Tag Archives: food drink

Farewell, Dear O

original.jpgOne of my friends told me about the closing of a restaurant in Pittsburgh affectionately known as The O. I meant to blog about it at the time, but put it off because I didn’t quite know what to say. There’s never a good time to say these things, or an easy way to say them, so I’ll just go ahead and speak my mind.

I don’t know if anybody who reads this blog has ever been to The O. I only went once, over a year ago. It was a hot dog place to end all hot dog places. They served hot dogs, hamburgers, assorted sausages, pizza… The list went on and on. It was a operating monument to greasy food. And the fries. Oh, the fries. Plentiful doesn’t begin to describe it. You all probably remember the old McDonald’s Super-Size. Maybe you think it’s pretty big, possibly even too big. But believe me when I tell you that the regular large, not even the X-tra large, dwarfed the Super Size. I hesitate to even compare them. The scale of The O’s large defies description. You really had to see it to believe it. Imagine a regular restaurant’s big basket of fries. Got that in your head? Good. Now take that, and pile fries in it until you’ve got a good six inches. That’s the ballpark I’m talking about here. I sorely doubt any single person could have comfortably eaten it, and isn’t that how much a "large" size should really supply?

Unfortunately, I don’t live anywhere near Pittsburgh. I always knew that my chances of ever getting the chance to go back to The O were slim to nil. But you know, that was okay. I felt better just knowing that it was out there, that bastion of grease and boiling oil holding steady against the salad-mongers who invade our grocery stores by the day.

Alas! I shall miss The O. What could ever replace it?

Blak Schmak

caffeine.jpgI’ve noticed some of the blogs I read getting excited about Coke Blak. It’s a coffee-infused soda that Coca-Cola will be bringing to various markets in 2006. People are talking about it like it’s a new thing that nobody’s tried. They’re wrong. Those of us who lived in the Philly area between 1994 and 1996 remember Pepsi Kona. To geeks, for whom soda and coffee are staple foods and caffeine is a vitamin, it seemed like the greatest idea since sliced bread. Boy were we wrong. It was disgusting. Revolting. Putrid. If Coke Blak sucks, don’t say I didn’t warn you.


Update 10/18/06:I tried Blak a couple months ago. It’s drinkable, but certainly not good enough to justify the high price, especially when it comes in dinky 8 oz. bottles.

Bruegger’s Bagels Uses Fair Trade Coffee

I have a night class on Tuesdays that is infinitely more bearable when I have some
coffee in me right before the class starts. I noted with pleasure that Bruegger’s
Bagels is now using only fair
trade coffee
at their stores now.

Traditionally, coffee beans are bought from farmers at a dirt-cheap price, and then
undergo a formidable mark-up on their pilgrimage to Starbucks or Folgers. Fair trade
beans gives the farmers more of that mark-up, and a share in one of the world’s
most profitable cash crops.

Some good news we all could share, regardless of our party affiliation at the moment!