Brownstone Restaurant - Fort Worth

November 20, 2010

I’ll be the first to admit that I am neither a food critic nor a professional writer. I’ve never been trained in the culinary arts or taken a journalism class. However, if you know me or have seen a picture of me, it is clear I know my way around the table. I also enjoy documenting my adventures although more for my own edification than to thrill anyone else with my brilliance. My current goal is try out the Top 100 Best Restaurants in DFW as chosen by the Dallas Morning News. I have tried several prior to my starting my blog but as I try new ones I will keep you posted.

11/20/10 – Brownstone Restaurant Ft Worth.

Brownstone is the home of Casey Thompson, Top Chef Contestant and somewhat of a hottie. I must admit I have a bit of a crush on Casey and that partially drove me to try out Brownstone. Brownstone is also on the DMN top 100.

Brownstone is located in Ft Worth off of 7^th avenue and University in an area of town that is being renovated and is now considered Uptown. The atmosphere is very nice with an open bar and seating area. There were not a lot of works of art or wall hangings which gave the room a homely feeling but in my opinion somewhat understated. A painting or two on the walls would have added a little although my wife felt like they were going for comfort and not décor.

We started with a couple of martinis which we took out front to an open patio seating area. The patio is nicely furnished with comfortable couches and chairs that make it a great place to lounge. We happened to have great weather which made it even more attractive to sit out front and people watch.

Once we made it to our table, we were greeted by Casey immediately. No, not that Casey, but the other Casey..... our 20something waitress. The menu was adventurous but small by most restaurant standards. There were no more than 8 – 10 main entrees to choose from ranging from Scallops to Beef Cheeks. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of variety but my speculation is that Brownstone prefers to concentrate on doing several dishes very well rather than offering a huge variety of averageness.

I started with an appetizer of Fried chicken livers with a Tabasco/vinegar dipping sauce. Beth chose the Kale soup, which neither of us had EVER seen on a menu. We were both pleasantly surprised as the chicken livers were fantastic and the Kale soup was very good. We could both tell with our amateur pallets that the soup was mostly heavy cream with garlic (how can you go wrong with that combination) combined with pureed Kale. The soup was very tasty and very green and I would recommend it if you happen to catch it on the menu again. The chicken livers are a no-brainer must have when you go.

For our entrees, I chose the Kobe Beef Cheeks. I’ve never tried beef cheeks before today but was intrigued and decided to go for it. Casey made sure to inform me that they are more like brisket than steak, which is fine by me. Beth chose a rock shrimp and wide noodles dish that sounded quite good. The presentation of both dishes was decent, but not outstanding. My cheeks were served with polenta with corn and were topped with a sweet cherry sauce. Beth’s noodles and Shrimp were of average appearance and looked similar to something you might get at Pei Wei.

From a flavor standpoint, the shrimp didn’t make the cut. While the quality and preparation of the dish was fine, Beth just didn’t like the way it tasted. I tried the shrimp and thought it was ok, but not spectacular. Again, it was prepared well and cooked as it should have been but just wasn’t well received. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from trying it, but wanted to give fair warning. On the other hand, my Kobe Beef Cheeks were delicious. The tenderness combined with the cherry sauce made for one rich but very satisfying dish. The portion was probably larger than it needed to be (I can’t believe I just said that) as by the time I finished, the richness had taken over and I was to the point where eating more would have taken away from the enjoyment of the serving.

Beth got a second dish prepared for her which was the house fish special, a pan seared cod topped with shrimp and a thick sauce of pureed Austin Yellow pepper and jalapeno. The sauce was really good and had a nice kick to it. This dish was prepared very well and we both enjoyed it.

The one regret I do have is not getting to spend more time with Chef Casey although as you can see above I did get my picture made with her. . I was happy to see that she was at the restaurant and actually working the kitchen although she was too busy to make any rounds. I’m sure I was sending the creepy, middle-aged, fat dude vibes, which are not a thing of beauty anyway.

Overall, I would say that the food at Brownstone is bold and the flavors are rich and spicy. We didn’t have anything that could be even remotely considered bland or under seasoned. Next time you are in Cow Town, check out Brownstone and tell Casey I said hello.

Montreux!

Sunday December 21st.


Some of the folks in the office in Lausanne were telling me that Montreaux, Switzerland was well worth a visit if I had a day to spare. Fortunatly, I did. Montreaux is about a 25 minute train ride from Lausanne up the coast of Lake Geneva. It is a truly spectacular ride right along the banks of the lake. The scenery is unbelievable with the lake on one side with the French Alps practially growing straight out of the lake and the Vineyards on the hillsides on the other side. This is wine country for sure and there are 100's of vineyards in the area. After a short while I arrived in Montreaux and made my way to the annual Christmas pagent/festival that attracts tons of visitors from all over. The organizers setup little booths and craft shops down on the lake front and sold lots and lots of hot spiced wine as well as typical French food. They also sold chestnuts that were freshly roasted which was very very cool. The town itself is very quaint and I imagine in the summer time it is a wonderful place to be. Everyone keeps telling me how the Lake Geneva area/region is much more wonderful in the summer. After all it is labled as the Swiss Riviera. I ended up doing a lot of walking and a bit of shopping (found myself a scarf) and after a few hours decided to call it a day as I needed to get to Geneva Sunday night in preparation for my flight on Monday. All in all it was a really nice weekend in Lausanne and I look forward to my next visit. So far this is my favorite town in Europe.

Weekend in Lausanne

Friday December 19th

It has been a long and somewhat stressful week of go-live support on our project and I am glad it is Friday. I few of my colleagues are going to out to celebrate and I thought I would join them. While I was waiting to hear what the destination of the evening would be, I decided to go up to the Freeport Cafe for a couple beers. I knew the Freeport as I had been there once before and it is a pretty simple bar that is attached to the train station. The beer is cold and the people watching is good. One thing I noticed is that in order to be a really cool French dude there are three requirements. 1. A ponytail. 2. A scarf. 3. Attitude. I can get a scarf and I can work on the attitude but a "fro" ponytail just won't work for me so I guess I'll never be French cool. After the Freeport I met up with my colleagues at the King bar for drinks and dancing. We had a good time, but I'm too old for that stuff!!!!!!

Saturday December 20th

After a long night with one too many Carlesburgs, I decided to postpone my orginally planned trip to Montreaux and sleep in and take in the sites of Lausanne. As it turns out it was the best decision I made all week. I didn't realize how tired I was. Anyway, I woke up about 10:30 and made it downstairs for breakfast in just enough time to see them tearing down the breakfast buffet. Wierd thing these French...they don't seem to care too much about posted times. Breakfast was supposed to be until 10:30 yet nope. 10:15 comes along and Pierre decides to call it a morning and go smoke another Camel. Same thing happened at the Hotel Victoria....one night the bar was open until midnight....the next night the same bartender told me it was closed at 11:15. He must be friends with Pierre.

Not having eaten anything the night before but a bag of Paparika flavored chips, I was starving and decided to go out and find something to eat. After a big bowl of spaghetti and a coke I'm suddenly feeling better but am still tired. Maybe a nap would be in order and it was. I had changed hotels to the Moevenpick down on Lake Geneva and I really like the location and the hotel. The hotel is right on the banks of the lake and the view from my hotel window is amazing. I can look out my hotel window and see the ski slopes high above Evian France in the distance.

There are also lots of little shops and restaraunts in the area so there is plenty to do and see close to the Moevenpick. I stumbled across this place and although I haven't tried it yet, it did make me think of Amsterdam and my friend Jay Bee. He loves the "creps".

My nap was nice and I woke up about 3:00, I felt great and had heard that the International Olympic Committee HQ was in Lausanne and had a pretty cool museum. I took off on foot down the shoreline of the lake toward the museum. Ths scenary in Lausanne is absolutely wonderful. I think this is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The museum itself was really nice. There is a winding path to get to the entrance with statues and monuments all around. Once inside, the museum is a tribute to all things Olympic. There are three levels to the museum, with each one having different themed rooms. My favorite was the room with all of the torches that were used to light the Olympic flame for all of the games of the past 100+ years. I was really amazed at the detail on the torches. I had never considered that the torch itself was a tribute to the host country. I also enjoyed the display of the medals from each of the games. I had assumed that the bronze, silver and gold medals would be the same for each of the individual games. I knew they differed by host city but I was surprised that each of the medals had it's own design. Upstairs at the museum was a display of olympic equipment that had been used over the years. I don't think I was supposed to be taking pictures but I was the only one in the place so I snuck a few.

Hello Lausanne

I'm on the road again so it's time for another blog. This week I am in Lausanne, Switzerland supporting our Lawson go-live. Lawson's European headquarters is located in Lausanne so there are many members of the implementation team here this week. Good thing for me too, as my French has proved to be less than stellar. Scratch that.....less than stellar would be an understatement....non-existant is much closer to the truth but more on that later.

In an effort to avoid Heathrow, I decided on a route that this trip that would take me from DFW to O'Hare to Brussels to Geneva then I have to hop on a train for the final leg to Lausanne. The travel time was less than connecting through London, but a little more risky with all the connections. In the end, everything was on time and I was in Lausanne a mere 18 hours after leaving my house.

My trip started out on an interesting note with an encounter with a professional athelete. One Roy Williams...no, not Roy Williams the Cowboys reciever and no, not Roy Williams the North Carolina basketball coach, but Roy Williams the Cowboys safety. Seems Mr Williams and his wife or girlfriend (hopefully his wife as it is quite possible she is on my lenghty list of blog followers and could read this posting some day) were on there way to Chicago or some other destination beyond. I first saw Mr Williams in the security line right in front of me when I got to the airport. As much as I knew that Andrew would like his autograph, I decided to leave him alone and give him his space. I then saw him getting on my airplane and taking the seat two rows in front of me but again....I'm going to give the man his space. When I saw Mr Williams at the Admiral's club in O'Hare I decided that some unknown power somewhere obviously wants me to get his autograph. I pulled a classic stalker move and pretended to be on my blackberry until he got on the elevator. Then I went in for the kill...."Hey Roy, can I get your autograph...my son has your jersey and would really like it if I could get your autograph, too". To his credit, Roy (I can call him that now as we are friends) was quite a nice guy and took the time to sign the back of my free drink coupon. Bottom line is that I got an autograph for Andrew but I had to pay $8 for my beer.

I finally arrived in Lausanne on Sunday afternoon. Lausanne is in the region of Romandy, which is the French speaking area of Switzerland and it is on the shores of Lake Geneva. I had never been to Lausanne before, but had heard stories of how beautiful of a city it is. I also heard horror stories about all the hills and how steep they are. I found that out in a hurry. When I got off the train, I could see the Hotel Victoria about 200 yards away and up what appeared to be a gentle slope going up to the entrance. That slope doesn't look so bad so off I go dragging my 48.4 pound suitcase(yes I weighed it so I wouldn't have to pay the $50 fee for being over 50 pounds) along with my laptop bag and carry-on. After about 150 yards I was a bit winded, but not terribly and I could see the sign pointing to the left to the Victoria. Wooo hooo, the end is in site. Little did I realize that the sign was pointing to a hotel entrance that was around the corner and about 50 yards up a hill that had to be a 45 degree grade. Holy #@*! was the main thought going through my head as I labored up this god forsaken cobblestone street only to find out that once I got to the hotel........NO ELEVATOR in the entrance way and the check-in counter is up a flight of stairs. At this point, I would have paid a bellhop 50 bucks to carry my bags up those 14 steps, but nobody was in sight. I tell you this...if American Airlines doesn't want people carrying heavy bags on airplanes, they should put all the check-in counter up a flight of stairs!

The good news is that the hotel Victoria is a very nice hotel and my room far exceeds my expectations. I've grown accustom to the minimalist style of the Swedish hotels and was expecting the worse. I was pleasently suprised. I even have a funny little short sink right beside the toilet, but it hurts my knees when I brush my teeth so I use the one by the shower. Thank you Chooch.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few colleagues in Lausanne with me so I met up with Tom and Chris for dinner on Sunday night. We went to a brewery called Le Brassiere, which is when I realized that my lack of command of the French language was going to be an issue. The entire menu is in French and I can't even find fries, bread or onion soup. Fortunatly, Chris knows the language pretty well so I'll let him order for me and I have him ask for a large beer for me. Lesson to self...large beer at La Brassiere = 1 litre of biere. I didn't realize how big a litre is, but needless to say I was set on the biere front. Dinner consisted of a Cheeseburger and Frites (Fries!!!!!!) and I gotta admit...it was a pretty good meal. There was coleslaw on the burger though and they asked if I wanted mayo with my Frites. I opted for Ketchup instead and wondered why I would put mayo on my fries. Crazy Swiss custom I guess. Overall, I'd give my first meal in Switzerland two thumbs up. At this point of the day, as much as I wanted to walk away and see some of the city, I'd only slept 4 hours in the last 36 so I decided it was time to call it a night. More to come from Lausanne........

Amsterdam Here I AM!

October 18, 2008

Yep, you guessed it. I decided to take a weekend excursion to Amsterdam this weekend with John Bell, a colleague from the office. Let me tell you a little about John. JayBee as I now call him is a good guy with stereo-typical Jersey mannerisms. Calls girls “Hon”, gets a little loud sometimes, likes to talk, etc….and all with a nice Jersey twang. John is a good travel companion though because he is easy going and willing to do whatever...as evident by the sign above his head. Just kidding of course.

Anyway, I’ve always heard Amsterdam is a very fun city with lots of beautiful architecture and great museums. I have to say I have not been disappointed. It’s true that there are coffee shops on every corner and a red light district that is.…well…..crazy might be the best word, but it is also true that the canals are beautiful and the homes and architecture are very cool. The picture on the left was taken right off of Dam Square and shows the style of the houses.

Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands and it's name is derived from Amstel Dam, which means a Dam in the river Amstel. The city center is called Dam Square and is where the old Amstel Dam used to be. The city has a population of close to 750,000 and is built around a series of canals that are really beautiful. John and I decided to stay at the Marriott in the area called Leidseplein, which is Amsterdam's equivalent of Times Square. The area has plenty of restaurants, nightclubs, pubs and coffee houses and although it feels very touristy, it is still pretty fun.

We arrived in Amsterdam on Friday night, getting to our hotel around 10:30pm. This is by no means late for the crazy Dutch so we dropped off our stuff at the Marriott and decided to explore Leidseplein and found a couple outdoor bars to rest our feet and enjoy a couple of Amstels. The people watching was fun, but after a couple beers we decided we would head toward Dam Square for a different scene and another beer or two outside of Susie's Place. By this point it is getting late and we decide to walk back toward the hotel. On the way back, we found the notorious red light district and took a stroll through the tiny side streets and alleyways where the girls advertise their goods in the window. It was a very surreal scene but also a very popular spot!!!!!!

Saturday

We began our Saturday with breakfast at Café Hans and Gretjie. The Café is a small little place built in the downstairs of an old flat. There are about 6 tables inside the café and room for many more outside. I decided on a omelet with Ham, Mushrooms and Cheese. John asked for a “plain pancake” with some Bacon. I waitress said…”you mean you want a crepe?” In John’s best Jersey accent he greed...."Sure, Hon.....I'll have a “CREP”. The food was good and the service was nice. A good start to the day.

The second stop of our day was the Rijksmuseum. This is a world famous museum with the main attraction being the Dutch paintings of the 17th century by artists such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdal, Jan Steen and Johannes Vermeer. However, the Rijks also contains more modern work by less famous artist and has some cool sculptures and other displays. I decided to splurge and spend the extra 4 Euros to get some earphones and listen to a pretty good narration as I went from room to room. The tour starts with some lesser known artist and a couple of big dollhouses. There were two dollhouses on display from the late 1600’s. The ultra rich women of that time took great pride in building the biggest and best dollhouses in town. The utensils on the tables were solid silver, the rugs were Persian, the little tiny paintings were commissioned by local artists, etc. The dollhouses themselves cost more than an upscale flat facing one of the canals in downtown Amsterdam. One crazy ol rich women even had a painting made of her dollhouse so she could hang it in her country home to show off. Crazy rich people.

The Rijksmuseum

Moving through the museum from gallery to gallery, the anticipation builds as you go. The Rembrandt room is on the second floor and one of the last galleries in the museum. There truly is a buildup in anticipating this great gallery. Upon entering the Rembrandt room, it is obvious this is the greatest Rembrandt collection in the world. Also on display along side his own paintings are paintings by many of his pupils. It was all very cool. The final gallery in the Museum is a large room with Rembrandt's Masterpiece called “The Night Watch”. This is one of his most famous works and it is huge (143 x 172 in) and covers an entire wall. The painting is one of the greatest I have ever seen and was by far the highlight of the Rijks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Watch

As much as I enjoyed the Rembrandts, my second favorite painting of the day was by Hendrick Avercamp and is called "Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters."

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/avercamp/rijks-winter-landscape/winter-rijks.jpg


What I liked about the painting is that it combines and amazing amount of detail yet also shows a little sense of humor from the artist. You can tell the class the people are in by the details of their clothing. The aristocrats have much nicer clothing than the peasants but even within the upper classes, there were differences in garments. According to the dude narrating my recorded tour….the very rich would often show their undergarments, as many times only the elite had the highest quality underwear. Crazy rich people. The sense of humor from the artist comes through in that he has painted two men using the loo. These can be seen in the bottom left corner of the painting. Anyway, I like it. It reminds me a little of a Norman Rockwall print I have in my house.


After leaving the Rijks, JayBee and I decide to go drop our souvenirs off at the hotel and take the Hop On - Hop Off boat cruise. The hop on hop off is very cool and takes you through the canals of amsterdam stopping at many famous places. We get off at the first stop which is the Ann Frank house and the Westerkerk Protestant chruch, which was built in 1631. I hate to admit it, but I really didn’t want to go inside the Ann Frank house (below) and hear the horror stories of the holocaust.

We did walk around the house and took a picture of the outside (see right). We also saw a couple of guys getting into an argument in the open area by the church. We later realized that this was really just a distraction as there were two other guys working the crowd as pickpockets. Nice, huh! Good thing we didn’t carry our wallets and had our money and credit cards in our front pockets. Lesson to the traveler to Amsterdam….watch out for the distractions! Hey JayBee...ever see that in Jersey?

After the Frank house, we had about an hour before the next boat was coming around so we went looking for a local café to have a beer. Café Brandon caught our attention and we grabbed a couple Amstels and set outside. Did I mention we were in a predominately gay part of town? It didn’t take long for John to get a little attention. See the lady in the red shaw sitting by John???? That ain’t no lady! Why is JayBee so happy?




After leaving Café Brandon we caught the next boat and ended up at Central Station, where we took in a beverage at Teasers Brews and Babes. The Hooters of Amsterdam. The waitresses wore tight tops and short shorts and served cold beers and burgers. All that was missing were nasty tasting hot wings. At this point it is starting to get late and John and I are both hungry so we are off to look for dinner. Stay tuned for more.....

Stockholm to Helsinki

Septermber 20, 2008

My first trip to Helsinki left little to be remembered, so I decided to take the Viking Cruise line from Stockholm this weekend. The cruise ship leaves Stockholm at 4:45pm on Friday afternoon…arrives in Helsinki at 8:00am on Saturday morning and then returns back to Stockholm Saturday afternoon arriving at 9:00 am Sunday morning. So you basically have a 12 hour cruise, 8 hours in Helsinki and then a 12 hour return cruise. All aboard a luxery cruise line with your own private cabin. This all comes at a price of about $350.00 USD. Not a bad price, so I decided to check it out.

The city of Stockholm is a really nice city. This picture was taken from the back of the ship as we were leaving the port.

Stockohlm is built on a series of Islands and outside of the town itself are a group of hundreds of small islands known as the Archipelago Islands. Our route took us through these Islands, which are stunning. The weather was a little overcast and it was certainly chilly…probably in the mid 50’s, but the scenery was well worth roughing the cold to sit on deck and enjoy the view.

The ship itself (Gabriella is her name) turned out to be a little dissapointing. I’ve been on a couple of cruises before and I had this grand picture in my mind of a Huge Casino, Tons of Restaraunts, Deck Chairs, Lounges and Overall Luxery. Not happening on Viking Lines. There is a Casino on the ship with 1 Blackjack table and 1 very unfriendly Roulette table. There are also lots of slot and video poker machines. There are a couple of lounges with live entertainment and there are 3 places to eat, but overall it is all very plain. Not what Americans would consider Luxerious by any means.

Not to worry, I can have fun anywhere so I decided to take in the grand opening in the “Fun Club”. To lay the groundwork here…..in Stockholm, most everyone speaks English and menus and signs are all usually in both Swedish and English. Not on Viking lines. I quickly learned that there is no English being spoke here. It became painfully obvious with the comedy act of the grand opening. I didn’t get a word of it, but it seemed funny to the Swedes. Not to fear....another Newcastle and I’ll laugh along with everyone else.

Act 2 consisted of a live band with a Japanese singer singing popular old American songs including lots of hits by Elvis and even a Ricky Martin song. My favorites were: “Sransssssssssssgers in dee nighhh”, Lirrrring La Reeraa Loca, and “Onree You”. As my brother, Rick, pointed out, it was a Japanese singer, on a Finish Ship, singing Latino Songs to a bunch of Swedes. What an experience.

Saturday morning I awoke to Helsinki out my cabin window. The weather looks gloomy but my main reason for coming on the cruise was to spend a little time seeing more of Helsinki. Leaving the cruise ship, Helsinki does not look inviting. I am in an industrial area, it is misting out and I don’t see any cabs. It doesn’t help much that I didn’t take the time to do any research on the city so I’m not even sure what I should be going to see. Not to worry, I see a big Church in the distance and I’ll head that away. Along the way, I come across a Scandic hotel so I went inside to look for an ATM. Instead of finding the ATM, I found a brochure with a map of Helsinki and some of the top attractions listed. Now I know where to go!!!!!!!

One of the cooler sounding places on the brouchure is the Temppeliaukio Church, which is a Lutheran Church that was blasted out of solid rock. So I set my sights on finding it. On my journey I first came across Market Square. This is an open air area where the locals sell their crafts as well as fresh fish, meat and produce. I shopped a bit but decided I would stop on my way back for sourveniers. So far I’m still skeptical that I made the right decision in seeing Finland again but it is too late to turn back now. As I continue walking I start to see more neon signs and in the distance I can see a lot of people walking the streets. As I get closer and look at my map I realize I am approaching the city center. Now I am feeling better as the city center is a very modern collection of stores and shops and restaraunts. This is more like it. I find a McDonalds for a quick Big Mac and do a little window shopping in the mall. I come across a small shop that sales coins and collectibles so I decide to venture in and see a little more. I was completely shocked to find that I could buy a US quarter from Iowa for 6 Euros….or about $9.00 USD. WHAT? I have an entire stack of quarters at home…I could get rich! The coin shop owner positions US quarters with the individual states as collector’s items. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Back on the road again I get a little lost, but finally make it to the Church and it was well worth the walk. I estimate it was about 3 miles from the ship to the church and my feet are starting to ache a little, but wow what a site. The church is literally built into a gigantic rock. The roof is dome like, but all the walls are solid rock. Very cool. Take a look for yourself.

I’m glad I found the church but I’m tired and face a long walk back so decide to move on. I decide to take a different route on the way back, which ends up to be significantly shorter than the way over. Sweet! I pass through another open air area and come across a Finish folk band playing in the back of a boat pulled by a truck. Odd.

The Boat Band.

Perhaps the coolest thing that I saw on my trip was the Dallas Cowboys logo. GO HESBERGER!
Hesburger Cowboys????????

By now it is getting late and I still need souveniers and maybe a little something else to eat so I cruse back to Market Square. The choices for lunch are mostly fresh fish or salmon soup but I manage to find a Reindeer sausage with potatoes and dill pickles. Very tasty. With a full belly and tired puppies, I find a souvenier stand for some trinkets and head back to my cabin for an afternoon nap.

All in all, I can’t say I’d recommend taking the Viking cruse by yourself to Finland, but if you have a group of people I think it could be pretty fun. For me, the cruse out of Stockholm and the “Rock” church were two highlights that I’ll remember.

Thoughts on Stockholm

Sitting in the Admirals club lounge at Heathrow I have a few minutes to reflect on the past two weeks in Stockholm, Sweden. The city is essential built on a grouping of islands with bridges connecting them all. There are many different parts of Stockholm, some old and others more modern and they all have something fun and unique to offer. I enjoyed Gamla Stan (Old Stockholm) the most. It is old town as you would expect from a European city that has been around for 100’s of years. The streets are narrow cobblestone passages that are only wide enough for one car. Ironically, I never saw any one way signs. Old Town is mostly a tourist area now with lots of shops, galleries, restaurants and pubs. It has a tremendous amount of charm and shouldn’t be missed if you are visiting Stockholm.

Some of my favorite places in Old Town:

The Temple Bar. Located on the waterway, the Temple Bar is a small pub with seating for probalby 60 inside and 40 more outside. The location is great for people watching and most importantly, they have Mariestads. Mariestads is a Swedish beer and although Sweden is not known as a beer mecca, Mariestads goes down in my book as one of the finest beers in the world. It is very smooth with great flavor and a hearty 5.8% alcohol volume. Hello buzzville. Charles and I made it to the Temple Bar at least every other night during our trip and always managed to come out of there much happier than when we went in. Thank you Mariestads.

Michelangelo’s. Quaint little Italian restaurant in the heart of Gamla Stan. I started with the muscles, which were steamed and then topped with a spicy tomato stock. Excellent. Some of the best muscles I have ever had. I followed that with a basic itilian staple…Spaghetti Bolognese. The spaghetti was wonderful and the sauce had obviously been cooked for a long time, which is the way I like my sauce. It was very very good. Overall, Michelangelo’s gets 4 out 5 stars. I liked it so much that we ate there a second time.

Ruby Grill. Also located in the heart of Gamla Stan, Ruby Grill is a “Texas” bistro down to the nachos on the menu and the margarita listing on the wall. True to Texas form, the steaks cooked over Kingsford Charcoal. It was funny to me to see literally 8 bigs of kingsford stacked up beside the indoor grill. The food was great and as with any quality Stockholm restaurant, they served Mariestads. Ahhhh. Charles and I shared an order of Texas style nachos, which were very similar to what you would find at any bar in the state. We followed that up with Ribeyes that were very tasty. For dessert I had a vanilla cheesecake that was also excellent. Prices at Ruby Grill are a fairly expensive but well worth it. Ruby Grill is worthy of 4.5 star rating.

Outside of Gamla Stan some of the other cool things I experienced are:
Golden Hits. Maybe the funnest nightclub in Stockholm. Golden Hits is a multi-level, multi-themed club that has a little something for everyone. Level 1 has a karaoke lounge up front with a stage/dance floor in the back. The night we went, Elvis was playing in the back room complete with rhinestone outfit and sideburns. I thought I was in Vegas. Up the stairs on the second floor is all 80’s all the time. Prince, Michael Jackson, the Cars, etc drown the airwaves.

Finair. The trip over took us from DFW to JFK, then JFK to Helsinki, and finally Helsinki to Stockholm It sounds like a bear of a trip because of the 2 connections, but total travel time was 3 – 4 hous less than if we would have had one connectection through Heathrow. Our trip started off well with no delays getting out of Dallas. We had an hour in NY and had no problem making our connection. Our flight to Helsinki was delayed and we already had a tight connection (40 minutes) so Charles and were already planning on missing our Finnish connection. Fortunatly, although we landed 30 minutes late, customs for Finland was very fast and easy and we made it to our gate right as boarding started. My total time on Finish soil not including time in the plane…..15 minutes but at least I got another country stamped in my passport. The coolest thing about Finair is that on our flight from Helsinki to Stockholm, they had cameras on the nose and on the bottom of the plane. There were several monitors throughout the plane and we got to watch the entire flight from the Pilot’s eye. Landing was really cool. It looked more like a video game than reality.