Bye-bye Fireside, hello Houlihan's

Well, it's official: Houlihan's, the original generic uber-chain, has invaded our fair city. Here's the Advocate article.


What's next, Denny's? Waffle House?? BOB EVANS????

Anyway, I don't think Capriccio is scared of losing any business to Houlihan's. Personally, I can think of a bunch of places I'd rather spend my dining dollars...I'm not hatin', I'm just sayin'.

Back...to the future!!

Doc Brown and Marty must be in Stamford, because I saw their car the other day:



I was expecting Biff to come outside and say "What are you lookin' at, butthead?"


Awesome...or should I say...heavy?

BUtterfield 8

After the Bradford's horror show, I was so happy to get the well-written, professional 2008-09 Stamford Downtown directory.


Something interesting that caught my eye is a "coming soon" listing for a BUtterfield 8 restaurant at 122 Bedford St., the old Temple Bar. From looking at their website, BUtterfield 8 seems like a pretty classy yet reasonably priced American cuisine restaurant that will compete in the same arena as Telluride, Market and g/r/a/n/d.

Getting buzzed at Bradford's

Junk mail. It's like the common cold: you can't get away from it, so you just push on through and hope for death. Or sleep. Or at least to make your spouse sick so you'll have someone to share your misery with.

OK, back to junk mail. The only reason I don't immediately burn my junk mail while it's still in the mailbox is because sometimes you get coupons, and I love coupons. I have coupons for Subway, Ocha, Athens Pizza and others. Name a Stamford restaurant and I probably have a coupon for it (or a restaurant.com gift certificate - trust me, check these out).

Back to junk mail again. I got a "Stamford Community Buzz" circular in the mail the other day and my initial giddiness turned to annoyance when I noticed a few problems with the front page.


It's hard to make out details in this image, so I went ahead and blew them up.

Exhibit A:

It's not the smoking angels that bother me. It's not even the period outside the quote (which is technically correct; they do it that way in England). It's the UNNECESSARY APOSTROPHE in Friend's. I cannot express how much I hate this. WHY do people feel the need to add an apostrophe to a plural noun?? On what planet does this make sense?? It's like nails on a chalkboard to me. I know college-educated people who consistently do this (along with "your welcome" - WTF??).

But it gets worse. Much worse.

Exhibit B:
Not only does every day of the week now have a *&^%ING APOSTROPHE, but on Wednesdays, with the "purchas" of any beverage, you get $ .25 cent wings. Each wing is one-quarter of one cent. What a deal! I should bring this ad into Bradford's and hold them to this price to get 400 wings for one dollar. If I'm still hungry, I'll come back on Thursday for some $1 tacos "while supplises last."

I hate you, Bradford's. Even your Friday free buffet "begining" at 5:00 won't help.

And to the publisher of this circular: I will copy-edit your ads FREE OF CHARGE. Call me. Please.

Back in the U.S.A., baby!

Well, I'm back from an awesome trip to Colombia, where the traffic makes 95 look like a rustic country lane. And the food...ah, the food...if you haven't been to Mi Terruño on East Main Street, you are missing out.

It was a fun and hectic trip, so I showed up an hour too late to watch the Veterans Day parade, but I did manage to see the 11th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Company A marching back up Summer Street.

Please say a little thank you or prayer for all the brave men and women who have fought and died for this country so you and I can enjoy the freedom and security that we do, and for those fighting today.