Tonight we finally were able to dine at the Ground Round. Finally. It's been months in the making but the GR debuted in Boston last week. I was worried that the place would be packed on a Saturday night, but surprisingly (or not), it wasn't very busy when we arrived.

The first thing we noticed was that the decor was kind of sparce. Steven said that it looked tacky. I had to agree. What was cool is that each table has their own TV (you can even change the channels). The Red Sox were on when we first arrived, but we changed the channel to COPS. It seemed fitting for the Ground Round.

You can defintely tell that some of the people who work there haven't worked in restaurants before. Our waitress was nice, but had to come back and ask us our order and a few other things (her phone rang once while she was taking our order, she told the caller that she would call them back!).

We sat in the bar and at one point these two guys came in, sat down at the bar and asked for the manager. Steven and I were very interested in what they wanted to say to him. When he came over one of the guys started asking the manager why he doesn't advertise on the local hip-hop stations. The guy mentioned to the manager that he, too, was a businessman. We laughed because he had on a tshirt with a towel around his neck. We wondered if he wears the towel to his meetings. Interestingly, this "businessman" was asking the manager why he didn't advertise on HOT 97.7. Any businessman who knows radio advertising should know that HOT 97.7 was sold last week and is going to change their format away from hip-hop.

while our meal was as expected, we laughed at one point at the fact that we were sitting in the Ground Round on a Saturday night in the south end, watching COPS and drinking wine. It was everything I hoped it would be.

On our way out we stopped at the garage cashier to have our parking ticket validated. The whole process took about 30 seconds. When the cashier handed us our ticket back, he raced around the corner to tell us that we needed to fill out a commendation card that showed how he went above and beyond. Neither Steven or I really knew what he had done that was above and beyond, but since we were both a little scared, Steven filled out one of the cards that simply said 'Good Job'. The guy wanted me to fill one out too, but I figured one was enough. We practically ran back to our car and sped away from the Ground Round.

ground round

I have never been to a Ground Round. Actually, it never occurred to me to go to one. There is a new GR that is (I thought) open near us. It's in a location that we frequently pass and I often remark to Steven how much I want to go there and try it out. I'm not sure what is driving my desire to go to Ground Round, especially one that is in the ghetto-est of ghetto locations in Boston, but alas, I must go.

Last night we decided that we would eat there on our way home from running an errand. As we drove by I noticed that the bar was pretty busy - good! They're open and ready for us. After parking in the parking garage, we walked up to the door. The first thing that I noticed was that no one was sitting at any of the tables (but, wait, the bar is busy!). When we got to the door it was locked! Damn. They are not officially open for business yet (nor do they have a sign that indicates when they will be open).

Deflated, we went to our old standby, James' Gate. You can't go wrong there. They even had entertainment last night: a bunch of kids from the projects across the street were putting on a fireworks show by throwing lit fireworks into the street at passing cars. Never a dull moment in Jamaica Plain.

2 tickets to paradise

We went to see Eddie Money, Rick Springfield, Loverboy, and Scandal last night. Wow, what a great show. All the singers were a little thicker around the middle (except the singer from Scandal, she has a smokin bod) and probably had some work done to their hair, but the music was incredible.

It was neat to see what kind of people go to a show like this. I figured it would all be 30-somethings, but there quite a few 20-somethings. Some folks even got into the mood and dressed like 80s rockers (or groupies). It was awesome!

Big giant thing on his head and I am a drunk

I was on the train this morning (wiping my face with the paper towels that I now regularly carry) and I noticed an old, homeless man get on the train. I've always wondered what percentage of their income they use for train fare or if the T people just let them in for free. Anyway, that's not my point. This old man had a GIANT tumor on his head. I mean this thing was the size of a baseball and it was on the outside of his head. I couldn't help staring with that odd curiosity that we all have. We know it's wrong to stare, but just can't help ourselves. The tumor was gross and fascinating at the same time. I was wondering if it hurt him and what would happen if you poked it with a needle. Would it deflate?

Later in the day I was going to lunch with a coworker and we saw a man begging for change. His sign simply read 'I am a drunk' (in very nice handwriting). I had to give him credit for being honest. We all know that many homeless people buy booze and drugs with their money but disguise their plea with signs that mention their 7 kids or inability to work. We saw 2 people give this guy money in the span of 10 seconds. Not a bad take!

Frank Sinatra

We went to Red Sky last night to celebrate our friend Kristin's birthday. Well, first we went to McCormick & Schmick's, where from 3-6:30 they have a slew of yummy $1.95 appetizers PLUS $1.95 cheeseburgers. And not little wimpy ones either. BIG, greasy goodness, with fries!

Anyway, my point is that when we went to Red Sky they had the best Frank Sinatra impersonator there. He sounds exactly like 'ol blue eyes. I'm not a giant Sinatra fan, but it was a blast to sit there and listen to this man (I can't think of his full name, but his last name is Dutra) croon all of our favorite Frank Sinatra songs to us. It was wonderful.

I strongly suggest that if you are in the Faneuil Hall area on a Wednesday night (who goes out to Faneuil on Wednesdays? Or ever really??), check out this place. It's brand new, so the people who work there are still nice and truly friendly. We even got "Frank" to sing happy birthday to Kristin!