MBGA Pub Night: Venture to the End of the World

24/08/2012 By Kabutroid
Well, I said I’ve been trying to get out to more events, so at least I managed to tackle this one. Getting to Geoventure is still a bit of a toss-up, depending pretty much entirely on how several other things this weekend go, so we’ll see what happens there. But at least I managed to get out to a pub night. And man, this has got to have been one of the most delicious pub nights I can recall.

After getting home from work and dropping off my wife to see a movie with her mom, I was off. With my GPS already loaded up (which ended up being next to useless... see below), I booked out it towards Bird’s Hill Park. I can safely say that I’ve never actually stopped at any of these places on my many, many visits to this park, so I’m glad that this gave me the opportunity. And gotta say... after today’s visit, I think it’s going to start to become a more common occurrence for me BigSmile .

Once I reached the strip of buildings, I swung around into a parking spot. I had just turned the GPS on as I got close to pinpoint which building I’m going into (again, never stopped here before, I had no clue what building was what at the moment), and found... no event icon on my GPS. Well, wait, there’s an event icon a little bit up the road to the North... is that it maybe? Was there more buildings after this? I couldn’t remember. Pulling out of the parking spot, I drove all of 20 meters further down the road before I saw the ‘no exit’ type end of road sign. Well... looks like it HAS to be somewhere around here. There appeared to have been a ton more parking on this side of the gas station anyway, so I just parked there and wandered over. The second door indicated a restaurant, which upon entering... was completely empty except an old couple sitting down.

Huh... 7:30... figured SOMEONE would be here. Guess I’ve got the wrong place.

As I started to walk out, I heard some noise to my left, and noticed another path to go down. Ahhh... the pub side! And that’s when I saw a swarm of familiar faces BigSmile . Finding a seat towards the back of the tables, I chatted it up with a few cachers there (I greatly apologize for not remembering your names... I’m terrible with name recognition Frown ). Some chatting later, I got a menu, and discovered... borscht? Seriously, borscht? Well hell... a smaller-type restaurant serving borscht, I’ve GOTTA try this. Gotta be better than 90% of the crap they attempt to call borscht in the city. The smaller mom-and-pop type places ALWAYS have better food! And eh, let’s get some wings while I’m at it.

A short time later, and the borscht arrives. Hmm... smells good... let’s see what we’ve go-OH SWEET MERCIFUL GOD OF BEETS, THAT’S GLORIOUS! After adding the customary sour cream to the soup, I dove into it so hard I should have broken the spoon on the bottom of the bowl. And FILLING! Needless to say, most of those wings came home with me. But damn... that’s arguably the best borscht I’ve had in years. Not only did I tell the waitress to pass along the word that the borscht was awesome, when I went to pay I spoke directly to the chef who made it (Trish I think here name was), and gave her possibly the best compliment that can come from me. My mom was a Ukrainian homemaker for about 50 years... and this borscht is as good as hers. The way she smiled and blushed, I think I just made her day. Y’see... there’s three types of borscht. Crap borscht... most of what the city serves. Good borscht... the rare gems in the rough. And excellent borscht... the category into which this borscht falls.

So yeah... sorry all, but the highlight of this event to me... was the borscht. Don’t get me wrong, all you geocachers are awesome to chat with and friendly and all... but you can’t get between a Ukrainian and his borscht ToungeOut .

Otherwise, awesome evening full of friends and food. Definitely gotta get out to more events Smile .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry and micromail ball (ran out of the regular size rings)

Where: 59er Address: 847 Dunning Rd E, St. Clements Time: 7 - 9:30pm

Where: 59er
Address: 847 Dunning Rd E, St. Clements
Time: 7 - 9:30pm