May 28, 2007

Why Claude's On The Wagon

Claude on the scene in Martha's Vineyard - throwing back shots at Jaws Fest?
It's been awhile. Last we spoke, we were talking up our big trip over to Martha's Vineyard and our fancy pants dinner reservations at a primo restaurant there. Nothing happened to the reservation, per se, except for the fact we had a little mystery dinner guest of our very own accompanying us on this said trip. After laying pretty low for a few years, Claude decided to make a reappearance back out on the scene.

Claude and I go back, way back to the night we met at Denny's at about two in the morning. He was just hanging out there all by himself, surrounded by a mountain full of plates of runny egg puddles and maple syrup swamps. He looked a little freaked out, over-caffeinated, and in need of plan B. Being as diminutive as Claude is, we sent Swatley in for the mission. At 6"5, he was the best man suited for the job, for sure.

Returning to our table with Claude, Swatley started chatting him up like they were old acquaintances. Naturally, I joined in the conversation and Claude and I too became fast friends. Just like that, he wasn't all full of crap and opinions on everything and a new mantra you must digest. He was just Claude.

Fast forward to the very recent past, and I do promise there will be more Claude stories to follow in the near future, but for the brevity of the blog sake, I should be getting back to our MV trip.

So Claude is along for the ride on our MV trip, and on the ferry ride over out of Woods Hole, he starts talking smack about how fortuitous it is that Kentucky Derby and Cinco De Mayo happen to fall on the same day. The Derby talk quickly hones in on the proper drinks to be drinking in honor of the occasion. You see, Claude is a walking mixologist, he's dined with Hollywood stars, drank keggers at UMASS Amherst, and lived in Paris, France. He can rattle off where to get the best margarita in LA, who makes the best dirty martini in NYC, and which Notting Hill hot spots have the best drinks combined with best scene all wrapped up in the same pretty sentence.

For the Derby, he tells us that the chances of us finding a proper mint julip on MV are like a snowballs chance in Hell, so we better come up with a different drink of the day pronto. We discuss the pros and cons of beer, margaritas, and wine. We settle on margaritas and are off in search of a good place for margaritas and watching the race.

We pull up some bar stools at Season's in Oak Bluffs, and order appetizers and Cadillac Margaritas on the rocks. The spring rolls were a little on the greasy fried outside side, but tasty and the dipping sauce was the expected yummy sweet orangy tangy sauce. The peanut satay was good, the pieces of chicken were loaded with curry flavor. The dipping sauce was pretty watery in consistency though, we were expecting something a little thicker. The margartitas were excellent and that's what mattered most that day.

Three margaritas later, we decided to get a move onto our next destination. For the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening, we weaved our way through Oak Bluffs and over to Edgartown. Margaritas became the theme of the day, with Claude entertaining us with stories galore about what types of tequila we should try in our next margarita. Claude declared a new MV mission, we were to squeeze in as many different drinking establishments as possible on this splendid, sunny trip to Martha's Vineyard.

Time was ticking on and it was looking like we were not in any shape to be attending a swank dining establishment. Claude, of course, looked stellar and composed as always, in his usual green outfit. We on the other hand were getting louder and laughing harder by the minute. A call needed to be made on the dinner reservation. We cancelled it with mixed feelings for sure, but under the circumstances, we really felt it was the right thing to do. For the sake of the small children, and anyone seated within earshot.

Gold star for us for fitting in as many drinking establishments as possible in one trip to Martha's Vineyard. In a follow up posting we can recount what those were. That is if we can recall them.

And that my friends, is why Claude's on the wagon.

May 2, 2007

Sharpening my Pencil

Hola peeps! I am just so excited about my upcoming trip this weekend to Martha's Vineyard, that I'm already sharpening my pencil in anticipation. I'll be reporting back from Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard with a restaurant review from the island.

It being the shoulder season yet here on the Cape and Islands, figuring out the trip logistics and details is proving a bit more difficult, but we're up for the technical challenge.

I've made a few changes on the blog: added email icons so you can email the stories, added rss feed to subscribe, added tags for story labels. Am still debating whether to enable comments, thus far my experience on sites had been comments = attract psychos to your website. We shall see.

Peace out.