Monday, July 25, 2005

Italian Festival

I ate twice at the Italian Festival this weekend. On Friday, I had a Giovanni Sandwich. This consisted of a luke-warm circular sausage, topped with American cheese on some quasi-toasted bread. It was poor. I'm actually surprised that I ordered it. All those years of being compelled to eat the Sons of Italy sausage had taken its toll. I had to go in a different direction.
On Sunday I had a sausage sandwich from the stand at Tambellinis (a quality Pittsburgh restaurant with 3 locations). It was pretty good. I also had some fresh squeezed lemonade which was pretty bad. It met 1 of the 3 requirements that you seek when drinking lemonade. It was indeed a liquid. However, it wasn't refreshing and it wasn't cold.
Sunday afternoon is really notorious for bringing the dregs of humanity out in the open. They swarm the Italian Fest like vultures looking for last minute deals on crappy novelty items. They drink their warm Bud-Light and cast toothless smiles upon all. I saw this one grotesque character picking gum from his shoe as he watched this girl fire up a cigarette. He was eyeing up that Marlboro as though it were a T-Bone steak.
Then, I watched a little of the bocce ball tournament. Why would people find this game entertaining? Yes, I realize it was a hot ticket back in the roaring twenties, but c'mon, let's step into the 90's.
All in all, the Italian Festival is pretty sketchy; however, the odds of me returning in 2006 are above 90%.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Mike's Beef House

Formerly known as Pappas Beef House, Mike's Beef House is located in Center market down from Coleman's Fish Market. I'm not sure if the name change was absolutely necessary. I suppose it may serve some unknown higher purpose. The term "Beef House" sounds a bit strange - kind of reminscent of the song "She's a Brick House". It just sounds a little weird - "Hey, let's go eat at the Beef House". I think this sounds much better if you omit the word "the". "Hey, let's go eat at Beef House."

I've always been concerned that the citizenry of Wheeling has no concept of what real corned beef looks like or tastes like. Through the years, people have said that our town needs a real deli. I've always countered that it wouldn't matter because Wheelingites have no idea what a real deli is. Their only conception is Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh. Primantis is decent, but it still doesn't resemble a real kosher delicatessan. Plus, who the hell would actually eat at a deli in Wheeling? Our townfolk are absolutely terrified of food they've never experienced, unless it's smothered in gravy or submerged in ketchup, sometimes ranch.

Anyway, the sandwiches were pretty good. No major complaints. I'ts difficult to go down there and not buy the obvious fish sandwich at neighboring Coleman's. Just one of those instinctive moves that's hard to overcome. Along the same line of reasoning, I usually get gasoline at Kroger, liquour at CVS, blah, etc.