Restaurant - Pricci

On Phar Rd in Buckhead. I had not heard or seen this restaurant when we drove by. Luiz and I headed there for dinner as I had received a $30 gift card to Buckhead Life group restaurants. We decided on Italian and we were very pleased with this choice. First they had a great special with a 3 course meal for $29.00. They allowed us to combine our meals and split the salad and share the tuna appetizer. Seriously,  it was truely enough food for both of us.  The main meal was a pumpkin ravioli which was WONDERFUL - then a braised beef short ribs. Great also. Since it is the Holidays we have been really staying away from sweats (not that I like that) but we ended the meal with Sorbet and fresh fruit. We would both highly recommend this choice for a great Italian meal.

Restaurant review -- Shout

In colony square --we heard they have $10 all the tapas you can eat Mondays and so we thought we would check it out. We did and the food was ok. Good Caesar salad and pot stickers and pizza all good -- we will return and try something else. A little disappointed they did not have the Tapas but hey - at least the food was good. ****

Movie Review "MILK"

What a great film about the early days in San Fransisco of the gay movement. It is a great story that makes me proud to come out and let people know I am gay and we are everywhere. It is not a character thing but a natural occurrence in this great world God created.

Hey - it sure has been a while - which means that time has flown by or I have been lazy - Ok maybe a little of each. This past weekend we drove to Cinncinati to enjoy the fall color and I played in a 9 team volleyball tournament. I was talking to a friend and I cannot believe October is already gone!!

well - the tournament was great - we seeded 5th after pool play on Saturday - pretty good as our team had never touched a volleyball together on the same court prior and we started the day 1-3 and finished the day 3-1 for a 4-4 record. Then the tournament play came and we battled and battled some more until we finally could not battle more and took 2nd place. (surprise to us!) we just hung in there and took all our matches to 3 games and stayed in the loosers bracket. It was a lot of fun.

Food..

A couple weeks ago - thanks to Jiwon at ALLURE Event and Meeting Productions I got the best gig I have had in a while. ALLURE had an Atlanta client who were entertaining clients from throughout the world and they needed someone to host dine arounds for two weekends. "What is a dine around?" you ask. Well - The local company has a showroom here in Atlanta and they decided to have an open house and invite VIP clients and VIP executives from around the world to Atlanta for a couple days and treat them to VIP service. They hired ALLURE to coordinate/provide transportation to and from the airport, hotel and showroom and too and from dinner. They also hired ALLURE to schedule private dinners at some of the finest restaurants in Atlanta/Buckhead for their guests. That is where I came in. My responsibility was to gather the party at the hotel (either the Intercontinental or the Ritz Carlton Buckhead- depending on the night ) and make sure we had everyone in the lobby and make sure the Limo's were ready and staged out front of the hotel. When it came time to leave - get everyone got into the vehicle and off we went to the restaurants where I made sure they made it to the private dining room with no worries and that the service was ready. While they had their dinner I sat in the other room and ate. Yes wonderful!! - Then after dinner their ticket was brought to me and I made sure it got to Jiwon to get paid and made sure the limo's were there to pick them up and that they got back to the hotel ok. That was it - my job was over. How easy could that be? I ended up eating Friday at Capital Grille - (prime rib was perfect ***** - yes 5 star) Saturday I went to Mortons (Sirloin was perfect and the onion bread was wonderful as well ***** 5 star) Sunday at Capital Grille (at this time I had enough red meat so I went with the pork chops and it was perfect with a side of lobster mac and cheese to die for ***** 5 star) Monday night it was to Aquanox (the lobster was great - ship wonderful - and service funny **** 4 star) then I was off a few days and Friday I went to Rathburns (sirloin was excellent - it was a more modern restuarant and I have to say a little loud on the atmosphere but food was not disappointing **** 4 star) Saturday it was to Blue Pointe -FYI the first restaurant I ate at in Atlanta 6 years ago. ( Scallions were ok - and desert a little sweet **** 4 star) Monday we went back to Blue Pointe (Lobster was good and Jiwon actually allowed me to bring Luiz with me ***** 5 star) I think to sum it up my favorite were the sirloin at Mortons - lobster mac and cheese at Capital Grille - Lobster at Blue Pointe.
On top of the great food I made enough money to head home to see my niece get baptised. Thanks Jiwon and ALLURE.

New York New York

A couple weekends ago my partner and I and a couple of friends headed to New York City for the weekend. I have not been there in 15 years. I was amazed at the change and I truely say good job New York - Not a single prostitute - drug deal - seen the entire trip. Yes it was comfortable walking in time square at 10 PM. I can't say I had the same experience 15 years ago. The Statue of Liberty is still smaller than it looks on tv but holds the same awe factor. The twin towers are gone and construction has taken over ground zero. For me - it was an emotional spot for some reason. I guess the loss of so many lives -- all the imagery from that day in 2001 - It was great heading to the top of the empire state building and spending time in Central Park. I actually walked down the path Dori and I walked down when we found ourselves on the wrong side of the park after the Paul Simon concert - it was quite a spooky walk through the park at night but this time we traveled by day. It was good to go back and think about times gone by. I wish I could have headed to Warwick but did not think about that until I was thinking about the past. Rent on Broadway was powerful! I am disappointed to hear it is closing soon and if you get a chance it is a must see. Well -all in all my trip to New York was a success. Until next time.....

Please let me know if you would like a personal tour of New York -I would be happy to share this beautiful city with you! All inclusive packages available--

See my about me page for contact information or leave a comment.

Oh My- What a wedding

Yesterday, a friend asked me to help with the coordination of a wedding in northern Atlanta. It was at a house in Alpharetta horse country. A beautiful setting (the parents home) with a lovely stable and lake in the front and pool in the back of the plantation style home. The tennis court was covered with a tent for the reception and chairs were placed in rows by the pool for the ceremony.

The setting was set when we arrived around 2;30 in the afternoon in anticipation of the nuptials. The bride and groom were consulted about the looming weather as the skies were gray and predictions of rain stemmed from ending at 3 to 7 pm. (ceremony scheduled to start at 6:00) and the church across the road - reserved for such a day- but the bride and groom decided to take their chances and have the wedding at the home. So we proceeded to get ready - the caterer arrived and start setting up the tent for the reception. Shuttle service arrived (oh yeah - guests park at the church across the street and are shuttled down the 3/4 mile drive past the stables and lake) and began to shuttle wedding party - family and guests.

The gray clouds start to produce a mist and sprinkle. 5:45 comes and everyone is arriving with us shuttling them from the shuttle car to the house with umbrella in hand. A decision is made to hold off on the ceremony until 6:30 since the rain is supposed to stop around 6:00 (like mother nature is on any kind of time frame) The 125 guests are now standing around in the 3 rooms that the parents wanted to keep everyone and having an OK time. At 6:15 the father of the groom arrives with 100 feet of plastic to lay in the back yard (which now has water setting in spots and the path from the garage to the tent where the caterers have been using is getting sloppy and muddy. We lay the plastic down to create a path for the catering staff and a path from the back patio of home to the tennis courts (tent) for the guests. At around 6:20 the guests begin to wonder what the plan is??? There is a small break in the rain and so we head out to the pool area and begin to wipe the chairs down with towels. After 1/1/2 rows are wiped - it begins to rain some more. OK on to plan B - Move chairs to the tent for the family and the other guests will make their way to the tent and sit at the tables for ceremony while the family will sit on the edge of the dance floor. The musician- photographer - soloist and minister move to the tent. We move 36 chairs (through the muddy back yard while guests watch and add commentary - thinking we are moving all the chairs to the tent and wondering why we waited so long to make this decision) to the tent and align them in rows for the family and begin wiping them dry with towels. (thanks to the catering staff for their assistance) We finish and then get word that there may be a plan C - Oh my gosh - what now -- The bride and groom decide that they want to get married in the house. The foyer of the home opens up to a grand staircase and at the top there is a balcony walk which is open to the living room area below. A great location to have a ceremony and have all the guests on the main level and the family and wedding party up on the balcony. OK - this means the musician - photographer- soloist - and minister need to come back to the house and set up - We get them back to the house and the ceremony begins and goes off without a "hitch".
During the ceremony we head to the tent to remove the chairs for the reception.

Now the ceremony is over and it is a matter of escorting guest through the muddy back yard with the plastic runner which now has water setting on it and muddy yuck under. Anyone with open toe shoes got wet toes and if you did not you squished in the mud. Not to mention the large rock at the entrance of the tennis courts that posed an obstacle and the large drops of rain coming off the tent right before entering.

All the guests get to the tent and to the catering staffs dismay no guests slipped into the mud on their journey to (or from for that matter) the tent. (yes the catering staff had a pool on how many people would fall on this journey.

The food and music was good. One guest came up to us and share some of the commentary that we did not hear as the guests watched us punt to plan B and then plan C. She was amazed that we still had smiles on our faces even though our shoes were caked in mud. My evening ended chauffeuring (in their car) the newly wed couple (her dress black on the bottom but she did not seem to mind) to the Ritz Carlton (where my car was). They were very happy on how proactive we were and what a wonderful job we did. All in all an experience I had to blog about.