Barrels of goodness at Cedars

One of the more comfortable places to enjoy drinks and apps with friends on a cold Tri-Cities night is Cedars on Clover Island.  Cedars has a nice lounge with a real wood fireplace with plenty of seating.

Our night kicked off a bottle of red wine, some Jack Daniels, a little Bacardi, and of course Cedars’ famous Rum Barrels.  For the appetizers, we enjoyed their potato skins, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, and Bruschetta.

The drinks were excellent and the food was pretty darn good.  One thing that has always bugged me about Cedars is this:  It’s a joint that has every ability to be a top-notch, first class restaurant but chooses to go the “mediocre route” with food like an old school salad bar, chicken strips, potato skins, and cheese sticks.  Yes, I know.  We all ate everything I find annoying.  I just wish there were more restaurants in the Tri-Cities willing to push the envelope with their menu a little more.

Don’t get me wrong, I will always continue to eat and drink at Cedars.  Their dinner menu is above average and it’s a warm and inviting place.

P.S.  I haven’t been there in a while and since then, Cedars has updated their Happy Hour menu.  Hours are between 4pm and 6pm and they have various, and well-valued drinks and food specials.

I hadn’t been to Las Vegas in over four years.  This trip to Vegas was definitely one of the best yet!  We got off the plane on Thursday night, caught a taxi to the Tahiti Village (aka Tahiti South), freshened up real quick and met Mandy’s friends (GR & Benthrop) at the Palms.

From there, we partied like rock stars.  No, really.  We partied like rock stars.  There wasn’t any waiting in line… There wasn’t any paying of a cover charge, and the drinks were poured with a little extra care.   All of this special treatment is due to GR and his generosity.

We started at the Ghost Bar with a round and hung out there for a short bit.  From there we headed over to the Playboy Club which was slightly busy for a Thursday.  We had another round and then decided to go to Moon.

Moon was off the hook.  I’ve never had the opportunity to sit VIP with table/bottle service in Vegas and it was pretty cool.  There was an MMA fight earlier in the night with Urijah Faber.  He must have one because after being in the club for about an hour, he went walking by right in front of us with a big ol’ smile.

We stayed there until about 3am (I think…) and then it was decided we head to Peppermill’s.  Peppermill’s, to me, is like Denny’s “Las Vegas style”.  Lots of neon, mirrors, and hot waitresses.  The food was above average, but nothing outstanding.  To be honest, it’s a little personal preference because GR swears by the place.

After a great night, Mandy and I headed back to the Tahiti Village and crashed…. and that was just Thursday.

If you’re looking for a good alternative to going to the grocery story to shop for beef, steak, organic meats, or seafood; there’s a great option available.  You can go to MeatHub.com and find anything you could want for dinner.  They have pre-made sausages, deli meat, and an assortment of smoked meat.

Give them a shot.  You can’t go wrong.

Dinner was great.  Show was great.  Service was great.  Drinks were great.  ’nuff said

Saturday, June 26th

Matador in West Seattle:  Ok… here’s the deal.  This was my first time going to Matador in West Seattle and honestly I probably won’t be back.  It wasn’t because of the food, the scene, or them being too busy or anything like that.  The bottom line; the bartender was a bit of a slime ball.  I know this might sound a little harsh but here’s why:

We sat down at 12:30pm.  It was a pretty bright day in Seattle and the restaurant was a little on the dark side so my eyes were still adjusting.  After we sat down, I saw the happy hour menu on the table and saw the times ” happy hour “4 – 6″ and “10 – 1″.  Since my eyes were still adjusting I didn’t see the actual Happy Hours were “4pm to 6pm” and “10pm to 1am”.  At the end of the day, I’m responsible for not seeing this.

Here is were I have a serious issue.  While we were ordering our food, we picked four items straight from the Happy Hour menu.  I was holding the Happy Hour menu while I was ordering.  I was pointing to the items on the Happy Hour menu that we were ordering.  Did it not occur to the bartender that I was mistaken whether it was happy hour and that maybe he could have given me a heads up?  Needless to say I was a little surprised at the sticker shock of my tab.  Instead of being somewhere in the expected mid $20 range, it was in $46 and some change.  When I asked the bartender why my tab was higher than expected, he said something to the effect of “sorry, it wasn’t happy hour”.

So my advice is this…  When going to the West Seattle Matador, just be very aware of what time it is, what menu you’re ordering from, and double check your tab at the end of the meal.  And don’t expect the dark haired bartender with a beard to be forth coming about what your final bill may be.

Lesson learned.

Friday, June 25th

Dinner at Duke’s on Alki:  I had the Bacon Blue burger and I have to say it was pretty damn good.  My partner in crime had the Fisherman’s plate (I think that’s the name) and it was really good.  The broth was very flavorful and the clams and fish in the broth were excellent.  We sat at the bar and the service was good with the only glitch being the service was a touch slow.  Other than that, it was all good.

The Parkade

Good times.  Loud music.  Their grilled ham and cheese sandwich is one of the best in town.  But then again, how hard is it to screw up one of those?  The kicker is that Thursdays is half beer and booze.

The Dugout in Pasco

The Dugout was  a little busy for a Thursday which is a good thing.  Good drinks and decent karaoke.

Jokers in Richland

Jokers was pretty good for a Thursday even though we got there at about 12:30am.  Oh well, whatcha gonna do?

The Cab Ride via Tri-City Taxi

I’ve got issues with Tri-City Taxi.  A while back, I emailed them for some info and received a “holier than though” email.  Last night, we hopped in a cab and it didn’t occur to me until after we were down the road that we were in a TC Taxi Cab…

Now, we’re leaving Jokers and heading back to the Dugout when we get to the corner of Welsian Way and Aaron Drive (right there at the McDonalds).  Instead of taking the logical right turn to hop onto I-182, Jack, our driver, takes a left towards George Washington Way.  I asked him why he decided to go this route and his response was that it was actually shorter than the other way.  Hey Jack!  I call Bullshit.  Granted, you only gouged me for an extra quarter mile but I can imagine that through the course of a night, these little extras make a tidy profit.  Yet another reason to NOT use Tri-City Taxi…

Yet again, Kom over at Yummie Pho served up a delicious bowl of Pho.  How can you ever go wrong with a Lunch Special #9 without meatballs and a Spring Roll.

I just got back from eating lunch at 6 Degrees in Kennewick and my head is still spinning from sensory overload.  I decided on the “Light My Fire” burger and was blown away with my first bite.  This half-pound burger from heaven had jalapenos, avacado, a chipotle lime sour cream AND their “x-rated lime sauce” was EFFING GOOD!

Now, not only would the burger be just fine on it’s own, this “x-rated lime sauce” is like no other sauce I’ve ever had.  The flavor was outstanding as well as delivering a bit of fire at the end.

Not to drag on, and on, and on, and on…. but I can easily say this is one of the top three burgers in the Tri-Cities.  And don’t even get me started about their onion rings….

I had dinner at Outback in Kennewick on Wednesday (which I haven’t done in a while) and can say I am rarely disappointed. I even had some company that made it even made it that much better.

It was a tough call not getting the Bloomin’ Onion because I haven’t had one of those in a while.  But we decided to start off with the Crab Cakes and they were pretty good.  I hadn’t had them before and would probably order them again.  For dinner, I ordered my usual Ribeye but had them grill it on their flame grill and not the flat top grill.  The flame grill takes that marbling in the ribeye and gets a helluva flavor on it.

We ordered dessert and it was the killer.  I normally don’t order dessert but the Sydney’s Sinful Sunday was calling my name.  There was something about that ice cream rolled in toasted coconut that was calling my name…