A Bay Oasis

The road trip continues . . . after six day on the road and four cities and 3,000 plus miles flying and another 300 miles plus driving, I got to stop in one of my favorite cities on the East Coast, Annapolis, MD.

For the Alameda readers, they will understand how this little town on the Chesapeake Bay could feel like home with the water, sailboats and lots of people milling about downtown. Besides being the home of the US Naval Academy (GO NAVY, Beat Army) and the Maryland State Capital, Annapolis has some great bars and excellent dinning.

I have been to Annapolis before, so there was one stop I had to make, Buddy’s. I dropped anchor for an after work beer and some of Maryland’s best crab cakes. The drive to Annapolis was worth just that one stop, even though the Washington DC traffic was brutal. The SF Bay Area has nothing to complain about when it comes to traffic. But back to Buddy’s Crab and Ribs, this is a family restaurant that has an all-you-can eat brunch. It is a little on the tourist side, but you can’t beat the crab. I had just the crab appetizer because I wanted to try something new.

I walked around for a while until I gained an appetite. After looking at 8-10 menus, I decided on Maria’s, very traditional looking Italian restaurant. Maria’s Sicilian Ristorante and Café offers a specialty drinks and I tried the Annapolis Breeze, a drink that they say is unique to restaurant. The drink consist of pomegranate, Gray Goose L’Orange and fruit juices, very refreshing, very much on the orange flavor with the fruit juice.

The food was traditional Italian fare, I had a mix plate that had lasagna and cannelloni and Caesar Salad. The food was very good, tasted was flavorful and well prepared. The place has been voted Best of Annapolis on several occasions. I would highly recommend.

As a day sailor, it was also good to run into a crew just heading into Maria’s for post race Cocktails and food. So I got to talk a little about sailing, have a good drink and dinner all I all a great stop in this very long trip. Back to Alameda soon, one last stop Philadelphia.

http://www.buddysonline.com/

http://www.mariasristorante.com/

Dupont Circle

So my travels had me heading North after business in Virginia Beach and Richmond to the Washing DC area. Once I got into town, I was little tired, so I checked into the Hotel and caught a 30 minute nap before heading out for dinner. I have to tell you, that this Bay Area boy is getting a lesson on what humidity is, but more about that latter.

After the Nap I was not sure what I wanted for dinner, so I decided to head out to a busy neighborhood to walk and just find something. I’ve been to DC in the past and so I decided that Dupont Circle would be a good spot wander around to find a meal and a cocktail. I walked around the plaza a little, where people were hanging out around the fountain just trying to cool off. A dozen or so people were playing chess and checkers, and there was even one three card Monty game going on.

I headed down Connecticut and found Café Citron. My server was a warm and helpful woman with a Spanish accent. She explained that everything was made from scratch and suggested a couple of dishes. I took my time to review the menu, but ordered the Sangria right away. It was a warm evening. I decided on the empanadas and the jerk chicken.

The restaurant was decorated with warm colors, colored lights and lots of mirrors. The place had Latin flavored techno music playing in the background. Later in the evening, they switch to live Flamenco music, which mad the place come alive. I had a mojito as a follow-up drink as I listen to the music.

The empanadas were very good, but I was not crazy about the Jerk Chicken. The chicken was over-cooked. The jerk rub and sauce was okay, but the overall dish failed to deliver.

Overall Café Citron was a great environment to relax. I would suggest going for the appetizers, cocktails and the music and stay away from the Jerk Chicken dish.

By the way to finish up on the heat and humidity, as I walked after dinner I found that after one block I was soaking wet. Boy, O’Boy do I miss the San Francisco Fog. More from the DC tomorrow.

Wave the Flag

This week I am back on the road, an East Coast swing from Norfolk, Virginia to Philadelphia, PA. I flew into town early so I could settle into East Coast time and get set for my busy week. I had some time to kill on Sunday, so I decided to tour around Norfolk. I have to tell you there was not much to Norfolk, but it was lunch time so I pop into AJ Gators a local sports bar.

Sports bars are always a good default for me, I grew up a big sports fan, even got paid to write about sports and worked in media relations for a major university, but on this day I got a new lesson in sports and drinking.

Growing up on the West Coast NASCAR has no meaning. The closest the racing circuit got to the Bay Area is when the drivers take a detour to Sonoma, from the South. So, when a couple of boys rolled into Gators they asked what the drink specials were. The bartender rattled them off, and all of sudden I felt like she was speaking a foreign language, NASCAR.

See all the drink specials were related to the race. Green flag $2.25 on bottle domestic (of course no race fan would drink anything else) beers, Yellow Flag $1.25. All of sudden I had a little interest in the race. So the question was when would the first Yellow Flag appear?

Twenty-eight laps in the first Yellow Flag was waved and the beer price dropped. The race had a total of 10 caution flags. Had to look that fact up, I did not stay long enough to watch them all. NASCAR still does not hold much interest for me, but in Norfolk with cheap beer it was worth about 30 minutes.

Later in the evening, I had a more traditional sports evening watching AAA baseball at Harbor Park. The Norfolk Tide (Baltimore Orioles affiliate) took on the Richmond Braves (Atlanta Brave affiliate) in a good game. My seat at Harbor Park was three rows from the field for $12. What a bargain! A beer was $7, but it was more than 24oz, try that at AT&T park. The food was very good.

I had a great time at the game; the crowd went home happy with a 5-3 Tide win.

More stories from the road tomorrow.