Finally got my allergy medicine, which involved a drive to Midtown. Wow, driving twice in one week, that’s not something I do very often.
Sauces is under new ownership. I’ve been told that Jeff Johnson, a long-time bartender at Newby’s, now owns the place. They’re open and will have some new specials this weekend including Asian wings with wasabi blue cheese, thai steak salad, and grilled halibut over low country grits with a side of wild spinach. Because the place has a new owner, it had to re-apply for a liquor license and won’t have it for about another week, but in the meantime you’re welcome to carry your own in. If you provide the rum, they’ll make your Mojito setup.
I hope they do well… Sauces always had great food, but I often got the impression the business side of things wasn’t quite right under the old ownership. Sounds like this new guy has been around the bar and restaurant business for a while and knows what he’s doing. “I just hope he doesn’t hang up too much UT orange,” one reader commented has he sang Jeff’s praises. Uh oh. Ask Calhoun’s bartender and almost-BFF Lauren what UT orange will get you.
Businesses on the block of the Main Street Mall between Gayoso and Peabody Place will throw a block party next Thursday, October 16. Five businesses on that block won awards in the Flyer’s Best Of issue. There will be live music and the following specials:
Majestic Grille – Best Restaurant (tie) and Best Martini (3rd)
2 for 1 flatbreads
$4 strawberry basil martinis
$4 mojitos on the patio
Circa – Best Restaurant (tie) and Best Chef
$5 appetizers and $19 ‘steak frites’
feature wines $5/glass or $20/bottle
Blue Fin – Best Sushi/Japanese (2nd)
$10 dumpling/sushi combos and $5 hurricane and tornado rolls
$2 Miller or Coors bottles
$5 select martinis
Center for Southern Folklore – Best Free Festival
$4 peach cobbler and ice cream
$1.25 cappucinos
$3 domestics & imports
10% off merchandise and Art by Gray
Shelton Clothiers – Best Men’s Clothing (3rd)
buy one get one neck ties (I think, there was a typo here)
25% off all pink pig apparel
sale items excluded
A reader e-mailed about my post about RealClearPolitics, and told me that Electoral-Vote.com is more accurate because they don’t use partisan polls. So you may want to check them out in addition to RCP. He says RCP includes some GOP-leaning polls, so the actual numbers may be tilted even more toward Obama than the RCP map shows. In any event, the RCP map shows another move – West Virginia goes from “leaning McCain” to “toss-up.” This is turning into a complete disaster for the Republicans… if the economy continues to spiral downward, I predict that by election day Montana, North Dakota, Georgia, Louisiana, and Arkansas will have moved to the toss-up column.
Downtown business owners: Check out the CCC’s website for info on a $2500 storefront decorating contest.
The concert at Jefferson Davis Park last night was excellent. Perfect weather and Delta Highway tore the place up with their blues. Great food from Crepe Maker, and from a vendor selling funnel cakes and corn dogs. The final concert in the series is next Wednesday, October 15 in Barbaro Alley next to Sauces, where there will be a miniature GonerFest with Jack Oblivian, The Limes, and other musical acts.
The Rapscallions dominated yet another trivia night last night. Mikey and Pete the Trivia Guy did the first week of trivia at Jillian’s. Format was a little different from the Saucer… there are 6 questions per round, 3 rounds total. Each round has one question from each category of Trivial Pursuit (although Pete makes up the questions himself). If you get an entire round right, you get bonus points. At the end of the 3rd round, there’s a final question. Teams get to vote which category they want, majority rules. You can wager as many of your points as you want on the final question.
Due to the wagering, the Rapscallions took first place with 118 points. Joe and Jake, who normally play on my BFFs’ team at the Saucer, came in second with 2 points. That’s not a typo – TWO points. The final question, after the teams voted for “science”: The wolverine is the largest member of what family? The correct answer was the weasel family – it’s not a wolf or dog.
They’ll have trivia again next Wednesday at 7. The event is still relatively unknown, so if your team shows up you have a better-than-average chance of winning a prize.
My BFFs Jenny and Michelle didn’t show up after saying they would. Earlier, they had proposed a trivia team consisting of all my former BFFs and me. “That’s not a bad idea, Darbi and Kristin and really smart, and so is Suzy.” After thinking about it for a minute, though, I added, “Maybe we better not invite Meghan.”
Five sneezes since I started typing this post. My throat is sore from all the sneezing and coughing. Allergy meds have not kicked in yet. If I get to feeling better, I’ll get out for a little while this evening. I have a coupon for $5 worth of beer from the Saucer, redeemable today only, and in these tough economic times one shouldn’t let free beer go to waste.