Gary Wong Gary Wong

San Francisco, July 25-28, 2025

I hadn’t planned on coming back out to San Francisco so soon but after visiting in January but I once again had some RUCs to burn and the Mets were in town so I figured, why not!? Anytime I can get a lie-flat for the price of economy, I’m gonna go for it. And, of course, there’s also the opportunity to eat and drink myself into a food coma at the Delta One Lounge at JFK.

#SFMets

I hadn’t planned on coming back out to San Francisco so soon but after visiting in January but I once again had some RUCs to burn and the Mets were in town so I figured, why not!? Anytime I can get a lie-flat for the price of economy, I’m gonna go for it. And, of course, there’s also the opportunity to eat and drink myself into a food coma at the Delta One Lounge at JFK.

Toronado… for maybe the last time?

To quote myself from the last SF trip report earlier this year:

As always, no trip to San Francisco would be complete without a trip to the craft beer mecca that is Toronado. Little did I know at the time of my visit that it could very possibly be the last time I get to have a Pliny there as they announced later that month that the bar was on the market.

As it turns, its demise wasn’t as imminent as it appeared back in January. It’s not even as imminent as it appeared in the spring when it was reported that it had been sold to a crypto entrepreneur who had some ideas for the place. How real was this sale? Was it actually dashed by the guy being less a crypto entrepreneur and more or a crypto douche (some might say there’s no daylight between the two)? We may never know but, for now, the place is still kicking as it is. Will these visits be my last ones? Your guess is as good as mine at this point. Not wanting to leave it to chance, I ponied up some dough for a hoodie so I’d have something to remember them by besides the copious pints of Pliny I’ve imbibed over the last 17 years.

The Food and Drinks

I hit up a few favorites from past SF visits on this quick long weekend, including a ridiculous amount of pastries from Arsicault Bakery - I first went here after Oktane in 2022 and don’t think I’d ever have found them had it not been for a dear co-worker and friend going there in the morning, literally while I was on a bus coming back south from Santa Rosa. It was a grand discovery then and I leaned in even harder this time, nabbing a jamon beurre for post-race recovery, in addition to the required pastries.

On that same trip in 2022, we had dinner at the Michelin-starred Kin Khao - no pictures exist of that meal as it was dark and we were hungry. This time, I had lunch and went with a staple in the Khao Mun Gai. A different co-worker of ours once remarked about how the idea of poached chicken didn’t seem appealing until he had the southeast Asian version of it. That’s a very accurate way of describing how something as simple as poached chicken can differ by culture. And the one at Kin Khao? It’s exceptional. The meat is tender and that rice is so goddamn flavorful.

As for something new…. how about Four Kings in Chinatown? This may be my new favorite fancy pants Cantonese restaurant in SF proper, with prices commensurate with the fancy pants label. I paid a premium for some very classic dishes like the fried squab and the claypot rice but I imagine that comes down to the contemporary preparations of those dishes, in addition to sourcing of ingredients, and, frankly, bang-on execution. I dined alone at the counter but sat next to a fellow solo diner from London making his way up the west coast and he seemed as though he was deriving the same amount of pleasure from his meal.

The Mets!

I’d been to AT&T Oracle Park before back in 2008 during my first-ever time in San Francisco for a game and even went on a ballpark tour later that summer but this was my first time seeing the Mets here. And what a great time it was to see them! They won both games I attended, finishing off a three-game sweep. Both games ended with Edwin Díaz walking absolute tightropes to close them out but he got bailed out on Saturday night with an absolute defensive gem by Pete Alonso, jumping and grabbing a liner at his highest point; on Sunday, he bailed himself out with two strikeouts after walking/hit-by-pitch and leaving the bases loaded. The vibes were good after this weekend and they would be well on their way to righting the ship.*

* I wrote this line after they lost two of three to the Nationals on the penultimate weekend of the season, falling out of a postseason spot for the first time since April. The vibes, they are bad.

San Francisco Marathon Alexi Pappas 10K

Another factor that tipped in favor of doing this long weekend trip was that I had a 20-mile long run to do and, as it turns out, this was the weekend of the San Francisco Marathon. Perfect! I’ll sign up for this marathon that goes across the Golden Gate Bridge and that’ll be my long run!

Turns out, doing a hill workout at pace in a very hilly Porto a few weeks earlier was not the best idea. My back was all sorts of messed up afterwards and I couldn’t keep up with the 18-week block I usually do before a goal marathon. Thankfully, they had multiple race distances that weekend so I switched my registration to the Alexi Pappas 10K without penalty - the penalty was paying over $200 to now run a 10K instead of a marathon.

This was fun, though! The nice thing about the 10K was starting at 7 am whereas the full started at 5 am - I’ll gladly take an extra two hours of sleep, especially since the Mets game the previous night started just after 6 pm and didn’t end until after 9. The course was super flat and, this being San Francisco in July, the temperature was race-perfect. I even got to high-five Alexi Pappas, the namesake for this race, shortly after crossing the finish line! Best thing, though, was cracking open a fresh bottle of Pliny and drinking it in my hotel room, post-race, while eating that jamon buerre from Arsicault.

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Gary Wong Gary Wong

Tampa, June 7-8, 2025

This is actually my second trip to Tampa this year so that puts in in the same category as London, right?

Okay, not really. It’s nowhere close to London and the only similarity on a personal level is visiting a city more than once in a year but there is one thing Tampa has over London… a Major League Baseball team.

#tampabayraysoftampa

This is actually my second trip to Tampa this year so that puts in in the same category as London, right?

Okay, not really. It’s nowhere close to London and the only similarity on a personal level is visiting a city more than once in a year but there is one thing Tampa has over London… a Major League Baseball team.

Okay, in years past, that was only partially true. The Tampa region had an MLB team but they actually played their games in St. Pete. Enter Milton in October 2024, a Category 5 hurricane which did some major damage to the region, including quite literally blowing the roof off the joint the Tampa Bay Rays called home. Without that roof and due to other storm-related damage to the Trop, that meant the Rays were temporarily homeless.

With their primary residence unavailable for the time being, the Rays started a residency at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa proper for the 2025 season. I’d been there before for a Spring Training game but, now that there would be host to honest-to-goodness games that counted, I knew I had to revisit the place.

The Tampa Bay Rays of Tampa

There’s no sugar coating this - seeing a baseball game outdoors in the afternoon in Tampa in June is waaaaay hotter than seeing one in March. Be sure to get seats on the third base side of the stadium as the sun will move toward that side and the shade will envelop from the upper stand to the field level over time. Sunday was a noon start so it took a bit but the top most rows got shade pretty early on in the game

On Saturday, however, I was fortunate enough to score seats six rows behind home plate just slightly on the first base side. With a 4 pm start, that meant being in the sun for quite some time. I asked someone who worked there how long it took for our seats to get cover from the sun and they said sometime around 5 pm. So, for the first few innings, I alternated between seeing the action from my seat and taking refuge in the walkways out to the concourse until, sure enough, my seat was in the shade at about 5:15 pm.

I did, however, manage to tough it out in my seats to watch Evan Longoria soak in the cheers as he retired a (Devil) Ray on that day. Dude had a solid career in Tampa and it was nice to see him get the well-earned accolades from the fans ahead of him throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

There was plenty of action on the field with the Miami Marlins ultimately winning 11-10 over the Tampa Bay Rays. The real action though was the mascot race as DJ Kitty shoved Raymond aside to take the victory. I love DJ Kitty - they might be my favorite non-Mets mascot in baseball and I don’t really know why as there’s really no rationale for their existence. The Rays already had a mascot in Raymond but they thought “a cat with a turntable - that’s a mascot!” Whatever their thought process, I’m thankful for it.

The Food and Drinks

30 hours in a place isn’t really a lot of time to explore the restaurant and bar/brewery scene to its fullest. I actually only had time for one meal in a restaurant but I made it count by hitting up a spot on Tampa’s Michelin Bib Gourmand list - Rooster & the Till.

Side note: before planning our Spring Training trip in March, I had no idea that Tampa had a Michelin guide. That’s not a city I would have imagined getting one before the likes of Boston or Philadelphia.

Anyway, back to the restaurant - I was torn between the set menu and going a la carte but while the former had wagyu on it, the freedom to choose from some interesting dishes on the menu and not be forced into a dessert won out.

I was well-rewarded for that decision immediately when the cobia collar came out. Deep-fried crunch with some decent fleshy bits with a delicious nuoc chin sauce to dip into. When a dish has been on a menu since the beginning, you know it’s gonna be a good one and, this? This was a good one.

Also, not being forced into dessert meant that I could go for a third savoury dish but the seared foie gras might as well have been a dessert and I don’t say that in a bad way. I mean, there was Nutella on the plate so, yeah, basically dessert.

30 hours may not seem like a lot of time, especially with 25% of that spent asleep, but I did manage to make it to seven breweries on this trip. As far as highlights go, I’d have to go with Woven Water on Saturday and Sky Puppy on Sunday. Both had the best variety of beers on offer when I visited - props to Woven Water for sour smoothie beers that didn’t (all) use lactose to round them out and to Sky Puppy for being all over the place in a good way (they had a saison!). If I had to pick between the two, I’d go with Sky Puppy because they’ve truly got a great atmosphere and vibe going.

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San Juan, May 1-5, 2025

You’ll never guess why I ended up in San Juan, Puerto Rico for a long weekend. If you think it has to do with, yet again, airline credit/perks, you would be absolutely right. I had a Delta Companion Certificate, good up to Domestic First Class (basically anywhere Delta flies where First Class is the highest available so not quite domestic) and I had never been to Puerto Rico before so, why not?

#prtrip25

You’ll never guess why I ended up in San Juan, Puerto Rico for a long weekend. If you think it has to do with, yet again, airline credit/perks, you would be absolutely right. I had a Delta Companion Certificate, good up to Domestic First Class (basically anywhere Delta flies where First Class is the highest available so not quite domestic) and I had never been to Puerto Rico before so, why not? All in, for the two of us, was just a shade over $900 for a round trip in FC. It was absolutely worth it, even if it meant sitting in their suuuuuper firm seats on an A321neo. I’ve shared my thoughts on that hard product before so I won’t go into it here but I will say that even the soft product suffered here with the meal service missing elements like bread or salad - thankfully, these were short flights so we weren’t exactly going hungry for long.

The Food and Drinks

My time in San Juan was short so I don’t think I can really offer up a take on the food scene there. Outside of dinner each night, food mostly happened at bars and bakeries. As per usual, I had ramen because, for science, and while Kaiju Noodle Bar was decent enough, I don’t feel as though I ever need to go there again. The highlight outside of dinner would be La Taberna Lúpulo which was just an incredible craft beer bar in Old San Juan with plenty of taps and sausage for snacks - basically, my happy place. Another honourable mention goes to La Parroquia for their really tasty cocktails with freshly prepared ingredients and mixers.

Dinner each of the three nights was a nice sit-down affair. Of the three, there’s an obvious winner among them but Cocina al Fondo was a solid second place - their octopus dish might have been the most tender serving of cephalopod I’ve ever had. Interesting space too as the primary indoor space had a bunch of tables and the bar but the majority of the seating looked to be in their incredibly spacious (partially covered) backyard, along with their kitchen.

The aforementioned winner amongst the three restaurants was Marmalade. It’s a five-course menu for $145 and their second course is an incredible white bean with black truffle soup that has apparently been on the menu forever - deservedly so. The menu is a little over the place but in a good way as there’s pretty much something to satisfy anyone’s taste. Bonus, the chef is seemingly a fan of The National as they played two tracks of theirs during my two hours there and I don’t think there were any other repeat artists.

I Nature’d

Like in San Francisco in January, there was a National Park Service site in San Juan - several, in fact! However, while Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristóbal are listed as such, those aren’t sites you’d consider to be nature-y. What actually was that was El Yunque National Forest, a part of the Forest Service and the only federal forest that’s a tropical rainforest. That last bit kinda surprised me as I figured Hawaii or even Guam might have one but, nope, Puerto Rico is it!

As it was with Yosemite, this nature-ing was via guided tour so it limited us to what we could see and do. While we saw a decent amount of the park, it was either mostly in the vehicle or around the visitor center. That’s fine but without being able to roam around and hike along the trail, it really felt like a very curated (which it was) experience.

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Gary Wong Gary Wong

Northern California, January 1-4, 2025

I’m gonna make it three for three when it comes to trip reports that come about due to an absurd airline credit/perks reason. Remember how I ended up in Seattle (then Vancouver) because of expiring Regional Upgrade Certificates (RUC) that had to be used. Yeah, so I had four of them to use or lose and this round trip that began on New Year’s Day from JFK to SFO in Delta One was how I used the first two.

I live a hard life, I know.

#NorCalNewYears

I’m gonna make it three for three when it comes to 2025 trip reports that come about due to an absurd airline credit/perks reason. Remember how I ended up in Seattle (then Vancouver) because of expiring Regional Upgrade Certificates (RUC) that had to be used. Yeah, so I had four of them to use or lose and this round trip that began on New Year’s Day from JFK to SFO in Delta One was how I used the first two.

I live a hard life, I know.

This one made the most sense though! I booked with a fairly decent SkyMiles redemption in Main Cabin and was able to confirm a day or so later (after calling their support line) my RUCs cleared into Delta One. So, in short, I paid for cattle class and leveraged a status benefit to get into bougie - a solid use of an upgrade cert, for sure.

With a booking in Delta One, that meant I could start my trip bright and early at the Delta One Lounge at JFK. I’ll refer you to my eventual trip report for my trip to Spain in November/December for a more in-depth recollection of my first visit to that lounge. I’ll note that, even at 5 am, this lounge was eerily empty - perhaps that has as much to do with traveling on New Year’s Day at such an ungodly hour but I basically had my run of the place. I was able to squeeze in breakfast with a made-to-order omelette, a 15-minute sit in a massage chair, and then a mimosa after the bar opened at 6 am, all without any wait. Love it.

Not as loved? The seat in Delta One on the 767-300 - they’re worn and, in the case on my return flight, falling apart. The one thing I’ll say in its favor is that it’s softer than their newer seats. As for the rest of the hard product, the IFE screen is a relic of the 2000s and that’s if they’re even operational (not a problem on this trip, thankfully).

As per usual, the soft product made up for the deficiencies of the seat. The service on the outbound flight was incredible and leant into it being New Year’s Day and the meals on both flights were solid, though dinner on the return flight easily beat out breakfast on the first one. Honestly, it’s incredibly rare to get a good in-flight breakfast, no matter the class of travel and I’d say it’s even more disappointing in business class as you’re (normally) paying for that mediocre meal.

The Food and Drinks

I’ve been to San Francisco quite a few times since the pandemic - this was my fifth time there in the past three years - so I didn’t feel the need to go anywhere too fancy while in town. Good thing as I barely spent parts of two days in town. I did manage to have one “nice” meal at Michelin-starred Hilda and Jesse but it was an incredibly not fancy spot that was actually open on New Year’s Day for brunch. Everything there was solid but that half-order of pancakes, served last, were basically a dessert - it was a perfect sweet-sour end to a savory meal.

As always, no trip to San Francisco would be complete without a trip to the craft beer mecca that is Toronado. Little did I know at the time of my visit that it could very possibly be the last time I get to have a Pliny there as they announced later that month that the bar was on the market. I hope the next owner a) keeps the place open and b) leaves it the same as it ever was (except maybe try accepting credit cards?). If the former isn’t in the cards, I may just have to find a reason to go back out there for one last sit at that bar, nursing a few West Coast IPAs. Or, maybe that is the reason? We’ll see!

I Nature’d

Okay, so I’ve previously established I’ve been to San Francisco and the greater Bay Area quite a bit over the years. Somewhere I haven’t been? Yosemite National Park! That’s something I corrected on this trip, taking a tour bus out there and spending a night at the Yosemite Valley Lodge (I nature’d a bit on this trip but I didn’t rough it by camping). Two days worth of mild winter hiking with a more winter-ish trail run in the morning was absolutely invigorating and the visuals were just magnificent. Few places are more stunning than the magnificent vista laid out in front of you when look out upon the valley and park from above.

It wasn’t all just about getting out in nature while in Yosemite - of course, there was food and drinks to be had and the sit-down restaurant and bar I visited did not disappoint. Nothing quite like throwing back a few cocktails at The Ahwahnee Bar, followed by hustling over to The Mountain Room a mile or so away in the dark to make a 6:30 pm reservation.

My time at Yosemite was brief - all in, it was maybe 28 hours - but I can’t wait to come back for a longer stay. Perhaps, maybe, this time when it’s warmer out?

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Pacific Northwest, January 16-20, 2025

Hey, a trip report! It’s been a hot minute, I know.

This trip came about for an absolutely absurd reason - I had Regional Upgrade Certificates (RUC) from Delta that were use it or lose it by January 31 and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna lose them after spending an equally absurd money with Delta in 2023. But to actually use them had proven harder than I had anticipated, with several waitlist attempts in 2024 going by the boards. Finally, I settled on finding Delta One or First Class experiences I wanted to try in January, reasoning that the Main Cabin MQDs would get me going on the next status quest for 2025.

#PNWDoubleDip

Hey, a trip report! It’s been a hot minute, I know.

This trip came about for an absolutely absurd reason - I had Regional Upgrade Certificates (RUC) from Delta that were use it or lose it by January 31 and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna lose them after spending an equally absurd money with Delta in 2023. But to actually use them had proven harder than I had anticipated, with several waitlist attempts in 2024 going by the boards. Finally, I settled on finding Delta One or First Class experiences I wanted to try in January, reasoning that the Main Cabin MQDs would get me going on the next status quest for 2025.

In the end, I settled on a round-trip to Seattle so I could fly on an A321neo in First Class on their newest hard product with, if you believe the decidedly mixed reviews, an emphasis on hard.

The reviews were not wrong. These seats are haaaaard. On a two-three hour flight, they’re perfectly fine though woe be unto you if you are in the window seat in a non-bulkhead row and one or both seats in the row in front of you have reclined - you’re gonna have one hell of a time trying to get into the aisle. The problem is that this is the seat they’re putting on planes intended for narrowbody transcontinental flights and these seats just do not have enough padding on them for a transcontinental flight. You will absolutely feel it on your butt and tailbone on a longer flight. My advice? Sit on the provided pillow if you don’t need it for sleeping.

It wasn’t all bad for the hard product - the large IFE and the Bluetooth connectivity for headphones were absolute highlights. Leg room too but, again, if the seat in front of you reclines, they’re kinda on top of you. As for the soft product, the preorder-only Beef And Lamb Kofta was a welcome change of pace from the usual beef short rib dish. As with most times, the service in First Class was pleasant and attentive.

After landing in Seattle a little before 11 pm, it was off to a hotel by the airport. Why? So I could catch an early flight to my actual destination for this trip - Vancouver. Excepting a three-hour detour in Windsor while in Detroit back in 2023, this would be my first extended stay in Canada since the pandemic.

Man, did I miss this country. Man, did I enjoy my time in British Columbia. Sure, if I were into snow stuff like skiing or snowboarding, coming here in winter would make more sense. Even still, it turned out to be a great deal warmer in Vancouver than it was in New York City while I was out there so this was practically a winter escape 😂.

Vancouver is a lovely city though it is most certainly not a big city - you can pretty much walk and see all of its downtown in a day, maybe two. Its beauty, really, is in its immediate surroundings with majestic mountains and bodies of water. I’m certain I lucked out with respect to weather in January as it was incredible bright sunshine all three days I was there.

On most trips, I try to hit a museum or some other cultural institution but since the temperatures while I was there were positively balmy, I took full advantage of it, spending the majority of my time outdoors. There were the nine miles (14ish kilometers since this is Canada) of walking on Friday in Downtown and East Vancouver as I pinged between restaurants and breweries, the four hours spent on Saturday wandering around Granville Island, and then a late Sunday afternoon into early evening at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. Oh, and a couple of 7ish mile runs, to boot.

The Food and Drinks

Obviously, all that time spent outdoors in the winter, even if it was somewhat mild, worked up an appetite for some food. Vancouver certainly didn’t disappoint in that respect and with the exchange rate being what it was, it was practically free. Alright, not quite, but not having to calculate sales tax on top of the bill meant less of a sticker shock at the end though the increasingly ubiquitous service charge made its appearance at more than a few stops.

The standout meal in Vancouver would have to be the one at PiDGiN, an Asian-European restaurant in Gastown. I enjoyed every bite I had there but the foie gras rice bowl was just outstanding and deserving of being singled out. The szechuan pepper beignet was a lot of volume at end of the meal but the tingling numbness from the peppercorns made for a really nice savory-sweet finish.

Of course, no trip is complete without hitting a few local breweries and bars; I managed to get to seven breweries in Vancouver, six of them alone on the first afternoon in town, all of which were no more than a 10-minute walk apart from the other. If craft beer is your thing, East Vancouver is the neighbourhood to hit while in town.

But Wait, There’s More

I actually booked JFK-SEA and SEA-YVR as two separate round trips - again, had to use those RUCs - which meant booking my return flights from Vancouver to Seattle and Seattle to New York with as much of a time gap between them in case of any delays coming back to the States. This meant I ended up getting into Seattle a little before 11 am with a flight leaving Seattle around 11 pm. Oh no, what would I do with a twelve-hour layover…

Yep, you guessed it - I ate and drank my way through the Emerald City and even caught up with a friend (hi, James!) I hadn’t seen in nearly a decade since he moved out there. A great and relaxing way to end a long weekend out of town.

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Nashville, November 19-22, 2021

I’m writing this as I fly out to Rome if you want an indication of how far behind I am on these recap posts and how busy these last few weeks have been. Anyway, Nashville - this trip was actually a backup trip for a trip to New Orleans that never happened the weekend previous to this.

Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Cocktails 🥃🥂🥃🥃
Hot Chicken 🐔🐔🐔
Ramen 🍜🍜
Breweries 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Flights ✈️✈️

#hotchickenrun

I’m writing this as I fly out to Rome if you want an indication of how far behind I am on these recap posts and how busy these last few weeks have been. Anyway, Nashville - this trip was actually a backup trip for a trip to New Orleans that never happened the weekend previous to this. Why Nashville? Why not Nashville? Plenty of history, breweries, and, most importantly, hot chicken. Coincidentally, this weekend was Rock 'n' Roll Nashville and the half marathon would be the perfect tune-up for my marathon in Pisa on December 19.

Let’s talk about the hot chicken… I had three different versions but I’m going to focus on the two Nashville heavyweights. Between Prince's Hot Chicken and Hattie B's Hot Chicken, it’s hard to choose a winner. I felt Prince’s had better flavor but that Hattie B’s was better executed. Gun to my head, I’d probably go with Prince’s but I’m not all too committed to that choice. Sorry if you were hoping for a definitive verdict here but if you want one, just do a hot chicken bang-bang!

Of course, there would be ramen - after all, I did have a race to carbo-load for, though that only explains the first bowl. But the other one at Black Dynasty, a “secret” ramen joint inside a Bearded Iris taproom? Their Turkey Miso Paitan was the best and most interesting bowl of ramen I’d had in some time.

The standout meal was a branch of a place I’d been to before in Charleston but to say that that Butcher & Bee and the one I dined at in Nashville were the same would be nuts. Some similarities, sure, but totally different restaurants owing to the use of local ingredients and different chefs at the helm. Whatever the reason, while I liked my meal in Charleston, I absolutely loved the one in Nashville.

Okay, food’s done - let’s talk about the beer. Boy, is there a beer scene in Nashville. I made it to nine breweries but I think there were still a few more I could have hit with some more time and stomach capacity - there’s only so much room for everything, even with flights or half pours! Of the nine(!), if I had to pick a favorite, it’d be a toss-up between Southern Grist and Bearded Iris. Only one of those has a pop-up ramen shop in it so that may nudge Bearded Iris ahead… at least until Southern Grist adds their own dynamite ramen pop-up.

The Race

Unlike a marathon, I don’t really think too hard about what goals I want to hit for a half marathon but I definitely wanted to beat my PR of 1:49:58 from 2014(!). The conditions were pretty good for that to happen with a starting temperature in the mid-30s and clear skies. Also, the course was pretty flat though there were definitely some hills and, as I would be told several times by pacers, a big one around mile six.

I started a few seconds behind one of the 1:45 pacers but quickly caught up to him which had me feeling pretty good... until I fell off the pace after a hill. The funny thing is that I was still going under 8:00/mile which meant the pacer was going faster than his prescribed pace. Sure enough, I eventually caught him after four miles and then passed him for good in the sixth mile. I knew I had 1:45 locked after a u-turn where I didn’t see the pacer on the other side until 30 seconds after I’d made the turn. At that point, I went for it, wanting to see just how much I could get under 1:45.

I finished the race in 1:42:52, a new PR by over seven minutes! As far as tune-ups go, this was as good as it gets, four weeks out from the Maratona di Pisa.

The List

Restaurants

  • Prince's Hot Chicken

  • Shokku Ramen

  • Liberty Common

  • Butcher & Bee

  • Another Broken Egg Cafe

  • DeSano Pizzeria

  • Hattie B's Hot Chicken

Breweries

  • Bearded Iris Brewing

  • Southern Grist Brewing Co

  • Living Waters Brewing

  • Crazy Gnome Brewery

  • Smith & Lentz

  • Yee-Haw Brewing Co.

  • Czanns

  • Fat Bottom Brewing

  • TailGate Brewery

Coffee

  • Crema Coffee Roasters

Places

  • Belmont Mansion

  • Cheekwood

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Gary Wong Gary Wong

Houston, October 28-November 1, 2021

I made a visit to Houston late last month to visit my brother and his family; more importantly, I got to see my nephew for the first time in nearly two years!

Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Cocktails 🍸🍸
Meats 🐄🐖🐓🦆
Seafood 🦞🦀 
Breweries 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Flights ✈️✈️

#AstroworldButNot

I made a visit to Houston late last month to visit my brother and his family; more importantly, I got to see my nephew for the first time in nearly two years! What a difference from the last time I saw him in 2019 - where he was quiet and reluctant to play with his Uncle Gary, this time around there were no issues getting him to do stuff with me. In all honesty, the kid absolutely wrecked me (but in the best way possible), wanting to play with his toys all the time. When my original flight home on Sunday was cancelled and I was rebooked for Monday, I’m sure the kid just thought that he’d get one more day to destroy me… which he did, but in the best way possible! Love the kid.

Thankfully, there were a bunch of breweries for me to find some quiet solitude when I needed a break. If I had to pick a favorite among the six I visited, I’d go with Urban South - HTX. They had an absurd number of beers available to pour and it wasn’t all IPAs either as they had a variety of sours to choose from. I’ll also give Brash Brewing a shout as they had decent beers on tap but probably the best physical space, indoors and outdoors, of the breweries I visited this time. I mean, how often do you get to have a beer with a skeleton as your drinking buddy?

No trip to Texas would be complete without barbecue and with Truth BBQ, I had some damned good barbecue. As I did in Dallas, I made sure to try the turkey if it was on the menu, reasoning if you’re gonna make turkey at a barbecue joint, it’s gotta be good - and it was! Another standout meal was at Rosie Cannonball - great food, stellar cocktails, and excellent service.

I’d really gotten into Japanese Breakfast (Michelle Zauner) after she’d released her memoir, Crying in H Mart, earlier in the year. Then they released their next album, Jubilee, and I really got into them - one of my favorite albums of the year. When I saw that they’d be in Houston when I was, I made sure to block out Saturday night so I could see them at White Oak Music Hall.

And what a show it was. Zauner’s voice was ethereal, light, and airy, yet still strongly soaring above a phalanx of instrumentation. Zauner also has a command of the stage and, consequently, the audience as she energetically bounded about throughout their performance. This was my first show in a GA pit since the pandemic and it felt cathartic to just be on the floor of a medium-sized venue, just soaking it all in.

Japanese Breakfast at White Oak Music Hall

The List

Restaurants

  • Southern Yankee Crafthouse

  • Truth BBQ

  • Hai Cang Harbor

  • Pho Ben

  • Rosie Cannonball

  • Golden Dim Sum

Breweries

  • Southern Yankee Crafthouse

  • Urban South - HTX

  • Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co

  • Eureka Heights Brew Co

  • New Magnolia Brewing Co

  • Brash Brewing

Coffee

  • Agnes

Bars

  • The Raven Tower

Concert Venues

  • White Oak Music Hall

Read More
Gary Wong Gary Wong

Chicago, October 8-11, 2021

Ah, Chicago Marathon, we meet again.

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Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Michelin ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
Ramen 🍜🍜🍜
Cocktails 🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹
Breweries 🍻🍻🍻🍻
Flights ✈️✈️
Transit 🚇🚌🚕 

#WindyCity262x2

Ah, Chicago Marathon, we meet again. But before we did, I actually had to, ya know, get to Chicago and that alone was quite the adventure. Scheduled to depart at 6:45 am, DL556 was delayed to a 7:45 am departure at 5:45 am, only to then be delayed to an 11:30 am departure at 6:15 am. Hilarious. At this point, everyone was scrambling to change their flight to an earlier one and by the time I got onto the app while everyone rushed to the gate agent, the next available flight was for 10:15 am. Fine, whatever, better that than the11:30 but still not great.

With my flight rebooked, I debated going home for a few hours and then coming back - it was 6:30 am now and I wouldn’t need to be back to LGA until 9:30 or so. As I walked back to security, I detoured to the Sky Club to see if I could get any help getting onto an earlier flight but I wasn’t a member so they couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything for me. Again, fine, moving on; next up was to maybe find a Delta rep at a counter but it was too early for it to be manned so I picked up a black phone to wait to speak to an agent.

So now I’m on the phone, listening to some lovely hold music when a Delta rep makes her way to the counter. It was barely 7:00 am and it normally would be unmanned for a little while longer but a similarly delayed customer got her to look into options for rebooking her flight. As she’s being helped, I position myself to be next in line while staying on the phone, cord extended as far as it can go, just in case someone on the phone would beat out the IRL agent. No surprise here, I ended up hanging up the phone so I could speak to the agent at the counter.

The first thing the agent did was to ask me for my boarding pass. As I handed it to her, I made it a point to address her by name which I had to strain to make it out from her badge as it was off to her side. After scanning my boarding pass, she saw that my original flight had been delayed and that I had already rebooked myself for 10:30 am so she asked, maybe wondering, what more she could do for me. I asked if I could be put on standby for the 8:05 am flight, figuring it was worth a shot. She thought so too so she put me on it and now I figured I might as well ask how far down I was on the standby list. She told me there were 18 people ahead of me and I laughed ruefully, knowing there was zero chance I would get off the list.

This was when something awesome happened for me. The agent told me should would “do something nice” for me and changed my 8:05 am standby to a confirmed seat. Daaaaaaamn. I thanked her, told her I loved her, and booked it back to the departure gate as it was now 7:15 am and the flight was going to start boarding in 10 minutes.

End of story, right? Nope. This flight was oversold so while my confirmed seat may have jumped me ahead of standby, I’d still need some luck in the form of a no-show or someone taking an offer to be voluntarily bumped. The latter seemed like a non-starter as this flight was full of fellow Chicago Marathoners who had zero intention of missing this flight. Now I’m standing by the gate agent as they call boarding group after boarding group as they keep upping the offer all the way up to $1000 and still no takers. This entire time I’m schmoozing the guy and he keeps checking the flight for me, finally landing on a likely no-show. He kindly offers me the $1000 if I’m willing to wait for the next flight but I politely decline and then he gives me the seat for the no-show. Thanking him and my lucky stars, I gather my bags, grab the seat confirmation, and get onto the plane.

The Race

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The training for Chicago started off rough with back pain and PT for it in June but by mid-July, I was back on track. By the time I finished my third and last 20-mile long run, I felt like this had been the best marathon training season I’d ever had. This was reinforced with a PR by over four minutes at the Bronx 10 Mile, two weeks out from the marathon.

After that PR, I came up with my three goals for the Chicago Marathon. Here were the goals:

  1. PR: Sub-3:50:52

  2. Sub-3:50:00

  3. Sub-3:45:00

With two weeks to go, I felt really good about hitting all three of those goals. Then I saw the forecast for race day the Monday before and it was lows in the mid-60s with highs in the mid-70s. That forecast would only get worse throughout the week, peaking with lows in the low-70s and highs in the low-80s. As tempted as I was to re-adjust the goals, I figured I’d trust the training and bank on having trained in a traditional NYC summer.

I started the race with every intention of following the 3:45 pacers but I actually started a few feet behind them so that meant a quicker than expected first two miles to catch up with them. After that, it was just running a consistent 8:35ish mile, doing as much as I could to stay below the pace through the first half so as to bank some seconds for a decent cushion as it got warmer. When I hit the halfway mark at 1:51:21, I’d built a solid 69 second cushion. That’d come in handy because it definitely got warmer and the sun started to peak out from behind the clouds a little more than it had the first two hours of the race.

Honestly, there was very little drama in this race. Mile after mile, I kept churning out miles close to 8:35 though most were above the mark but that’s what the first half cushion was for. The only potential problem was the ol’ IT band barking after 23 miles but it stopped bothering me less than a mile later. I just kept telling myself “trust in the training, trust in the training” like it was my fucking mantra and shut everything else out. By the time I hit Michigan Avenue for the last few miles, I knew I was in good shape to hit some goals. But just how many goals?

I finished the marathon in 3:44:21. I crushed all three of my goals. This was my second time running Chicago and this was now my second time setting a marathon PR running it. I love this race.

Full Splits

Everything Else

The standout meal on this trip was at Mako, a Michelin-starred Japanese sushi omakase restaurant. This was some of the best sushi I’ve had in some time, certainly since I was last in Japan in 2019.

Another great meal was at Moody Tongue, a two Michelin-starred restaurant/brewery. While the food was spectacular, their beers were aggressively okay - fine to go with a meal but nothing worth bringing home.

The two days in town leading up to the race, I carbo-loaded the best way I know how - with ramen. Of the three bowls I had, my favorite was at High Five Ramen. The bowls I had at Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya and RAMEN-SAN were also excellent.

The List

Restaurants

  • RAMEN-SAN

  • Moody Tongue

  • Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya

  • High Five Ramen

  • Mako

Breweries

  • Moody Tongue Brewing Company

  • Haymarket Pub & Brewery

  • Cruz Blanca Brewery

  • Pilot Project Brewing

Bars

  • Clark Street Ale House

  • The Aviary

  • Beermiscuous

Coffee

  • Caffe Umbria

Marathon Splits

Half Splits

Split Time
Half 1:51:21
Finish 3:44:21

5k Splits

Split Time
5K 25:55
10K 26:40
15K 26:35
20K 26:27
25K 26:28
30K 26:49
35K 26:56
40K 26:35

Mile Splits

Split Time
1M 8:08.8
2M 8:18.7
3M 8:31.7
4M 8:32.5
5M 8:32.3
6M 8:35.7
7M 8:28.8
8M 8:33.0
9M 8:41.9
10M 8:38.1
11M 8:32.2
12M 8:30.5
13M 8:22.1
14M 8:24.7
15M 8:35.5
16M 8:36.1
17M 8:37.0
18M 8:40.2
19M 8:36.0
20M 8:47.8
21M 8:37.4
22M 8:37.8
23M 8:38.1
24M 8:47.3
25M 8:32.9
26M 8:38.6
Read More
Gary Wong Gary Wong

Denver, July 2-5, 2021

For the long holiday weekend, I took my longest flight during the COVID-19 pandemic, flying from LGA to DEN.

Denver City Farmer’s Market

Denver City Farmer’s Market

Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Breweries 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Games ⚾️⚾️
Flights ✈️✈️
Ramen 🍜🍜🍜
Doughnuts 🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩
Museums 🏛🏛

#milehighbeersandbaseball

For the long holiday weekend, I took my longest flight during the COVID-19 pandemic, flying from LGA to DEN. I’d only been to Denver one other time and that was well over a decade ago for GABF, so it was long overdue. Denver is only two time zones west but flying out early in the morning to get a full day in took more out of me than I expected. It’s either rust from not having traveled much in the last year or it’s just another sign that This is 40. Don’t even ask me how my runs at altitude went (spoiler alert: they didn’t).

Anyway, to the point of this trip - crossing another MLB ballpark off the list. Coors Field makes for 26 ballparks visited, leaving me with four to go. With luck and an ever-improving pandemic outlook, I’m hoping to get this done in 2022. There’s increasing uncertainty of just how rooted in Oakland the A’s are, so there’s certainly the possibility of having to visit a new home ballpark of theirs before I get the current set of 30 done if I don’t pull this off next season.

What did I think of the Rockies’ ballpark? I liked it a lot but it’s been around a while and there have been enough new stadiums built since they opened in the mid-90s that it’s feeling a little dated. Among the 26 I’ve been to, it’s solidly mid-tier. The sight lines from the locations I sat in at the two games I went to were spectacular, even from the last section in the upper deck along the 3B line. My only real gripe was the lack of an open concourse above the field level but it’s a minor one on balance. I’d visit it again, for sure.

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Colorado Rockies, July 2

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Colorado Rockies, July 2

Coors Field, July 4

Coors Field, July 4

If going to a new-to-me ballpark was reason 1 to travel to Denver, reason 1-A was to check out the craft beer scene. When I’d last been out here, most of the breweries we visited were a drive out of Denver to the surrounding areas; this time around, almost all of the breweries I visited were a walk or a quick bus trip or rideshare away. There’s so many breweries where craft beer can be had fresh that it’s pretty much made old-school craft beer bars like Falling Rock Tap House obsolete which is a shame, really.

Most of the breweries I visited had fine, if not spectacular, beers on offer. Even in a beer mecca like Denver, the explosion in the number of breweries per capita hasn’t led to much of an increase in quantity of incredible beers being produced. While I’d revisit just about every brewery from this trip, I’m struggling to think of anything I had that was truly memorable.

Finally, let’s get to the last, best part of most of my trips - the food! There wasn’t anything particularly Denver that I felt I had to eat so I just went nuts with random cuisines. Of course, there was ramen (when do I not have ramen) and two of the three bowls I had there were great with the other one being adequate but would not make a point of eating there again. The best bang for the buck was Bourbon Grill which is a place that serves the kind of grilled chicken that wouldn’t be out of place in a mall food court. You know, the kind that always gave out the free samples you go back to for seconds and thirds when you’re in high school and college; except this place was actually good.

The standout meal was at The Wolf’s Tailor, a Japanese-influenced Euro/American restaurant. Tons of flavor combined with farm-fresh ingredients results in a spectacular five-course meal. As far as blowout meals go, $95 for a pre-fixe menu is a pretty solid price to pay.

The List

Breweries

  • Denver Beer Co

  • Cervecería Colorado

  • Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery

  • Banded Oak Brewing Company

  • Baere Brewing Company

  • TRVE Brewing Company

  • Diebolt Brewing Company

  • Cerebral Brewing

  • Ratio Beerworks

  • Great Divide Brewing Co.

  • Woods Boss Brewing Company

  • Spangalang Brewery

Restaurants

  • Walter’s303

  • Uncle

  • Bourbon Grill

  • The Wolf’s Tailor

  • Oishii Ramen

  • Osaka Ramen

Bars

  • Star Bar

  • First Draft

Coffee & Baked Goods

  • Jubilee Roasting Co

  • Rebel Bread

  • Little Owl Coffee

  • Voodoo Doughnut

Museums

  • Molly Brown House Museum

  • Denver Art Museum

Read More
Gary Wong Gary Wong

Buffalo, June 5-6, 2021

If you’ll recall from my last trip to Tampa- St. Pete, I was able to catch a Toronto Blue Jays home game in Dunedin because of COVID-19 restrictions keeping them south of the border.

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Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Breweries 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Games ⚾️ ⚾️
Flights ✈️✈️

#ballpark32

If you’ll recall from my last trip to Tampa- St. Pete, I was able to catch a Toronto Blue Jays home game in Dunedin because of COVID-19 restrictions keeping them south of the border. Well, those restrictions are still in place but with summer approaching, the club had to find a new home or fall victim to the warmer, more humid weather to come.

Enter Buffalo - Sahlen Field, the home of their Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons would become the new temporary home for the Jays.

Sahlen Field, June 5

Sahlen Field, June 5

Sahlen Field was built with the intention of possibly being a home for an MLB team. Well, a little over 20 years later, it happened with the Blue Jays playing their home games there in 2020 due to the pandemic. With US-Canada border still closed, it was pressed back into service for 2021 as their home after they finally “broke camp”, leaving Florida after their final homestand in May.

You can tell that there were higher ambitions for the ballpark as it’s a fairly large one by MiLB standards. That said, it’s still too small a footprint and would need considerable upgrades, even more than the ones made the last two years to have it be serviceable as a temporary home for an MLB team. That’s no knock on the stadium itself - it’s an awesome minor league venue and a fantastic place to take in a game of any caliber. It’s just not a major league stadium. It was, however, the 32nd ballpark I’ve seen an MLB game.

Also? I caught my very first foul ball here!

Sahlen Field, June 6

Sahlen Field, June 6

The start time for the Saturday afternoon game was a very Toronto home game time - 3:07 pm. That left me with just enough time to take a tour of a Frank Lloyd Wright home - Martin House. Alas, photography was not allowed inside the house on this tour so you’ll just have to take my word for it that the interior is phenomenal. Several rooms were incredible but the kitchen may have been the standout of the spaces we had access to.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House

Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House

The List

Breweries

  • Resurgence Brewing Company

  • Thin Man Brewery

  • Big Ditch Brewing Company

  • Lafayette Brewing Co.

  • Pressure Drop Brewing

Bars

  • Anchor Bar

Coffee & Baked Goods

  • Public Espresso + Coffee

Read More
Gary Wong Gary Wong

Tampa-St. Petersburg, May 15-16, 2021

Looking at the 2021 MLB schedule when it was released last summer, I knew I’d be coming down this weekend to see the Mets play the Rays and notch Tropicana Field off my ballpark list.

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Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Breweries 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Games ⚾️ ⚾️
Ballparks 🏟🏟
Flights ✈️✈️

#ballparkdoubledip

Looking at the 2021 MLB schedule when it was released last summer, I knew I’d be coming down this weekend to see the Mets play the Rays and notch Tropicana Field off my ballpark list. This trip, of course, depended on the state of the pandemic and whether Florida would be in the clear by mid-May. I shouldn’t have had any doubts - it’s Florida, after all (interpret that however you want) and so I was off to Tampa-St. Petersburg.

Tropicana Field

Tropicana Field

What can I say about Tropicana Field that hasn’t already been said? It’s definitely a bottom-tier MLB ballpark and only the Oakland Coliseum rivals it for worst stadium in MLB. Having a roof prevents the rainouts in the summer months that the Marlins used to fall prey to when they were in Joe Robbie Stadium but not having it be retractable or at least transparent makes it feel like they’re playing baseball in a tent. It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon and you couldn’t tell from inside the stadium. I’m just bummed I didn’t get to see the wacky ground rules regarding the ceiling rings go into effect. If I’m being charitable, I can say that the sightlines from just about every part of the stadium are clear and unobstructed. Also, the local food and craft beer options are spectacular.

TD Ballpark

TD Ballpark

When I planned this trip, I planned to just make it to one game; after all, this was Tropicana Field and the way the flight schedules worked out, it was just easiest to come in Saturday morning and leave Sunday afternoon. What I hadn’t anticipated was the Canadian reticence to let the Toronto Blue Jays host games at home, owing to the cross-border traffic that would be required for them and their opponents to come to Toronto. This meant that the Blue Jays would not be able to break camp and head north after spring training, choosing instead to stay in Florida to open the season. As luck would have it, they were home the same weekend I would be in Tampa-St. Pete and, even luckier, their game would be at night. So, after leaving Tropicana Field (with a pit stop at a nearby brewery), I made my way up to Dunedin and to TD Ballpark.

I’d actually been here before for spring training but to see an actual MLB game at a spring training stadium was quite the experience. Sure, the tickets were way more expensive than you’d normally pay for a game here but look how close fans are to the action!

TD Ballpark

TD Ballpark

As always, there were breweries to visit and while I made it a point to revisit Green Bench and Webb’s City Cellar, their offshoot next door, everything else was new to me. It’d only been maybe three years or so since the last time I was down here and there were still plenty of places to try for the first time. If you’re ever in the area, I’d make it a point to go up to Dunedin and walk/bike along the Pinellas Trail - there’s at least a handful of breweries you can stop in at to whet your whistle.

The List

Breweries

  • Bayboro Brewing Co.

  • Avid Brew Company

  • Green Bench Brewing Company

  • Woodwright Brewing Company

  • Cueni Brewing Co.

  • HOB Brewing Co.

  • 3 Daughters Brewing

  • Grand Central Brewhouse

  • Webb's City Cellar by Green Bench Brewery

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Gary Wong Gary Wong

Dallas, May 1-2, 2021

For the first time in 453 days, I flew on a plane!

Globe Life Field

Globe Life Field

Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Breweries 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Games ⚾️ ⚾️
Meats 🐄 🐖 🦃
Sweets 🍩🍩🍦
Flights ✈️✈️

#beersbbqbaseball

For the first time in 453 days, I flew on a plane! With my first flight since the pandemic, life felt like it was finally returning to normal if, ya know, “normal” includes wearing a mask the entire time I was on the plane. But once I got to my final destination of Dallas, TX, it was a mask-free weekend. Freedom from the tyranny of masks! 🙄

I’ll admit to being incredibly nervous at times when it came to mask wearing. Now, there’s no mask mandate in Texas so it’s not like there’s any mask compliance to meet. But after spending the entire last 14 months in the northeast, to actually see how the other half is living, like the pandemic had ended (or worse, never happened) was jarring. Still, this is their turf so just gotta mask up and stay as safe as is possible and pray that J&J is effective. 🤞🏻

So why was I in Dallas? Well, they’ve got a brand spanking new ballpark that I haven’t been to yet and I had tons of Southwest Airlines voucher credit to burn through so Dallas it was! The last time I was in Dallas four years ago, I visited the Texas Rangers’ previous ballpark, Globe Life Park and after attending that early July game, I was convinced as to why a 20-something year-old ballpark already had to be replaced. Without a roof and climate control, it was unbearably hot in the stands until the sun set behind the stadium. I swore there were more fans in the concourse common seating areas than there were in the stands for the first three innings that night.

Globe Life Field, May 1

Globe Life Field, May 1

This new stadium, Globe Life Field? Heat is not a problem though the sun can still be since the roof is constructed with plenty of glass panels. Under direct sun light in the upper concourse, it can still get hot but that’s the cost of having an abundance of natural light, even for a roofed stadium. Of all the post-Camden ballparks I’ve been to, this is the first one that feels big, like it’s not trying to go after that hit of nostalgia every ballpark of the past 25 years seems to have chased.

Globe Life Field, May 2

Globe Life Field, May 2

But what about the barbecue!? The first time I was in Dallas, I made a point to try Pecan Lodge and I was not disappointed. Beyond that, though, I had been forewarned that Dallas proper didn’t have the great barbecue. Would I be disappointed!?

Dear reader, I was not. My first stop after dropping my bag at the hotel was to The Slow Bone, arriving there just as they were about to open and that was some damn good meats. We’re talking prime brisket, hickory sausage, and pork ribs, all of which I could have finished in one go if I didn’t have any shame. If that weren’t enough, they tossed in a free slice of turkey breast so I could have a try; I would have gladly gotten a portion of that if I hadn’t already gotten more than I could possibly eat.

The other standout barbecue was Hurtado Barbecue in Arlington which i am sad to say I have no photos of as I actually had to put in a large order to pick up on my way to the airport Sunday afternoon to ensure I got to try it as I had been shut out the previous day.

The List

Breweries

  • Peticolas Brewing Company

  • Texas Ale Project

  • Legal Draft

  • Division Brewing

  • Pegasus City Brewery

  • Manhattan Project Beer Co.

Restaurants

  • The Slow Bone

  • Lockhart Smokehouse

  • Hurtado Barbecue

Coffee & Baked Goods

  • Urban Donut

  • State Street Coffee

Read More