Rating: 4 paws out of 5
Spent:.$15 per person
Chain: Yes, NYC and Florida
Date Friendly: Yes, but no table service
Note: Coffee bar and they got WIFI.
145 Greene Street (corner of Houston)
New York, NY 10012
212-533-1094

http://www.aroma.us

Oh Soho one of the nicest areas for shopping, I do like this area but it so tiring after a couples hours of foot traffic.  Mrs. Hungry Ferret was dragging this guy around and I needed a pick me / snack.  I had heard from a friend about this place were you can get a nice cup of caffeine or hot chocolate to calm the soul.  Will I get the pick me up I need, or the nauseating pain from a badly brewed cup of java and snack past it prime.

Interior Space was nicely decorated.  The seats are comfortable and the eating area was clean.  There is no table service so it is a free for all seating plan.

Menu were clear and decorative.  I rarely met a menu I didn’t like.

Vegetable Soup of the day was very tasty.  The soup did not taste of the pre-processed can/bag kind.  The vegetable flavors were bright and the broth was not salty.  Saltiness seems to be the downfall of many soups in places.

Aroma’s Cappuccinos here are very good.  The coffee blend here is rich and not bitter.  There milk here has a nice thick frothiness and there is also a surprise with each one.  The bottom of the mug is laced with chocolate and comes with a piece of milk chocolate.  This drink is sweet so most people would not require adding anymore sugar to this concoction.

Half Mozzarella sandwich had freshly baked bread.  The mozzarella was fresh, there nothing to complain about this sandwich.

Half Turkey BLT had the same fresh flavorful bread.  This sandwich is probably more a European style sandwich, couple slices of meat and greens and tomato lettuce.  It not intended to be a giant meat bomb.

The Half Roast Beef sandwich is the same, it is light on the meat and greens.  The roast beef was moist and had a good texture.  The mustard that was in the sandwich was well balanced and worked well with the meat.

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Rating: 4 paws out of 5
Spent:.$100 per person
Chain: No.
Date Friendly: Yes. 
Note: fancy pants place
The London
151 W 54th St
New York, NY 10019

http://www.gordonramsay.com/mazeatthelondonnyc

It been a while since I got to taste some celebrity chef loving.  Going through my mind, I though of one that stand out from the rest.  The one and only Hell’s kitchen master chef Gordon Ramsley.  This man has multiple restaurants worldwide, he was also cocky enough to have three food places at one location.  Well I knew he wasn’t going to be there, otherwise one might turn into a school girl.  But lets see if this place can stand the heat of the Hungry Ferret’s kitchen.

The atmosphere and table settings within Maze is modern.   The restaurant is more of a casual setting versus the London restaurant.   After feasting on the bread, the fixed prixe menu was chosen.

When you are seated you are presented with Bread in a cup.   The bread was fresh and very flavorful, with a nice crust and soft interior.

First was the Asparagus veloute braised morels, elephant garlic.  At first they  bring out the small pinch of garlic and other vegetates that was only 1 inch tall by 1/2 in diameter.  I was wow, they were kidding in the reviews that the portions were small, but a sigh of relief came when the soup base was brought over to be poured into our bowl.  The garlic was very mild and sweet, but you do get the strong garlic flavor which went well with the asparagus soup base.  The soup had the good qualities of the asparagus without the bitterness and was seasoned properly.

Marinated fingerling potatoes Holland leeks, poached quail egg, prosciutto, was Maze’s interpretation of a good old potato salad.  The potatoes mixed with the mayonnaise like sauce and prosciutto was done well and very tasty.  The quail egg was perfectly poached where it was firm enough to hold it’s running yolk on the inside.  The size of the quail egg is in proportion to the dish and a chicken egg would been too overbearing.

Roasted sea scallops heirloom tomatoes, English peas, marjoram velout.  The scallops were sweet and fresh, the sauce paired well with the scallops and the vegetables.

Dry aged strip loin, sunchoke puree, pommes anna, roasted portobello was the main course.   The strip had a strong beef flavor and cooked perfectly to my requested temperature.  The sunchoke puree was good and offered an interesting sweet sauce to both the steak and potato dish.  The Pommes anna was a layered hash brown “cake”.  The layers were firm yet not raw and the crispness was perfect on the outer layers.   The layers of the pommes anna were very neat and had a strong potato flavor.    The portobello was cooked soft with a bite  and full of mushroom flavor.

Valrhona chocolate fondant green cardamom caramel, sea salt and almond ice cream was one of the deserts.  This chocolate dish was very well executed with the warm chocolate center and the crisp chocolate crust.  The sea salt and caramel enhances the chocolate flavor.  The ice cream was a perfect compliment to the chocolate dish and was not too overly sweet nor did not have too strong of an almond flavor.

Vanilla custard with citrus fruits brown sugar oats and mandarin sorbet.  This desert was very light and refreshing compared to the chocolate desert.  The sorbet was tangy and lightly sweet, the fruit was fresh and sweet.  The custard was creamy and complimented well to the different texture of the brown sugar oats.

Cappuccinos here was average.  There is nothing special about them.

At the end of the meal, we were greeted with chocolate Truffles and peanut brittle.  The truffles had a sweet chocolate center and bitter dark chocolate exterior.   The brittle was sweet and nice treat at the end.  These two treats soften the blow of the big bill.

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Rating: 5 paw out of 5
Spent: ~ $35 per person
Note: Unlimited Beer and Hot dogs, highly recommended
http://thegreathotdogcookoff.com/

When this guy heard about a great festival of processed meat, he couldn’t resist.  Plus adding to positive karma, it was for the charity called City Harvest.  This was pretty much a done deal.  Being in New York City, one doesn’t get to attend block parties and seeing people strut their best stuff.  This was an event where 20 challengers come out and tries to best each other to be the big Alpha Top Dog.  Calling all Chefs!  Fire up your grills and show me your stuff!

This event was limited by the number of people that can attend.  ~300 attendees for 2 rounds of 10 booths (15:1) (20 different booths), 2 beer taps and 1 water spout for drinking.  Also as an important side note of any event, 2 bathrooms with running water and 2 porta potties.  All the resources including volunteers are within the limitations of the event.  With two beer taps flowing with some tasty beer, that alone is worth the $35 price tag.  Due to the limited number of tickets, they go fast on their website once on sale.

Kelso brewery one of the sponsors, the pilnser with a slight bitter taste was a good match to the spicy hot dogs and the wheat is a good match for the others.  The also provided full size cups that were more than adequate to wet your whistle.  They were not mini tasting glasses for the beer.

The hot dogs were provided by Hummel Bros.  These hot dogs were quite tasty and seems to be easily manipulated to some fancy dogs.

Another sponsor, Adirondack Creamery was on site with a large supply of  frosty treats.  All the various flavors were great and helped with a slightly warm day.

As a bonus, you got Mr. George Duran.  I remember him from Food Network’s show Ham on the Street.  Ah the memories.

I was “lucky” being picked as a judge, which was fun till we got to the 10-11th tasting.  As each one passed it got harder and harder.  The scoring for “best of show” was based on the 1-10 scores (10 being the best).  The “Best working dog” and “toy dog” categories are write ins.  The experience was fun and got to meet some nice people.

Below are some of my favorites as a judge.  *The majority of the descriptions are from the website.

Pickles to the Slaw-ter
Winner: Best In Show
An all-beef Hummel hot dog topped with Spicy Slaw, Deep Fried Pickle Chips, and a Remoulade Sauce.

This one was my favorite out of the bunch.  The flavors and textures were well balanced, having slaw on the bottom also made a difference.  It was much easier to get to a bite of all the toppings without being all over the place.  This was a well composed hotdog!

The Old Country Brooklyner
Winner: Best Working Dog
A pretzel bread hot dog with kraut and German mustard.  You can’t go wrong with classics.

El Perrito Misterioso
Winner: Best Toy Dog

El Perrito Misterioso knows no master. It will defy your ideas of what a hot dog can be.

This one was basically a monster arepa.  Very tasty, loved the white cheese!

The Sanchize Dog

Winner: Beta Dog

A dog named in honor of the team’s young qb, Mark Sanchez (who also has been known to enjoy a dog on the sidelines himself).

This dog was very good, the guacamole was perfect and the texture form the tortilla strips and onions were a perfect compliment.

Hawaii 5-0
Fiery spiced pork dog with a pineapple slaw and a mornay sauce.

This one really is spicy and not just promises of one.  Fiery throughout the entire experience start to finish with a touch of sweetness. Nice job guys!

The Cucumber Curry Dog
The most refreshing hot dog ever conceived, with a kiss of curry mayo, fresh herbs from my rooftop, frizzled shallots, and a cool, just-in-season cucumber “bun” from local farms.

This hot dog really was refreshing even with curry.  Flavors were excellent.  Remind me of calm beach.

Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes
Winner: Top Dog/Audience Fav
All beef hot dog with fresh mozzarella and classic basil pesto wrapped in Prosciutto di Parma. Topped with delicious garlic and oil pasta, fresh grated parmesan cheese and the most delicious fish any kid would love.

This one had everything including the kitchen sink.  We like kitchen sinks, they hold a lot of stuff well!

Also visit my flickr to see more pictures.  You can do so by clicking on any of the pictures above.

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Rating: 4 paws out of 5
Spent:.$25
Chain: No.
Date Friendly: Yes for the adventurous, don’t worry it not crazy
Note: Cash only 
2522 Steinway St
Astoria, NY 11103
(718) 726-2356

Finding this place was like an old expedition to the Great Pyramids.  This hidden gem was hiding under the sands of time among the bright lights of the other more modern vendors on this street.  It was a while before this ferret figured out that it was under his little snout this whole time.  This sweet savory scent in the air was the greatest hint to the location of the entrance.  Hopefully once this ferret pushes past the great boulders and climb through the air shaft, he is not greeted by a giant mummy.

The Interior of Mombar is filled with many trinkets.   Once inside and behind the doors you will feel as you are in a different country.   There are lots of ethic decorations and interior tidbits to look at. Also the bathroom is very clean.  Yes this place’s bathroom impressed me and I just had to mention it.

The menu was easy to read with detailed descriptions.  Many of the items here can be altered for people who has dietary restrictions such as allergies or no meat diets.  The staff here is very friendly and definitely help you with your choices.

The first part of the meal here was with the start of a flaky bread.  This bread was moist, soft and composed of many layers.  Kinda like a croissant but without the crispiness.

One of the specials for tonight was a trio of baba ganoush, hummus and foul.  Baba ganoush is grilled eggplant that is mashed into a paste with seasoning. Hummus is mashed chickpeas and Foul is mashed fava beans.   The Baba ganoush was very flavorful with a lite touch of smokiness.  The hummus and foul texture was excellent and both had good seasoning.  The apples that came with the dish complimented the dips very well.

The trio of dips also include pita bread for your dipping pleasure.  They were fresh un-toasted and held the dips well.

Lamb tangine with couscous was the first main dish.  The lamb was cooked to a very tender state with a very pronounced lamb flavor that was not offensive to taste buds.  This dish has a large number of spices and flavors that work very well with easy other.  The roasted vegetables within the dish soak the broth of the juices up well.

Couscous is required to be eaten with a tangine as it goes with the sauce very well.  The raisins in the couscous does not over power any part of the dish, it merely works with all the flavors within the dish.

Glazed Duck with spinach and rice was another dish that was eaten.  The duck was perfectly cooked sealed by the sweet crust of the duck.  The spinach was well seasoned and had nice flavor notes of garlic along with other spices.  The rice was perfectly cooked, fluffy with the right amount of salt.

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Rating: 5 paw out of 5
Spent: $10
Note: Not offered in the states.  I wish it ships from Canada.
Location: Toronto Canada

http://www.steamwhistle.ca

This ferret was able to sneak across the border in the a new land far far away.  This guy heard one of the best places in Canada to go to is Toronto.  This visit wasn’t planned and end up as a big accidental trip.   While in Toronto, this ferret was annoyed that the CN tower want such a big pile of treats to get up to the top to see the city.  So he wander further down the road to an abandoned railroad station surrounded by old locomotives.  Then as act of god, the wind blew this guy towards the sign, the magical sign of a brewery tour.  Will this new undiscovered beer bring further pain like a naughty Percy?  Lets see what will happen in this adventure and will Sir Top Ham Hatt find his missing hat.

They have a very attractive sign for the tour.  How can I resist this sign offering a glimpse how a pilsner is made.  The tour start at $10 which comes with a souvenir such as a green retro bottle opener or a steam whistle glass.  The more expensive ones comes with bottled / canned beer which you can take home.

Tours start every 30 minutes, but guess what?  You can start “sampling” their pilsner beer right away before the tour starts.  The beer is freshly pulled from the tap for each visitor.

Even Domo-Kun can get some beer before the tour, don’t worry he is of age and had his ID with him.

The waiting area is a really nice bar, the gift shop is right next to the bar where you can pick up a bunch of souvenirs such as glasses, bottle openers and apparel.

Domo you lush the tour didn’t even start yet and you empty off 6 glasses.

Once it was near time to start the tour, we had put finish our beers fast.  We are not allow to bring beer into the production area.  The first part of the tour is to learn of the components of beer.  We see bottles of water, grain, yeast and hops.

We are also shown some of the fermentation tank walking towards the production area.

Walking though the brewery we see all the can beer ready to go.

Steam Whistle sponsors local artist and display some of their art all over the factory.  This ball is just one of the pieces displayed at the Brewery.

The packaging area, where we learn of their environmental friendly glass and metal recycling.

All these kegs are ready for shipment to the local bars and restaurants.

They take their bottling and packaging real seriously here.

True to the name, they do have a steam whistle here which you can pull.

The steam whistle going off in the brewery.

We also have went up the administrative offices and learned about the business of brewing and their environmentally friend initiative.

We were offered Unfiltered on the left and filtered beer on the right.  Steam Whistle’s pilsner is a very good high quality beer.  The beer that they produce is very crisp, refreshing, sweet notes and a touch of hops.   The unfiltered version, which you can only get at the brewery if you ask really really nicely has a similar taste, except it is more complex.  The flavor is a bit sweeter with some fruit notes in the background.  Steam Whistle is this ferret’s favorite pilsner as of writing this article.

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Rating: 2 paw out of 5
Spent: free tour
Note: Tours are only on weekends from 12PM – 4PM.  Rating is just for the tour not beer.
Location: Brooklyn, NY

http://www.brooklynbrewery.com/

This ferret love tours, it gives an insight to how the inner workings of a brewery goes.  Sometimes you wonder how they get the sticker on or what the hell is that little square thing is from.  We travel down to one of the few breweries in New York City.  The Brooklyn Brewery Company opened in 1987 but the real Brooklyn Brewery location did not open till 1996.  Since it opening, many Brooklyniates been getting their happy juice from this location.  Will you catch this Hungry Ferret’s mouth under the tap or running away in a drunken streaking rage?

A big tub of iodine in the room, I guess to wash stuff.  Don’t drink it, it is not beer. I swear!

Well the tour starts with the guide stepping up on the platform in the room where they actually make the beer and starts telling you about beer.  It is pretty much the basic story on how beer is made with the key ingredients.  They are malt, water, yeast, and hops.  Afterward, he went into the history of the company and then to questions.  It pretty much is how it went and we did not move from this room.  There weren’t any demonstrations or pictures, or video.  That is pretty much the how the extremely too long 40 minute tour went.  There were also no souvenirs or tasting given out for this tour.  That was the tour in a nutshell, yeah I know pretty disappointing.  Please post comments on how I saved 40 minutes of your life with this recommendation.  No offense to the guy trying to do his thing, but come on, you know it gotta be lame.  I recommend skipping the tour and moving on to the next part of the brewery.

On the other end of the brewery, there is another room with some bottling machines but that is not the important part.

This is the view from the other room so you won’t go on the tour by accident.

The kitty at the brewery was pretty friendly and allowed pretty much anybody to pet and rub it’s belly. But enough with the distractions on with my review.  Cat are not predators to ferrets, so I felt pretty safe.  The look to be well fed of pizza and beer anyways.

This room was where they had the beer on tap for serving.  When I went they had these 8 beers on tap and the two bottles of Local1 and Local2.

As I said before, the beer is not free.  I know, in case you miss read my review, beer is not free.  To buy beer you need to get tokens and they cost $20 for 6 at the counter by the door.  Which is not bad and I liked the size.

Buzz bomb on the left, it had a good malty flavor and slight hop taste to it.  The plus to this beer was that it had 8% alcohol in it.  On the right was the summer ale, which had a very light, clean, and refreshing taste to it.

Then I moved on to the Lager which has bold flavors which has a strong but not overpowering hoppiness to it.  This Lager was enjoyable also.

This other room was pretty cool and good spot for social gatherings.  This is pretty much the reason why this review didn’t get the rare 1 paw.  You pretty much can go, hey lets go hang out at the Brewery and order food to be delivered there while drinking their awesome beer.  From the looks of things, I think some people live here part time which is just fine for me.

I did sample their Blast beer.  They do allow a really tiny cup to taste if you like the beer before committing to the full size.  That beer I did not like, it had a very strong hop flavor.  Which you guys should know I do not like at all.  But overall, come down to the Brewery to just hang out with their great beers and enjoy the weekend.

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Rating: 2 paws out of 5
Spent:.$6
Chain: No.
Date Friendly: Yes, for an after dinner stop or a short one
Note: Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream, Cash only and hours are inconsistent and hard to find.  Usually  weekends they are open late.
129 Allen St.
New York, NY 10002

Wow, finally a liquid nitrogen place where I can have my fancy ice cream combinations created in a laboratory style setting.  This place just excites this hungry ferret to new high levels.  Oh the choices and choices to pick from.  There are so many, where does one start?   Let’s get to work  and see what kind of monster this little guy can make?

The way this place works is that you can pick from a list of base flavors.  These are basically all of flavors from liquid extracts.  They combine all these flavors together in a bowl prior to the freezing.

Then if you want for an extra $1.50 you can select a real fruit puree or 50 cents add an additional spice. On the wall next to the purees and spices there are suggestion by other customers.  They had gone though the process of trial and error on some flavor combinations and you might not want to be the guinea pig.

After mixing the flavors, purees, spices, and the base of mixture which is some kind of cream, it gets loaded in the good old kitchen aid mixer.  The machine is turned on and start mixing.  After a few seconds, they pour the liquid nitrogen in to the mixer and you get this cool fog show.

The mixing takes a couple minutes till the liquid becomes a solid block of icecream.

The first mixture I tried was vanilla and pomegranate puree.  The texture of the ice cream is unlike any other ice cream I had before.  It seems because of the quick freezing of the mixture it creates a really smooth and velvety ice cream.  I love how this feels on the tongue.  The amount of pomegranate was a little harsh for this vanilla cream mixture.  There probably a reason ice cream artisans don’t really make a pomegranate ice cream often or there aren’t enough sweeteners within this combination.

Knowing what I know from the previous attempt,  this process seems to work best with the more savory sweet flavor vs the tart and tangy flavors.  Next I tried vanilla and banana extract.  This gave a better result.  I suspect that some of my non-happiness might also come from the ice cream base.  I didn’t enjoy the taste of the base too much and the mouth feel was a bit off.

After a while of eating this ice cream I do miss some of the textures that many ice cream parlors have.  You don’t get the big bits of fruit or the crunch of something else mixed into this ice cream.

Since this place allows for over 10,000 combinations, I feel that you can make at least a couple thousand bad batches.  Normally at an ice cream parlor, the master ice cream maker would master all the ratios to give the best flavors.  Along with that this place doesn’t really give too much guidance on what to order and it really comes down to personal preference.  It going to take some trial and error to find the perfect batch of ice cream here.

Also on a side note, since it hard to make decisions sometimes, if 1-2 people are in front of you, it can take quite a bit of time to get your ice cream here.

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Rating: 3 paw out of 5
Spent: ~ $70 per person.

Oh this glorious month of June, the weather has been great and the sea been clam.  It is a glorious day for Brewfest, where all the famous breweries from all over come to gather to share their great creations.    Many New Yorkers will gather by the seaport and be loaded onto ships to a small island near by.  This island is known as Governors Island, how fitting that this great brew festival be on an island with such a name.  What can really go wrong for this hungry ferret?  Thousands of people on a small island with lots of beer, I can’t really think of one.

The event starts out trying to get to Governor’s island.  Lines are long but they generally move to get on to the ship.  Generally some people will travel by water taxi company to Governor’s island, but they also contracted out to the other ferries at Pier 11 near Wall street.

The first tasting for me at the Brewfest was Magic Hat Summer Wacko.

This wacko beer was good, it had a nice light taste.  There were strong notes of malt, and I didn’t quite find the hoppiness which I normally not too crazy for.  Not sure why or how this beer is red, but I can go with the flow on this one.  Can I get on line again to get another round?

Wild Ginger Ale beer, that sounds like a hoot!

Not sure where the ginger ale or the sweetness is at, but good nonetheless. Very clean finish, just like most Magic Hat Beer.

Blue Star beer.

I don’t remember much about this beer except that it was a bit bitter.  I was not too much of a fan of it.

Red Seal Ale

Love the color of the beer, the taste of it was OK in my opinion.  It had slight hop taste.

Stoudt’s Beer.

This beer was very hoppy, was not a fan of it.  I couldn’t finish it, and I will admit to alcohol abuse and gave some to the tree next to me.

Sure I am going to try the other Stoudt’s beer.

Alcohol abuse again and gave some to the bushes next to me.

After all that beer, I needed to take a break, a Music break.  The bands were pretty entertaining during the quick break.

Then I decided to take a food break after the music break.  This was my first time tasting a Sigmund Pretzel, http://www.sigmundnyc.com/ .  I quite enjoyed this pretzel and will definitely visit the shop and try all their other pretzels.  The pretzel had a great exterior with the right amount of salt.  The mustard just complimented all that beer I had drank earlier.

Pabst Blue Ribbon beer was the fastest moving line so I decided to hop on it.

Blue Ribbon Beer was the beer I had while waiting on line for another food break.  It was a good light beer with a light malt and a touch of hop.

Hot Dog time, it really only took 1 hr on line, sadly it really took 1 1/2 hours.

Great Dog with another round beer that I don’t remember or have a picture of.  Yeah I was in the special happy place.  The sabrett dog has great seasoning and was not over cooked.

H.B. Burger, which I suspect was a heartland brewery burger.  By the t-shirts all the cooks was wearing, confirmed it.

This was a pretty tasty Burger, and I expected nothing less from Pat La Frieda.  Pat La Frieda supplies the meat to many of the best burger joints in Manhattan.  It had great beef flavor, juiciness, and texture.  By the time I got to order the burger, they ran out of cheese, which I find strange, because they offer cheeseburgers on the menu.  So how you run out of cheese, did they expect people to ask to hold the cheese?  Who knows?

Spaten Lager from a server that been sampling on her own.

It was very hoppy and again my personal preference is thumbs down on it.

Stiegl larger was next on the line.

Very hoppy beer, this does not look good for the hero.  Alcohol abuse occurred again.

This was at the Franziskaner were the roots for the name of the brewery was from a monastery.  So we must pray long for the beer before pouring.

Just kidding give me your glass

Tasty Beer, now we are getting somewhere.  Back to the nice malty beer and clean taste.

Peak Organic Beer, organic should be good for you?

Hmm some citrus scent, and notes, wait a minute, it crazy hoppy.  I forgot what IPA taste like again.  Damn the bitter hops.

I went for the Summer Session to cleanse my palette.

Summer Ale was not bad.  It only had a slight bitterness.

Lake Placid Beer was a struggle to get to.  They had some tap problems and started to run out of beer.

The beer was very dark, I didn’t really like it, at this point, I don’t remember much.

Harpoon Summer Ale is a staple that I need to be familiar with.

Very tasty beer.  Had a slight sweetness and light taste to it.

Belgian Pale Ale is also another favorite.

Belgian Pale Ale was good from the tap.  It was a bit stronger in flavor than the summer ale.

I decided to wrap up the beer session with some Dry Cider from Farnum Hill.

It wasn’t very sweet, but the name of the Cider was a dead giveaway.  The Cider wasn’t bad but I didn’t really care for it.

Bottled Summer Cider

The bottle cider was a bit sweeter but not by much.  I like this one better than the dry.  It didn’t have that dry mouth feel to it after sipping.

I found Domo-Kun drunk by the exit sign.  I think he trying to finish up his beer before leaving.

Bad Parts

Well as any good review, I have to point out the problems with the event along with all the good fun that a lot of people had. There were basically 5 things I felt that kinda lower the happiness level on the event.

#1 – Signs

There are barely any signs to anything.  Nobody knew really where to go including the security staff.  Many event goers was trying to figure out where to stand, what they gotta do etc etc.  It was crazy madness just trying to figure out what to do.  Please have more signs next year pointing out where to get stamped, board the ship,  etc.

#2 – Lines

The lines were crazy long by the middle of the event. This lead to excessive line cutting and people getting mad at each other for cutting in line.  It got pretty bad when groups of people would start going straight to the front and then move sideways to other lines.

#3 – Transportation.

To get on and off the island was insane.  It took me about 45 minutes to get on a boat to the island and about 1 1/2 hours in line to get off the island.

Ended up in the car \ truck storage bay of the ferry to get off Governor’s Island.

#4 – Porta restrooms

The shear number of them were good, but they were not stocked with the proper toiletries and also the sinks to wash your hands ran out water pretty early in the event.

#5 – Breweries ran out of beer really early and the food stands ran out of food.

Many of the visiting breweries was starting to run out of beer in the tasting lines at around 6PM.  Also the food stand started to run out of various food items at around 5-6PM.  This is bad considering that the event started at 3:30PM for the general public and ends at 8:30PM.  They should probably have stocked more, especially since the event is limited by ticket and should have a very good count of how many people will show up.

The 5 issues above didn’t ruin the event, but it did make it harder to want to come back again for the next one.

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Rating: 3 paw out of 5
Spent: ~ $1.50
Location of Acquisition: Whole Foods,  Manhasset NY
http://ralphandcharlies.com/

Well in the other review that this ferret had done, complained a bit about juices from Ralph & Charlie’s not having enough vitamins and such.  You can find that review Ruby Red Grapefruit and Pomegranate juice here.   Well this ferret found out they do make at least one other juice that has at least 120% per serving (4 per bottle).  That is a lot of vitamin C for this little peppy guy.  Will this one discover another disgusting juice or one that can be used for enjoyment also?

This juice was not too sweet, it had a light citrus like flavor but more towards a fruit punch type of juice.  There was also another layer of flavor in the background.  Looking at the indgriendents, I subspect it is the passiflora.  This must be what gives the drink a slight flora aroma. If you don’t like flora aromas, then this drink is not for you, it was very light so it didn’t bother me.

Looking up passiflora, it seems to be flower with calming properties that is used for antidepressant, analgesic (pain-reliever), antispasmodic, sedative, central nervous system depressant.  I guess you get your vitamins and can relax also.  Did I feel relax?  Not so much, but I enjoyed this juice.

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Rating: 5 paw out of 5
Spent: ~ $32 per person per day.  $125 total
http://www.bigapplebbq.org/

With a guest and two days, this hungry ferret blew through all the pre-allocated money pretty easily but still being really full.  The best part of these events, just because you don’t have any money left, doesn’t mean there aren’t any more good eats.  There are plenty of freebies, trial and samples.  I had the lucky to grab these freebies and had a good time with them.  This hungry ferret needed a walk anyways.

Coca cola had a small stand offering free samples of a couple of drinks.

They had a new type of soda called Cascal, http://www.cheerscascal.com/.  They were offering it as adult soda with a sophisticated taste.  They are 100% natural, fermented carbonation, and mixed with new spices.

If the definition of sophisticated they mean nasty, then this is what this soda is.  They somehow took all the bad stuff in adult drinks and placed it in a bottle.  I would pass on this one, and hopefully they will shutdown soon and nobody would be hurt by this release.

Day 2, the Coca cola booth offered a sample of Illy Coffee.

The Cans in person are very attractive.

Cappuccino was pre-sweetened but not too much.  It had nice coffee notes and very enjoyable.

Latte was pre-sweetened also, it had more milk than the cappuccino.  This drink was also very enjoyable and good.

Cafe which is like a pre-sweetened espresso shot, was good, but I have to warn people that this is straight up coffee, no milk whatsoever and might be too harsh for some.

Maker’s Mark was also giving out bottles of sauce on a two hour interval.

Bourbon was infused into this sauce.

They Sealed the bottle with wax for that nice Maker’s mark look on the spot.

Bottle of the sauce finished.  Nice presentation.

Stubb’s sauce truck big Apple BBQ event.

Stubb’s inflatable bottle

Stubb’s awing promoting their cause.

Feed the world Stubb’s different flavor sauce.

Free food from the truck with Stubb’s B-B-Q sauce.  The sauce and sausage was very good.  I enjoyed the sauce.

If you want to see Day 1, here is the Link.

If you want to see Day 2, here is the Link

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