Damn Restaurant.com For Making Me Fat!!!

I think one of the coolest blogs for Marylanders is done at the BaltimoreSun.com in Carson Porter's Deal$ blog.  This Carson guy puts together a blog on deals in the local area.  One of them that he highlighted just this week was for 80% off at Restaurant.com.  To get the deal, you just enter the promo code of "MOM" at the checkout.  I did it today and it worked!

For those who don't know, Restaurant.com can be great and it can be sucky.  There's a few rules that you have to deal with when using the gift certificates from here.  They range from only being able to dine on certain nights of the week, to a minimum bill amount, and sometimes even the dreaded "may not be used for alcohol."  DOH!

Also, the quality of several of the "local" restaurants on there look to be somewhat questionable, but once and a while you find a few gems.  Today I found several gems for those of us in HoCo and the surrounding area.


Eggspectation

Can anyone say anything bad about Eggspectation?  Ok maybe the benches and chairs are weirdly shaped and your ass hurts after sitting in them for an hour.  Oh well, the food there is soooooooooo worth it.  My wife and I love eating there and we try to make it over there every month or so.  I bought 4 of these and will definitely use them within the next few months.

My go-to meals:  For breakfast - Chesapeake Omelet.  For lunch - Cuban Panini.  For dinner - Maple Glazed Rib Eye

The deal:  $5 for a $10 gift certificate or $10 for a $25 gift certificate.

The rules:  Minimum purchase of $20 for the $10 gift certificate or $35 for the $25 gift certificate.  18% gratuity added prior to discount.  Valid for Dinner and Dine In.

The link:  http://www.restaurant.com/rdc/eggspectation-ellicott-city-american-restaurant-rid=409144



Jesse Wong's Asean Bistro

I'm not sure how I found Jesse Wong's Asean Bistro, but I think it is some of the best Chinese food around!  It's popular with the MacAloney's because of the excellent vegetarian options for the wifey.  Me?  I like to tackle the many flavorful meat dishes that they have to offer.  They even have a great piano player who plays music while you eat dinner.  What more can you ask for?

My go-to meals:  Appetizer - Cold Sesame Peanut Noodles or Pan Fried Pork Dumplings.  For dinner - Chef Xu's Chicken or Chef's Hot Crispy Beef

The deal:  $5 for a $10 gift certificate or $10 for a $25 gift certificate.  Higher denominations available as well.

The rules:  Minimum purchase of $20 for the $10 gift certificate or $35 for the $25 gift certificate.  18% gratuity added prior to discount.  Not valid on holidays or special events.

The link:  http://www.restaurant.com/rdc/jesse-wongs-asean-bistro-columbia-asian-restaurant-rid=390859

Stained Glass Pub

This is my neighborhood bar!  It's right around the corner from my house and has amazing pizza.  It's homemade "momma style" pizza.  The wings there aren't too bad either.  The only upgrade I'd make here is to their beer selection.  It's not all just Bud and Miller, but there's not much in the way of craft beer here.  Mondays and Tuesdays bring half price pizza (cannot get deal in conjunction with Restaurants.com gift certificate) and Tuesday night is trivia night.  Sure I haven't done trivia night yet, but I plan on hitting it this summer once Manina is on Summer vacation since we make a super smart team and will own the place!!!

My go-to meals:  Appetizer - Old Bay Wings.  For dinner - Pepperoni, Hamburger, and Onion Pizza

The deal:  $17.50 for a $25 gift certificate.  Not the best deal normally, but with the 80% off discount code, it's a great deal!

The rules:  Minimum purchase of $35 for the $25 gift certificate.  18% gratuity added prior to discount.  Dine in only.  Not valid on specials.

The link:  http://www.restaurant.com/rdc/stained-glass-pub-elkridge-american-restaurant-rid=363434

Anyways, I hope you get a chance to get over there and enjoy the deals that Restaurant.com has to offer.  If you are in the Howard County or Baltimore area, tell me what your favorite restaurants on Restaurant.com are.  I'm always looking for new places to check out so I love recommendations.

Note:  I totally screwed up the title of this blog.  It's Restaurant.com, not RestaurantS.com.  Not sure why I threw an "S" in there.  Guess I need to lay off the homebrew for a while.  Haha.

-Brent

The Rebirth of this Blog

Long time no talk.  Yeah I know, I haven't written things here in a while.  I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I spent a lot of time working on building the CSI Homebrewers Club website over the winter.  Actually, nah, who am I kidding?  I've just been lazy and unmotivated over the winter.  But like Spring wakes up all the hibernating elements of nature, I too have been woken up and am ready to get back on track here.

I've found my way back here because of an event I went to yesterday.  As I went through my daily lunch routine of reading the Elkridge Patch (great local newspaper by the way!!), I stumbled across a posting advertising a HoCoBlogs.com happy hour / meetup occurring at the Stained Glass Pub in Elkridge.  Being that this event was taking place around a mile from my house, I figured I could swing by and do some promotion of the CSI Homebrewers Club website while drinking a beer and chatting with some local HoCo (Howard County) folks.  Little did I know how awesome this event would be. 

I don't know what I expected.  Maybe a handful of computer geeks like myself sitting around talking about the topics they blog about.  All I knew was that the first $200 in drinks were on the house and I liked the sound of that.  What I walked into was a huge gathering having somewhere on the order of 40-50 people chatting it up, having a great time, and networking.  Sure I knew no one there, but then again, I'm not very shy.  So I just hopped into conversations and started to talk to people.

I soon realized that there were other people like me out there.  In fact, I think one of the most interesting conversations of the night had to be with a couple of wine enthusiasts, Terry and Kathy, who write a blog about all aspects of wine, called WineTrailTraveler.com.  They were the wine world's version of me!!!  With a beer in my hand and glasses of wine in their hand we talked about a lot of the similarities of making beer and wine.  They were a step or two beyond basic wine making and were talking about embarking on the jump to the winemakers version of going "all grain."  I got a lot of great ideas from them on content I can add to my website, as well as the CSI website with regards to reviews of various breweries.  So that was a lot of fun. 

Another person I met there was TJ from the Elkridge Patch.  I know I probably rave too much about the Patch's coverage of what is going on in Elkridge, but I've really taken a liking to the writings of TJ.  His Patch postings are always good food for though and I find myself frequently commenting on his content.  It was great to finally meet him and talk about a passion we both have in common, the Boston Red Sox. 

Of course, I met others too...too many to name, but I had great conversations with all of them.  It's amazing how often my "just another day" turns into a new adventure of some sorts.  The only comparison I can make to that is with my beer making.  My goal is to always make something drinkable.  What I commonly find though is that the final product ends up being something really good, not just drinkable.  Maybe it's chance or maybe it's luck.  It's probably a little bit of both, but to me, that is what I love the most about life.  Finding out how something can go from ordinary to extraordinary in the blink of an eye.