So there we were, people were awesome in CT. Really a lot nicer than I thought. Eggs Benedict wasn't great, but good enough. After our little detour, we were still making great time. Me and CT, my sister not Connecticut, continued our drive. We finally hit the outside Boston area, the foliage was amazing. Remember that Family Guy episode where all the New Yorkers drove up to Bean Town to see all the trees turning different colors? Well I felt just like those New Yorkers. So after another 2 hours of Preston and Steve, and me and my sister making small talk we finally arrived to the city I've been waiting to see in forever. I'll tell you the first thing I noticed, clean. Boston is gorgeous and clean, not a trash or even a speck of trash everywhere I walked. I parked my car in downtown Boston, right near Sam La Grassas, supposedly the best sandwich in town. Since they were closed on a Saturday, I'll take your word for it Mr. La Grassas.
Well, it was time, I went to the first retail spot I've done my research on, a little spot not to far from BU. The streets were quiet, and I know Steffie was saying it was early, so I took that into consideration. However, it was still a little too quiet for my liking, I couldn't even make breakfast if I wanted to here. Now the store front confused me a bit, the spot was on a second floor, however I didn't have an idea how to get up to the building, it look like I had to go downstairs and then climb a set of stairs up. So already this place had two strikes, not good. The size was nice, roughly around 1,650 or 1,700 square foot. Price range, $34 a square foot. Pricey for a small spot, however kept in my it is Boston, and that is doable. Now, this store front is about 3 miles from the downtown area, not bad, not bad at all. Next area was roughly 4.5 miles away. This was where the mistake came in, CT said lets walk it. In my head I knew this was a terrible idea. However I listened to her anyway. Yeah, biggest mistake of the day.
So anywhoo, started the trek towards my second and third shop, roughly in the same area. Now this store was on Washington Street very close to BC. I don't technically know if I had hit through the Cambridge area or not, however I did see a shit ton of fancy cars, and a shit ton of rich people. Well people that I thought were rich. Oh, and another thing...there seem to be like a mass exodus of Asians coming from each college. Why can't Asian people hangout with other people besides Asian, all I can do is shake my head.
There I was standing face to face with a ton of Asians, and the first thought running through my head was, are these the kids I'll be catering too? Do they eat sandwiches that I'll make? What the fuck do Bostonians eat? French toast, they better eat a great sandwich like a cheesesteak. How do you not eat that? Well this got me to thinking, next time I come to this town, bring a notepad, and start doing a survey of the surrounding area and people and see what these people like. Oh, and Boston girls...didn't see one hipster. Thought I see more since I was so close to a farmers market, minus one for Boston.
At this point it was roughly around 3 o'clock, I finally made it to the second store front. Now this is what I like to see. The foot traffic was amazing, good street traffic as well. Places to park, and it seem like a scene out of Haddonfield, NJ. Just more convenient parking and more foot traffic that I would imagine, the college wasn't too far down as well, this to me seem like a prime location. I really enjoy the spot a lot. My problem is, I just don't know how much it cost yet. It seems like a really expensive spot, and my second problem is, it wasn't a restaurant to begin with. Gutting the place and placing restaurant equipment is going to cost a little more than I like to admit. Is it doable, yes of course, however I'm just going to have to pay a little more than I want. This leaves me to call the leasing agent of the property and see how much the lease and square footage price is. I'm assuming 30-32 dollars a square foot, however I'm praying it's less.
The last spot was not good at all, too big and too much money. Roughly around 2 million to buy the entire building, it looked as though it was previously Froyo/Pizza place, so that was on the plus side. However 2 million is a little too much for me, and my pockets don't run that deep yet...one day.
After all this walking and being extremely tired, I didn't have enough time to roam around downtown Boston, I told my sister that we would take a cab back and we did. Poor CT, she was starving at this point, and I promised her La Grassa, I felt like an ass when I found out it wasn't open. Sorry Ching Ting. Sorry. We ended up going to this pub called, "Hub Pub," The Friendliest Bar on Earth. Well I like to beg to differ on that slogan, they weren't that friendly, and I guess my bartender must have lost all his friendliness, cause this guy couldn't put a smile on his face if his life depended on it. This was a dive bar, and I got it, for what it was, it was meh...however cheap food and cheap beer, I got nothing else to complain about. After our late lunch, me and CT decided it was time to head back. I'll have to say this, the drive wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, Dave scared me when he said it took him an hour to drive 7 miles. I got out of the city fairly quickly and safely. I gave Dave a quick call and asked if he wanted to meet up for drinks and dinner.
Me, Dave, Steffie, and Ching Ting had dinner at Little Portugal. It was my first time. For a little family restaurant it was nice. Nice people, and the food was enhanced by that. I can't complain, the portion was out of this world and I had good people surrounding me. Thanks Dave and Steffie for taking us and hanging out that night. I told Dave and Steff my experience of Boston and how I felt, obviously CT hated the city, I was little indifferent. I thought me wearing my Philly stuff would get me more guff, however not that much. Dave said they really didn't care about that stuff...I guess I won't really get that experience anywhere else except for Philly. Well the day ended well for me, I got home roughly around 11:30, and I had driven well over 600 miles. The best part, the weekend wasn't over yet for me.
The next day, I set myself up to hit up Dave's place one more time, got to Dave's to catch the Eagles game, and have some Hooters, it was great. I just like watching the game with Dave, he's good people, and my time spent with him really can't be replaced, you only get a few people like Dave, so when you find guys like that...well you got to make them some of the most people in your life. However, I'm beginning to think it's bad luck when me and Dave watch the game together. This is the second time the Eagles have lost when it was just me and Dave watching the game...uh oh.
After our lost, Dave, Steffie, and I headed back to their place to play a few games of NHL. Great game, I hate costing Dave games, I think we lost two or three...*UGH!* When we won, we won big, when we lost, well...we lost. The night ended with some more football, spaghetti and meatballs, and me finally falling asleep at 12:30 watching Duck Dynasty...I swear, they'll put anyone on t.v. anymore, how the hell did Anthony not get on the Real World?!! Sad. It has been an extremely long and arduous weekend, however one that needed to be done, I'm glad I did it, and it looks like I'm heading back up there in November with WT next time. Should be interesting, cause the first thing Wei Tak asked me was...can we go to a strip club? Sure Wei, sure.
Oh, and yea...it doesn't seem too weird sitting in this coffee shop, cause about a year ago, I was smoking, drinking, and typing in a coffee shop in Amsterdam. Man, I miss it. The more and more I think about it, the more I want to go back...I love this country. But Amsterdam was amazing, I miss it and wish I could have that as my birthday present. To go back to that country and stay for 2 months. Actually I wouldn't mind having a job there. Oh yeah.
A little blast from the past...enjoy folks.
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