April Showers at the Grant Street Inn (not plastic)
April 3, 2014
Well, more like thunderstorms. This week is wet. Fortunately, the Grant Street Inn will provide umbrellas for those guests too clueless to plan ahead with the Interwebs.
Radar around Bloomington
Sometimes I miss the thunderstorms in the midwest. You can see them coming for miles and then they arrive in a hurry. Lightning, thunder, heavy rain in sheets, wind. It’s not tornado season now, but those happen too.
Sometimes I don’t miss the thunderstorms at all. Here’s what it sounds like at 6am in room 30.
After some finagling during prep for this trip, room 30 magically became available. The management does know its guests. As always, the only place to stay in Bloomington is the Grant Street Inn. Room 30 has a good shower.
Rainy days on Grant Street
In other news, Farm is OK, Soma coffee is still the best in town, the Irish Lion continues to have an outstanding selection of fine bourbon and rye (served by delightfully sassy waitresses), and The Rail will serve you breakfast for dinner if you want, along with a world class cocktail.
Try this little number, whose clever name escapes us:
1.5 oz buffalo trace bourbon
.5 oz eldorado 8 yr rum
.25 spiced honey syrup (1:1 with cinnamon, allspice)
.25 amaro abano
3 dashes mole bitters
Stir down, serve on the rocks with an expressed orange peel dropped in. (this drink needs to be adjusted toward the bitters.)
Almost forgot, United Express (operated by Shuttle America) flew a nice new Embrear 170 this trip. No net, but plenty of room for a commuter jet. Then again, it was April Fools Day.
Inn on Broadway, Rochester, NY Slides into Place
March 24, 2014
Snow in the morning. Post-equinox dusting.
Rochester, NY again. Is Rochester emerging as a major tech hub? Who knows, but if you must stay in Rochester, the Inn on Broadway is the place to stay.
After an awful United Express flight up (operated by the inestimably bad ExpressJet), we arrived very late on a Sunday night. So late that there was some serious confusion at the front desk. Fortunately Kat managed to fix everything (thanks Kat).
But before the fix, we were assigned room 407 with a—GASP—plastic shower. Here are some pictures of that room.
Room 407 bedroom
Bathroom on 407.
Sadly, this 407 bathroom shower is designed over a tub with a plastic shower curtain. OH NO MR. BILL.
The kitchenette in 407 is not really our style.
Thin sliding door on the 407 closet. Yuck. And do not steal my hanger hangers.
Fortunately that room was abandoned shortly after it was temporarily occupied. The switch to 409 made everything better.
Bed in 409.
Fireplace in 409.
Gorgeous sink in 409.
This is a glass shower cube. YES.
This shower has 4, count ’em 4, showerheads. Awesome shower.
The Inn on Broadway is pretty much adjacent to Java’s Cafe. Go there for breakfast. Great espresso, fresh squeezed OJ, bagels you can toast yourself, the NY Times, and Net.
It snowed all morning during our meetings, but it didn’t stick.
After a reasonable dinner at a local pizza joint called Tony D’s (authentic Italian style), it was time for a real cocktail. Above the Solera Wine Bar is the Cheshire. Sadly, the Cheshire is only open Thursday through Sunday. But the proprietor Evvy Fanning is a good egg and quite possibly, there may be real cocktails available whenever. Thank you Evvy for an oasis of incredible goodness.
Possibly worth flying in for all by itself; visit Cheshire.
Five showerheads, four of which are in the actual shower, for Inn on Broadway.
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