Review: The Fish House, Pensacola FL
My beautiful wife and her mom.
Last Sunday the family decided to go to a restaurant we'd never been to. I was in Florida for Christmas break and we were leaving the next day. I've never been a big "brunch" person, but the rest of the family enjoys it so I go along (plus, Dad pays... can't get any better than that). Also, brunch is a nice excuse to drink bloody marrys and mimosas 
.
So we went to The Fish House near the pier in downtown Pensacola. Mom and Dad said that they've never heard anything bad about the place and that everyone they've talked to absolutely raves about how great the food and service is. Maybe our experience was an anomaly.
We arrived to the restaurant about 10 minutes before they opened so we had to wait around to be seated. Not their fault, but beig the 2nd party there usually means being the 2nd party seated, right? Nope. We were about 4th to be seated. Kind of annoying but forgivable.
We sat outside since on Dec 28th it was unseasonably warm. The view was marvelous. After sitting down our server took our drink orders. Water, water, coke, coke, decaf coffee. When a restaurant opens for the day you hope they make new coffee. Well, my father-in-law got his coffee and it wasn't even hot. Now how could the coffee not be hot if it had just been made? We complained and our server took it and microwaved the coffee. Yes. microwaved. Every other restaurant I've ever been to would have just poured another cup from a hot and freshly brewed pot. Heck, even IHOP throws the coffee away and pours a new cup! It was microwaved with cream in it too, doubly gross.
How do you screw up coffee?
So they brought us out complimentary "small fancy doughnuts" covered in powered sugar (I forget the actual name of this particular deep fried dough variety). There were 5 of us at the table. They brought out 8 doughnuts. The table across from us: 2 people, 8 doughnuts. Seems to me that we should have gotten at least two plates instead of the 1 we got. Our server didn't even offer to get us more after they were all gone in about 12 seconds. The other table had a 4:1 ratio of doughnuts to people, our ratio was 1.6:1. In other words, the other table got two and a half times more doughnuts per person than we did. Not a great value for us, but they were free.
Well, our meals came. I got an order of eggs benedict with crabcake and fillet to share with my wife. Sounds good huh? Not so much. I ordered the fillet medium and it was cooked well. My crabcake was a little colder than lukewarm. My egg was undercooked and slimy.
I complained and they sent it back. This time, a manager brought back my meal. The steak was still overcooked. They probably just microwaved the whole thing.
Dessert was on the house. Too bad the entire menu was full of desserts that I don't like. The rest of the family got something. Guess what? I'm told that the bread pudding sauce was lukewarm.
The Fish House definitely had a temperature challenged cook the day we were there.
Three things stood out in my mind as the best part of the meal:
- Spending time with family
- The view
- Leaving
Rest assured, next time I'm in Pensacola I won't be going back to The Fish House. I'm also going to recommend that nobody else go there as well.
Frank Warren of PostSecret.com
Dana and I went to go see Frank Warren of postsecret.com fame the other night at Wake Forest University. I honestly didn't think that Dana would enjoy it but she was laughing and really into Frank's talk.
Frank was surprisingly mild-mannered and soft-spoken, but completely hilarious throughout. He had great presence and knew when to joke around and when to be solemn. Each time someone got up to talk, we was very respectful and treated everyone with respect and dignity, especially when people were telling stories of suicide that have affected their lives.
The room was completely packed! There wasn't an open seat in the place and I suspect that there were people that weren't able to get in the door because the organizers were letting people trickle in at the end.
Dana wanted to stay and purchase a book and have Frank sign it, but by the time we got out to the lobby, there was already at least 75 - 100 people already in line so we decided to purchase the book at a local store.
Dana suggested maybe we could but the book and snail mail it to Frank with return postage to see if he'd sign it and send it back.
I suspect he would.
Farecast.com Really Works!
I recently had to get two plane tickets to Dallas for a conference that my wife and I are going to. I decided I'd use Farecast.com because of all the hype about them recently on some of the blogs I follow.
The service they provide is amazing. The airline industry is pretty hush-hush when it comes to how they price their flights. What Farecast has done is plot historical prices from city to city and will tell you if the prices are going to drop, stay the same, or go up. It's really a quite ingenious way to think about air travel. I guess their "How It Works" page says it best:
Farecast offers unique features to help you Know When To Buy™, When To Fly™, and Where To Stay™—all based on science, not marketing. And now it's available from most major U.S. and Canadian cities to destinations worldwide. Our smart travel search also allows you to easily compare, sort, and narrow down flight and hotel results for hundreds of websites.
Thanks to our technology and data, you can find out if the lowest fare for a trip is rising or dropping over the next 7 days.
To find an Airfare Prediction, select cities and dates highlighted in green when you search flights.
My recent experience with Farecast was spectacular. I checked rates from Raleigh, NC (RDU) to Dallas, TX (DFW) in February and they told me to wait (ticket prices were about $375 if I recall correctly). When I got around to checking the price again on April 3rd, they said to buy the tickets at $299.
I jumped on it and bought the tickets. I looked at the same flight again today (7 days after I purchased the tickets).
Purchase Price:
Current Price:
As you can see, Farecast.com saved me about $200 ($100 each ticket) by telling me when would *statistically* be the best time to purchase the tickets.
Everyone should use Farecast.com. (They do hotel prices too.)
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Nike+ Running Stats
- Total runs: 175
- Total distance: 305.50mi
- Total time: 89hr 23min 36sec
- Total calories: 40,864
- Avg pace per mi: 17'33"
- Avg distance per run: 1.75mi
- Avg calories per run: 233.51
My Records
- Farthest Run: 6.43mi
- Fastest Mile: 8'40"
- Fastest 5K: 32'10"
- Fastest 10K:2hr 16min 12sec
My Recent Runs
- August 25, 2010, 11:06pm
- Distance: 0.46mi
- Duration: 31' 22"
- Calories: 61
- August 25, 2010, 6:02pm
- Distance: 1.20mi
- Duration: 21' 6"
- Calories: 159
- August 24, 2010, 4:39pm
- Distance: 1.12mi
- Duration: 19' 58"
- Calories: 148
