Mondo Organics Cooking School - back to basics for a foodie

http://www.mondo-organics.com.au

**I was a guest of Mondo Organics for this cooking class

I wasn't going to lie, so when it was my turn to rate my cooking skills from 1, a beginner, to 5 a culinary wizard, I gave myself an honest zero.  We were standing in a semi circle around Mondo Organic's head chef and cooking school instructor Paul Horne and we were about to be put through our paces with the modern Spanish tapas class.  But I get ahead of myself.

A few months ago, I made a long overdue and first visit to Mondo Organics (see post here) and was completely blown away by the West End institution.  I'd been hearing great things about Mondo Organics for many years, but strangely had never got around to checking out the casual fine diner.  I'd been slowly making my way through the AGFG Brisbane hatted restaurants and it was getting impossible for me to ignore Mondo any longer.  Quite rightly, I my post reflected the amazing meal that I'd consumed and I resolved to get back to Mondo as quickly as I could for a return visit.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long when Mondo Organics co-owner and chef Brenda Fawdon contacted me and asked me to come along to the Mondo cooking school, so they could put me through the paces of the well known cooking classes.  Excited and a little apprehensive, I happily agreed to come along and write about my experience!  FoodMeUpScotty, in a cooking class - chalk that up as something you're not going to see every day!

Kettle & Tin - 2nd Annual Chilli Cookoff

http://kettleandtin.com.au/

**I was a guest of Kettle and Tin for the Chilli Cook-off

In popular culture, there is one television program that, for me, articulates what the latter part of the 20th and early part of the 21st century is all about.  That show is The Simpsons and for SC and I, there is no other show that better represents the key highlight of the last twenty five years.  So many of the catchphrases have made their way into my everyday language and I can always tell another Simpsons fan, who will instinctively know what I'm on about when I start sprouting my Simpsons quotes.  To a large extent, The Simpsons has influenced pop culture to such and extent, that it's become a parody of itself.

You might be asking why I'm talking about The Simpsons, when I should be talking about the 2nd Annual Kettle & Tin Chilli Cook-off, and if you are, then I know that you're not a Simpsons fan.  There are many, many quotes that I've used to reflect a situation but there is one key Simpsons quote that I'd been dying to use and it wasn't until the chilli cookoff that I've finally been able to get it out.

'Sniff, sniff, what's that smell?  Onions, chilli powder, cumin, jucy brown chuck!!  IT'S CHILLI!  Oh my god, I'm missing the chilli cook off.... I'm missing the cook off'

BlackBird Bar & Grill - I fell in love with this place!

http://www.blackbirdbrisbane.com.au/

It's not too often that I'm completely blown away by a new dining experience but I really love it when it does happen. There have been a few notable restaurants abut Brisbane that I've checked out shortly after opening and have known, just known that they would be come institutions.  

Black Bird Bar and Grill has only just opened it's doors, but it's already gathering a reputation as one of the most exciting new restaurants in a number of years.  I'd been keeping my ear to the ground and heard quite a bit about the old Rugby Club site over at Eagle Street and in particular the hype surrounding the new venture by the Ghanem Group.  Most of the hype revolved around the plush makeover of the site and the acquisition of star executive chef Jake Nicolson, a two Michelin starred chef who had worked at some of London's best restaurants the Ledbury and the Square, not to mention some time at Spain's elBulli.

I'd also been getting the lowdown from one of my work colleagues, JH, who had already been to Black Bird a number of times and seemed to be quite well acquainted with the team.  JH had been quite lavish in her praise of the menu and Executive chef Jake Nicholson.  In fact, by the time we eventually booked a table, I felt as intimately in tune with the Black Bird menu and offering.

Tides Waterfront Dining - stylish dining in Caloundra

http://www.tideswaterfront.com.au/

Caloundra is not a spot that you would usually associate with Fine Dining or hatted restaurants, in fact, when I think of Caloundra, I usually think of pub dining and RSL clubs.  We've spent a lot of time up at Caloundra over the years, primarily because both of SC's sisters and their families live up that way. In all the time we have been visiting, I never thought to look for a top restaurant to visit, and it wasn't until we were spending the day in the beachside suburb for an unusual activity that we decided to look.

Roller Derby is not the usual type of activity that I would be interested in, but SC's youngest sister 'Bill' had recently started hanging out with a rough crowd (well, not completely true) and their thing was Roller Derby. 'Bill' had been practicing this arcane and unusual sport for some time and the time had finally arrived for her to get involved in her first formal game.  If you're not sure what Roller Derby is, you're not alone but it's essentially one of those American sports that was popular in the 70's which has made a resurgence.  The sport (I use the term loosely!) involved a bunch of females on roller skates, skating around an oval and trying to knock the crap out of each other.  I'm sure there are some complexities and rules to the game, but that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Knowing that I'd likely not be too interested in spending my evening watching this, SC cleverly packaged up the day with a lunchtime visit to an award winning beachside diner.  Hitting all of the right buttons, SC had found a lovely restaurant that recently retained it's Australian Good Food Guide chefs hat.  Tides at Caloundra is one of only seventeen restaurants on the Sunshine Coast that have been awarded chefs hats and proudly display on their website that they are the only Caloundra restaurant to have one.....  How could I not be tempted to check it out?

Tank Bar & Laneway Dining - a change of direction

http://www.tankbarbrisbane.com.au/

There is a part of the city that's about to go through a major renewal, one of which the likes have not been seen since the South Bank development.  The western section of the CBD, which includes much of George and William Streets has some major developments earmarked that will change Brisbane forever.  I'm talking about the Supreme Court site redevelopment and the possible development of George and William streets when a new casino licence is decided upon.  All very exciting!

While this is all about the future, there have been some great developments already completed in this part of town over the last few years, including 400 George Street and just behind, the development of the Santos building.  Right now, there are not a heap of restaurants in this part of the city, but in the near future, there could be a plethora.  There are a couple of great restaurants that have been established in the George Street precinct, a couple of my favourites are Public (see post here) and Tank (see post here), both of which I'd been to many times.

Tank in particular had been a 'go-to' restaurant for me for many occasions, I'd loved the Japanese-Australian fusion food that chef Alastair McLeod was producing.  Even after Alastair had moved on and new head chef Tony Tierny had taken over, the creative menu continued and Tank produced a unique blend of fine dining fusion food.  Last year though, Tank went through even more changes when establishing restauranteur and owner Genny Neilson decided to sell up to and exit the business, leaving partner Ross Nielson in charge.  One of the first changes made by Ross was to move away from the Japanese fine dining fusion style to a more relaxed approach to dining, including new menu with a new focus.

Harvey's Bar and Bistro - Celebrating Autumn on James

http://www.harveys.net.au/

I don't know about you, but there are big Hollywood movies that come out that everyone raves about but for some reason, I just never get around to see. All the buzz and all the general chit chat kind of gets me excited, but when push comes to shove, I just never get around to seeing those movies. However, every now and then, I do see such movie, often by accident and then get what everyone was talking about and wonder why I never went and saw it in the first place.

There's a few restaurants around Brisbane where I fall into that same apathy, people rave about them and I often think 'yeah, I'll get there soon' and just never do.  Just like with the movies, if I get to one of these restaurants by 'accident', I almost always feel the same way - why didn't I come here sooner? Mondo Organics was one such restaurant where this happened (see post here) and recently I had the opportunity to get along to another such restaurant.

A little while ago I received an invitation in the mail to the launch of the Southern Queensland Country launch of Autumn on James.  The event was to celebrate the abundance of amazing produce in the South East of Queensland, including the Granite Belt, Southern Downs, Darling Downs, Toowoomba, South Burnett and the Western Country.  With the buzz about 'Paddock to Plate', the aim of the Autumn on James event was to transform James Street into an Autumn wonderland showcasing the produce through cooking demonstrations, 'farm gate' stalls and wine tasting as well as signature dishes from some of the James Street restaurants.

Casual Dining - The Fox Hotel

http://www.thefox.com.au/

**Please note, the all you can eat mussels offer has now finished - sorry

I'm not really a pub kind of guy and I'm definitely not going to head over to a public bar and sit down to have a few beers.  I get the concept of a pub/bar/hotel, it's a place where you go and hang out with mates, sink a few beers and quite often, get on the punt. Yeah, there is a list of things that just does not excite me.

That doesn't mean that I don't love having pubs around, I think they are essential to the vibe and the life blood of a city.  Architecturally they can be amazing and given that many hotels and pubs around have been built in the 1800's they often have a long and interesting history.

The Fox Hotel is one of the original pubs to be built in Queensland and was constructed in the late 1800's and was originally known at the Terminus Hotel, ostensibly as the end of a tram route.  Like many old buildings in Brisbane, the old Terminus Hotel has had its fair share of good and bad fortune, including almost burning to the ground during the 1920's.  Over the years, it's also had many facades and taken on many different forms, including a stint as a backpackers hostel.  Not too many of the ventures have lasted too long and as a consequence, the Fox Hotel has been through renovation after renovation, trying to hit the right market.

I'd been to the Fox Hotel to check out one of it's more recent ventures, the Meatball Company (see post here) and thought it was not too bad, but as fortune would have it, the Meatball Co has made way for a new restaurant - Fish Lane Bistro.  But this post is not about a pretty cool looking new bistro - it's about quite possibly the most amazing food offer in Brisbane, the all-you-can-eat Mussels deal.

Bee One Third - Neighbourhood honey

http://beeonethird.com.au/

One of the things I love about blogging is that I've had some amazing opportunities come my way which have led to some super interesting situations.  So when an email arrived for me one day marked 'An invitation to something special', it was an opportunity that was way too good to pass up.

I'd recently been in Melbourne on a foodie safari and while we were wandering around, we'd come across a sustainable living 'green fair', which was pretty awesome.  There were a range of speakers on sustainable topics, but one that got us to stay still long enough to listen was about bee collectives and how cities around the world are now creating bee hives.  The speaker went on to mention that the diversity of pollen in a city far outstrips the level of pollen in farms.  Apparently there is a bee collective at Federation Square in Melbourne where the honey collected has been tested for over 200 pollen types.

Fast forward to my invitation that was too good to pass up and I was off to visit one of Brisbane's burgeoning bee collectives - Bee One Third.  The day was meticulously planned out with a group of bloggers where we would get to tour the beehives on top of the Gerard's building, before heading over to Jocelyn's Provisions for a 'deliciously honeyed' morning tea, followed by a demonstration of a honey extraction.  I was pretty excited.

Casual Dining - Chester Street Bakery & Bar menu reboot

http://www.chesterstreet.com.au/

The Valley has been hotbed of new and exciting restaurants and cafes opening, which, judging by the many new developments still in the pipeline and nearing completion, is not going to let up.  This is pretty exciting when you think about it, Brisbane is really coming of age and developing a dining scene to rival Melbourne and Sydney.  But what does it mean for the existing pool of restaurants that are currently doing a pretty good job of feeding Brisbanites?  Will a rush of even newer and shinier restaurants spell trouble?  It's possible.

With the influx of new restaurants, it means that those remaining need to remain fresh and relevant or find a niche that makes them unique.  Damien Griffiths and his team have a vested interest in making sure his stable of restaurants remains at the forefront of the dining public's imagination and, with an ever increasing portfolio of restaurants and cafes, that gets a little harder.  One approach that seems to be working well for Damien is to regularly refresh and re-launch the menus then invite a heap of bloggers, media and the local business community to come in a test out the menu.  

Casual Dining - Emjay's on Creek

http://www.emjayscoffee.com.au/

I'm always on the hunt for breakfast spots in the CBD and recently there have been a few openings that have largely gone unnoticed.  One of my favourite at the moment is Pop Coffee, next door to me at 444 Queen Street (see post here) and there are a couple of others that I have yet to check out, such as Pourboy. I'm particularly interested in CBD breaky spots because I quite often have early morning meetings and sometimes catching up over a nice breakfast is a good way to start the day.

For those of you who didn't know, I'm on the committee for the upcoming Eat Drink Blog 2014, which is a food bloggers conference, run by food bloggers for food bloggers.  It's pretty exciting but taking up a bit of my spare time.  I had to catch up with a couple of committee members recently to have a discussion around sponsorships and venues and the only time we could meet was at 7:30am.  Luckily, we were able to meet in the CBD and I suggested we meet at a brand new cafe and as a bonus, it was right across the street from my office.

The cafe was called Emjay's and to add a little confusion, there was already an Emjay's in the CBD, just around the corner in Adelaide Street.  I thought it was a bit weird that there would be a second cafe with the same name only 150 meters from each other, that was until I found out it was a franchise with a slightly different focal point.  Anyway, after we nutted out that there was in fact two Emjay's in the city, we arranged to gather for a breakfast meeting. 

The Long Apron - Regional perfection

http://www.spicersgroup.com.au/restaurant/long-apron

I'm pretty well versed with the dining scene in Brisbane and it's surrounds and feel extremely lucky that I have some of the best restaurants in the country just a short distance from my front door.  I guess you could say I'm very comfortable knowing that at any time I can quite easily hit a fine dining restaurant for a meal.  I have to admit that lately I've been getting a little restless with my dining choices, sure, there are some amazing dining options, but sometimes there is a little 'sameness' about them.  To 'spice' it up a little bit, I've been going further and further afield from my CBD base and I've been discovering some amazing restaurants and meals.

My best mate the Big Boy, who lives overseas now and I only get to see a couple of times a year, was recently back for a week.  It's been our custom to book into as many nice restaurants as possible when he's back so he can get a reminder about how great Australian food can be.  We generally take him to our favourite restaurants, which this time included Hatch & Co, Gerard's, Rogue Bar and Bistro and  of course Esquire.  There is no doubt that these are all amazing restaurants and the Big Boy loved them all, but there was still that notion that there was a bit of 'sameness' about the experiences.  We thought it would be time to 'spice' it up.

The idea actually came from SC and it was a beauty.  We'd been hearing for a long time that there was an amazing restaurant up at Spicers Resort at Montville called The Long Apron.  Our plan was to make a day of it, drive up to Montville mid-morning and arrive in time for lunch, then drive home through Maleny and stop off for some gelato.  We'd been toying with the idea of doing a day trip to visit the Long Apron for years but given my propensity against driving long distances, I've always avoided going.

Cheap Eats - Miel Burgers

https://www.facebook.com/MielContainer

Being a city slicker, I'm always wandering around the CBD looking for new stuff and I find it really exciting when I come across something new.  Last year I was walking to a meeting and noticed that a big red shipping container had moved into Mary Street, just around the corner from Albert Street.  I was immediately intrigued by what it meant with thoughts of some groovy (or crazy) person setting up home in a shipping container.  It wasn't long though until I discounted that as fanciful thinking (sigh), of course no one would be crazy enough to set up home in a shipping container in the middle of the city, right?

It eventually became clear that it was going to be a dining spot of some sort and I really got excited when I realised it was going to be a new burger joint.  Just what the CBD needed to shake things up a bit, sure there was Grill'd around, but I was looking for a little more from a burger joint, especially since we'd recently come back from the USA and a burger extravaganza in New York (see post here).  Being the impatient person that I can be sometimes, I didn't wait for SC and just made my way over and grabbed a burger with fries, waited a short while for it to arrive, took a few bites and walked away bitterly disappointed.  I won't get into why I walked away after a few bites, suffice to say that I really didn't enjoy it.  

Moose and Gibson - getting the silent treatment

http://www.mooseandgibson.com/

2013 will definitely go down as a watershed year in the annals of Brisbane dining, there were openings and closings and just a heap of movement in what had been a stagnant dining and bar scene.  There were many wonderful moments for me last year, in my first full year of writing my food blog, and a couple really stand out for me.  One in particular causes me to smile every time I think about it, for various reasons.  I went to the opening of a cool little spot over at Woolloongabba called Moose & Gibson, then followed it up with a visit for what turned out to be one the best breakfasts I had all year (see post here and here).

Most notably was that through this event, I met a pretty good bloke whom I've become friends with, and because to this day, the Moose & Gibson post remains in my top two most popular blog posts of all time!

So I was quite excited to learn that Moose & Gibson was trying something a little different and went along to a test night to provide some feedback on their Silent Cinema Tapas night.  The concept is quite simple but ingenious:  tapas menu and silent cinema.  The menu has been put together by head chef Luke Tye, who has been producing some amazing food since moving to Moose & Gibson last year.  Owner and all round great bloke, Malcolm Watts was pretty excited about the new concept telling us that it's not really been done before and that he wanted to create a space where you could come and get some great food, a few drinks and enjoy some old style silent cinema.

Casual Dining - The Villager

http://www.thevillager.com.au/

A long time ago, more precisely seven and a half years ago, we decided that we needed to downsize and moved from suburbia to the CBD.  I use the term suburbia loosely as generally most people consider 8 kilometres from the city as an inner city suburb, but you get what I mean.  We didn't know if we would love living in the city and thought it would be best to rent a place first, just to see if it would suit our lifestyle.  That first place we moved into was Casino Towers in George Street with beautiful views of South Bank and the river.  It's fair to say that we loved the CBD lifestyle and have never looked back.

Back when we lived in George Street, there was lots of take away places and a couple of bars, but not really any dining spots.  It was well before the explosion of eateries and Brisbane's current state of dining mecca :). There was a black spot on George Street that couldn't seem to get a venue to last too long and at the time of our residency on the Street, it was Jorge on George, a relatively funky bar.  Fast forward a few years and Jorge came and went and after the site was vacant for some time, a new crew moved in with an idea that was a little different at the time.

It had been the longtime dream of a couple of childhood friends to open up a Gastropub and Supper Club in the CBD, a place for Brisbanites to chill out in the hustle and bustle of the CBD and a place that would keep the kitchen open beyond 9pm.  Neil Shannon and Gareth Ball took a bit of a risk by opening a gastro pub in the CBD, especially in a location that had seen its fair share of failures over the years.  Completely renovating the location, their aim was to provide a New York warehouse feel with the charm of a heritage listed building and the whimsical styling that would seem different in a burgeoning Brisbane dining scene.

Casual Dining - The Chelsea Bistro

http://www.thechelsea.com.au/

I love being surprised.  I've been eating my way around Brisbane for as long as I can remember, well, I can remember a time when I didn't eat out, but I don't like to talk about it.  I'm often surprised by some of the restaurants I visit, but equally, I'm often surprised about restaurants I haven't visited.  I like to think that I pretty much know my way around Brisbane's restaurants, especially in the regular haunts that I frequent.  I was recently invited to check out the new menu at The Chelsea Bistro in Paddington's The Barracks, which I've written quite a bit about (see posts here).  The only problem was that I'd never heard of The Chelsea Bistro, even though I thought I knew every restaurant in that particular little hub.

Never one to shy away from checking out a new Bistro, albeit one that's been around for quite some time, I jumped at the chance to see what the Chelsea had to offer.  The easy part was getting to the Barracks, which is just on the CBD's border with Paddington and a very short drive from my apartment.  We could have walked, and probably would have on a weekend, but we were out on a 'school night' and had little time after work for a leisurely stroll to dinner.  After parking in the bowels of the complex, we made our way up the escalators with no real idea of where we would find the Chelsea.  Luckily, the Barracks  makes it pretty easy with signposts pointing out the location of all the dining spots nearby.  Interestingly, it was pointing me towards the Hogs Breath Cafe, past Libertine and Peasant.

Melbourne Series - Manchester Press

https://www.facebook.com/manchesterpress

It was our final morning in Melbourne and we only had time for one last meal before heading to the airport and our flight home.  I'd really been struggling to find a breakfast spot in the Melbourne CBD that would be a little different from the dime-a-dozen cafes in the more popular lane-ways.  I was really looking for somewhere quintessentially Melbourne to have our last breakfast and most of my efforts in sourcing places to eat had been on lunch and dinner spots.  

To make matters worse, it was a cold and drizzly morning and we had to get our umbrellas out to wander around and look for a breakfast spot.  We'd been wandering around the city's more popular streets and lane-ways, so we wanted something a little off the beaten track.  Looking on our trusty mobile devices (yep, iPhones) we found a little spot that looked like it could be pretty good, so we trundled off to Rankins Lane in search of Manchester Press.

We found Rankins Lane easily enough and noticed that it was a little different from many of the other popular lane-ways, it looked a little grungier and a little edgier.  We'd slept in a little bit on our final day but even so, by the time we arrived at Manchester Press, the little cafe was not quite open, so we stood around in the rain, with our brollies up thinking that we were definitely having a Melbourne moment.  

Melbourne Series - Cutler & Co

http://www.cutlerandco.com.au/

We were drawing to the end of our Melbourne food safari but we'd left one our most anticipated restaurants until last.  There are an astounding number of well regarded restaurants in Melbourne and while Sydney might currently hold the record for the most number of three hatted restaurants, Melbourne has its fair share as well. People often wonder why I'm so focussed on visiting hatted restaurants around the country and it's simply this....they represent the pinnacle, the absolute best in what food has to offer.  The chefs behind these three hatted restaurants dedicate their lives to be the best, often with an unwavering focus that can be a little maniacal.

I'm slowly crossing off all of the country's best restaurants off my 'must visit' list and on this trip I was able to visit two of the best.  Vue De Monde was now a 'notch on my belt' (see post here) and our last dinner of the trip would see Cutler & Co join the list of prestigious restaurants I've dined at.  Amazingly, Cutler & Co is currently the seventh best restaurant on the Gourmet Travellers top 100 list and sits above eight ranked Vue de Monde.  Chef and owner of Cutler & Co Andrew McConnell, was also named the Gourmet Traveller Chef of the Year for 2014, which is an outstanding recognition of excellence.

Cutler & Co is located in up-and-coming Fitzroy, we'd initially found the restaurant when we had taken a wander around Fitzroy and Collingwood after our trip to the James Bond exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. We'd heard from a friend of SC's that Gertrude Street in Fitzroy was a place to check out and still had that cross over feel that was not quite gentrified and not quite grunge.  We had an early 6pm booking for dinner and since we'd already checked out where Cutler & Co was, and it was quite a lovely evening, we chose to walk the 15 minutes from our hotel.

Melbourne Series - Mamasita

http://www.mamasita.com.au/

There has been a restaurant that I've tried to get to a couple of times during visits to Melbourne and in fact, I had already tried unsuccessfully to get into it during my Melbourne food safari (see post here).  I've always had a problem with queuing at restaurants and on the whole object of the concept, which is why I've had trouble getting to Mamasita.  When it comes to queuing at restaurants, Mamasita has a unique reputation in foodie circles - it's just accepted that you will get along and spend time watching the back of someone else's head while waiting to get in (or if you are more industrious, make new friends).

After our failed attempt on Valentine's Day to queue and get in, we decided that we would try again the following day and get in for a Saturday lunch.  Mamasita opens from 12:30pm on a Saturday and to avoid queuing for a long time, we thought we would get there around 12pm and hopefully get towards the front of the queue.  No such luck, there were already about thirty people ahead of us in the queue and some of those were single people propping up the queue waiting for their friends to join.  Thinking that it would be 'now or never', we set in for a wait with the hope that we would score a table (like we did at Momofuku Noodle bar in NYC - see post here).

While we waited in the queue, we did strike up a conversation with some people in front of us, just to see if they had been before and what they thought about the wait - clearly not too impressed either.  I could hear lots of comment from people in the queue - in particular a hope and desire that the food at Mamasita would be worth the wait, thoughts echoing through my own mind.  12:30 came and the queue slowly moved forward and up the stairs that led to the dining area.  As we slowly shuffled forward, we wondered how big the restaurant was and if it would fit us all in before we were told that there would be another wait.  Inexorably the queue move forward and all of a sudden we were standing at the top of the stairs and we could see that we would definitely be getting a seat.  Things were looking up.

Melbourne Series - Cumulus Inc

http://cumulusinc.com.au/

It had been an awesome first couple of days in Melbourne for our food safari, with some excellent food and great adventures already under our belt.  A lot of food had been consumed but there was a lot more to go, and with a huge day planned we needed to start the day off right.  When you look at the lists of top breakfast spots in Melbourne, not a lot of them are right in the CBD, which is a bit strange given all of the amazing laneways that proliferate through the city.  One very popular breakfast spot that I've heard is a 'must-do' in Melbourne was The Hardware Societe, which was pretty much the most popular dining spot of any type in Melbourne.  Unfortunately, The Hardware Societe was closed forever, so I'd missed that boat.

After looking around on the internet and Urbanspoon, we finally got a case of analysis paralysis and couldn't make up our mind so thought that we would just go local and hit up Cumulus Inc, just around the corner in Flinders Lane.  I had heard amazing things about Cumulus Inc over the years and in particular how great the dinners were, but I had picked up that the breakfast offering was not too bad and after a quick check on their web site to see if there was stuff I'd eat for breakfast, we set out.  We hadn't made a reservation as the restaurant only takes reservations for more than seven people, so we hoped we would be early enough to score a seat.

It was a lovely morning in Melbourne, with the sun out and birds singing (well, I made that last bit up) and we were just happy to be walking around and exploring a different city.  As luck would have it, we arrived at Cumulus Inc just as the morning rush was starting, but we did manage to score a table inside the main dining area.  In fact, we were really really lucky and scored a table that could sit four and were able to spread out - a fact that seemed to annoy a group of four that came in after us and had to sit at the bar!