The first of our Christmas shows has been booked. We are going to try book a few shows this year instead of one to try and get our name out a bit more. Our first stop will be in Rochester, NY at the Victor PTSA Arts and Crafts Show, Saturday October 15.
Friday was payday and I wanted Italian food. This construction thing in our house is driving us both mad. We just want to start cooking again! All we are waiting on is the granite counter top to arrive, and because we are waiting on that, the contractor started working on the bathroom. Now even our bathroom is limited. We are going crazy. I wanted the both of us to get out of the house and to enjoy some good food. We decided to look north on Hertel Avenue where there is a plethora of Italian Restaurants to choose from. We decided to go with “Victor’s Bar and Grill.” Neither of us had ever been there so I figured I’d try it and write a review.
Victor’s provided an odd yet comfortable atmosphere. It seemed to have been split down the middle with a little sports bar section on one side, and a sit-down, family dinner section on the other side. The chairs were super comfortable. They looked like outdated kitchen chairs from 1989 with big thick cushions. The menu was loaded with delicious options. We ordered two glasses of Chianti and started off with an appetizer. We went with the Diavlo Bread, which was on the specials menu. It was garlic bread topped with gorgonzola, mozzarella, spinach, and hot peppers served with marinara.
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| There were six here, but we had eaten a few before I remembered that I was supposed to take pictures… |
There is not one negative thing that I could say about this appetizer. The instant it arrived to the table, the smells that were emitting from this dish were fantastic. So fantastic that I forgot to take pictures at first. Nicole and I had both agreed the there was so much flavor in this bread, that the marinara was not really needed. This was a great start to a much needed Italian fest. For our main entrees, Nicole ordered the “Meg’s Kickin’ Chicken” which was supposed to be one of their signature dishes. It consisted of a fresh chicken breast pounded out and folded around a stuffed banana pepper served with a linguini pesto cream sauce. I had ordered Baked Braciole. Both meals came with a salad. When the salads arrived they looked so sorry that we almost started to worry about our meals. Just plain iceberg lettuce, two slices of cucumber a piece, and one chopped cherry tomato. Thankfully, when the main entrees arrived, they both looked fantastic.
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| Baked Braciole |
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| Meg’s Kickin Chicken |
My dish was pretty good. The steak was a little tough but the sauce made up for it. Its hard to find a good red sauce especially when you come from an Italian family that made great red sauce (Hint: it will never be better than my mother’s). In fact, 90% of the time we go out for Italian, I almost never order anything with red sauce because its usually terrible or too sweet. This sauce was decent. Nicole’s dish was good also. The chicken was really tender and perfectly cooked. After a taste of her dish, my only complaint was that it was a little bland, but still good. It was perfectly cooked, it just could have used a little more flavor, especially for something referred to as “kickin’ chicken,” but Nicole enjoyed it. Victor’s served as a good quick decision Italian Restaurant. The service was above average and we were able to sit down immediately. It is not a place that I would ever mention for great Italian food, but it is definitely a solid restaurant that you can rely on very a good meal. I would go back to and try something else without a doubt. If I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10, I would give this place a 7.5. It’s totally worth checking out if you are in the Hertel area, would like some solid Italian food, and you don’t want to break the bank paying for dinner.
The Midnight Society T-shirt for fans of “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” is up. I was going to wait a few days before making it, but once I get something designed, I have to make it immediately. I can’t wait. I was initially going to do it on a baby onesie first but decided against it for now. Its been a while since I’ve posted a new shirt design, so I wanted to get one up for the adults first. I have also decided to offer this shirt in both guy’s and girl’s sizes.
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| Ladies style shirt. Size chart is on our website and in our eBay/Etsy Stores |
I will have this in a onesie sometime in the next week or two. Stay tuned, we have some more great shirts coming out!
If you have been reading my blog regularly then you would know that about a week ago we had adopted a dog and in 3 days, had to bring her back. I just wanted to thank everyone that helped post her on their Facebook pages to get the word out. This week she was finally adopted. This is not an experience I will forget, it had really done a number on me mentally. The Buffalo SPCA had posted on their Facebook page that she had found a great home, and I couldn’t be happier because she deserves it. Thanks again readers, friends, and family!
Hello, Hello! I have a new design coming out this week. Nicole requested an “Are You Afraid of The Dark” themed t-shirt. After hearing feedback from others also, there were plenty that agreed. Although I had never watched the show, I gathered some feedback from Nicole and we came up with a pretty cool shirt! Take a look below at the prototype:
I plan on also releasing this on a baby onesie! Stay tuned!
This weekend was Nicole’s birthday. My parents came down and took us out to Bambino Bar and Kitchen. It was fantastic as usual, but this review is about our Saturday night. I had made us reservations to Bistro Europa on Elmwood Avenue. This was a restaurant that always made us hate the fact that we were vegetarians. Its unique, cozy, European look and their constantly changing menu and specials, always sparked our curiosity. We could never go before because everything on the menu involves some sort of meet or seafood. No longer being vegetarians, we were eager to try this place out.
We arrived like 15 minutes early. The inside was artsy and dimly lit. From the sidewalk outside, its almost impossible to see inside and I was not expecting it to look the way that it did when we got in.
There was a couple that had reservations a few minutes before us and they were in front of us. They told the women at the bar that they had reservations and the women at the bar said that she was able to seat them immediately. The people then said that they “wanted to see the menu first”. So the women handed the couple menus, and then said that she could seat us immediately also. She said that we could choose whatever table we would like. So of course we choose the best table in the place, in the corner by the window. The couple looking at the menu got angry that we chose their table and left. To that couple who made reservations and then left:
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| “Yes, that was us that stole your table.” |
With that being said, we sat down and ordered a round of beers. The beer selection was all really great craft bottles. I started off with The Stone Levitation and Nicole had a Hefeweizen.
For an appetizer we ordered the cabbage and pork pierogi. For our entrees, Nicole had ordered the Sea Bass and I had ordered the Steak Frites. The pierogi arrived in less than 10 minutes. They were very large and looked amazing. 3 pierogi on a bed of sour cream all seasoned and they looked delicious. Each pierogi was filled generously with extremely tender shredded pork and cabbage. These were simply amazing.
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| Pork and Cabbage Pierogi |
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| Steak Frites |
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| Sea Bass |
Nothing about this dining experience was bad. Everything from the service to the food was nothing short of amazing. This was easily one of the best restaurants we have been to in Buffalo.
I’ve been able to get the Super Sweet Shirt co. studio into a working condition with the bare necessities to get the ball rolling again. Slowly I will be making it more the way that I want as I get more time, but I needed to get things set up so that I could keep up with the orders and make new designs. I have created two new onesies that I wanted to shamelessly plug on the blog today, both are totally awesome. I have had many requests from France and Australia to do a Van Damme onesie. I already do a Van Damme t-shirt but haven’t had a baby onesie until now. The onesie features Van Damme in fighting pose from “Kickboxer” as Nack Suk Cao (The White Warrior).
The second new onesie is something Nicole had come up with. I was always a fan of the “Big Wheel”. It was always something that would make a kids imagination run wild. I remember riding mine around driveways like it was the open road. Nicole had come up with the idea of “Heck’s Angels”. I totally fell in love with the idea and designed the little logo.
Both of these designs are available in the eBay and Etsy stores, along with our website at http://www.supersweetshirts.com .
I was supposed to get this up yesterday but things have been crazy with shirts! I wanted to post some pictures from the Taste of Buffalo. I’m pretty sure that this was the biggest one yet in terms of vendors, in fact this year was supposed to have made it the biggest food event in the US. It was pretty awesome. I was excited to go this year as a non vegetarian especially. It’s best to know ahead of time, or to at least get an idea, as to what you want to try there, otherwise you can wander aimlessly in large crowds looking for what you want. I wanted to try the Lobster Mac & Cheese from Parings Wine Bar, Pierogi from Polish Villa, and wine slushies which are the best when its hot out. Nicole wanted to try the Pierogi and wine slushies also, but also wanted to try the Stuffed Hot Pepper Roll from Molinaro’s Ristorante & NY Pizzeria. We got to taste all of these things and they were delicious. I had two Lobster Macs and Nicole’s Pepper Roll was the best tasting thing out of everything. If you haven’t attended this event before, you should definitely try to get there next year, especially if you love food!
Also, an update on the home renovation. The kitchen is coming along nicely. Al just finished dry walling the room minus a few small things left. This weekend we will be able to paint the kitchen before the cabinets go up. I took some time off next week so that I could help Al with some things. We cant wait to have storage again!
This weekend was packed full of good things. I wasn’t able to get much house work done, but then again, that was the goal this weekend. We have been doing a ton of work around here, so this weekend we wanted to take a break, or at least cut down ( I caved in and did a little work).
Friday I met some old friends out for a fish fry. There are a lot of places that make fish frys in Buffalo, but none of them can even come close to making a fish fry better than Papa Jake’s on Elmwood. They make a fish fry that is so far better than any other place I’ve been to, that it would be a waste of time and money to consider any other option. It’s that good. I hadn’t been there in over 3 years, so I was eager to see if theirs was still the best. We arrived at around 6:30pm and were fortunate enough to be able to sit down immediately as a table was open in the back. We could have waited to sit in their outside seating area if we really wanted to, but we were pretty hungry and decided against it. One thing I noticed when we walked in was that they increased the quality and the amount of beers they have on tap. I think I counted over 25. I was distracted when trying to count the taps when becoming overwhelmed by excitement from the sight of Ithaca’s “Hop Stash” IPA. The “Hop Stash” is easily my favorite beer of the summer if I don’t consider any of the beer I had in San Francisco. Ithaca brewed this beer in limited distribution to pay tribute to this year’s Phish tour. This is the perfect summer IPA, hands down. I ordered a pint and a fish fry. They did an upgrade on the fish fry since I had last been there. This time, the fish fry came with a crab mac salad that was out of this world. It was the perfect companion. As a whole the fish fry comes with a piece of rye bread, crab mac salad (I think you have a choice of another salad, but I was so excited when they mention the crab mac, that I didn’t hear the other option), cole slaw, and Papa Jakes fresh cut french fries.
Three pints of Hop Stash later, and a full stomach, I was more than satisfied and I can’t wait to get another fish fry on an future Friday. If you like a good fish fry, and you haven’t been to Papa Jake’s, you are missing out.
Saturday we went to the Echo Art Fair at the Central Terminal, one of the most beautiful old buildings in Buffalo. They hold events there to help fund its ongoing restoration. There was a decent turn out and the artists where very diverse from photography and paintings, to sculptures and modern art. There were some artists doing live paintings which is always interesting. And at every art show, there was always one artist that stands out either it be good or bad. In this case it was the bad. There was an artist that did paintings of computer desktops. Oh no I’m serious. A beautiful painting of an excel sheet here, a deep and thoughtful painting of solitaire there, this stuff was ridiculous but really funny to look at. I was actually approached by the artist while looking at them, and thankfully he didn’t seem to take himself all that seriously. At least I don’t think….
We were able to catch a quick lunch inside the art fair courtesy of Potts Deli. They are a Polish deli on South Ogden St. in Buffalo. They were cooking up some fresh pierogi that we smelled as soon as we walked in. Nicole and I are like basset hounds when it comes to sniffing out pierogi. Delicious.
This weekend we also went to the Taste of Buffalo and the da Vinci exhibit at the science museum. I have pictures and some thoughts on those two things that you can read here throughout the week! Thanks for reading and thanks for making Super Sweet Shirts #7 on the top 35 Urban Spoon Buffalo Blogs!
The Buffalo waterfront has really stepped it up. We had gone down to the waterfront near the HSBC arena on the 3rd of July to check it out. In the past, it was a ghost town. There were no people to be seen, no activity at all. This summer it is totally different. There was tons of activity and people enjoying their Sunday afternoon by the water. It was really awesome. When we went down on the 4th, it was crazy. I took some pictures. The progress and development of the waterfront is definitely coming along nicely.
The fireworks display was pretty amazing. I didn’t get any pictures of them because pictures of fireworks are never impressive unless taken by a real photographer. I think the most annoying thing that happened during the fireworks display would be the excessive amounts of country music blasting as the fireworks went off. At one point I had looked to my left to see a family of really overweight trashy people, smoking tons of cigarettes, and getting into the terrible songs playing. The song “Proud to be an American” might be one of the most embarrassing songs ever written and definitely does not make me proud. For about 10 minutes, it was mind blowing and it actually felt like I was in some backwoods town in the South. Luckily they only played like 4 country songs. Yeah I know, some people like country music, but it is still embarrassing. All in all, it was a fun 4th in Buffalo.
This upcoming weekend and the weekend after are super busy. Nicole and I are volunteering at the Echo Art Fair at the Central Terminal this Saturday. Sunday is the Taste of Buffalo which, this year, is the biggest food festival in the United States. I will be eating food and taking pictures! The following weekend is the Italian Festival. This festival isn’t all that pretty to look at, but the food is amazing! I will have pictures of that also.
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