Friday Five

The Week

Ah, Houston, how I’ve missed you so. Well, not really, but it sounds better than “*&%*&^* Houston again!!!”. There’s a lot I do enjoy about Houston, but alas this was not the week to visit anything fun. For starters, I had a chest crud/cold that would just not leave me alone. So debilitating this crud was I wasn’t able to walk up a flight of stairs or quickly down a hallway without losing my breath. As such, I wasn’t much in the mood for venturing off anywhere interesting. I really wanted to get over to either Grimaldi’s or Gringo’s this week, but driving down there just didn’t sound appealing. Couple that with the fact that I had a good amount of work quite a bit in the evening and it turned into a very, very boring week.

The Restaurant

I’m going to highlight a San Diego restaurant this week called Starlite. The place is located on India Avenue, just off the flight path for the airport. It’s situated next to one garage/salvage yard with another right across the street. Unless you knew it was there you’d drive right by it without realizing it, as Karin and I nearly did on our way over there for dinner.

The inside has a feel that I can’t quite describe. It’s sort of a futuristic 70’s hipster vibe for lack of a better way to put it. The center bar in the restaurant is the focal point of all the activity; it’s large and very well stocked with likely the best bourbon/rye selection in town (I counted no less than 20 options). They take pride in their cocktails, something I admire, and have many specialty ones served up in brass mugs. Really – who has brass mugs?

The food is mostly organic or farm-to-table. The menu is rather small, but what they do they do extremely well and it changes regularly. Karin went for a crispy chicken, which I’d had before, and was fantastic both then and this past Saturday. I had the seared ahi, which had a nice black pepper crust to it. It was a touch overdone for my liking, but still delicious nonetheless. Dessert was an ice cream sandwich (and a good glass of rye for me).

This is probably one of the more unique restaurants in San Diego, for their food, booze selection, atmosphere and selection. Parking is a pain, and finding it can be a bit tricky, but it’s worth the effort.

The Travel Note

I’ve mentioned many times before that I sit at the bar whenever I eat out alone, mostly because that seems less lonely to me than a table for one. Out of convenience sake I went to the Chili’s in the Galleria Mall that my hotel was attached to on Sunday night after landing. After I paid my bill and was about to walk away the bartender says to me, “Have a good Valentine’s Day!” Um, I’m sitting in a bar alone. I think the chances of me having a good Valentine’s Day are pretty much shot.

The Five

Btw – Any ideas are greatly appreciated. ;-)

I generally don’t have snacks, but when I do these are my 5 favorite:

1. Doritos – I’m pretty sure they’re 100% chemicals, but they’re great chemicals.
2. Butterfingers – Again, I don’t know that there are any ingredients that actually occur in nature, but I love them.
3. Samoas – And it’s Girl Scout cookie season. If you’d like to surprise me with a gift...
4. Ben & Jerry’s – The story goes that the person in the pair who tasted the ice cream didn’t have most of his taste buds working, so they had to make the ice cream more flavorful. Here’s to his failed taste buds.
5. Ice cold Mountain Dew – In the can. I don’t do much soda, but when I do this is what I crave.