5:00 PM – O Ya
People have been telling me that I swear too often, but words are failing me in describing how @#$%ing amazing this place was.
I had two bites from their menu and immediately it is one of my top five favorite restaurants of all time. Here’s my reaction to the first bite.
Please check this place out if you love food and are in Boston. If you just like food and are in Boston, you will not be afraid of the prices at . . .
6:00 PM – Ten Tables
A little bit of a SNAFU going to Ten Tables: (there are two locations, JP and Cambridge, and the owner, Krista) I call JP, no one knows I’m coming, they call Cambridge, get me a spot, I get to Cambridge, meet chef Dave, order the Steak Frites, get a call from Krista, she says “I can’t accommodate you,” (as if that was actually an option) I say, “I’m already accommodated,” she says, “Oh.” we get bread and olive oil, I get steak, it is glorious, dip fries in the au jus and garlic aoli, we completely devour the plate between the four of us, move on to . . .
7:00 PM – Fenway Park
Fenway is only on the agenda so I can show the viewers what it’s like when no one is around. I have a ticket to the Sox v. Yankees game this Friday and will film the rest of the hubub there. Nothing to report on this stop aside from our new travel companion, Mr. T. I DON’T WANNA HEAH’ NO JIBBA-JABBA, FOOL! GIT YOUSELF TO . . .
8:00 PM – Giacomo’s
Rose Marie, what a beautiful lady. She is the Italian mom to end all Italian moms. She’s one of the kindest people with a big, generous heart. We had to switch the time up to get O Ya in and she bent over backwards for us to make sure that happened. A reserved seat at Giacomo’s in the North End on Saturday night where the line is over 45 minutes long on a Tuesday? She told me in her interview that John Henry (owner of the Red Sox) gets the same treatment when he calls ahead, but not too many others.
She brings us garlic bread. Oh no you di’int Rose – I have been eating for sixteen hours and you drop a garlic bread on me? I told you she was generous! I pass the garlic bread out to a few of the just seated diners and promote 24 in 24. Geena and I have the frutti de mare – she loves it, I have had it twice before and it is spicy and full of the freshest seafood you can get your teeth on. Dan is stuck in North End traffic, and we shoot down an alley to escape the hustle-bustle for a beer at . . .
9:00 PM – The Publick House
But first, I gotta use the can. Holding off on that aspect of the shoot for 17 hours deserves an award in itself. I still don’t think it tops the thirteen hours I spent without any type of bathroom break at all in Times Square for New Year’s Eve 2000.
Remi isn’t there, but I order his favorite beer. The doorman stops Brett in his tracks and demands ID. He is more than pleased when the assistant manager (Matt, I think?) pulls rank and pardons the detainee. Geena, Dan, and I sample the Houblon Chouffe – complex. Starts as a wheat beer with flowery tones and hints of citrus and apricot, but finishes strong and hoppy like an IPA.
It seems like the more inebriated people get, the more likely they are to ask what I am doing with the film crew. I don’t ask questions and am happy to throw my card around before I go off to find some more buzzed bargoers at the aptly named . . .
10:00 PM – Drink
As I am taking some shots of the exterior, a cab comes up and expects me to move from my spot, a perfect vantage point of the financial district skyline about one foot outside the bike lane into the street. The girls in the cab (who are getting dropped off at where else but Drink) don’t realize that he is using the fact that I am standing in the middle of the road to eke a few more pennies out of their fare and are somehow annoyed with me. As I write this, I am coming to the realization that anyone who knows me and reads this would probably side with the girls.
I wrote this to him already, but John comes across as the most passionate and professional man that I have met on this tour. He knows his stuff and was born for hospitality. It is Geena’s last stop and John brings us a few shots, the name of which escapes me, but they were tart, bitter, and refreshing. Grapefruit Juice, St. M-somethingorother, gin, and bitters – a drink I thought I wouldn’t like when he described it but found quite light and just right for my long summer day. Buttermilk biscuits with ham round out the food for the 15th as we pack up (except for the tripod I left, oops) and walk across the street to . . .
11:00 PM – Lucky’s
These guys work quick. I told Bill just last Thursday that I would like to see some better looking and younger women at Lucky’s, and when I get there, there are about four bachelorette parties, and another few exhibitionist-types following the camera from across the street at Drink. Nice job, gentlemen. Maybe they brought them in exclusively for the shoot. In any respect, the talent is far more talented than usual, and we roll tape.
I am able to get Brett a kiss from a cougar (maybe she was just a rough 29). Assistant GM Rob is enjoying the talent as well and looking forward to closing time as we are looking forward to . . .
Midnight – The Bell In Hand
It’s Five Hour Energy time. Brett and I slam one each and take a ten minute nap before it kicks in. Jeff at the Bell In Hand meets us at the door and assigns Brett an escort as the BPD watches. Kind of a weak night for Fanueil due to the heat and the Country Music Festival at Foxboro tonight. There’s a decent cover band playing tonight downstairs and a pretty happy crowd upstairs, but the place is empty. I stroll by the rest of the bars on the walk and they’re even worse – The Point has maybe twenty-five people downstairs. I run into the only person I know in an EA sports video game, my good buddy Eoin Lynch. We have a chat for a sec, go off to get another few shots of the partiers and roll out to . . .
1:00 AM – Fanueil Hall
Silly drunks . . . There weren’t as many as I am used to seeing in the square, but there was plenty of food available. The Fenway faithful street sausages were out in full force tonight. We didn’t have one, but it was clearly the popular/only choice at this time in the morning. I spoke to a police officer after we got the shot of the girl falling over, and he told me there was no such offense as public intoxication in MA. I just gained a little respect back for the state that doesn’t sell alcohol before noon on Sundays and closes all bars by 2AM. Not a lot of respect, but just a little.
Sausageless, we jumped in the RAV-4 and headed for more refined fare at . . .
2:00 AM – Chau Chow City
Danny is on point tonight and at our service. He whisks us to our table and the food is out for us in a minute. Spring rolls, Honey Glazed Shrimp, and some kind of vegetable that absolutely rocks. By the way, the Honey Glazed Shrimp is a must-order from Chau Chow. The shrimp are big and juicy with just the right amount of flour and honey on the outside, they are crispy, but the crunch of the roasted walnuts and sesame seeds send you to another level of foodie nirvana. One of my top five favorite dishes today. Saying that something as amazing as this shrimp wasn’t even in the top three things I tried today is a testament to the fine cuisine I had. Wow.
As I walk inside toward other two gentlemen to leave, an officer tells me no filming is allowed inside. I’m done filming anyway, but that doesn’t stop the guys in the peanut gallery from ragging on me. Screw you guys! I’m goin’ to get me some wings and waffles at . . .
3:00 AM – The Hen House
My final stop for food! Right across the street from The Victoria Diner (which I could have included if I wasn’t going to two diners already). The same restaurant group that owns TVD owns The Hen House; I am OK with leaving them out. Besides, wings and waffles? What foodie in America doesn’t have a special place in their soul for some soul food? Thinking about this for a second, is soul food a racist statement? We were the only white guys in the place who weren’t behind the counter. Again, there was a few cases of mistaken identity when some of the guys at the place we were rappin’ with (can I say that?) handed me their business cards as if I was going to be able to hook them up with something. One guy runs a radio station in Roxbury, so maybe I can call him and get some press if he wasn’t too drunk to be recording memories at the time. He did drive away, but that’s not really saying anything. We were beat as hell, but this was quite an entertaining stop before our final destination . . .
4:00 AM – Rise
If I were gay and I didn’t have a membership to Rise, I would have bought one on the spot. Maybe it was because Machine’s night is on Friday or maybe it was because it was 4:30AM, but there were a number of older guys who were much more fit than I on the floor. I guess that’s how it works: go work out during the week, party at night on the weekends, hope you pick up some young stud by 3:00AM, and if you don’t, you’re still dancing at four starting keeping that workout regimen in check.
Now it sounds like I am into older guys.
Wait a second, that didn’t sound right either. Anyway, you get the picture. The doorman decided he was going to be a complete douchebag to me when he saw me with the camera and didn’t help me find Mike Swells, house DJ and my contact there. Other than that small slight, everything was pretty money. Ridiculous sound system, great lighting effects, the smoke machine didn’t make me cough when I was standing near it. They obviously paid attention to detail here. I’d seen it two days earlier without the lights and music, but it exceeded my expectations when I got in there. I should have some good footage for my porn folder.
Wait a second . . .
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