So, we got a room at the Golden Nugget for 2 nights for Punk Rock Bowling. I wanted to see FLAG and the Damned Monday night. They added Social Distortion, which is a bonus, I guess. I like two of their songs.
Nick and Stacy picked us up at the airport. Stacy is a very intrepid, take-charge woman. At my local wedding i had a big oil barrel BBQ, and a bunch of guys were standing around discussing how to load it into the truck, “…well, I’ll take this corner, and we’ll turn it…” Stacy just walked up, picked the damn thing up all by herself and set it in the truck and walked away, leaving them stunned.
Well, this day she was giving directions and making decisions. I said, “I would feel confident taking acid if you were leading me around.”
She said, “I am very protective of people on acid.” I knew she would be.
We stopped off at Punk Rock Museum to see if Dez was still there even though we missed his tour. I ran into Monkey from the Adicts, and he walked around with me looking for Dez, which was kind of surreal. Super nice guy. I went back outside and found Dez with Bob and Nick and Stacy. He said we have VIP tix for tomorrow but couldn’t watch FLAG practice today, sadly.
We went to the Nugget to check in. Our hotel room is right next to the elevators. It would be a good place for being drunk as you can just fall right out of the elevator into your room. It’s big and the beds are comfy.
You can watch the bands from the window and hear them pretty well. Maybe not a plus if that’s not what you are here for.
I had tickets for a food event at five. Since it wasn’t even 2:30 yet, we stopped for a light bite with their friends Lisa and Mark at Chicago Brewing in the Four Queens. It has a nice atmosphere, but service was ridiculous. The final straw was when only half of us got our food and we waited and waited for three more plates. The others were done eating when I finally talked to the waiter. He said it took a long time to cook. I asked how long it takes to cook a vegetarian salad? Our food came up immediately. Lisa’s sandwich was soggy, as if it had been sitting in the pass for a while. The waiter may have comped three out of four of our nonalcoholic drinks or he may have been confused and fucked that up too.
I love Chef Bruce Kalman of Union. He has a BBQ pad out here called Soul Belly. Tonight was their third anniversary. They threw a night market party to celebrate. For $50 you get a few small plates and a drink of your choice. So, we let Stacy use our drink tickets for alcohol and she bought our sodas.
I don’t know which chef made which dish or even the details of some of them, but I did not have to worry about getting enough to eat. The big egg rolls were delicious, although honestly, I’m not sure what was in them. Chef Kalman made char siu ribs with a really good fried rice.
I really liked the subtle Orange Beef and glazed chicken.
The ramen with a dry sauce was a bit spicy for me but I liked the tempura lotus root.
For dessert there were pizzelle cookies and fantastic mochi donut holes.
Nick’s friends didn’t want their tickets for tonight, so Nick and Bob are watching Gang of Four and the bass player from Joy Division. I wasn’t that interested. But I just watched “Love will Tear us Apart” from my hotel room and that was pretty awesome.