heart did.

That’s my last week in a nutshell, hope you had a great one and hopefully I’ll be back to keeping your days full of insanely boring things soon.  This heat is draining any ambition I have and I”ve been super busy at work.  I’m going to try very hard to get a Where? up tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll hear from you then.

When I was in Montana last week, my family and I went to The Garage in Bozeman, MT.  No website, so you will just have to trust me when I say it exists.  The Garage is  a soup and burger joint located just off main street.  Apparently it’s usually busy, and on the night we went it wasn’t full but it was busy for a Tuesday.  There was plenty of patio seating which made the experience great, unfortunately the sun was directly in my eyes for the first 15 minutes or so, they did have some shade, but the sun was peaking through at first.

The first thing that stood out was the menus.  The design itself wasn’t phenomenal, but they came bound to state licenses plates.  This is a great touch.  Not overwhelming, but unique enough to be remember on a future hungry night.

Their food was pretty good.  I had a burger that was topped with spinach, bacon, and swiss cheese.  It was excellent, not as good as a Five Guys burger, but still excellent.  The best part of the meal was their coleslaw.  Normally I’m hesitant to order coleslaw, but decided to take the risk.  It was well worth it, the coleslaw was cabbage, red onion, and I believe sesame seeds.  The dressing was great, it was oil based and really tasty.  My brother ordered the fries, and it they were pretty good, but nothing to crow about.

On great thing about Montana is most restaurants have a large beer selection.  The Garage was no different, having a good selection of local and national brews to choose from.  I opted for a Skinny Dip from the New Belgium brewery in Colorado and it went well with my meal.

Their soup selection appears to be what they are known for locally.  Unfortunatly it was a hot day and I opted to skip the soup.  They have a soup bar during the winter months and I hope to be able to return in December and give it a try.