Dessert at Phoenix Art Museum

Took the Metro to the Phoenix Art Museum. Met friends for lunch, finished with a warmed chocolate & pecan desert. States to view the French film "Les visiteurs du soir".

The whole idea of taking the Metro Light Rail to downtown Phoenix is new (since December). I talked all three friends into riding. Karl started out on the western end of the line, at 19th Avenue and Bethany home. I met Joan and Doug at the 38th Street and Washington Park and Ride. We purchased our tickets (credit, debt, and to my surprise CASH!) and boarded the train. We had a nice ride through downtown Phoenix and were very excited to talk about all of the places "on the line" that were good candidates for dinner.

The stop closest to the Art Museum was at McDowell and Central so we quickly crossed the two streets and made our way to the entrance on the north side of the building. It was an easy walk. We met at the Arcadia Cafe, a few minutes before they started serving lunch at 11AM. Joan and Doug had the crabcakes, I had the tart, and Karl had the Albacore sandwich. The yummy chocolate and pecan treat was brought to the table nicely arranged in four pieces, and we enjoyed with the locally roasted coffee.

After the movie, we headed to the train stop for an enjoyable and easy ride home.

Samovar Tea Lounge

Samovar Tea Lounge is on the second floor of the building, and faces a nice open plaza. The outside seating looked interesting, but full.

Russian Chay Platter & Bottomless Samovar House-Blend Black Tea.

Tarragon-Marinated beets, Smoked Whitefish & Horseradish, paprika Devilled Egg with Caviar (wild for lunch?), wheat Crackers, and fresh fruit. The menu states that "They say that Tolstoy fueled his creativity by drinking Russian tea from the samovar. See what it does for you."

So, I received instructions from the waiter on the use of the savarka from the samovar, diluted with some hot water, and some additional sugar and milk.

The tea was "bottomless" but I had a table that was behind two other tables. I needed to wind my way through the other tables to get to the samovar. But it was quite fun, and I liked the tea. The taste of the caviar was overshadowed by the devilled eggs, which tasted more like curried eggs than paprika. Maybe the curry on the table next to me was overwhelming? I bought two types of loose teas for home: Samovar Russian Blend and Blood Orange Puerh. The woman warned me about the Puerh...I know about this tea and that is why I bought it!

There was a lot of "tea action" going on in the restaurant. Lisa sat next to me and she ordered "Blood Orange Puehr". It had a delightful orange smell to it. The water pot did not contain the tea. She had a little tea pot to use to infuse a cup of tea at a time. The tea did not become too strong, and she always had a refill.

Other tea services used different combinations of cups, teapots, and infusers.

Mission Accomplished - the real thing

The quest? A perfect latte. I had asked the doorman at the hotel about independent coffee shops, but he only knew of the local Starbucks and Peet's. He did direct me to a local chain, Boudin Bakery, nestled into the Macy's building. It had a local feel, and a good coffee and sandwich, but that was largely due to the wonderful bread (which he told me that they baked in the basement...jury still out on that truth.) The latte, while tasty, lacked flair.

I knew that there just had to be local shops still in business. Corporations couldn't have pushed all of them off the streets. I was listening to the local Twitter, and tweet displayed for a blog describing local shops in this neighborhood. I opened the blog and read about two places that interested me: The Blue Bottle Cafe and Samovar Tea Lounge. He did a great job describing the location of The Blue Bottle, because it was off of the main streets and tucked away behind a major building. Energized, I took to the streets to discover this treasure. Jessie Street is broken by major buildings, so I had to stay on Mission to get to 5th Street. I found Jessie St and walked through the plaza, searching for the Blue Bottle. As I came to the end of the plaza and looked around, I saw it. A subtle Blue Bottle sign on the corner of a building.

This was the place and I anxiously walked towards the entrance.

Once inside, I could see that it was "authentic" and looked for signs of "chain". There were none. No cloned products. Just coffee stuff. And a barista. I put in my order and looked around.

This was an industry strength machine, and I had no idea what was going on. A lot of glass tubs and drips and burners.
I saw a "home version" of the device sitting on one of the shelves, so I am going to use this to figure out this coffee making technique. The typed sign on the box says that this is a "siphon kit" with siphon top and bottom, bamboo paddle, filters, charming siphon primer, half a pound of single origin coffee, and a bunsen burner, all for just $140. Such a deal.

The mission was an extreme success. The double latte was beautiful and tasted incredible. Success! See Shannon Clark's blog about the area at http://tinyurl.com/dfc39a.

Additional Note: The Blue Bottle Coffee Company has an interesting story and a smallness that makes it big in my book.

Organic Coffee Company

I think that this is a chain or at least a franchise. At first I thought that it was a local shop, but when I got to the counter I saw packaged products. Coffee is served extremely hot and strong. I need to sit for a while and chill.

After a while, the coffee also chilled a little so that I was able to drink i t. Thumbs down. I don't really like it.

Last RoadRunner Hockey game

Nice crowd at the game tonight. This is the last game for the RoadRunners and they are either shutting down or moving out of town. We had a group of Player/Coach of the Month players to honor. That all went well. There was a nice crowd for the game for the send off.

Metro to downtown

On an adventure to Hard Rock Cafe and last RoadRunner game.

This is the new Phoenix Metro light rail. I had to take a photo early because I was too anxious to get on board to get a blurry photo of the train. Parking was easy and the nearest free spot was only about two miles from my house. Easy walk to the train stop. Ticket purchase from a machine (you need debit or credit...I brought quarters!) was $1.25 one trip, or $2.50 all day. A bargain when compared to $10 parking charge in downtown. Got on a train with standing room only (good to see!!). No one checks the system. One experienced rider told me that they will come through randomly to check for tickets. Got off the train a block from the Hark Rock Cafe. I felt so METRO!!

The return trip was just as easy. There is a very close stop between the baseball stadium and the US Airways Arena. Easy on...easy off. I'm sold on this!

Oh, and I had the Hard Rock salad mentioned in an earlier post. Yummy!

Elton John & Billy Joel live!

This was an incredible concert and we had awesome seats. As usual, the person in my line of site decided to stand up on occasion, as the lone stander in the crowd, but after four years of concert devotion, I have come to expect this.

Each artist is worth a full concert, but the two of them together more than doubles the experience. They started and ended the show together, and then each one played a full set in between. Absolutely delightful!

Started the night with dinner at Staudeneirers. (I'll check on the spelling later, if ever.)

District & High School tournament HUGE success

Great weekend and an incredibly successful event.

Tropical Salad at Hard Rock Cafe

In downtown Phoenix tonight for a RoadRunner hockey game. Stopped by
HRC for a bite.

Rock Springs, Arizona - Pie Company

Down to about 80 pies after a busy weekend. Picked up an apple and a
peach.
On the return trip from Sedona to Phoenix, I stopped at Rock Springs to pick up pies. The parking lot was packed, as usual, at 10AM. The fridge was down to a few variety of pies, with a few of each left. The woman said that they had had a very busy Saturday so most of the pies were gone.
I was a little surprised at the parking lot as there were no motorcycles parked in front. But it looks like the threat of rain and snow kept the bikes warmly stowed in the garages.
Speaking about the road trips, I17 is going through some changes close to Phoenix. The rest of the highway was awesome. The surface is smooth and all of the construction is complete. I also checked on the Sunset Point Rest Stop. This was supposed to open again in January 2009, and it looks near completion. I would have loved to pull into the rest stop during this trip. The clouds were below the rim of the mesa, so that view was incredible. I took pictures while driving, so these are not as good as they could have been.