Signting!

This was in the clippings the other day...

• Among the spectators at Target Center for the Timberwolves summer league was Marquette men's basketball coach Tom Crean, who has been in hot pursuit of St. Thomas Academy's 6-10 incoming senior Bryce Webster for three years. Marquette and Boston College are considered front-runners for Webster.

While in town, Crean watched 6-7 A.J. Wilson, formerly of St. Bernard's,work out. Wilson has transferred to Mt. Zion in Durham, N.C.

Just to let you know I personally saw Coach Crean walking across the street from the hip Bellanotte...FYI...Bella sucks for food!

Manny's Tortas - REVIEW

Another review for you foodies!

Manny's Tortas - a hidden treasure on Lake Street. Manny's serves Mexican sandwiches along with a few salads, DESSERTS (YES!) and beer and wine.

The sandwiches are grilled, similar to a panini but not quite, and feature avocado, pickled jalpenos and refried beans (at least that is what Erica tells me but I didn't see or taste any).

I selected the Cubano Torta and the caesar salad. Excellent choice! The cubano featured ham, pork, chicken and cheese. All of the meats were extremely thin and mighty tasty and the sandwich had a nice spicy kick to it. The torta comes with chips but since I had the salad as well who needs the chips?

The salad was also very good, the dressing was more oil based than creamy so it was light and flavorfull (I am really coming along with my review skills). Lots of croutons as well.

No dessert for me that night but they had flan (custard), tiramisu, and a special of the day which looked to be cheesecake.

There are coupons in your Entertainment Happenings books - good for buy one, get one.

Best thing about Manny's - they are open to 3 AM! Late night muchies! Munch on Manny's!

Okay, time for the ranking...on a scale of 1-10...

1-2 - Rosen's Bad...never enter again or unless forced to

3-4 - not bad...needs work

5-6 - average

7-8 - delicioso

9-10 - caliente!

I give Manny's Tortas an 8...very good food but no air conditioning and small seating area. I think Manny's is a good place to call ahead and order your torta and then return to your own air conditioned abode.

If you want to go...2700 E. Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN.

ENJOY!

Twins!

On Sunday Erica, Julie and myself headed to see the Twins take on the Angels. Thanks to my wonderful cousin Polly, we were in prime seats. Section 121, row 7. I could see the chew in Darin Erstad's mouth. Darin is from North Dakota you know...those Olin girls can tell you all about him!

My new fav, Brett Boone - made a few errors, I am sure that he was nervous with me sitting so close and all.

But all in all I took lots of notes on the Twins promos - expect to see some of those at Gopher Football games this fall. I mean I am in charge of the fan experience...I better make it be a good experience!

Twins lost, I lost $15 on a hot dog, beer and ice cream. Tsk...tsk...

Hot outside again but great afternoon inside the Dome. And to think all thse teams want outdoor stadiums. Do they not know about Minnesota weather?

I'm off to work on the fan experience...anyone seen Caddyshack?

I also need some good video board message ideas for Coach Mason! What could he say to fire up the crowd?

Blog This

What a busy last few days! So much to blog, so little time! I can't wait till I get my new laptop here at work - then I can finally work on this at home!

Let me bring you up to speed...Friday night - it was HOT! In case you don't live here - it's been 90 plus degrees for like 8 days in a row! Kind of nice for a Minnesota summer but after the 7th day I don't think it's fun anymore.

Friday night was supposed to be Erica and myself going downtown for the big block party and possibly hitting up the Sommerfest by the Minnesota Orchestra. And Zach was even going to meet up with us. Such the socialites we are.

Well, after spending much time scouring the local malls for a cute brown tank top - I located one at the Gap. Did I think to try it on? Nope. The shirt totally made me look prego...can't have that. Erica agreed with the prego shirt so I changed and off we went to the LRT station. For those of you who aren't familiar - LRT - Light Rail Transit. By the time we walked the five blocks to the station I was SWEATING! And I can usually handle the heat...but man was it hot! Luckily the LR was nicely air conditioned - two thumbs up on that.

We took the LR to the Lake Street Station - right in the heart of the hood if you want the truth. Here we walked four more HOT blocks to our dinner destination of the night - Manny's Tortas. Now, I know many are looking forward to the review of Manny's - but that will be a separate entry. Don't want to confuse the food reviews with my social fun!

After dinner we walked back to the station to head downtown. By the time we were back waiting for the train I just knew there was no way in hell I was going to sweat for the rest of the night at some block party. The bars never sounded so good!

We started at Rosen's at the recommendation of Erica. Here is a tip - she needs to read more reviews! Rosen's totally SUCKED! I mean seriously! These people acted like they were SO BUSY! The place was full but I would not say packed...it took us...get this...35 minutes for a small order of fries and chips and salsa. 35 minutes? I mean did they have to run to the store first? The waitress apologized saying, "they were really swamped". Who is she kidding? Anyway - I WILL NEVER GO TO ROSEN'S AGAIN! Don't invite me there, don't send e-vites for there, NEVER GO THERE! Read Erica's blog for some food reports...

After Rosen's I established a two drink minimum for each bar...we headed to our standby Champps. After sitting at the bar and waiting for Erica...each bartender asked what I needed. That is three bartenders - excellent service. I started off with a margarita and debated about what dessert to order. After settling on the cookie with ice cream it arrived sans not enough ice cream. I asked my new bartender friend to hook me up with an extra scoop and he did! After my second drink - classic standby of Rolling Rock in a bottle with lime...we asked for the bill. This bartender charged me for my scoop of ice cream! I felt cheated! I was just asking for a hook up not $1.75 charge! Needless to say...small tip for him! He can take it out of his ice cream robbery!

Last stop of the evening - earlier favorite in the week...Lyon's Pub. By far the best stop of the night. Nice bartender (even switched out Erica's "yeast tasting" beer for a fresh one) and good convo. Not super busy (everyone was outside in the HEAT!) and good beer. However, I did not drink here - Erica had my two drink minimum. I was dying because I was so damn full! If you are not following along here I have been snacking all night long and I was dying!!! Learn your lesson! My advice - drink or eat but not both!

On the way home we entertained the Light Rail guests with Erica's rendition of the kidnapped girl from Silence of the Lambs. Weird? Yes. Funny? YES!! But then again it was our night...

And what happened to Zach? Hmmm....

Social stories of the week

I think the funniest thing I've heard in awhile was told to me during the fun outing at Boca Chica on Friday night. Apparently on a local radio station a listener called in and shared what they had overheard at dinner. A couple was eating and the man leaned over to his wife and said that they had to go because there were too many ABC's there. ABC's - people from Anoka, Blaine and Coon Rapids....that is too funny!

Saturday was a fun day on Lake Minnetonka on the Sherman's boat. Lucky for us we were able to squeeze all 6 of us into the craft safetly. Matt made sure that we all had life jackets - he is definitely safety first! The highlight of the day was hooking up with Peter - he has a huge boat named Harvey Dockbanger...call it what you want...but he was an excellent host and kept us well lotioned (who wants a sunburn) and liquored up with Corona's. He even knew the birdman, a guy who has a giant blue parrot. I am not making this up. A giant blue parrot. In Crystal Bay. Yep...believe it. Well, I had to cut the day short as I had my crockpot going - I mean I am a Minnesotan and I didn't want my caramel pie to be ruined! No one believed my story which is a shame because the pie is mighty tasty!

You can read all about my 50 cent concert shenanigans on my friend Erica's blog...www.gophererica.blogspot.com.

As the weekend rolls around I will keep you posted!

Boca Chica

A very busy weekend! Lots to report! It all started off Friday evening at Boca Chica, not to be confused with the Boca Chica Taco House which is directly across the street. After locating the correct location - we were seated and we were brought salsa and water...but no chips. I asked if we could get some chips...but those you have to order off the menu and they are $1.25. Not a big deal...obviously we aren't at Don Pablo's! But if you want to actually try the salsa with something other than your finger - you'll probably need some chips...I ordered the chips and queso dip. The queso was definitely authentic - not overly cheesy - but good. The chips are very good - but the salsa was HOT!! Or should I say caliente! The waitress brought us a more mild salsa and that was ok. I tried two different margaritas - I took the waitress' advice and tried the mid range margarita and that was brough to the table in a shaker. It was supossed to be more tart but I thought it was rather sour. After that I had their regular margarita on the rocks and it was perfect! Food - well I was given several recommendations - their steak tacos are really good and in some of the reviews I read their enchiladas are very good. I had the platillo de pollo - or the chicken platter. Two chicken tacos (one was deep fried - and actually it's just the taco shell that is fried) and a chicken mole enchilada. It was awesome! LOVED IT! Now, I am disappointed by the dessert menu - and if you know me at all you know how much I love dessert! I don't really care for fruit or fried ice cream desserts and that is pretty much what they had - so I passed.

On the rating scale of 1 to 10 (1-2 couldn't pay me to finish it, 3-4 being I'm hungry so I ate it, 5-6 average, 7-8 definitely cravable and 9-10 being absolutely can't live without it - I give Boca Chica a 9!

If you want to try it - 11 Cesar Chavez Blvd (or Concord Street) in St. Paul (just southeast of the Xcel Center, across the river).

For info on the interesting conversation at dinner...that blog is on the way!

Review of LoTo

So, I'm reading the July issue of Minneapolis St. Paul magazine...which of course on the cover is how to meet people - anyway they talk about the hot spot LoTo. Hmmm...a hot spot that I haven't heard about? And of course it's in downtown St. Paul where the tabloid friendly Lindsay Lohan is shooting a movie. So I decided to check it out...

After driving down Jackson street three times I decide to just park and go look for this place. 380 Jackson Street? Where is that? After figuring out that it's inside Galtier Plaza (and no - not by the apartments) I make my way through the abandoned "plaza" and come upon this hot spot, LoTo.

It's SUPER quiet and there are at least 10 servers and about 4 customers. You can walk up to the counter and order and then sit and eat or you can walk an additional two steps and be seated by one of the many 10 servers and they will bring you what you order...along with some alcohol if you want.

Menu reminds me of D'Amico Cucina - salads, sandwiches, pizzas, entrees...pretty basic. But I guess LoTo is known for their pastries. They have 6 full time pastry chefs who crank 'em out.

I had a small caesar salad, NY pizza and a piece of the three chocolate cake. All was average...but there are a few menu items that I think might be fun to try. Plus, they do have appetizers and my favorite, panini's!

My ranking you ask? Well, on a scale of 1-10 (1-2 being absolutely disgusting, 3-4 being poor, 5-6 average, 7-8 definitely cravable and 9-10 the best I've ever had) I give LoTo a 5 with potential...

Want to check it out? 380 Jackson Street, Galtier Plaza, St. Paul, MN 55101. 651.209.7776

Up next...Boca Chica on Friday night!

My first blog

WELCOME!

It's so easy to lose touch in today's world...so much damn information! Besides the phone, our mail, the newspaper, the news, the e-mails, texts...it just goes on and on and the next thing you know you don't really keep in touch anymore.

Maybe this will help...I can keep you updated with my random thoughts, reviews of local "hotspots" and of course Gopher sports...now maybe you can do the same!