New Place: Chelsea Grill

Chelsea Grill

4621 Montrose Boulevard, Houston, TX 77006-6132(713) 942-9857 ‎chelseagrill.com
Chelsea Grill is located right on Montrose in the heart of the Museum District. The Finance's mom bought us a Groupon and sent it to us for this place and so we decided to go for brunch. Yum! Chelsea Grill is on the first floor facing Montrose in the Chelsea Market building. Lovely little place decorated in a modern romantic style with an expressionist flair.
The Fare: Yum. Seriously Yum. I've been to the 'fancy pants' Baba Yega brunch that is super expensive and man, BY has nothing on the 'Grill. The food was amazing. I had the Challah French Toast, Breakfast Enchilada, Blue Cheese Macaroni and Cheese, Quiche Florentine, Chorizo Eggs, and Mango Mimosa. The Mimosa was only $4! Yummmmmmmmy! Made with real mango, yeah, there were floating bits of mango! I tried a bite of The Fiance's bacon and it was good. I'm not a fan of bacon in general but The Fiance said it was amazing. The food was perfectly seasoned for a Texan's palate, the server asked if we needed Tabasco and The Fiancé was perfectly content without it. No salt, or pepper needed either. Delicious. I was a little hesitant about the whole buffet style but they knocked it out of the park. By serving small amounts they could make sure that the offerings stayed hot and fresh. No soggy lukewarm eggs Benedict here! *Shudder!* They had a chocolate bread pudding for desert but we were stuffed. The coffee was even perfect. They also had an omelette station but I was too full!
The People: We were surprised that there were only about 20 patrons in the whole place at about 1pm. I'm thinking they had just opened a little while ago. Our server was wonderful, he didn't hover but was there when you needed him.
The Ambience: We felt seriously relaxed, the jazz music was a lovely addition and not too loud at all. Everyone in the restaurant seemed happy and relaxed and just having a nice Sunday brunch.
The Price: Before the Groupon we would have paid $15 per person for the buffet, $4 for the mimosa and about $2 for the coffee. I certainly felt like I enjoyed at least $15 worth of terrific food and my mimosa was in a glass about the size of a large wine glass.
The End: We loved this place and will certainly go back. Not a bad word to say about it!

New Place: Jackson's Watering Hole

Jackson's Watering Hole

1205 Richmond
Houston, TX 77006
Neighborhood: Museum District

(713) 528-2988

www.jacksonsbarhouston.com

The View: I really enjoyed myself here. Parking was very easy, kind of a gravel type place where you make your own space. The bar itself looks like an old ice house/ storage warehouse. The patio is obviously recently built and well done at that. Lots of nice picnic tables, I'd say about 10 of them, not to mention smaller tables.

The Inside: The interior of the bar is open, the music is the PERFECT level to be able to hear the people you're with speaking. A good variety of old country and popular music from the 90's. Made us 30 somethings feel right at home. No pool tables but they have two nice dart boards. Lots of bar stools and tables. No one was standing around because they couldn't find a seat.

The Service: We had to go to the bar a total of twice. Once to open a tab and get our first beers (The Fiancé had Abita Green Gator and I had something similar) and the the second time to close our tabs. The bartender gladly poured samples for me when I wasn't sure what I wanted. After our first beer the waitress found us outside on the porch, asked if we wanted another, offered me something called a Bootlegger Porter (or something like that, it's what I drank the rest of the night, yummo!) and then promptly returned with the beers. It was like that the whole evening.

The Price: After tip for 7 beers we had spent about $40. A bit pricey but we were drinking small brewery, yummy beers, not Busch or Lone Star. The bartender remembered The Fiancé's name after introducing himself once! It was worth it. I look forward to going there again, next time with a group of friends.

The Downside: One toilet for girls, one for guys. Somehow it all worked out and I didn't have to wait to go pee once.

The End: It was a great Date Night place, a great groupout place, or even a great out alone maybe to meet new people place. I liked it and will be keeping it in my rotation of favorite places to go. We were also informed walking out the door that they do Karaoke on Saturday nights.

5 Smiley Faces!

Review anyone?

So my favorite blog ever, Subliminal Hits, reviews movies on occasion. I enjoy reading them and most of the time I find that we agree on the same things.

I go out and try new places here in Houston all the time with The Fiancé. Some are good experiences and some are a little bit of a let down. People only write reviews on Yelp etc. when they are unhappy with the service. I'm going to try to start writing reviews of the new places I visit so that you'll want to visit them too!

Fun Filled Day!

Woke up this morning and did not want to go to work.

Went anyway. Got free pizza. Yum!

Got off work. Had good chat with the best friend Heater. Bought the fiance the wrong size shirt but that's ok cause I still have the receipt.

Ran to the gym. The Fiance is a great personal trainer. Texted me what I needed to work on.

Got home and did some kitchen cleaning. Followed with grocery shopping. I bought yummy healthy food. I do this from time to time. Lately the fridge has been full of bad for me foods.

Then on to the organization of the closet. That worked out well. Fiance came home early and we spent some time chatting in bed.

Moved ourselves to the Next Door Bar.

Met up with Aspen and had a nice chat about her and Jack Jack's Dad. Good times. I feel like she is a lot like Heater. Need to develop this friendship. I think she needs a Me.

Time for bed. Bear and Fer will be tomorrow. Fiance has to drive Fer to the airport.

I'm a happy camper. More later.

-camping happily

Friends and Fighting

I'm off work. Yay! Just grabbing some peace and quiet before the fiance's friends get here and the fiance gets home from work.

He sent me a text. He was sad this morning. We've been bickering and not loving each other as hard. Couples do this. We get tired from working too much and just get fussy. That's what we do. And then we get over it. We are the kind of couples that pick at each other for a week and then get over it. We don't have the big blow out screaming matches. We just aren't built that way.

I miss him. He's here in front of me most of the time but our free time, my weekend off and my time off lately has been filled with graduation celebrations and friends visiting from out of town.

I'm ok with it. I'm just exhausted by it. I miss the nights on the couch, legs on him, having a glass of wine and a bit of tv.

And then I realize. It's summer time. This happened last year. His friends are out of school and coming to visit. Our free time is spent with friends. His friends are great people but man, I've had my fill. I want my regularly scheduled programming back. How I Met Your Mother isn't on at noon anymore. The reruns are someplace else.

I feel like I'm just constantly running here and there for other people. Everything will get back to normal in about a week. Then I can be me again and I can spend quiet time again.

A lot of it has to do with working almost 8 days in a row and him working almost 10 days in a row. The one or two days off in two weeks are spent being social. My inner little kid is just yelling, "I don't wanna!" I feel like I'm getting a peek into motherhood, where my life is preplanned for someone else.

We'll get past it. We are survivors like that. I just miss us, the me and him us, not the group us. It's a dude thing, they just have more friends than us gals and they like spending time together. Women have friends to fill the empty moments without our men. We fit our lady friends into the small free spaces. We don't really go so far as to create free spaces for our friends. Don't get me wrong, I love my Gnat and Heater but the times we spend together are mostly the times that our guys have planned to spend with each other and we get to come along and have someone to chat with.

Thankfully, the fiance's friends have cool girlfriends that I've become close to and enjoy spending time with. I'm lucky as all hell in those regards.

I think I'm just the tired kid in the back seat. I'll get a nap and a cookie and I'll be a lot better!

-whiny lady

I Love Potato Salad

I'm at work. On a Sunday. It's a beautiful day in Houston Texas people. I hope you got to go out and see the Art Car Parade for me. I've still never been.

I'm learning to love Houston like never before.

The fiance has decided to go ahead and stay in Houston. Stay here, get an internship or a job and build up his skill set and experience before hoofing it to Austin to start the rest of our life with all the weirdos.

I'm happy about that. It means I can finally find a new job. Get the hell out of here. I hate this place. There are random moments of happy, granted, but they are few and far between and relatively small and sad, like we soggy cereal, glad to have been poured in the bowl but ultimately will never make it to the other bowl. Ha. I'm funny!

So yes. On to bigger and better things. Or maybe just over to the same and similar things, just in a different location.

And all this brings me back to potato salad. I love potato salad. It's my all around happy comfort food. I can have a container in the fridge and when things get a little stressful I have a bite. Yeah, just one bite. It's like a Hershey's Kiss for those of us who prefer smooth mustardy potatoy goodness.

So I brought a container of it to work with me. It's been in the fridge singing me soothing songs of love and joy and happy times. It sounds like this:

doo doo dooo
doo doooo
doooooooooooo
I Love You! I love
potato
salad!

Yes. That is my little potato salad song. It makes me happy and keeps my crazy in check while I sit alone in the office for four freaking hours in the middle of a Sunday. Yeah, 1pm to 5pm on Sunday.

How much more could you torture people? Seriously? I would gladly work 9-1 on a Sunday and have a quazi day off. But no, throw a short amount of work into the middle of an otherwise wonderful day.

Ah but it is now 4:57. I will be able to clock out soon.

Guess what I did for four hours here at work all alone, while eating and singing to my potato salad? You guessed it. Uploaded my resume and started applying for jobs. All over the great city of Montrose *cough* I mean Houston.

4:59..... the countdown begins!

I feel like I haven't been posting enough and it makes me sad. However, I know me and guilt is a major motivator to get me to work harder.

So yes. I will! I can! I am going to post more often! Because I love the sound of my own ..................

5:00!!!!

I'm officially running around crazy flailing the arms in the air!

Out.