Meeting Ken Levine

This short blog post has been sitting in limbo for a while now, but it’s time for it to see the light of day.

I’m very fortunate in that every now and then I’ll get a chance to meet someone I admire and appreciate in the worlds of music, books, sports and so on.  Several weeks ago I had an opportunity to do that once again.

One of the links I have on this blog leads to another blog (and a darned good one) written by a guy named Ken Levine.  He’s actually had a few full-time careers over the years that include Emmy winning television writer (M*A*S*H, Cheers, and Frasier are among the many shows that he’s worked on).  He’s also written a few books, two of which I own and have read.  Oh, and in his spare time he’s a major league baseball broadcaster, currently with the Seattle Mariners.

BowlingJoe and Ken Levine

I first heard Levine on the radio back in the 1980s, the FIRST time he was with the Mariners.  Those were some god-awful Mariner teams that used to inhabit The Kingdome in those days (my old college buddies and I used to enjoy sitting in the left field cheap seats giving washed up Mariner left fielder Gorman Thomas "the business") .  But Ken Levine was a breath of fresh air.  When the first batter up in a given inning got to first on a base on balls, he’d quote what he called Levine’s Law, which states:  “When you walk the leadoff batter, he comes around to score 100% of the time.  Unless he doesn’t.”  How can you argue with that?

And then there were the traffic reports he’d give in the 9^th inning of another Mariner blowout loss waiting to become official.  He’d tell the listening audience to avoid the Highway 520 bridge due to an accident.  Of course that was fake.  Levine used the bridge to get home and wanted a clear path to get there after the game.

When I had the chance to meet him at the Mariner’s team store in Seattle and get a couple of books signed, I jumped on board.  During our short chat he was very friendly and gracious.  I think I tried to make a joke.  Something about how I enjoy reading his book during sittings in the smallest room of our house.  Which brings me to something I’ll call BowlingJoe’s Law:  “Never try and be funny around someone who writes comedy for a living.”  After all, you wouldn’t demonstrate your lightning fast left jab for Mike Tyson, right?  I should really thank Ken for not ejecting me from his book signing for that lapse in judgment.

Finally, I know he’d appreciate me hawking his latest book on this blog, even though I only get about 200 site visits a month, half from people who are somehow related to me (which isn’t bad but I’ll bet he gets 20,000).  So here you go, Ken, this one’s on me.  You can order Ken Levine’s hilarious new book, The Me Generation…By Me (Growing Up in the 60s), right here.  Available in Kindle or paperback.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Me-Generation-Growing-60s/dp/0615653529/ref=tmm_pap_title_0/188-3745147-0523011

Southport Lanes in Chicago

Well, here's a post that actually is about bowling for a change.  After the Chicago Cubs' baseball game we made a short walk from Wrigley Field to this unique little bowling and billiards joint called Southport Lanes and Billiards, on the corner of Southport Ave. and Henderson Street.

Southport Lanes and Billiards

Southport Lanes and Billiards was built in the 1920s by The Schlitz Brewing Company.  History tells us that, like a lot of places in its day, it was once a front for a speakeasy with a brothel located on the second floor.  But what makes it really unique is that this four-lane house is one of just a handful of alleys in this country that are currently using manual pinsetting machines operated by "pin boys" in the area behind the pins.

Southport and Its Four Lanes

In fact almost everything about the operation includes original equipment including the above-surface ball returns.  The main exception to that is the lanes themselves:  the expense of maintaining the original wood lanes was too much to bear for the owners so they were replaced with synthetic lanes and approaches a few years ago.

It was a slow day when we were there, so I was lucky enough to convince the general manager to give me a quick tour of what life is like behind the lanes, something he said he doesn't do too often.

Mind the Rules and Don't Bowl If You See Legs!

The first thing I noticed is that being skinny (which I'm not) would be an advantage in getting back there as I contorted my body up and around the ball return between lane one and the wall.  There's also not much room when you do get back there and I'd find it amazing if a year goes by without somebody getting hit by a ball or a flying pin.

We didn't actually bowl at Southport (and in case you're wondering there are no sanctioned leagues here).  Just being there was special enough.  Here's a good news story I found that was done by a Chicago TV station a couple of years ago, followed by some photos I took.

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/17819843/southport-lanes-and-billiards-preserves-chicago-history

A Brief Tour of Chicago

Hog Butcher for the World,

Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

Stormy, husky, brawling,

City of the Big Shoulders

And so on goes the poem by Carl Sandburg that described Chicago in the early 20^th century.

When we visited for the first time recently, we really didn’t know what to expect.  We heard it was one of the great cities in the country to visit but didn’t exactly grasp why that was.  Now we do.

A View of Chicago From Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower)

Chicago is not a tourist Mecca.  There are no tropical beaches, no Mardi Gras-like celebrations, and no ancient ruins.  People don’t come to Chicago to gamble, climb mountains, slide down zip lines, play golf, or lounge around next to the pool in their thongs while drinking Margaritas.  If most of this appeals to you, don’t bother visiting Chicago.  Go to Vegas, Maui, or whatever other destination you’re being told by USA Today that you have to go visit.

Okay then, just what is so alluring about the place?  I can only speak for myself of course but here goes:

The Sports Scene:  Chicago is truly one of the great sports towns in the country.  They eat it up.  Football, basketball, baseball (two teams), hockey and soccer are all represented professionally.  It’s written and talked about in the media extensively.  And when a team isn’t performing the sportswriters tend to go into lambasting mode.  They’ve been doing that all year with the Chicago Cubs’ baseball team.  BowlingWidow and I attended a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, a gem of an old ballpark that was built in 1916.  I tried to give the poor Cubs some luck by buying a cap with the 1914 Cubs’ logo on it but they still lost 5-3.

Outside of Wrigley Field at the Home Plate Entrance

The Music Scene:  There’s plenty of music of all kinds going on here every day of the week.  We like to focus on the blues and jazz that’s happening.  Unfortunately almost all of it happens starting at around nine o’clock at night or later.  Bummer for those of us who are programmed to nod off at about that time.  Here’s at tip:  Andy’s Jazz Club in the North Loop has good live jazz music that starts at five, 7 days a week.

The Food Scene:  Chicago is the best place in the nation to get a good steak.  Too bad we really don’t eat steak.  Not to worry.  Every ethnicity is represented here in the culinary sense.  You’ve heard about Chicago style hot dogs and deep dish pizza, but we also had some of the best Mexican food in history.  Famous chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless lives in Chicago and he has ways of procuring the best Mexican ingredients.  We had incredible meals at his Frontera Grill on Clark Street.  BowlingWidow had one with three different kinds of mole sauces and I had a fabulous meal of marinated shredded pork with onion and black beans and a snappy habanero salsa.  Yes, of course, they gave me steamed tortillas to fill up with the mixture.

BowlingJoe at Wrigley Field:  The 1914 Cubs Hat Brought the Home Team No Luck

The Art Scene:  Here I’m talking about paintings.  We don’t “get” art.  I usually am way off the mark on what paintings represent or are supposed to represent.  I don’t know a still life painting from an impressionist painting and frankly it’s not that big of a deal to me.  But for someone that is into art I understand that Chicago is one of the best places outside of Paris to take it all in.

The Museum Scene:  There’s the Field Museum, The Museum of Science and Industry, The Planetarium.  And that’s just for starters.  The sad reality is that we didn’t get to see any of them on this go around.  They tend to close early in the day and we didn’t plan as well as we could have.  The silver lining is that now we have a reason to go back to Chicago in a couple of years.

Chicago From the Chicago River

The Neighborhood Scene:  Let’s see…they’ve got the Polish neighborhood, the Greek neighborhood, the Italian neighborhood, the Mexican neighborhood.  I’ll bet they even have a Liechtensteinian neighborhood.  Like the museums we didn’t get much of a chance to explore these.  Put it on the list for next time.

The Scene Scene:  For the best view of any city, head to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower).  You’ll be at the 104^th floor with an opportunity walk out “over the streets below” on the 4-foot glass section that juts out from the building.  We also took an educational Architecture Cruise on the Chicago River where we learned a lot about the massive structures that dominate the skyline.

BowlingWidow in Seated Yoga Pose over Chicago at the Top of the Willis Tower

Some final thoughts about Chicago:

• Go to Portillo’s on Ontario Street for a real Chicago dog.  But don’t even ask them to put ketchup on it.  It’s a felony in Illinois to even ask.

The Portillo's Chicago Hot Dog:  A True Work of Art

• Don’t expect to find any good beer at Wrigley Field.  The best they have is Dos Equis Light in a can.  Avoid Old Style Beer.  They call it that because it was brewed in the year Wrigley was built.

• Visit Millennium Park and take your picture in the reflection of The Bean (actually called Cloud Gate).  It’s required during your time in Chicago.

The Cloud Gate Sculpture:  We're in the Distance Taking the Picture

• Stay in the Loop area if you can (we stayed at the Central LoopHotel).  It’s worth being close to a lot of things as well as having great access to the Elevated Rail System.  Anything around $150 a night is a great deal here.

• By and large, people are friendly and willing to help out if you have a question about how to get somewhere.  Even more so than in the Southeast, we found.  And certainly more so than in downtown Seattle.

• Don’t buy the Chicago style caramel/cheese popcorn mix and bring it on the plane.  It goes stale really fast.

At Midway Airport:  A Business That Has My Full Support

• Bottles of hot sauce WILL get confiscated from your carry-on luggage.  We had no checked baggage on this trip and bought a couple of bottles of habanero sauce to go from Frontera Grill.  The TSA caught this and took them away from me.  I can only imagine how good those TSA after-work fondue and appetizer parties are at Midway Airport.

A Chicago Pizza Tour

BowlingWidow and I are just back from a 5-day vacation to Chicago, a place neither of us had ever been to.  We’ve heard so many good things about this metropolis and it certainly didn’t disappoint.  I’ll have a few topical blog posts coming up about the place but I thought I’d jump right in with a subject that will prove to be extremely popular:  pizza.

Prior to our trip we asked several experienced Chicago travelers and ex-residents what their favorite pizza place in the city is.  And we got several different answers (Gino’s, Pizzeria Uno, etc.); with each individual claiming that they were right.  Maybe they all are?  Maybe we just ought to turn our question over to the experts?  So that’s what we did.

In Chicago, there are local companies that will drive groups of people around town on an organized tour and sample a variety of some of the best pizza around.  We did this with Chicago Pizzatours.
 

Dough Force One:  Our Pizza Party Vehicle

The tour, which numbered around 17 of us,  originated at a restaurant in the downtown “Loop” area of Chicago called Pizano’s Pizza and Pasta.  There we sampled both deep dish and thin crust styles.  The deep dish featured fresh plum tomatoes with a bit of salt as the sauce (traditionally served on the top of the pizza) as well as fresh mozzarella slices. 

The topping I chose was sausage, which they’ve been obtaining from Anichini Brothers since 1925.  In fact, most reputable pizza joints get their sausage from there as well and mix their own unique blend of spices with it.  But don’t bother asking the Pizano’s people how they mix their sausage.  It’s a secret.  In fact, so is their dough recipe which only three people on the planet are privy to knowing.  I can tell you, though, that it’s cooked in the deep dish pan at a high temperature with a bit of corn oil, giving it a crispy bottom and a soft, tasty crust interior.  A hearty thumbs up from us.
 

Pizano's Deep Dish and Thin Crust Side by Side

Pizano’s thin crust pepperoni pizza didn’t get quite as high of a rating as the deep dish, as we didn’t think there was a whole lot that distinguished it from decent pizza we can get in the Seattle area.  But, as it was pointed out to us, it is Oprah Winfrey’s favorite.  Then again, I’m often puzzled over Oprah’s book-of-the-month choices as well.

Finished at Pizano’s it was time to board the van, also known as “Dough Force One”, with Jim at the wheel and Mike as our informative and entertaining tour guide.  We drove north.  Many miles north in fact, to a place called Spacca Napoli which churns out one style and one style only:  certified authentic Neapolitan style pizza.  Very few restaurants are allowed to call it this, as very few adhere to the simple but strict standards that are required.

Making Pizzas at Spacca Napoli

This includes using only salt, flour, water and yeast for the dough.  The sauce must consist of San Marzano tomatoes.  The mozzarella slices have to be produced using the milk of water buffalo (not native to Italy, but present there in large numbers).  The pizza is baked in a 900-degree oven for less than a minute.  Our pizza was topped only with fresh basil leaves and olive oil.  It was amazing as the simple flavors came together for an amazing pizza eating experience.

A Perfect Neapolitan Pizza at Spacca Napoli

Next it was time to head south to Pequod’s Pizza.  This is heavy duty deep dish pizza and is probably what most people think of when “pizza” and “Chicago” are in the same sentence.  In reality though, far more thin crust pizza is sold in the city than deep dish.  

At Pequod’s, in traditional deep dish fashion, the ingredients extend to the edge of the pie.  In fact, they make a point of laying a bit of cheese on the inside perimeter of the pan to give it a slightly burnt, caramelized crispy cheese edge.  We sampled a slice with pepperoni and a slice with fresh spinach.  The sauce was sweet and ample on top.  BowlingWidow thought it was a bit much and it was her least favorite, while I thought it was pretty darned good, albeit really filling.
 

A Small Slice of Saucy Deep Dish from Pequod's:  Note the Crispy Cheese Edge

Fans of the novel “Moby Dick” will also be glad to know that across the street from Pequod’s is…..yes…..a Starbucks Coffee house.

Our final stop was Coalfire.  And yes, the do in fact use a coal fired stove to cook their pizza at around 770-degrees for 2 ½ minutes.  At Coalfire we had a thin crust American-style Neapolitan pizza.  Much less strict than the ingredients we saw at Spacca Napoli, as the mozzarella was from Wisconsin, the flour from Vermont, and the tomatoes used were from California.

The simple toppings built what is called a Margherita pizza (Queen Margherita was apparently a fan of this back in the day) and consists of sauce, mozzarella cheese slices, and tomato being supported by a thin and crispy crust.  Coalfire’s version of the Margherita was in fact judged to be number one in its class by Chicago Magazine recently.

The Margherita from Coalfire Pizza

When it was all over, we were really satisfied with what we tried yet happy that there wasn’t a fifth restaurant on the tour.  We couldn’t possibly have eaten any more.  Our favorites?  BowlingWidow went with the deep dish at Pizano’s.  I liked it, too, but will give a slight edge to the high-quality, spare and simple ingredients of the authentic Neapolitan pizza of Spacca Napoli.  Everything else finished second by the narrowest of margins.

Now that we’re home, here’s the REAL problem though:  now that I’ve been exposed to the best pizza in the world, I’ve got to (a) increase my Friday night pizza budget and (b) actually find decent pizza within driving distance of our condo in Everett, WA.

Papa Murphy’s  pizza will somehow no longer taste as good after last week.

Crazy Little Thing Called LASIK

Since he was in the second grade, Muffinheadboy has needed glasses or contact lenses.  And not just a minor prescription.  When the genetic dice for eyesight was rolled the kid could have really used a mulligan.  But what are you gonna do other than to keep getting stronger lens prescriptions as the eyes get progressively worse into the teen years?

Well now the young man is closing in on being 25 years of age.  A quarter-century on this rock.  His brain has theoretically (and finally!) neared full development if some science journals are to be believed.  And along with this monumental occasion his eyes have reached terminal badness.

With LASIK eye surgery coming down in price and being more technologically advanced and effective than ever we decided it was time for another roll of the optical dice.  Besides, this will take care of his birthday AND Christmas gift for the year in the approximately 10 minute time that it takes to have the procedure done.  Who knew holiday shopping could be this easy?

Well...Here's a Generic LASIK Shot.  Hey, I Needed a Picture Here.

We chose to do this at King Lasik in Renton with the steady hands of Dr. Joseph King at the wheel.  He did my own Lasik procedure eight years ago with great results.  He’s done 80,000 or so of these things and is in fact the official LASIK guy for the Vancouver Canucks NHL hockey team.  Okay….sold!  You had me at 80,000, Doc.
 

We arrived at the office early enough to wait in the waiting area for a half-hour or so.  I’m not sure what they were piping in music-wise on their Muzak but recalled being REALLY glad that it wasn’t “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann.  Or Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science”.  Or anything by Blind Melon or Third Eye Blind.  In the future they may, however, want to consider songs such as “I Can See Clearly Now” or “I Can See For Miles” by The Who.

They called us in to the office to explain the process to us, what it costs, what medications he’d need, follow-up appointments and so on.  Then the doctor met with us and after a short wait Muffinheadedboy was in what looked like a fancy La-Z-Boy chair and things were underway.

I waited outside the procedure room and was able to watch what was going on via a TV monitor.  Up close.  Really up close as in a 10-inch diameter eyeball staring at me.  It was like watching “A Clockwork Orange” on a Jumbotron screen.  The process was quite interesting but clearly not for the squeamish.  For that reason I won’t go into a detailed description or post any instructional photos or videos.  Let’s just say that Dr. King reshaped his cornea with a laser and we'll call it good.  And true to their word it was a less than 10 minute proposition.

Everything went very well.  The young man’s vision is now at 20/25.  Not 100% perfect but I’ll bet it seems like it is to him after a lifetime of blurry natural vision.  While there are many technological advances that I wish never happened, this is definitely NOT one of them.  LASIK is an effective and very safe way to correct vision these days if you don’t mind having your eyes messed with for a few minutes and can put up with a bit of itchiness and sensitivity for a day or two after.

Personally, I’m hoping for a 10 minute procedure that will give me my taste buds back after many years of abusing them with every hot sauce known to man.  Now THAT would be impressive.

New Mexican Culinary Invasion in Everett

This isn’t a restaurant review blog but as much as we like to try various kinds of restaurants I’d have no trouble turning it into one, at least on a part-time basis.  That’s why BowlingWidow and I were quite pleased when we saw that there was a new New Mexican restaurant opening on Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett a few months ago.  After giving the owners a few weeks to work the bugs out (and hopefully that’s just an expression in this case), it was time to give it a try.  Appropriately enough, the place is called The New Mexicans.  It's also owned and operated by native New Mexicans.

The New Mexicans:  Just Look for the State Flags on Hewitt Ave.

For the uninitiated, New Mexican food is a culinary melting pot of Mexican, Southwest, with some Pueblo Native American styles thrown in for good measure.  As one might expect, many of the dishes revolve around the chile pepper and contain sauce made out of red and green chile peppers.  The most notable are types of peppers known as Hatch peppers, called so because they’re grown only in a chile-rich region near Hatch, NM.  Should you attempt to sell peppers grown in Texas and pass them off as Hatch peppers, chile snobs will hunt you down and backhand you in the chops in much the same way a wine snob would do if you sold wine bottled in Oregon and called it “Bordeaux”. 

Much of the Kitchen is Front and Center in This Floor Plan

On our first visit, I tried the enchiladas with red chile sauce (and cheese, onion, lettuce).  It came with a side of pinto beans and I also ordered a small coleslaw on the side.  It was absolutely delicious and there’s nothing in the world like a good chile sauce.  New Mexican cuisine doesn’t necessarily pack an overabundance of spicy heat, but here’s what I like about this place:  they have a wide variety of hot sauces on their tables ranging from mild to wild, giving the diner the option of kicking it up.

BowlingWidow went with the chicken and dumplings.  She loved her dish also.  It was tasty, creamy  and dumplingy (if that’s a word) with just the right amount of spice for her.  I’m not sure if that’s a traditional dish in New Mexico or if it was a family recipe that they brought with them.  Either way it was a big hit, as was the small spinach salad she had on the side.

Getting Ready to Dig Into the Green Enchilada Casserole

We returned a couple of weeks later with BowlingWidow ordering the large version of that spinach salad.  I decided to try the green enchilada dish which is served casserole style and consists of Hatch chiles, corn tortillas, onions, jack cheese and a creamy sauce.  Again, remarkable but in a completely different way than the red enchiladas.  And at five dollars a serving it’s clearly the best restaurant deal in town.  (I refuse to include the Junior Whopper in this category, although I think they’re just fine).

We’ll be back to try breakfast one of these days soon.  Perhaps a breakfast burrito.  Right now the menu selection is a bit small but they said that as time goes on they’ll be introducing new and interesting dishes.  And I’m prepared to try every one of them.

Everett Craft Beer Festival

I’m a bit late in posting this, but any time we can walk to and from a craft beer festival it’s better late than never when it comes to writing about it.  We moved to Everett, WA in 2012.  The first ever downtown Everett Craft Beer Festival took place in 2012.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Hopefully this will be an annual thing.  And we’ll commit to staying in Everett if they keep doing it.
 

One of the 27 Eager to Pour Brewery Tents

On Saturday, August 18^th a two block section of Hoyt Avenue was closed to traffic and 27 craft brewers descended on the area with 60-some different styles of brew in tow.  The lineup didn’t go from A to Z but it was close, from American Brewing (Edmonds) to Two Beers Brewing (Seattle).  There was a mocha flavored Porter, an Oatmeal Stout, and beers with additives as diverse as pumpkin, lemon grass and peaches.

A Group of Discerning Tasters at The Everett Brew Fest

 But mainly BowlingWidow and I stuck with the hoppier beers in the India Pale Ale style.  We quaffed many four ounce samples and when the dust settled her favorite was the Brickyard Brewing IPA from Woodinville, WA.  I went with the hop-infused Interurban IPA from Fremont Brewing in Seattle with its notable hints of grapefruit.

The weather was perfect during the four hours we were there and in the middle of that time we took a lunch break, visiting an excellent new New Mexican restaurant that was just ‘round the corner.  (It was our second meal there and it’ll be the topic of my next blog post).  Speaking of food, if the Washington Beer Commission decides to put this event on next year (and I’m sure the 3500 people who attended would be in favor of that) it would be great to have some food options inside the festival itself.  There was a lone burger vendor that was overwhelmed most of the day.
 

The Crowd Got Larger as the Afternoon Went On

It’s nice to now know that Everett is on the brewmap (I think I may have just invented a new word).  For 2013, let’s go for another city block and have 15 more breweries show up.